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Saturday, August 22, 2020

Action at Mill Creek Redux

Having acquainted myself with the Fields of Honor rules in the first outing of Action at Mill Creek, I figured the best way in which to reinforce what I learned was to reset the battlefield and try again before those lessons slipped away.  That is what I did.

Initial deployments were as before with the Americans defending a bridge in an attempt to block an advancing British army.  The Americans had at their disposal two Continental line regiments guarding the bridge, two militia and a battery on a hill overlooking the stream.  Add to these forces, the possibility of up to three reinforcing Continental line regiments.  The British had three brigades arrayed for the attack against the American positions.  
Initial deployments
Victory goes to the British commander if he can control both the bridge and have two regiments upon the hill without first suffering 50% casualties.  In the first battle, the British saw a convincing victory by throwing the Americans back from the bridge and hill without exhausting its army.
British ready to step off
Turn 1
With the British as the aggressor, the redcoats act first.  To begin the battle, both players roll on the Events Table.  The Americans roll a Calamity Event.  With the specific Calamity result dictated by a second die roll, the British commander is allowed to choose the event to befall the Americans.  Out of Ammo is the chosen Calamity.  The Continentals defending the bridge will be forced to check ammo availability every time they attempt to fire.  Not a good start for the defenders.

The British begin their advance toward the American line.  Out of musketry range for now, the Militia choose to place themselves under Hold (Op Fire marker in the photo) orders so that they may react once the British march into range.    

Turn 2 
The British continue to advance.  The British gun, unlimbered toward the rear, targets the militia on the hill and causes one hit.  The Continentals advance to the stream in order to contest the British advance.  The 7th Pennsylvanians, defending the bridge, find the ammo to fire into the 4th Foot.  One hit is suffered by the 4th.   
Initial clashes begin
To the left of the 7th Penn, the 4th Penn finds the ammo to unleash a devastating volley into the 49th Foot.  The Pennsylvanians deal three hits into the redcoats.  The 49th fails three morale checks and the unit is destroyed.  Ouch!  Rules note: A unit may absorb three hits before being eliminated.  With each hit, the defender makes a Morale Check.  Pass the Morale Check and no hit is registered.  Fail and the unit keeps the hit.
Deadly volley into 49th
49th destroyed
The American gun on the hill reaches out and touches the British 9th Foot for one hit.  The British attack is not beginning well.
Guns find a target
Turn 3
The Americans suffer a second Calamity Event.  This time, a British sniper takes down an American officer.  Fortunately, he is only wounded.  No command bonuses this turn.  
British ready for an attack against the American left
On the British left, converging fire finds its mark.  The British Light Infantry, the 4th Foot, and the battery concentrate their fire onto the 7th Penn.  Out of six hits from incoming fire, the stout Pennsylvanians manage to brush off four of those.  Result is that the 7th Penn suffers two hits, still nearly wrecking it.  Heavy casualties, for sure, but a unit can take three hits before becoming ineffective.  The militia on the hill takes a second hit from the 9th.  It, too, is on the verge of collapse.
Concentrating fire onto the Pennsylvanians
With enemy upon its left, a battered friend upon its right and rear, the 4th Penn withdraws.  The battered 7th Penn does likewise.  On the brink of collapse, the militia falls back as well.  To fill this void, Smallwood's regiment climbs up onto the heights.
The 4th Penn is outflanked
Much of the American line falls back
As Smallwood crests the hill, the weakened 9th foot is seen below.  Surprised by the arrival of fresh reinforcements, the 9th Foot is scattered by Smallwood's volley.
Smallwood fires into the 9th Foot
9th foot is scattered
Turn 4
On the British left, both the Light Infantry and 4th Foot pour volleys into the 4th Penn.  The Pennsylvanians suffer two hits.  Now, both the 4th and 7th Penn are teetering on destruction.
The American right is taking a beating
On the British right, the 24th and 17th Regiments of Foot go in against the militia on the heights.  In brutal close combat, the militia are pushed off the hill in retreat having suffered two hits.  The British take the heights.
British attack the heights on the British right
and succeed!
Having dispatched the 9th foot moments before, Smallwood comes off the heights to retake the bridge.  With fire from both the wavering 4th Penn and his own regiment, Smallwood scatters the 4th Foot with seeming ease.  The 4th Foot's commander falls from the saddle, dead.  Control of the vital bridge is once again contested.
Volleys pour into the 4th Foot
and the 4th is destroyed.
Turn 5
With one end of the heights secured, the British attack the American guns in the earthworks.  Fighting their way into the earthworks, the 17th and 24th Foot suffer heavy casualties as the defenses and canister cause great destruction.  While casualties on the guns are brutal, the British are thrown back.  The redcoats retreat back down the hill.
The British go in against the guns
On the British right, both wavering Pennsylvanian regiments are scattered as the British close in with aggression.  Both Pennsylvanian regiments are destroyed.
Heavy fighting on both flanks
On the British right, one of the American militia retakes the high ground. 
Militia reclaim the heights
Turn 6
With both sides sustaining powerful body blows to their forces, the battle appears in the balance.  In the balance except that the British have lost four units including a general.  The British 50% breakpoint is five units lost.  The Americans, while holding the high ground with units badly beaten up, still have victory within their grasp.  The British units control the bridge.  If only one more British unit can be destroyed before losing the heights for a second time victory can be secured.  In desperate firefights, the militia in the center is destroyed.  Now three American units are lost.  To push the British over the breakpoint, the remaining militia scores a hit against the 24th Foot.  The 24th is destroyed.  The Americans hang on for victory!  
Americans hold on!
The outcome of this contest came down to the wire.  The Americans managed to push the British to the breakpoint but three of the remaining American units were one hit away from destruction.  Very close result and a good test of the rules.  

