Blow from the Rear

The Batty Numppo Campaign

After his initial victory, Batty gets word that the British are sending a more powerful force. Batty is commanded to stop them at the river.

The British try to force two crossings. They fail at the east (left) crossing drive off some artillery at the west bridge.

Surprise! Some British forces have already crossed the river and flank Batty's position. He sends some cavalry to hold them off, but they fail. The British also make it over the east crossing.

Technically, the battle should have ended here, as the Americans only had 1 unit on the board, However, they were expecting reinforcements, so I let them come on.

I also should have tried to rally one of the units, but forgot.

American reinforcements plug the gaps.

The American right flank caves.

And then the left. Batty has no choice but to retreat.

Alas, the reinforcements make it to the British camp at Savannah.

NOTES

• This was an attempt to translate a One Hour Wargames scenario to Dominion of. I still had 3 zones, with the left being the flank.
• The specific scenario was Blow from the Rear. Both sides have reinforcements that arrive at various points in the game. With Do's speed of resolution, I had to reduce the number of turns before reinforcements arrived. 
• As I mentioned, the Americans should have lost before they received their reinforcements, I was going to hold them until turn 4 but then decided to bring them on on turn 3. Even then, they were technically a bit late as the Americans were down to 1 unit at the end of turn 2. But I rolled initiative, the Americans won, so I decided that the reinforcements arrived in the nick of time. Still did not help.
• Despite the reinforcement issue, I feel the experiment was a success and I will try more OHW scenarios.
• Batty is now 1-1 in the campaign. I'm not sure how many games I will play. Perhaps 7?

Batty Numppo in Action

I finally got my Revolutionary War skirmish project off the ground. Here is the first action.

Background

It is January 1776. The governor of East Florida, Patrick Tonedeaf, has outfitted an expedition to reduce that rebel stronghold of Savannah, Georgia. It is led by Lt. Col. Augustine Preboast.

The names are fictional but some are based on real people.

The British won an engagement at Sodden Slough, allowing them to march on Savannah and besiege the city.

Our hero, Batty Numppo, a renowned leader among the backwoods community, has been given a small command to disrupt British operations.

The Ambush

Numppo sets an ambush for British reinforcements marching north from Brunswick.

Numppo's skirmishers strike from the woods but are driven off. The Americans have more success in the center.

Reinforcements drive off the British light infantry, but with high casualties.

The Americans get the best of the cavalry action on the left.

This gives the American horse the opportunity to flank and scatter the British.

Victory for Numppo!

NOTES

• This is the first action for my skirmish counters. I envision each base being a platoon or troop.
• Both commanders failed the rally attempts. I did not bother mentioning it in the narrative.

Rev War Skirmish Project

I have begun to make progress on my skirmish project.

Background

The project began in January. I made some new counters and even did a big battle scenario as a prelude.

Then the whole project stalled. My printer ran out of ink. By the time I ordered more, the tablet connected to the printer died. And by the time I got a new tablet, I moved on to other things.

Recent Progress

As I mentioned last week, I saw that there is a new edition of Long Rifle in the works. That got me interested again and I began to take positive steps forward.

First, I updated my counters. Here are the counters for the British.

I moved from 1/2" square to 3/4" by 1/2" rectangles, with more figures per counter. The idea is that each counter represents a small detachment of troops. Once again, I went with an impressionistic style rather than realistic. It just makes the counters easier to see on the tabletop.

I also made armies for the Continentals (blue), Loyalists (green), backwoodsmen (brown), and natives (dark red).

I also made some wagons and downloaded some buildings from Junior General. The buildings will sit upright instead of being top down.

My printer is still disconnected, but I sent the file to Office Depot for printing. I also ordered bases from Litko.

Rules

As you can probably tell from the counters, I opted to do a small unit skirmish rather than a man-to-man skirmish. Each counter represents a unit. My main character will command 4-6 units.

I'm still up in the air about rules, but I'll probably just use Dominion of with tweaks. I'd like to use some One Hour Wargame scenarios, so I'll need to figure how to make them work.

The Campaign

I am elevating the main character of this campaign, Batty Numppo, to 2nd Lieutenant. He will command a mixed bag of troops - mostly militia and backwoodsmen with a few natives.

Following up on January's prelude, I'm assuming that Lt. Col. Preboast is besieging Savannah. Batty will conduct a series of raids against British supply lines and against Tories in the interior.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Round and Round

I recently saw a post on Lead Adventure Forum for a 3rd edition of Two Hour Wargames' Long Rifle.

