Black Powder at Greenhouse Games in Gardiner Maine

[prof_nexus]

 

We played a rather large game of Black Powder today. Several hundred miniatures on each side, and played out to a satisfying conclusion. Two British brigades held the high ground against 4 brigades of French. Both sides had some late arriving cavalry.  The French opted to load up the left flank and try to take one of the two key hills, then flank the other one. 

The Anglo-Allied army assembles

The French (and a misplaced British regiment) await deployment

Larry's brigade scales the heights to attack the British

French columns advance on the thin red line

My French brigade goes into square to fend off the rampaging Dutch cavalry

Eric's brigade makes a last stand against Josh's light brigade

French cavalry defeat the British cavalry... just barely

With one of the British infantry brigades and the cavalry brigade broken, we called it. The French had taken the left hill, and were in good position to take the right one. The Anglo-Allies were down half their brigades, and only the French cavalry brigade was had taken significant damage. The French cavalry was lucky to get a quick decision against the British... if it had gone the other way, the Anglo-Allies might have been able to force a stalemate. The game played quickly, and all the players were uncharacteristically agreeable throughout the battle. I look forward to the next game!

 

[tomrommel1]

very impressive

[falange]

As a player in this game I found it extremely interesting that it took the French columns a very long time to advance up the ridge which was strewed with rough and difficult terrain. Another factor was the presence of many British units in skirmish which exerted their proximity rule effect. We had per British bde a light infantry bn, small converged light company detachment, and a tiny rifle unit. These three skirmish units were, in addition to terrain, effective in slowing down the French advance and causing some casualties.We also played the rule that evading skirms can do so twice before becoming disordered which provided an effective screen. Our intrepretation of the rules.We used a house rule of allowing skirms to evade before cavalry and then allowing cavalry to complete any remaining movement that might catch them. In most cases it was best to hold ground, however, in one case a tiny rifle unit evaded (moving full) across a rough ploughed field and over a wall and the cav (moving at 1/2) could not catch them. We found it to be very useful and smart to allow a skirm unit to at least evade to some nearby by trees or whatever and defend as opposed to being overrun just short of nearby safer terrain.We gave skirm reaction choices, even before cavalry, of evading or holding ground by closing ranks into a line. Closing fire was not allowed and tiny units could only evade since they cannot form line. In one case a small unit of converged Portuguese Light Companies were defending a wall in skirmish order. They were charged by a French chassuer unit and chose to hold ground and form line since evading would result in their being caught in the open by the pursuing cavalry. Unfortunately, the Portugese lost the combat by one point with the morale provided by the wall proving very handy. In the end they broke and ran.The playing group was pleased to see that a bde defending rough terrain with a great amount of skirmishers forward could frustrate an attacking French division.Example British bde:1/29th Regt., largesize, first fire, form square1/92nd Highland Regt., standard size, tough fighters, first fire, form square 62nd Regt, standard size, first fire, form square71st Highland Light Inf Regt., standard size, first fire, form square, skirmish, eliteConverged light companies (light stands of the 29th, 92nd, 62nd), smal size. elite, skirmishCompany 60th rifles, tiny unit, skirmish, elite, brave, sharpshooter. Tom