Christmas at Trenton

'Twas the morning of Christmas and all through the house, the early birds were stirring, looking for something that would not wake the spouse.

One of them (me!) decided to fight a battle. Naturally, Trenton came to mind.

Note: This was my Christmas Day entertainment. I have a backlog of reports from my holiday time off that I will post in January. Stay tuned. Now back to Trenton.

Background

It is December 1776. After losing New York City, the American revolutionary cause is in shambles. General George Washington decides on a bold offensive to (hopefully) restore morale. His army crosses the Delaware River and attacks an isolated Hessian outpost in the city of Trenton, New Jersey in the wee hours of the morning after Christmas.

Setup

Washington's Continental Army enters from the north (top). Washington starts with 3 brigades (Stirling, Mercer, and Fermoy from L to R) plus some guns, all under the command of Nathaniel Greene (the leader counter). Washington also expects 2 more brigades to join him.

Rall's regiment is on duty in Trenton. Lossberg's and Knyphausen's regiments are resting inside the town's buildings (they will come on in later turns).

The Battle

Alarm! Lossberg's regiment leaps to the defense, driving back Stirling's brigade. Washington's army ineffectually bombards Rall. Meanwhile, Stephens (upper left) and Sullivan (lower left) arrive and move to attack from the west.

Note: I am short of heavy infantry counters so I'm using light infantry counters for Stephens and Sullivan. Yet I treat them as standard infantry.

With a concerted assault, Lossberg is lost. Knyphausen's regiment joins the Hessian defense. Washington's artillery continues to be useless.

Rall drives off Fermoy (right). Knyphausen mounts a staunch defense, forcing Stephens and Sullivan to retreat.

Washington moves up his artillery while Stirling and Mercer ravage the town. Actually, I just knocked over a building. ;)

After a lot of bloodshed, the Americans drive back Knyphausen. Meanwhile, Rall's brigade routs and Rall himself is shot!

Surrounded, Knyphausen surrenders!

Game Notes

An American victory, albeit much bloodier than the actual fight.

The idea for a Christmas battle popped into my head on Christmas eve. But what battle? I wanted something apropos to the holiday, so ancients or fantasy did not seem right. Trenton then popped into my head. I tried to find a Command & Colors scenario but failed. Instead, I found this.

This is a scenario book from Greg Wagman of Little Wars TV fame (wow, I mention LWTV a lot on my blogs!). It has a Trenton scenario that I adapted to my MicroBattle rules.

Here is the link to the scenario book.

It's for a miniatures rules set called Live Free or Die.

Now that I have all these Revolutionary War scenarios, I'm tempted to do more for 2025.