American War of Independence

I've not managed to get any gaming done over the last couple of weeks and won't get any until Partizan II at Newark next weekend where we will putting on a League of Augsburg display game.
Instead of leaving the blog empty I thought I would show some of my 15mm American War of Independence army which was started many years ago after a trip to Bunker Hill when I was on holiday in the USA. At the time I had been thinking of producing a French Indian Wars army but being inspired by the diorama in the Bunker Hill museum plus there was more use of cavalry and artillery in the AWI I decided to go for this period instead.

Once I started doing research I became more fascinated with the Southern campaign which generally gets ignored compared to the larger battles in the Northern campaign but to me this was an advantage as the battles were generally smaller and easier to produce on the wargames table. I managed to also inspire my mate Jack Glanville in the period and he was keen to produce the British army which was fine by me as I had wanted to concentrate on the Americans and here is some of my collection.

1st Maryland Continental Regiment

5th Maryland Continental Regiment

6th Maryland Continental Regiment

8th Continental Regiment

North Carolina Militia

South Carolina Militia

Virginia Militia

American Generals and Brigadiers

American artillery

 



It was when I was doing research for this period that I realised there was little information out there for wargamers which is what first got me involved in writing and I had a number of articles published in Wargames Illustrated, Miniature Wargames and 18th Century Notes & Queries. I eventually had enough information gathered to produce a small booklet which is sold through Caliver Books.

 

 

Gleaming Katanas

This weeks game along at Colins was set somewhere in Japan in the 16th century and involved two factions of Samurai led by Colin and myself against a joint force of Samurai and Portuguese led by Bill Gilchrist and Mr Ray. All the 28mm figures and terrain were supplied by Colin and the rules used were Gleaming Katanas which are supposed to be a variant of Blackpowder. Personally I'm not into Samurai or Blackpowder but I have to admit the game looked good and the rules worked OK, except for the result and I found it a bit strange that Samurai weren't much better than Ashigaru unless they were mounted.

The above photo shows the initial clash of forces with my red hatted clan advancing towards Bill's blue clan, on the top right Colin's mounted samurai dash to disaster and the infantry in the field never moved any further for the rest of the game despite the fact that he was usually only facing 2-3 Portuguese units at any time.

This photo is taken from Colins flank and shows the defenders in the field, his cavalry have now gone and one unit of Ashigaru have rashly advanced unsupported. On the other flank my troops have now gotten into combat and are forcing Bill's troops back all along the line and at this point everything was looking so good.

Ray's Portuguese advancing, the artillery never got a chance to fire in anger, not that they really needed it. Ray had some great dice rolling for causing casualties but some dreadful dice for issuing commands.

This was the stand off with Ray's troops unable to move and Colins refusing to move. Meanwhile on my flank just as I was starting to break Bills infantry all it did was give space for his cavalry to run amok and within two moves he had completely changed the look of the battle.

This is the end of the battle, with my cavalry now destroyed by Bill's white hooded unit my infantry were now isolated with shaken enemy infantry in front of them, formed infantry and cavalry on their flank and the white hoods about to sweep around the rear. Colin's troops were still stuck in their field but as they were now all shaken or disordered no help was coming from that direction.

King William's War

I've posted another Donnybrook scenario set in North America in the 1680's during the period known as the King William's War on the League of Augsburg Blog.

http://leagueofaugsburg.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/king-williams-war.html

Forage for Food

 

This was another Donnybrook scenario that I put on for Colin and Ray since they enjoyed the previous game so much. All the figures and animals supplied by me and terrain by Colin and myself.
I had previously fought this scenario before with Bob Talbot but that had been a two player game but this time I adapted it as a three player scenario.

