28mm AWI MAURICE CAMPAIGN GAME 8 – ACTION AT BILL'S CROSSROADS

On Friday Dave Paterson and I played out the 8th game in our Maurice AWI campaign – the  Action at Bill's Crossroads.   Here are the forces for this game.

Patriot army deployed

PATRIOT
1 ELITE REGULAR INFANTRY       
4 TRAINED REGULAR INFANTRY
7 CONSCRIPT REGULAR INFANTRY
2 TRAINED REGULAR CAVALRY
2 ARTILLERY
2 IRREG INFANTRY
National advantages
OBLIQUE ORDER
Army Morale 16

BRITISH

4 TRAINED REGULAR INFANTRY
4 CONSCRIPT REGULAR INFANTRY
1 TRAINED REGULAR CAVALRY
3 ARTILLERY
1 IRREG INFANTRY
National advantages
OBLIQUE ORDER, RALLY TO THE COLOURS, A LA BAYONETTE
Notable Reverend Whitehead
TOTAL Army Morale 12
Advanced Rules in use – Oblique Order, Light artillery, All Guns bombard, Honours of War

Patriots close up on the British centre and right

This time I won the scouting role and decided to be the attacker.  I took an additional unit of regular infantry for my mercenary supplement.
I deployed the bulk of my army to attack Dave’s centre and right with a small force of 3 infantry units deployed on my right flank.   My 2 irregular units were deployed on the left flank.  Dave deployed his army relatively equally across his front with the cavalry in reserve behind the centre and the irregulars holding the town centre. 

At the start of the game I moved my irregulars thru the woods on my left flank to engage the end of Dave’s line.   When they got into action I then moved my main body to engage Dave’s right and centre.  Dave moved his left to flank my advance but I had enough units to turn to cover the advance.  We started to engage in a fire fight and part of my advance was held up by an unknown swamp that suddenly appeared.  My infantry pressed on over the swamp to bring their superior numbers into action.  I had an advantage in the fire fight as Dave’s main group  had split into 2 distinct forces due to a unit making a confused move .  Eventually in a single volley phase I broke 3 of the British units which gave me a clear advantage.  Dave threw his cavalry into the flank of my elite infantry who broke at once.  My other units drove of the cavalry with their musket fire.  The next turn I broke the only surviving unit in the British centre right and that ended the game.  I was down to 2 morale points.

British centre under severe pressure

When Dave’s army broke it had lost 8 units leaving only 5 units and I had lost 7 units.  It was a decisive Patriot victory with 3 epic points won.  It was a hard fought enjoyable game.    

We have decided to start a new campaign so that we can recast our armies based on our experience in this campaign.  In addition we are thinking of using a pre-battle setup  system developed by Michael Schneider of the SESWC to give a greater variety to the games with special events.  All the photos from the campaign with descriptions are on flickr at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bill26048/sets/72157635546751824/