This sparked an interest in my sidelined Revolutionary War skirmish project.

A Library Hunt

Back then, I perused Long Rifle 2nd edition. I decided to take another look at it. But I could not find it in my Wargames Vault library! I could have sworn that I purchased it. Oh well, guess I'll buy it now. But it is a bit more than I like to spend. I ended up buying Black Powder Battles and Muskets and Mohawks, two predecessors to Long Rifle.

Then I remembered where I read LR; it's on Kindle Unlimited!

Should I Get 3e?

I am tempted to order 3e, which is probably not a good idea considering my history with Two Hour Wargames. Here is my typical process:

1. That looks interesting. I'm going to buy it.
2. Ugh. I really don't like the TWH combat system. Oh well, I can use the campaign system.
3. Hmm, the campaign is a bit more complicated than I like. I'll streamline it a bit.
4. Put the rules aside and wait several months
5. Get interested in the topic again.
6. Pull out the rules.
7. Return to step 2.

Battle of Fort Charlotte

Time for this year's Independence Day battle.

Background

Stymied at Fort New Richmond (Baton Rouge, LA), Bernardo de Galvez decides to cut off the supply lines to the British garrison.

He sails his force to Fort Charlotte (Mobile, AL)

 

Opposing Forces

• Spanish - Galvez (white) - 3 Spanish line infantry, 2 batteries of artillery, 1 unit of unreliable militia
• British - Capt. Elias Durnford (red) - 2 line infantry, 2 militia (1 mounted), 1 artillery

The Battle

Galvez begins the battle with a bombardment in the center. It is ineffectual. The British mounted militia drive off the Spanish militia (left).

The bombardment continues in the center. Meanwhile, a British sortie wipes out some artillery (left).

The bombardment succeeds!

Militia takes up the defense in the center.

Oops, I should have removed the wall.

Spanish infantry drives off the mounted militia (left).

But the British militia and line crush the Spanish center and right.

Fort Charlotte remains in British hands. 😡

But Wait

We have received word from Galvez. He made a second attempt that succeeded!

Here is his map of the siege. Numbers indicate turns.

I actually played this scenario twice. The first time was actually on my PowerPoint battle board. Galvez actually won this one. But I wanted to play the scenario using physical counters, so I did it again. That's the initial report in this post.

Battle of the Sodden Slough

The Batty Numppo Campaign

Prologue

Welcome to a new campaign set during the American Revolution. I plan to do this campaign as a squad-based skirmish, as mentioned last week. But for today, I'm starting with a full scale battle using Dominion of Patriots and Redcoats.

Note that this is all fictional, so I have changed some of the major players in the story. And of course, the main character is total fictional.

Background

It is January 1776. The governor of East Florida, Patrick Tonedeaf, has outfitted an expedition to reduce that rebel stronghold of Savannah, Georgia. It is led by Lt. Col. Augustine Preboast.

Georgia patriots send out a force to stop him under command of Brig. Gen. Crispin Apple.

Opposing Forces

• British (Preboast) - dragoons, grenadiers, 3 line infantry, and artillery (unreliable)
• Americans (Apple) - 1 backwoodsmen (elite skirmishers), 3 militia (skirmishers, one in woods), 2 hastily formed militia (unreliable skirmishers)

The Battle

Preboast orders his front line to advance. There is a stalemate in the center but the Patriots in the woods drive off his infantry. One of those skirmishers is a scout named Batty Numppo.

Preboast brings up his artillery to scatter the skirmishers in the woods. Before the artillery unlimbers, musket fire drives them off. Meanwhile, the dragoons and backwoodsmen engage in a bloody clash that leaves both units hors de combat.

The British grenadiers clear the center.

British line goes in with the bayonet and drives the skirmishers out of the wood. our hero Batty makes it out safely.

The Patriot reinforcements are shaky and flee at the first volley.

 

Likewise, the militia in the center flees.

Preboast can continue his march on Savannah.

Battle of Quebec 1775

For the 250th anniversary, I gamed the battle of Quebec using Dominion of Patriots and Redcoats.

The American infantry (blue) storm the walls of Quebec. A whiff of grapeshot holds them back on the right but the Americans gain the wall on the left.

The British Highlanders drive the Americans from the wall (left). The American general, Montgomery, rallies the infantry.

The British wipe out the Americans storming the center. On the right, the Americans overrun the guns.

