Monday, January 25, 2016

Guns of Liberty: AWI gaming (pt 2)

First part is here.

The British and Hessians have engaged the revolutionary forces on two fonts, in an attempt capture the ambiguously strategic village of redgate.


The hessians are facing a broad counter attack, despite hiding behind field fortifications. 


Meanwhile the British have charged forth on the right flank to deal with the rebels wrapping around.

Some stiff gunfire has sent the middle recoiling in disorder (black marked unit  bottom right).


It's all gone a bit wrong in the centre for both sides, with interpenetrated lines and hanging flanks all over the place. 
While the Hessian grenadiers on the right hurry to assist (and catch some cannon fire in the flank/enfilade), the french regulars in white attempt to seal the deal and advance on the Brits.






This is placing the rear of the successful till know charging advance on the right flank.

Only a small unit of poor tory militia stands in the way. 


The promptly run away, nearing collapse (yellow markers). The british line also runs (embarrassing).  It looks like it's going to be game over for the Brits.

Even the British cannon crew has vaporized.
 The french regulars (in white) advance on the rear of the highlanders (fighting the green coated rebs). The british far left has managed to push back and break multiple rebel/colonial units, and is fighting a 2:1 (against) battle near the corn field in the upper left.

The hessian grenadier (other yellow field) are being slowed by another rebel unit, while the british line on the hill, and tory militia are shaken and near breaking.


 And then they rally....to a disordered state. But it's enough to quick march forward and level some musketry into the french flank.

 The Hessians are successful in their fence assault and bounce the colonials back as well. Suddenly there is a centre again.


The hessians have been sorely lacking their grenadiers however, and have been pushed off the field works by sustained musketry. It's looking shaky on this flank for the Royals. 



















After 3+ hours we have to call it. Both sides are fairly convinced the other side will win. Seems like a solid basis for calling a draw. Despite being nominally in charge of the town, the Royalist don't feel like they have enough juice to resist the forces that have cleared off the Hessians on the right flank.

The Rebels don't think they have the troops to expel the Brits. An honourable cease fire is negotiated by the gentlemen officers and the dead and wounded are repatriated to safe areas.

Thoughts on the rule system
All in all a fun game. There are quite a few modifiers for both shooting and fighting, so that slows things, but I suppose you get used to them pretty quickly. Rolling d20's is kinda fun as there is a lot of scope for having many and big/small modifiers.
Movement is pretty swift, and melee really does 'make things happen' vs firing. Units collapse VERY quickly once they aren't ordered.
My biggest complaint is the lack of a larger formation morale. You need to micro-break ever enemy unit unless you have some clear victory conditions. It'd be nice to see the larger formation start to suffer as it gets reduced.

2 comments:

  1. that kind of chaos deserves a draw. Wow. Crazy to follow all those maneuvers and morale checks and so forth.

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    1. I quite like the small beads that Nate uses to mark status. They make it very easy to see what is happening with different units and aren't too large. (And they're cheap!). I hope to grab some myself.

      I have to say, this was one of the more enjoyable draws that I've had. It was a tight, chaotic fight.

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