As for the rules, Fields of Honor offered up a quick playing game with only a few rules.  A simple game, I think.  With each unit having differing characteristics with respect to FIRE, CLOSE COMBAT, and MORALE, distinctions between the British line and its American counterparts came into play with little overhead.  Militia cannot be expected to fight toe-to-toe with the British but they can get a lick or two in before being driven off. 

Play for this contest was entirely off the QRS with no need to look up anything in the rules booklet.  Even if I had referred to the book, it would not have taken long.  The rules are only a few pages in length. 

With FoH being at the Simple end of the gaming spectrum, I will use this replay to answer Steve's Allure of Simple Wargaming questionnaire.  Those responses next time.

By the way, this was a great excuse (if one every really needs one) to get the 15mm AWI collection out of storage and onto the gaming table.  It has been far too long, for sure.  Hopefully, these troops will return to the table in the not too distant future.

47 comments:

  1. HI Jonathan- I like your Battle of Mill Creek - most interesting scenario. Your 15mm Armies are excellent and superbly painted. Thanks for posting. Cheers. KEV.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the BatRep, KEV! My 15mm AWI armies don't get out often enough.

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  2. Looked a great game. A a surprise American victory too. With the Calamity throw at the start if the game, I thought the Brits would roll over the Americans but it didnt happen? Nice one!

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    1. The Americans held on but just. As for the first turn Out of Ammo Calamity, the Penn boys were able to fire on most turns so it did not have a dire effect.

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  3. I great little scenario and I'm surprised the Americans won, given their poor start on the ammo front. Certainly a close run thing and it appears it could have easily gone the other way.

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    1. Thank you, Steve! After the result of the first game, I was surprised with the outcome. Doubly so with the American's first turn Calamity draw. The battle could have gone either way, for sure.

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  4. Fantastic sir! What a game.
    Figures look superb and those rules look very interesting: the right combination of ease of use and need for decision making.

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    1. Thank you, Darren! Ease of play and plenty of decision making is a good combination.

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  5. Lovely game and a good too and fro going, keeping the action tight. The single unit basing looks very nice and works well. Also interested to see that in one of the hexes, the British had two units, does the second unit support the lead unit and share part of it’s fate?

    I like the 15mm on the hexes, makes for a very good visual. Hope to see more AWI.

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    1. Thanks, Norm! Yes, even given only six turns of play, there was plenty of back an forth action. The back and forth nature of play is likely due to the Turn Sequence in which the Active Player first moves and then battles before the Second Player acts.

      Norm, you have a good eye and ask good questions...

      As for the two infantry units per hex, I used a bit of artistic license. RAW states that one hex = 2" and that a rear unit may support a friendly unit engaged in melee. With my hexes of 4", I allowed the rear support to be present in the same hex as a reminder to myself. RAW are silent on the effect on the supporting unit with respect to casualties and advances/retreats. When multiple hits on the attacker, I placed the first on the primary and second on support. I advanced/retreated the support in tandem with the primary. Of course, another gamer could choose another approach!

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    2. Thanks, all of great interest to me.

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  6. Wow an outstanding Battle report Jonathan with lots of tension and excitement. I want to purchase these rules but have not been able to find them. A cursory google search turns up only the WW2 rules on Wargame Vault.

