Saturday 27 April 2019

'Providence' - AWI with Field of Battle

After reading some of the excellent posts over at the Wargames Amateur blog, remarking upon how close to actual battle accounts they are, and how well they read, I had asked the author about putting up some OOB and scenario detail.

He very kindly did so, and now, at last, we're getting around to re-fighting one of the battles featured in the blog.

Providence is fictional, and recounts an encounter between an American force that has been besieging a British-held port.  American commander General Desmond, has had to lift the siege and fall back towards his supply base.  To buy time for the siege and supply trains to pull back and pass through a narrow defile, Desmond has taken up a defensive position near Providence Chapel.  British General Knollys has opted to pursue the Americans and two brigades of infantry are moving towards Providence.  Desmond needs to hold his position and prevent the British from exiting the table in pursuit of the siege and supply trains.



 Of course, since we're using Field of Battle again, one army's break point will most likely be reached before that happens.

We used the period QRS from another excellent blog at  Gentlemanly Wargaming. One problem however, was misuse of the American skirmisher / rifles - without taking all mods into account on the sheet, which made them a little too powerful at range.






 American defensive positions around the chapel. The riflemen on the hill would prove pivotal as they would have a d12 combat rating (which had a tendency to make them very powerful/accurate shots, without taking numbers/skirmish mods into account - they routed two units of grenadiers). That said, the rating works when other considerations from the AWI period rules are used - which we didn't do in the early part of the game.








 Early deployment of British foot from line of march.

 Attacking the American rifles skulking in the woods on the flank.

 
 American MG42s...I mean Rifles, open up.


 The British attack American defensive positions at Providence Chapel.

 The centre holds, for now.

 Continentals rout from the chapel in the face of a successful British charge.


 American artillery had some good success.



Some success on the American left drives back the skirmishers.

Their numbers are replaced with militia - who won't stand unless supported by continentals ...or a bit of fence.
 
The British break through on the American right, threatening to take the guns.
 
 The centre can hold...

 ...while on the American left, the Militia give reasonable account of themselves.






 Artillery fires point blank in order to deter the breakthrough.

 While the British are desperate to make ground in the centre.
 

The right becomes a fight between skirmishers.

 

 ...while the British are slowly worn down on their right, until the break point ultimately comes.


A lot of learning points here re. use of skirmishers in AWI with these rules, but we think we have it sussed.

As usual - best set of rules for Horse and Musket - right?

More pics below...

 



 

 



As usual, finish with a song. Why, 'Providence' by Poor Man's Poison of course...

19 comments:

  1. Good game with THE rules and very nice figures. Pity we failed to actually read that QRS until afterwards :-)

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    1. True - will be easier/harder next time, depending on which side we pick :)

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  2. Excellent AWI action, Darren. Love the back and forth that those rules seem to produce. Great narrative!

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    1. Cheers Steve
      Even when we make a mistake with the period rules, it still produces great action. Never a dull moment with Field of Battle.

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  3. Superb looking game Sir Duc - proper big battle feel. Is the church a scratch build?

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    1. Thanks Jack.
      No, the church is actually one of the Perrys buildings (or similar, I know there's another plastics company that makes the AWI range too).
      Not a scratch build, but badly painted and falling apart, which probably makes it look a bit second rate lol.

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    2. Ha ha! I thought it looked weathered.

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  4. A really nice looking game and wonderfully painted figures.

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    1. Many thanks Peter.
      They look good en masse - though I must stop looking at the close ups and seeing where the painting could have been better :)

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  5. Lovely looking game, thanks for all of the photos.

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    1. Thanks Norm.
      The lighting helped in some of the latter pics too.

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  6. I quite like the premise of this action. It reminds me more than a bit of the real-life Battle of Hubbarton.

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    1. Right - yes could be the inspiration for the action.
      It's quite a nicely worked out scenario - we had a little imbalance with American rifle rules - but we've addressed that for the next clash.

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  7. Another great looking game Sir Duc, the sheer scale you manage to pull off is awesome.

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    1. Thank you sir. Many years of painting madness behind those pics, I assure you.

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  8. Quite an epic battle (and epic looking game): well done! Interesting that this post coincides pretty much with the Freeman's Farm game that we were running. The AWI stars must have been aligned.

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    1. Thanks Ed. The AWI stars are always aligned I think :)

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