Germantown game two. Turn 6 and English half of turn 7

 Finished up turn 6 and played half of turn 7.  Feel a little sleazy.  Found out George W was in range of a cavalry unit so ran up, chased off the demoralized unit he was trying to rally and advanced in to capture him.  Felt sleazy since last time a general was alone in the hex (years ago I admit) I did not see the rule saying that a VACANT hex did not include having a leader in it (only a leader is vacant but you kinda have to figure that out by putting two and two together, it is never clearly spelled out).

George is where the star is.  Or at least was there.  Rebel half of turn coming up but with morale so low it will be hard to get the favorable combat adds to make it a sure thing.  After that an initiative roll.

Germantown, Game 2, Turns 4.5 and 5

Back and forth fighting for the turn and a half.  Brits had the Colonials on a rope and then the Colonials punched back.  Brits can't seem to capture of eliminate a unit to save their life, even when attacking at 4-1 with a +6 on the dice roll (rolled a 0, which is the lowest possible).  Currently it is a tie but if the Colonials rally a unit it is a minor colonial victory so the Brits would have to come out an attack.

 

Germantown game 2

Played the first three turns of Germantown and what a difference from the first game.  The Brits managed to score a hit with Arty that caused an attack to go awry for the continentals and a Hessian attack on Militia has caused a problem for the continentals as well.  Finally the Brits won the initiative after that fight allowing them to follow up.  This point into the first game the Brits were down 7vp and on the ropes, now it is an open contest with both sides near full strength but the next few combat rolls will determine the flow for the next couple turns at least.

The two Stars are where the main fights happened so far.  The British cannon near the one star made a morale check to keep from being eliminated - it will run some more to hopefully cause other losses.  The Star at the bottom is where the Hessians attacked a stack of Militia forcing most of them to retreat and the front unit was Disrupted.

Great Battles of the American Revolution: Germantown second game day

 Played turns 4 and half of turn 5 (lots going on) in 3 hours today.  The Redcoats are on the backfoot.

The Rebels manage to capture a BUNCH of Redcoats by bad play on my part.  With a need to get 7vp just to get a draw (and not let the Rebels get any more VP even for that) I concede the game.  We made a few mistakes along the way rules wise but my tactical mistakes are what cost the game.  Tried to fight too far forward and that allowed units to get cut off and captured.  Asked for a restart and with more attention to detail (Run Away! Run Away!) in the early game it should be a more interesting contest.

Germantown

 First three turns of Germantown from GMT's Battles of the American Revolution series.  Since I was rusty I asked for the Brits in this one since they react the first few turns.  Considering the number of decisions to be made by either side it would really not have made much difference.

Game start.

Start of turn2.  A lot of US reinforcements on the way this turn but Stephens is drunk so his move by random DR each turn.

Start of turn 4.  I probably had placed my guys badly on turn 3.  Only time will tell.  They did manage to get out in one piece and the lines is starting to form.  The fog will lift over the next three turns (heavy on the first 3, random on the next 3, clear after that).  Statistics wise, Rifle/Arty has been crap while CC has been excellent for the attackers in most cases.

Guilford Courthouse replay. Great Battles of the American Revolution part 2

Yesterday my opponent and I played the Guilford Courthouse title in the GBAR series for the second time.  This time getting most of the rules correct but learning a bit about tactics near the end...

An overview of the map, Continentals setup and the British enter at the top right.

End of Turn 1.  British entry order as shown on the Time Track.

Tarlton (Mr. T) enters the map and gets within one hex of Continental Cavalry using road movement. (can not go adjacent when doing so)

End of Turn 2.

Still no fighting.  Mr T is reinforced with militia while the Continentals bring up some riflemen and light troops.  (they can move quickly through the woods)

End of Turn 3.

First blood goes to the British!

The Continentals used their light troops to spot the British regulars coming in this turn, this will allow General Greene to start moving on turn 5 instead of turn 6  (the battle took place at the top right...)

End of turn 4.

The Continentals move more riflemen up to slow the British advance.  Since it costs one extra to enter a Riflmen's ZOC and the units have 4 movement factors the crafty Continental player will hold the British advance to 3 hexes a turn..

End of turn 5

At the top of the map the Continental Cavalry holds the Infantry back by using a Cavalry withdrawal.  While the Riflemen hold up the British advance on the right.

