28mm AWI MAURICE CAMPAIGN 2 GAME 2 – ACTION AT FOREST HEIGHTS

On Saturday Dave Paterson and I played the second game in our second Maurice AWI campaign – the Action at Wooded Ridge.   Here are the forces for the game. 

BRITISH ARMY
8 TRAINED REGULAR INFANTRY
4 CONSCRIPT REGULAR INFANTRY
2 TRAINED REGULAR CAVALRY
3 ARTILLERY
2 IRREGULAR CAVALRY
2 IRREG INFANTRY
National advantages - OBLIQUE ORDER, RALLY TO THE COLOURS
Notables – De Vique, Kershaw

Patriots engage the fenceline

PATRIOT ARMY
5 TRAINED REGULAR INFANTRY
7 CONSCRIPT REGULAR INFANTRY
2 TRAINED REGULAR CAVALRY
3 ARTILLERY
2 IRREGULAR CAVALRY
2 IRREG INFANTRY
National advantages - OBLIQUE ORDER, SKIRMISH, PROFESSIONAL TRAIN
Notable – Laurent Van Hussen

Advanced Rules in use – Oblique Order, Light artillery, All Guns bombard, Honours of War

Patriot irregulars mass on British right flank

We used the Eve of Battle pre-battle system by Michael Schneider of the SESWC to try to give a greater variety to the games with special events, weather, terrain and additional troops.  This gave me 2 trained infantry units and Dave an elite unit.  The system also determined that I was the attacker and Dave’s elite unit was delayed.

I deployed my 4 units of irregulars on my left flank facing the wooded heights and Dave deployed his irregular cavalry facing the heights while his irregular infantry occupied 2 woods on his far left flank.  We both deployed our infantry and artillery in the centre mainly keeping the trained troops in the front rank and the conscripts in the second line however the units on my right flank which I was intending to hold back were all conscripts.

Deployment and initial Patriot advances

At the start of the game I moved my Patriot irregulars thru the woods on my left flank to engage the end of Dave’s line.  Dave bombarded my main force twice and then I advanced with my centre and left and engaged his troops along the fence line.  The superior British ability to rally meant that they were winning this fire fight and as I lost a couple of units I decided to withdraw and reorganise.  Once I had rallied my troops I used the confusion card to move a Brunswick unit in Dave’s army forward into my range.  Dave countered this by moving his main force forward over the fence line to join the Brunswickers and we began another general firefight. 

Brunswickers march forward in confusion

British cross the fenceline and bring on 2nd general firefight

We both suffered losses and Dave was clearly still winning so I again moved my centre back to recover.  Dave followed up and once he suffered some losses his force began to fragment.  I decided to attack on my left and this steadily broke his right wing.  He forced back my centre and destroyed most of them.  However a final flank charge broke the last of his right wing units and I rolled 5 and reduced his army morale by 3 down to zero so it ended as decisive victory for me.  It was very timely as I was down to army morale 1 and Dave had just picked up the Death of a Hero card which guaranteed him victory in his next turn.  When Dave’s army broke we had both lost 7 units. 

Final major moves in the game - Patriots win on left flank - British break Patriot centre

 

British right in trouble - a final charge in the flank broke the redcoats

It was easily our longest game so far – it took all of 5 hours to complete!  A very hard fought marathon but a very enjoyable game.  A lot of photos and more maps from this battle with descriptions are on flickr at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bill26048/sets/72157638222458633/