This game was arranged by Ian using his beautiful AWI
figures and terrain. I played using a fairly regular American Continental force
versus Ian using a more irregular British Southern force of loyalists. The
rules we used were Washington’ Army (RFCM). Like most Peter Pig (RFCM) rules
the game starts with a pre-game phase, which determines attacker/defender,
terrain placement, delays/reinforcements, flank marches, officer quality etc.
etc. This process does take some time and involves much dice rolling, but does
allow significant choices to be made and results in a less predicable, and asymmetric,
set up.
As the American player I was determined to be the defender,
and as a result some of my units suffered losses and others were delayed as
reinforcements. My flanking forces was only small (1 unit of raw militia) as
opposed to Ian’s strong 3 unit force. Ian’s generals were better quality than
mine, but I was lucky and a sharpshooter killed his C-in-C before the battle
started.
I determined to hold a solid defensive front with my
regulars and force Ian to attack across the open ground. I was concerned by my
flank objectives which were only weakly defended.
 |
| Americans on the right defending the road between the river and stream. |
On my right flank a single regular Continental unit lined a
rail fence. Ian’s attack suffered a stuttering start and took some casualties
before finally forcing my forces back from the fence, exposing the objective
marker. In the centre the British attack moved faster but was met by good fire
from my main Continental line and artillery. My militia skirmishers battered
their opposing British skirmishers. The situation looked comfortable for the
Americans, but events on the far left flank were to prove ‘interesting’! Ian’s
sole unit of mounted light dragoons rapidly advanced, by-passed my militia in a
town, and speedily took the centre objective on a hill in the rear of my centre
position. I did receive some reinforcing militia and artillery, who moved to
contest this situation. I thought Ian would dismount and hold his position, but
instead he charged my centre forces in the rear. I lost my artillery unit, but
before Ian could fully exploit his advantage, I managed to get a veteran
Continental unit to change facing and counter-charge the British cavalry in the
flank. The cavalry routed and disaster was averted. This move did expose the
Continentals to a British charge in their rear by a nearby unit. I was very
lucky, and rolled good dice; the charge was repulsed, my veterans survived and
re-took the centre objective.
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| British centre force (left) about to receive a battering from the Continental line. |
In the last turn we played, the British flanking force
turned up on my left flank but I did have some militia present to contest the
objective. We did not have time to finish the game (there were probably 2 more
turns still to play), so the game was drawn. I think Ian would have control of
my right flank objective, whilst I controlled the centre objective, where Ian’s
centre attack was severely mauled. On my left, I don’t think Ian had time to
force me off the objective, so this would remain contested.
The game played at a nice pace and was enjoyable. I think
the pre-game process is good, but takes maybe too long, and this meant the main
game was not finished in the 4 hours we played. I feel the time taken would be less
if we were more familiar with the rules. The core rule mechanics follow the
same systems common to most Peter Pig rules and are very easy to remember and
use. I find the save mechanism for hits to be a bit too easy but this is just a
personal gripe; saving on anything but a ‘1’ too often means a good volley of
hits achieves no appreciable effect. I’m also not convinced by the ‘Determination’
dice roll mechanism that appears to be unique to this rule set.
Anyway, my thanks go to Ian for putting on this game. His
armies are lovely to look at, and he always supplies an excellent array of game
markers etc. that make play easy.