The basic scene is that the Moorish and English forces are advancing on a nearby village to round up as many animals as they can to feed their troops and the third player are the villagers who are keen to hang onto their animals. Goats are worth 1pt each, sheep are worth 5pts each and cattle are worth 10pts each, the camels and market stall are for scenic purposes only although they could also have been added as further victory points.  I set up the three factions then allowed Colin and Ray to pick which ones they wanted and would have what was left. Colin decided to go for the Moors this time since he commanded the English in the last game and Ray decided to take the local villagers which left the English for me.
I haven't posted all the scenario details here as they will either appear in the Donnybrook rules book or I will add them into the League of Augsburg Blog http://leagueofaugsburg.blogspot.co.uk/

The game started very well for the villagers as all their troops came out in the first four moves whereas half the English troops were still waiting to arrive but this ended up actually being an advantage as it meant that the two Moorish factions were left to fight themselves whilst trying to round up the animals.

Eventually all the English troops got on, you can see them sneaking up in the left of the above photo.
The only unit of theirs that actually got into combat were the pikemen who ended up destroying the Moorish heavy cavalry and relieving them of the animals they were herding off whilst the rest of the infantry quietly rounded up what was in the immediate area and the four goats they got in the last move game them the victory by collecting 84pts of animals against the Moors 80 and the poor old villagers were left with nothing.

Again both Colin and Ray enjoyed the games so much that they are already planning their own Donnybrook factions.

Saving the Slaves

I've fought this scenario a few times with Barry Hilton and Bob Talbot but thought it would be a good one to introduce Colin and Ray to Donnybrook, a set of skirmish rules for actions fought between the period 1660 - 1760.


The basic scenario is that a group of English civilians and servants have been taken prisoner by the Moors during one of their many raids and are about to be sold at one of the slave markets in a nearby village as seen above. A detachment of troops has been sent out from Tangiers to go and rescue them. Colin commanded the English troops and Ray commanded the Moors although the only troops he has available at the beginning of the game are the slave traders bodyguard, reinforcements will come from the local villagers and from cavalry from off table.

The game started well for Colin as he managed to get all his troops on the table whilst the Moors only had the bodyguard unit and two small units of villagers that had rallied to their cause.

Eventually Ray's cavalry arrived and he tried outflanking the English troops but rashly ended up charging the English pikes which surprising turned out ok for him as he managed to push the pikes almost off the table. Instead of continuing to finish them off he decided to go and attack the musketeers where it all went horribly wrong.

The only success the Moors managed to achieve was to kill the English leader but by that point they had lost 50% casualties then failed their morale test. This would normally be the end of the game but they were both enjoying it so much they decided to carry on but it didn't get much better for the Moors and with the defeat of the bodyguard there was nobody left to stop the English from rescuing the prisoners.

Kamakazi Kids

This is the Public Display game put on by the RAF Leuchers Wargames Club at Claymore,
the annual wargames show run by the South East of Scotland Wargames Club. The public took the part of the Kamakazi pilots and were attempting to take our the American carrier. On the right hand side of the photo you can see my wargames buddy Colin 'Gammy Leg' Jack concentrating on his flight path to glory.

Not wanting to be outdone by a man with a gammy leg Mr Ray and son joined in the fun.

This is the final outcome they were all hoping for and judging by all the noise coming from their game it sounds as if everyone was having a great time and it was a worthy winner of best PP game.

Aughrim at Claymore

Above is a general view of the display game that myself, Barry Hilton, Bob Talbot and Gerry Donohoe put on at Claymore the annual show of the South East Scotland Wargames Club in Edinburgh on Saturday 3rd August. This was the central section of the battle of Aughrim fought in 1691 between the Williamite army led by General Ginkel and the Jacobit army led by General St. Ruth while both kings William III and James II/VII had left Ireland by this point in the war.

Williamite left flank

Williamite centre

Williamite right flank

Jacobite centre

Jacobite right flank

 

The day was a great success and the game generated a huge amount of interest and it was good to meet so many people especially the nice guys from the Wild Geese Wargames Club from Dublin.

The figures are from all four of us and are from Barry's wonderful Warfare Miniatures range http://www.leagueofaugsburg.com/shop/ terrain from Barry and myself.

You can find more photos of the show on my mate Jim Duncan's blog

http://jim-duncan.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/my-day-at-claymore-2013.html