First game of Black Powder American Revolution

L-R Andy, Steve and Ian

I have been slowly painting my 6mm AWI collection but had never got around to having a game with it, well that changed on Thursday at Battlefront HQ. I had gotten quite a few Adler British and Americans painted and Ian has some units of Baccus French and British that he uses for the Seven Years War, so these fitted in nicely.

Pete, Steve, Ian and myself arranged a game last month, but Pete had double booked so Andy stepped in at the last moment.

I put the following quick Black Powder amendments together to give an American War of Independence feel to the game

British

Unit	Type	Armament	HtH	Shooting	Morale	Stamina	Special
Line Infantry	Infantry	Smoothbore Muskets	6	3	4+	3	First Fire Reliable
Light Infantry	Small Infantry	Smoothbore Muskets	4	2	4+	2	Reliable Marauders
Grenadiers	Infantry	Smoothbore Muskets	7	3	4+	3	First Fire Reliable Tough Fighters
Artillery	Artillery	Smoothbore Artillery	1	3-2-1	4+	2

American

Unit	Type	Armament	HtH	Shooting	Morale	Stamina	Special
Militia	Infantry	Smoothbore Muskets	5	2	5+	3	Unreliable Wavering
Riflemen	Small Infantry	Rifled Muskets	3	2	5+	2	Unreliable Sharpshooters
Artillery	Artillery	Smoothbore Artillery	2	3-2-1	5+	2	Unreliable
Continental Infantry	Infantry	Smoothbore Muskets	6	3	4+	3	First Fire
Continental Artillery	Artillery	Smoothbore Artillery	1	3-2-1	4+	2

French

Unit	Type	Armament	HtH	Shooting	Morale	Stamina	Special
Line Infantry	Infantry	Smoothbore Muskets	6	3	4+	3	First Fire
Light Infantry	Small Infantry	Smoothbore Muskets	4	2	4+	2	Marauders
Grenadiers	Infantry	Smoothbore Muskets	7	3	4+	3	First Fire Tough Fighters
Artillery	Artillery	Smoothbore Artillery	1	3-2-1	4+	2

Hessians

Unit	Type	Armament	HtH	Shooting	Morale	Stamina	Special
Line Infantry	Infantry	Smoothbore Muskets	6	3	4+	3	First Fire
Light Infantry	Small Infantry	Smoothbore Muskets	4	2	4+	2	First Fire Marauders
Grenadiers	Infantry	Smoothbore Muskets	7	3	4+	3	First Fire Tough Fighters
Artillery	Artillery	Smoothbore Artillery	1	3-2-1	4+	2

General Rules

Linear Formations – No attack columns allowed.

Moving & Firing – Close order foot may not shoot if made more than a single move in the orders phase.

Broken Brigades – Brigades are broken when more than half of their units are lost.

Artillery may not move once deployed, but may be ordered to wheel up to 45 degrees per successful order

We put pretty much all we had on the table, the British command was:

The British are coming

Colonel: SR8

Major: SR8
Three companies of Line Infantry
Two detachments of Light Infantry

Major: SR8
One company of Grenadiers
Three companies of Line Infantry

One detachment of Light Infantry

One battery of 6-pdr guns

Major: SR8

Four companies of Line Infantry

The Rebel command was:

Rebels in the woods of Endor - oops, sorry wrong game!

Major General: SR8

Colonel: SR8
Three companies of Continental Infantry
One battery of Continental Artillery
Two detachments of Riflemen

Colonel: SR8
Five Companies of Militia

One battery of Artillery
Three detachments of Riflemen

Colonel: SR8
Four Battalions of French Infantry

We randomised sides, myself and Andy would play the British while Ian and Steve would be the Rebels.

The British right flank

On paper, I think that these two are pretty evenly matched with maybe a slight edge to the British, so the scenario was that the Rebels would deploy about half way up the table and the British would advance on and try to dislodge them.

Things started well for the British, one command was out-flanking the French while the other two were pressing down on the Militia in the woods to our left while just screening the Continentals in the centre. To avoid being outflanked the French started to contract on the centre, while the Militia in the woods attempted to disengage - but failed their order (this would be a recurring theme).

Riflemen and Militia

The British pushed into the woods with the militia still failing to get off commands, but still retreating on initiative. However, one order did come off, a unit of Militia in bout of fervent rebellion launched themselves into the flank a unit of British line, who calmly fought the melee losing by a small margin, but of course, they then rolled a '3' for their moral test and broke, the unit of Grenadiers along-side them also rolled a '4' and were swept away in the confusion - bugger!

On our right, with bayonets fixed the British charged into the French lines and more terrible dice rolling ensued (something like 3 hits on a 3+ out of 14 dice!) the melee was soon settled and more British were broken - bugger again!

In the centre the British fared better though, first ejecting the Continentals defending the homestead and then seeing off the Militia that tried to retake it, but the reverses on the flanks meant that the British were up against it and soon had three of their commands broken.

It pains me to say, but the Rebellion carried the day.

Another shot of some of Ians British

More rebels in the woods