AWI campaign continues into July 1776

Following on from their victory at Barwon Hill, British forces marched on and secured West Point, resting up for a few weeks. From a campaign gaming point they failed to roll a 4+ for the first two weeks of July 1776 meaning no battle. They did successfully roll a 4+ for the second half of July as they marched on New Brunswick and were met by a defending American force on July 29th. Where the battle game of Blake's farm was fought out.

The A4 sized campaign map

The area of campaigning

Here are the only pictures I took of the game (a phone recharge was required) which saw an American victory.

British forces advance

The presence of American cavalry, while not that active in the battle itself they were able to tie down 2 British units to cover their flank. This along with a good defendable position allowed the defending American forces to weather the initial British attack and later successfully counter attack with their line infantry.

American forces meet the advancing British

The British command resolve at the end of the game was lower than the American commander so they retired from the field of battle. The commander resolve rule was introduced in the previous game. A commander loses a resolve point for each turn they have one or more units eliminated, and they gain one point when a terrain objective (hills or towns) is first occupied. The army with the better command control at game's end wins. From a campaign narrative point of view a one point difference is a marginal victory, two points a victory, and three points a major victory.

I may well introduce some campaign implications for the level of victory, but as this is a new rule mechanism I am still in a wait and see situation.

American forces quickly with draw and were to successfully defend their position

In this game I had made two changes to the house rules I use. The first was not all units are eliminated on the same number of hits. Now for example, militia can take up to 4 hits before elimination, regular troops 5 hits and grenadiers 6 hits.

The second change is in relation to the commander who, providing they are in an adjacent square, can attempt to rally one eliminated unit per turn. This is done by rolling one dice and scoring greater or equal to their maximum number of hits for the unit quality. So a militia unit having taken more than four hits would normally be eliminated, but if next to a commander can be rallied by the commander rolling 4+. If rallied they remain with 4 hits with the other hits being ignored.

I am using this approach to represent the different quality of troops and the ability for militia in particular, who fought in less rigid formations, to withdraw and reform.