AWI Battle Fought

2nd Maryland Regiment marches down the sunken road. Fife & Drum Miniatures, GMB Designs flag, and all terrain by Herb Gundt. click to enlarge.

I have been busy designing and play testing a scenario for the American War of Independence that I plan to use as a convention game in the future. I had originally set up the table prior to the July 4th holiday this year (2012) with the intention of fighting the battle on Independence Day 2012. Events seemed to conspire against me and so I did not get around to fighting this game out until September 2012. I have since replayed it two more times, so now I feel like I am finally getting the kinks and bugs out of the scenario and it is nearly ready to roll onto the convention scene in 2013.

I do not want to give away much detail about the scenario just now, as it will appear in the next issue of Battlegames magazine (issue no. 32, I believe).  So you will have to buy a copy of Battlegames No. 32 to get all of the pictures and scenario details.

The scenario is  a "defense in depth" situation with the defenders (the Americans) initially outnumbered by the attackers (the British redcoats). The game is played along the vertical axis of the table, which narrows the frontage for the defenders, making it a little more difficult to turn their flank. The attackers enjoy an initial advantage of 9 battalions to 4 battalions for the American side. However, the Americans have off-table reinforcements that arrive at various points during the game. At the same time, the Americans must also load up their supply wagons at the supply depot, and move the wagons off the table to keep them out of the hands of the British.

The British are about to overwhelm the American line. The dice represent the number of casualties that a unit has during the game. I did not want to use white plastic rings for these pictures.

During each play test of the scenario, the wagons barely made it away or were barely captured on the last turn, so I think that the timing of events works out just right.