Friday Night AWI: AAR Americans vs. British and Hessians - 26th April 2013

On friday we met up in the HQ again and after some weeks with fantasy stuff we decided to return to some historical conflict. So AWI was sheduled and we prepared a little game with three brigades on either side and no historical background. Anyway three brigades of the young United States met two brigades of British troops accompanied by a brigade of Hessian auxilliaries. This time I had the unusual experience to command a brigade of American separatists. Very uncomfortable for me to shoot on Redcoats since that's my ancestral side...
Please excuse the poor photos. Unfortunately I forgot the digital camera and had only my cellphone at my fingertips.

The Continentals entering the battlefield from the left while British fifes and drums sound from the right hand side.

From the very beginning things were tough for us colonials. Although we had a heavy 24pdr cannon and a unit of cavarly a nearly one on one meeting with the best trained infantry of their time is always hard. Anyway we wanted to our very best and when nothing is ventured, nothing is gained.

The Hessian and the middle British brigade in their initial deployment. I love this impressing look.

The first turns went promisingly. The British left wing underwent a heavy command crisis and remained motionless for the first turns.
Meanwhile their center advanced only slowly because Bernhard befell some truble with his ADCs too. One of his bataillons blundered and after a second bataillon went disordered he reorganised his forces and sent the grenadiers ahead.

A bloody good idea as he realised later...

Some of my boys awaiting the enemy.

Meanwhile we separatists didn't want to hide and tried to set up brave defense. On our right front where I commanded a brigade of regular troops I advanced carefully to take position at the edge of the field. Taking cover seemed a good idea although the Redcoats on my flank remained motionless...

On the right Kalle rushed forward with his militia. He brought a small but fast galloper gun to the other side of the river and took position near the brewery. Simoultaneously he wanted to push his bataillons into the center but those smutty amateurs proved too unreliable to achieve any serious support.
However the Hessians were busy with their flank threatened...

While the British were busy with solving their command crisis we Americans saw a chance to come into a good position. Maybe we could overcome their mighty middle brigade with concentrated fire while the Hessians are bount at their flank. Hopefully their third brigade will not enter combat until we achieved first success...

But reality overhault us when the forces clashed in the center of the battlefield. Even Holger's trained regulars weren't able to hold fire until the Redcoats were in close range so the unloaded their bullets too early and caused only light damage. Even concentrated artillery fire didn't break the British grenadiers' spirit and their fifes and drums sounded inexorably.

Our boys did their very best to withstand them but after the first volleys came in from short range the spirit of liberty faded. While the British reduced their speed and fired volley after volley the poor bataillons in our center broke and the Holger's brigade sounded the retreat.

Simultaneously Axel's Hessians found their formation again and shattered the poorly equipped militia troops. Although my brigade wasn't that badly hurt by now I felt defeat being near. When Heinz's brigade started to move finally my boys lost their nerves. Although I fired several volleys on the leading unit all shots failed to hit them. Even my artillery which was reliable during the first half of the game failed to hinder the British.

Thereby the game was over rather quickly after the British were able to send in their whole power. Two of my units broke and the rest betook themselves to flight.

Heinz's brigade presenting the coupe de grâce.

Anyway it was a great evening and an entertaining game. Victory went to our opponents but it was well deserved for the best trained army during the late 18th century. However it showed that a one on one ratio is impossible to master for the Americans. We will bear that in mind for the next games, I'm sure.

Finally there's a short sequence from the movie "Revolution" which outlines the development of this game precisely:

Thanks to Holger for finding this nice clip.