The Battle of New Brunswick 1781 - An AWI Batrep

Last Sunday the Rejects got together for a most excellent AWI game.

Me and Ian were the Americans, while John and Surj were the Brits.

The Battle was a meeting engagement just south of Yorktown.

The above pic shows our right flank, our setup was quite difficult, we had too many areas to protect and defend and not quite enough troops.

Ian's French brigade protects our left flank.

Ian wanted to setup to the left of the wood in the field, but as CnC I decided to set up to the right of the woods as it would have left us far too strung out

Our game plan was simple, let them come to us......but after we'd set up we had to throw for our leaders command and control stats. For our leader Major-General Lincoln, I threw 

average, but John threw very well for his leader Sir Henry Clinton.Which gave them 

a plus 2 on all first move and first fire moves.Which as you can imagine put

 us on the back foot!!

The British centre, with Surj's Hessian's on the right of the pic.

My Rhode Island boys sit comfortably behind the defence of the wall, along with a 

light Artillery piece.

Rather predictably the Brits won first move and we quite quickly realised that if we didn't change our plan we'd just be wiped out by the superior British firing.

So I had to move forward and engage Surg's Jagers who had moved up to the fence line. This also stopped Surj from placing his light gun behind the fence, which would have been disastrous!

The Brits got in a bit of a mess in the woods, which delayed their attack.

And Ian had to redeploy his infantry, but we knew it would take John an age to try and flank us.

First shots went to the Jagers. I replied but with a few minuses. Because they'd fired first I 

had to shoot through smoke and I'd list casualties, who couldn't fire back.

Then disaster! 

John had a lucky shot with his heavy gun on the 2nd Bourbonnois, Ian then threw bloody snake eyes, so they routed. We only had one chance left to save them. Ian had to throw over 6 with two D6

He only went and threw snake eyes again!!!

The unit dissolved....

Surj doing his usual, inventive artillery movement!!!

Postie took a few shots for me from the ither side. John's artillery in a commanding position.

And so was his other piece.

As my Militia moved around towards the Hessian flank, Surj detached his Jagers from

 the fence, leaving me looking very vulnerable. Which is why we didn't want to advance.

My Combined Light battalion took a lot of fire and were forced to take a morale check.

Which they failed, fleeing the field.

John moved the 22nd Foot forward and gave fire.

The 2nd New York take fire from the combined Hessian Grenadiers.

My Militia still push forward around the flank.

The 22nd foot

The 57th and 37th Foot

The game wasn't going our way at all, so we threw all caution to the wind and charged the 22nd. 

We had to stop at close range for the Brits to fire, which they did causing several

 casualties on both my and Ian' s units. Luckily we both passed the check, so we 

moved on for the kill.

Quite why John isolated this unit, I don't know?

Ian moved the Royal Deux-Ponts up into the woods as the Brits were getting mighty close.

I moved up to the fence line and unlimbered my artillery.

Meanwhile on the left, our luck continued. What was left of the 22nd routed back through the units behind. We followed up and smashed into the yellow flagged 38th foot, who also routed, but they routed through the 22nd, who promptly dispersed!

Trouble was now, we were left in a very precarious position. The 42nd Highlanders

 would surley charge???

Back to the right flank....I continued to take a pounding, losing more men to the Hessian muskets.

Surj turned his artillery to fire on the flank of my 2nd New Jersey regt,so I moved the 

Rhode Island regt from the safety of the walled area to give fire.

 Luckily for us, John failed to seize the initiative and charge. Instead he chose to stand and fire.

And that's where me and Ian called it a day. We retreated off table unopposed as the British were exhausted and failed to follow up.

Conclusion

The combination of the British ability to move and fire first crippled us and forced us to attack rather than defend. Which we could only do piecemeal as we'd set up purely defensive.....Doh!

We had a long chat after the game about the tactics used by both sides and we've decided to play a second day to the battle. So loses will be added up, some casualties will return and hopefully some American reinforcements and even a better leader to stem the British advance could be on the cards!!!

Fingers crossed!