The rallied American infantry try again. This time, they rout the Highlanders.

With this, Quebec is in American hands!

Game Notes

• I don't have a white battle board to represent snow so I improvised with the box cover. It worked.
• I'm tempted to do a what-if. Could the American have held Quebec?

Skirmish Revolution

As usual, my manias can get triggered by the most inconsequential of events.

My latest was triggered by this picture.

I was working on another project (a dungeon crawl, which I will post about in the new year), when I rummaged up a box. I glanced at the cover - Micro Battle Skirmish. It wasn't even this picture but it reminded me of this one, which was the original MBS cover. This triggered a desire for some Revolutionary War skirmishing.

Rules?

I started looking for rules. Naturally, I plan to experiment with my old Micro Battle skirmish rules. But I could use some help, specifically for campaigns and scenarios. Is there anything that will help me?

I'm looking at a number of rules sets or expansions. Here are a few under consideration:

• Red Hatchets and Black Powder - a supplement for Fistful of Lead.
• Black Powder Battles - an old Two Hour Wargames set.
• Long Rifle - a successor to THW's BPB. It's for the French & Indian War, but I'm sure I could make it work for the Revolution.

I'm still hunting around and welcome suggestions.

"Figure" Basing?

This is another consideration. Obviously I'll be using counters. But do I want one figure on a counter or do I want a small group per counter (still 1 "figure" = 1 man)? The latter might work for a big skirmish, a la Rebels and Patriots.

Current Status

Right now, I lean towards 1 figure per counter. I'm thinking about 4 heroes (Americans, of course) vs. hordes of natives, mercenary Hessians, and dastardly British. 😉

I would need to make counters. I may just make some generic skirmish counters.

We'll see how long this mania lasts. It may dissipate in a few days.

Battle of Lake Pontchartrain

A naval game based on this "battle."

While Governor Galvez was marching on Baton Rouge, a naval skirmish occurred on Lake Pontchartrain.

Under cloudy skies, the USS Morris (green flag), a schooner, approaches a British brigantine, the HMS West Florida. Captain Pickles of the Morris commands the West Florida to surrender. Instead, it unleashes a broadside. The Morris replies. Both are ineffective.

The clouds part and the sun shines as the Morris maneuvers behind the West Florida. 

Note: This is somewhat literal. I think the first pic is so dark because there was some cloud cover that darkened my room but the flash did not go off, The other pics are so bright because the flash went off.

Its raking shot damages the British vessel.

The Morris moves in for the kill, boarding the other ship. There is a protracted struggle.

Note: No damage for the first round of combat.

Ultimately, though, the Morris's superior numbers prevail. The West Florida strikes its colors.

GAME NOTES

I'm still in search of some good naval rules. For big battles, I'm thinking of a variant of the Dominion of series. It worked for galleys.

For single ship actions, it dawned on me that I could use the maneuver rules from my aerial dogfight / gladiator games (as seen here). I wanted some simple combat rules so I turned to Galleys and Galleons. It's a rules set I've had for years but never played. At the time, I wanted something where I could handle several ships a side solo. G&G seemed a bit fiddly for that. But I essentially used it for the above battle and it worked fine. For simplicity, I assumed that a ship struck at 3 damage.

You may ask: Why not just use G&G? The answer is that I don't really have the room. I'm playing games on a board that measures about 5 by 7 inches. Relative movement, like I've used successfully for dogfights and gladiators, just makes sense.

The big issue I have with G&G combat is that I'm not doing activation rolls, which means I'm not going to the All at Sea table. That's why I made 3 damage an automatic strike. If I play more small actions, I'll need to figure out how to incorporate that table.

Independence Day Battles

On my old blog, it was something of a tradition to play a Revolutionary War battle on July 4th. I decided to follow that tradition here, but using Dominion of Patriots and Redcoats.

Previously, I played a semi-fictional invasion of East Florida that saw the new United States annex the British colony. For my latest campaign, I decided to play Galvez's invasion of West Florida.

Using Dominion of, I was able to complete a couple of battles in just minutes.

Background

It is 1779 and the Spanish have just allied themselves with the American rebels. The governor of Spanish New Orleans, Bernardo de Galvez, decides to take action against British forces in West Florida (at the time, Florida stretched all the way to the Mississippi River).

Fort Bute

Galvez gathers his forces and marches on Fort New Richmond (Baton Rouge). On the way, he must deal with a British garrison at Fort Bute.

