AWI Campaign - June 1776

The Battle of Barwon Hill, 16th June 1776, occurred while British forces were making another attempt to cease West Point and encountered American forces. This battle turned out to be a marginal victory to the combined British and Hessian force.

The British assault on Barwon Hill begins

The British victory was mainly due to their cavalry who were able to successfully defend their flank, with the support of some light infantry, and defeat their counterparts before moving to support the centre attack on the hill.

After a series of hard fought actions the American defenders were forced to retire and let the hill fall into the hands of the British forces. While on the British right flank the American defenders were more successful and made the attacking British units to retire before they took unnecessary losses.

Heavy fighting for control of the hill

The start of the unsuccessful attack by the British right flank. Matchsticks are used to track hits

As I am progressing with this campaign I am taking the opportunity to fiddle around with areas of the rules the house rules I use (based on One Hour Wargame rules). One area of change, fiddling, or meddling is the combat phase. Originally, I had

• Units in the open are hit on a 3+.
• Units in cover (woods, towns or entrenched) are hit on a 5+.
• When shooting at Cavalry a 5+ is required to hit.

The number or dice rolled depended on the type of unit. For example, skirmishers rolled 1 dice, line infantry 2 dice, artillery 1 dice, etc. The number of dice is rolled is doubled when attacking the rear or flank of a unit.

I have made two changes to: 1) slow down the effects of hits on units in the open, and 2) reduce the effectiveness of artillery at long range. Units now hit on a 4+ with the following modifiers:

• -1 if in cover
• -1 if target unit not in adjacent square (or more than 6 inches away).

The number of dice rolled by a unit remains unchanged. 

After more that six hits a unit is eliminated. Although I am now modifying this ever so slightly for the next game.