End of turn 7 (I forgot turn 6?!?!)

Up top the Cavalry is holding up the infantry but Mr. T is coming up - that will keep them from doing a Cavalry Withdrawal again.  On the Right the main army with Cornwallis is plodding along.

End of turn 8

Up top the Cavalry is pushed back but not eliminated.  To the right the British keep plodding along.

End of turn 10?  Did I skip a turn, that would have a big effect on the end game...

The British finish off the Lt Rifle troops holding them from the main part of Greene's army (Greene is with the other portion of the army however).  Things will get hot here shortly...

Mr. T works with Cornwallis' subordinated to attack from the other direction.  The good troops were sent this way (with +2 morale ratings they are tough fighters)

End of turn 11.  The Continental army suffers major losses a leader, their Dragoons captured and another combat unit.

Cornwallis attacks (the lowest portion of the map there) and forced the Continentals to retreat.  When the Continental army tried to force the Rifle armed British units away (right next to the cannon) they failed and were instead sent running.  One of them demoralized and the others retreated.

Up top Greene forced a retreat of one of the units there.

End of Turn 12.  Based on Points the British now have a solid Marginal victory!  But Cornwallis wants more  - even though it is impossible at this point for the most part.

The British Rifles fire on the Cannon and kill it off.Cornwallis steps in to try and force a crossing, to no effect.

Up top the British try to skirt the Continentals (silly move, should have simply tried to grab Greene, that IS a major victory)

British get the Initiative on turn 13 and Cornwallis Crosses the stream to attack!  Disaster strikes as the Continental Rifleman finally score a hit and a leader casualty..

Cornwallis Falls in battle!  The previous good fortune for the British is now almost completely gone.  The game now being a draw.

Without Cornwallis to lead them (a lesser leader is still in the stack next door) they fight to a PIN result.  The Continentals have to attack back on their half of the turn.

On the other part of the field Mr. T mangles a good part of the Continental force there.  Another turn might have lead to the capture of Greene... 

End of Continental turn 13 (forgot to flip the counter)  Final losses, one General for the British and a whole slug of stuff for the Continentals but it is a draw since the Continentals hold the VC spaces.

The Continental counterattack ends up a disruption for them but the other units pass their morale checks to stay in place.

And Greene retreats his forces. 

The lesson learned is that a General can use his tactical prowess from an adjacent hex, no need to stack with the attacking troops and risk being shot. 

Great Battles of the American Revolution Part 1

Back in November I played a Face to Face game of Guilford Courthouse from The Great Battles of the American Revolution series by GMT.  My friend and I like the system but found we misplayed just about everything important...

An overview of the map.  The continentals are on the map and the Evil Empire (me!) comes in at the top right where the Blue Ten Sider is sitting.  (sorry for the Fuzzy Pic)

End of Turn 1, Tarlton speeds down the road to come to grips with the American cavalry unit.

Mr T attacks and kills the Continental Cavalry.

End of turn 3.  The stacks are the arriving British army units.

Mr T (Tarleton) is chugging down the road while militia units follow behind.  The main batch of Continental units do not get released till turn 6.

The map from the opposite vantage

End of turn 6

The Continentals have started to shift their forces to meet the British advance.

The tip of the spear...

End of Turn 7

Continentals formed a line while the British move up more troops.

End of Turn 8

Here is where we started messing up the rules.  Combat effects only apply to the Lead unit in a battle but we were applying them to the whole stack.  In this case it was two stacks attacking one British one - putting the Continentals in much more trouble then they should have been after a bad die roll...

End of Turn 9 (the losses are all Continentals so far...)

Things go "badly for the British".  A victorious attack caused an advance - which then required a bad position, so I only moved one unit forward and it was Disrupted by the counter attack in the Continentals turn.

End of Turn 10

Combat continues, the Continentals retake a victory location (top middle at the crossroads) while the British attack the Continental line.

End of turn 11 and I think we called it here.

The Continentals attacked and put a hurting on the British but then the British hit back hard scattering the Continental army.  Once again this was an extreme result brought on by applying the combat result to the entire stack rather then just the point unit.

This is a fun and generally easy to play game system and my opponent and I are planning on playing more in the series.  This particular battle took us roughly 5 hours to play so it is perfect for a single day game.