AWI: Bennington 16th August 1777

I got the AWI collection out the other day and decided to refight one of the battles that struck me as being a little different to the many of the other I’ve refought in the past( Click on AWI link on the right hand side!)

I settled on Bennington  16th August 1777  and used the Scenario Booklet 4 from the British Grenadier rules, but decided to try the Little Wars TV rules, “Live Free or Die” as I have watched their games on YouTube and was impressed with the way they played. I used the OOB in the scenario book and just divided the number of figures by 4 to get the appropriate number of bases. For skirmish units I divided the number of figures required by 2 ( see below).

What particularly grabbed me about the fight was two interesting ingredients. The first was that the Continentals ( well- militia mainly) are assaulting defensive redoubts instead of the usual attacking redcoats. The second aspect was the fact that on the ‘redcoat’ side there are few actual British troops. The vast bulk are Brunswickers, Loyalists and some Indians…so hardly any ‘redcoats’…just a few riflemen! 

The table- looking north.

AWI - Monmouth- Washington saves the day.

An AWI game refighting the second phase of the battle of Monmouth. This was the first game we had a couple of months ago after the lockdown was lifted.
We did the second half of the Battle of Monmouth June 28 1778.
In this stage, the Continental Army under Washington was rallied after fleeing when being led by General Charles Lee.
We used the British Grenadier scenario booklet for the positioning of forces.
The rules were the quick play set from 'Der Alte Fritz' Blog.

I made some notes as I went along...then lost them. All I remember is that the game pretty much followed the historical outcome - The Redcoats would call off the fight as both sides were taking losses.

Cornwallis' Brigade ( on the bottom right) facing Wayne's Brigade.

Cornwallis' Brigade- 

AWI- SPRINGFIELD 23rd June 1780

While the main focus of the war shifted south, the commander of the British Army in New York was under pressure to do something rather than watch the Continentals across the river in the Jerseys.

Our game represents the result of that pressure when Knyphausen crossed the Rahway River near the town of Springfield in June of 1780.

The British side of the table- the Rahway river - the crossings held by two continental units- the river was fordable along it's length but slow going and disordering for the formed troops. The buildings in the middle represent the small town of Springfield.

Freeman's Farm - 19th Sept 1777

After the success of Guildford Courthouse (see previous blog) I decided to give Freeman’s farm a go. This saw the Americans under Benedict Arnold on the attack in an attempt to beat ‘Gentleman’ Johnny Burgoyne. The British had one Brigade in the middle of the table ( Hamilton’s- Richard), one brigade in the earth works on the left flank ( Fraser’s- Ralph ) and one brigade ( Reidesel’s Hessians- Richard II ) to arrive with a randomised dice throw.

The Americans also had three brigades and two ( Morgans  -Phil and Poor's -Chris ) were on the table. The third ( Learned’s- Liam ) would arrive very quickly to help destroy Hamilton’s brigade and secure the victory. Well, that was the plan….

Guildford Courthouse 1781

Having wanted to refight this famous action for quite some time I wanted to use a set of rules that all the Brothers could use quickly and easily.
My ‘go to’ rules for the American War of Independence has always been British Grenadier! But for a game with possibly 7 players for a Saturday afternoon I took a chance on using a fast play set from the net- Fife and Drum from the ‘der Alter Fritz’ blog:http://altefritz.blogspot.com/2017/08/fife-drum-awi-rules-tutorial.html Now these are truly  a ‘1 page set’ and we decided to play them as they stood, to see how they worked. The really amazing thing that won me over was that by turn two of the game, everyone had a good understanding of the basic rule mechanisms and I could enjoy the game without continually referencing the rules.

The Middle of the table- viewed from the British lines,