Wednesday 30 November 2016

AWI Campaign - Battle of Rosston -September 28th, 1776

The next battle in the AWI campaign saw British forces continue to push on to Philadelphia from their newly acquired base of New Brunswick. On September, 28th as they marched they were confronted by a slightly larger America force near the town of Rosston.

British Force
2 light infantry units
2 artillery units
3 line infantry units
3 Hessian line infantry units
1 loyalist militia unit

American Force
2 frontiersmen (skirmish) units
2 artillery units
2 militia units
2 continental line infantry units

Turns 1 and 2
American forces pushed quickly forward into the fields. This was important for the militia who could then take advantage of the field for cover, increasing the number of hits they can absorb before being eliminated. The occupation of the farm buildings and nearby hill boosted the commander resolve from it's starting point of 4 to 6.
The British forces also moved forward to engage the Americans. British commander resolve was boosted from 4 to 5 for the occupation of Rosston Town.

Opening Moves
Turns 3 and 4
With both sides becoming heavily engaged in and around the fields in the centre. British light infantry moved up on their left flank to harass American forces located on the hill.

A view from the American herald hill
Turns 5 and 6
In the fight for the fields American forces were holding their own with the support of their artillery. While British artillery were focusing their fire on their American counterparts.

Turns 7 and 8
Casualties were staring to mount and both commanders were busy trying to rally units. In each turn both commanders had units eliminated and their resolve score dipped. British resolve was 3 and American resolve 4.

British units failed to dislodge American units from the fields

Turns 9 and 10
The tide of the battle was starting to turn in the American favour. They had seen off the British light infantry and the first line of British units attacking the fields. Their frontiersman were ready on the flank to advance towards Rosston.

American forces well positioned

Turns 11 and 12
Both sides had pretty much fought themselves to a standstill in the centre and with some more units eliminated. While American frontiersmen advanced on Rosston and were engaged by the defending forces. Command resolve was reduced to 1 for both sides.

Add caption

Turns 13
The final turn saw the loss of a loyalist militia unit defending the town and with that British resolve was zero. So a marginal victory went to the Americans.

5 comments:

  1. Command resolve appears to be working well. Did it feel like the will to fight collapsed at around the right time, having regard for casualties / ground taken and how much fight was left in either force?

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    1. Good questions, Norm. One other question regarding Commander Resolve; had the British lost Rosston while at Resolve '1' would the British dropped to '0' and been defeated? How is Commander Resolve set? Is it a function of number of units?

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    2. Hi - command resolve starts at 4 with the beginning of the game. The resolve score can be increased by 1 and up to a maximum of 6 by occupying buildings or hill. Occupy 2 hills and that is 2 points.

      Points are lost whenever in a turn one or more units are eliminated. The number of units eliminated does not matter, it is still 1 resolve point lost.

      There are no points lost for losing occupied buildings or hills as either: it was a deliberate retirement from the position, or it was lost after a fight and a unit was eliminated resulting in a lost resolve point.

      In the games played so far approximately 50 percent unit eliminations seems to cause resolve to fail. Gaining hills and buildings, tactical positions, are important at the beginning of the game to boost the resolve points.

      I am close to being ready to post up the rules in the next week or so. I am just playing around with rallying at present.

      Through the games setting the command resolve has settled on 4 when there are about 10-14 units per side. This will be the average commander and provides opportunity to increase for veteran commanders and decrease for poor commanders.

      Regards, Peter

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  2. Very nice Laing figures. I have a collection of over 1000 painted Laing Seven Years war figures here in Munich Germany - we play
    to my own rules using a gridded board-i think i still have a number of unpainted AWI figures knocking about

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    1. Thank you. It must a joy to wargame with such a collection of Seven Years war figures. Do you have plans for your AWI figures? Regards, Peter

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