Notes: 

• This is a fictional take on the battle. In reality, only 23 Waldeck grenadiers garrisoned the fort. To make the scenario more interesting, I gave them some reinforcements.
• Point are not equal. Too bad

Fort Bute (top) is garrisoned by some Waldeck grenadiers (elite line) and British artillery in defenses. Native allies (tomahawks) operate outside the fort.

Galvez has 2 battalions each of militia (skirmishers) and line infantry. An artillery battery and some native allies round out the army.

As Galvez begins preparing for a siege, the British artillery fires. Galvez's artillery responds, and knocks out its counterpart. Meanwhile, the British native allies charge the militia, which blasts them with a volley.

The grenadiers take up positions on the fort's walls. Their volley disperses the artillery. However, the militia flanks the grenadiers. A hot fire forces the grenadiers to surrender.

The remaining native allies flee. Galvez has taken Fort Bute.

Fort New Richmond (Baton Rouge)

Galvez (bottom) approached Fort New Richmond with the same force as at Fort Bute: 2 battalions each of militia (skirmishers) and line infantry, an artillery battery, and some native allies.

The British fort is much stronger than Bute. Behind the bulwarks are 2 line infantry battalions, an artillery battery, and some militia.

Once again, the Spanish artillery wipes out its counterpart. Meanwhile, the Spanish native allies charge, only to be routed by the militia.

A British line infantry battalion reinforces the walls. The British unleash a devastating volley that disperses some militia and artillery.

The opposing militias clash, rendering each other hors de combat.

The same thing occurs with the line infantry in the center. The battle comes down to the left wing. The Spanish charge but the British line pours fire into the enemy. The Spanish break.

Fort New Richmond holds. Galvez must regroup for a new attack.

Note

As I write this, I just realized that I did not use the rally rule. I keep forgetting!

What's Next?

I plan to reserve Galvez's campaign to July 4th games, but I'm tempted to try again soon. We'll see.

There is also another scenario from this part of the campaign. There was a small naval battle (just 2 ships) on Lake Pontchartrain. Sounds like a fun scenario. I don't really have rules for small naval skirmishes, but I have some ideas. I may try them out soon.

Battle of Bunker Hill

Steve Parker has released another title in the Dominion series, this time covering the American Revolution. Called Dominion of Patriots and Redcoats, you can find it at Wargame Vault (link).

The timing is perfect as I planned to do Bunker Hill using Dominion of the Spear and Bayonet, as I had done for Lexington-Concord. Steve saved me the effort because Bunker Hill is one of the scenarios in the booklet.

The Battle

The British decide to drive the colonists from their positions on Bunker and Breed's Hills across the river from Boston. They opt for a frontal assault on the colonist defenses.

In the first charge, a hail of shot from the colonists (blue) wipe out two British infantry units.

The British bring up their artillery but it gets shot to pieces. They try an assault in the center, which also fails.

Note: I decided to add red markers to indicate bayonet units.

The British form column and charge with bayonets fixed. They manage to storm the fortifications in the center. But a relentless counterattack wipes out the British.

Breed's Hill remains in colonial hands!

The British Retreat

Lexington Concord Campaign Using Dominion of the Spear and Bayonet

Part 3

This is the finale of my Lexington Concord campaign using Dominion of the Spear and Bayonet.

So Far

The colonial militia has driven Col. Smith and his command from Concord. Colonial ambushers hit the retreating British, inflicting more casualties.

The Final Battle

Col. Percy links up with Smith. Percy has 4 companies of line infantry and one battery of artillery. Smith only has his lights left.

Note: For this larger battle, each company = 1 stand.

Outside Lexington, Col. Green's militia strikes.

Smith's light infantry draws first blood.

But then the colonials counterattack and drive Smith off.

The British line defeats a company on the left.

But then they get routed.

Disaster for the British! The colonial militia wipe out the flanks.

Then a flank attack routs the center.

The colonials are victorious. Percy leads his battered command back to Boston.

GAME NOTES

• That was fun, aided by an American victory!
• I changed the campaign a bit. I did not roll for American reinforcements. Instead, I had each command individually challenge the British.
• Interesting, the British won my first attempt at Concord. Then I realized that I shortchanged the colonials - I only gave them 1 stand per company while the British got 2. I replayed the battle and this changed the result.
• I made the colonial militia = ambushers because I wanted them to fire first. It seemed fitting for Lexington Concord, where the colonials generally used hit and run tactics.
• Stay tuned for more Revolutionary War battles!