    Anyways I loved the action with Smallwoods' Marylanders scaling the heights and delivering a powerful volley. These are the storyline elements of a battle that I'm after when in gaming.

    I second the comments above - more AWI please! Your figures look lovely - you should show them off more!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the battle report, Steve! One copy of the rules is available on Boardgamegeek at present for $20. I may have a second copy of the rules laying around. I had two copies at one time but may have sold one off. Let me check.

      As for creating a compelling narrative, I think FoH does that especially with the use of Events.

      I really ought to get this collection out on the table more frequently. Not my oldest collection (that would be 15mm Napoleonics) but many of these figures were painted 20 years ago.

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    2. That is great! While the rules contain two versions (one your hex/counter and one for miniatures), I find a few holes and omissions. These are easily plugged.

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  7. Great looking victory for the Sons of Liberty Jonathon, I wonder what other options the British commander might have picked for the first American Calamity and if it might have helped them more in retrospect?

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    1. Thank you, Keith!

      The British commander could have chosen:
      1. Freak Event (10 possible choices there)
      2. Confusion - one random unit no activation this turn.
      3. Charge of the Last Brigade - one group must make charge move toward enemy this turn.
      4. Out of Ammo - check for ammo availability each time a group fires.
      5. Demoralization - one group received -1 Morale mod this turn.
      6-8. God Save Us - leader hit by sniper fire.
      9. Rout - opponent picks one unit to run to the rear.

      Since the effect of out of ammo lasts for the entire game, I figured that a good choice. Which would you have picked?

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    2. Given those options and the fact it was at the very start of the game, probably the same one as you Jonathan...having one unit rout off might have helped but as the American player got to choose, the impact would have been less I guess...

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  8. Nice to see the test work it’s way through the battle. And very nice to see those AWI figures getting a runout 👍

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    1. Thank you on both counts, Matt! I should get some of my dormant collections out onto the gaming table more frequently.

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  9. Great game Jonathan - I do like an exciting close finish. Simple rules that are mostly committed to memory are the best in my extremely humble opinion.

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    1. Thank you! For a simple, easy to remember game, FoH did the trick. Sometimes I feel like something more towards the simulation end of the gaming spectrum but for a quick game with a satisfactory process and outcome this was quite enjoyable. And, got my 15mm AWI figures out onto the table!

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  10. That is one of the most exciting AARs I have read. The result really was in doubt and could have gone either way.

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    1. Your comment is very pleasing to read, Lawrence! Thank you!

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  11. Glad to see I’m not the only one biting his nails reading that. Great report. It sounds like the rules produce a nice game that ebbs and flows with a good scenario.

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    1. Your response to the BatRep offers me great encouragement! Thank you! For the basis of this scenario, you can thank Norm for that.

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  12. I really like this small taste of what I am sure is a large collection of 15mm AWI. It usually feels good to play with some old toys and rekindle interest in a genre.
    Fun read on the battle report and the game benefited I think from being a replay to make it a closer contest. 😀

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    1. Hi Stew! This collection is about 1,500 figures strong so, yes, this is a small taste of the bigger collection. You are spot on about rekindling interest. Getting these guys onto the table encourages more of the same.

      Glad you enjoyed the battle report. Second battle was a better contest, for sure.

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  13. A great looking and sounding game Jonathan...

    It certainly could have gone either way ...

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thank you, Aly! This small battle made for an interesting little diversion. Yes, it was nip and tuck to the end.

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  14. A fine, tense game, and a great report, Jon!

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  15. Fun sounding game, I thought it was all up for the rebels at the start but they managed to hold on!
    Best Iain

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    1. I thought the Rebels started off on their back foot too. The action really was a near run thing. Fun too!

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  16. Good-looking game, and I might have to look into these rules; simple and fast-play are always characteristics I appreciate in a set.

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    1. Thanks, Markus! The rules, I suspect, have been long out of print but I saw a set on BoardGameGeek recently.

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  17. Good looking game that went down to the wire.

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  18. Your AWI troops look great Jonathan! Very absorbing AAR. Just one observation - the ammo calamity does not seem to have had that much negative effect on the American side. Was it luck or is there something that needs to be revisited in the game mechanics?

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    1. Thanks, Mike! The Out of Ammo calamity only affected the two Penn regiments on the American right. Each time one of these two regiments attempted to fire, they had a 50% chance of being out of ammo and not firing. Luckily for the Americans, the Penn boys always managed to find enough ammo to fire.

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  19. Masses of redcoats. Great Report as always!

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