A return to Volley & Bayonet with Pete. We're looking at a few different periods for a bi-monthly game, mostly with V&B, but also looking like Crossfire will see an appearance for the WW2 games.
This variant for an AWI game downsizes slightly, in order to do Guilford Courthouse. My chief concern was whether V&B would be flexible enough to give a similar result to historical, in that we would see a British force push to the end of the table, albeit exhausted and withered. That actually seemed to work well, though we didn't get finished.
I saw a depleted British force with brigades on the verge of exhaustion by the time they got about halfway, and American militia that had been driven back.
The Maryland force were still fairly secure at game end - so really, a historical refight with a few tweaks but V&B is more than up for re-fighting a lot of these battles, and I think there is still some real period flavour
The turn sequence, as with most well designed GDW games, the substance is in the turn sequence - and the hex n chit boardgame parentage is there - but it honestly makes for a better game, and the style that gets so over-represented with glossy stylised hardback books with lovely pics, is not required. With BP, this game would have been a pain in the a**.
That sequence again:
COMMAND DETERMINATION - check units in command
MOVEMENT
RALLY
MORALE - Both sides test for morale - in contact or at close range - this meant that some militia units even pulled back, or were routed, even before melee
COMBAT - both shooting and melee. Use your best troops to your advantage. Here we saw a lot of British charges to contact.
The main changes for the battalion scale vs the original regimental scale are: 200 men per strength point (rather than 500), 4" musket range (rather than 2") and 1"=50 yards (rather than 100 yds). In essence therefore, everything vs scale seen at Brandywine previously, is effectively halved in terms of distance and men and doubled in terms of range. Most of these amendments are available online - at Kieth Mcnally's site and the scenario is based on Dr Jeff Glasco's work.
That sequence has so much elegance in terms of units being 'spooked' even before fighting takes place, devastating musketry and advantage given to charging grenadiers vs weaker units. You find yourself making decisions that a commander in the black powder realm would make; including use of artillery and striving for that stationary troops effectiveness bonus. Put simply, it works.
V&B will never look great on the bookshelf vs those 'great' hardbook books like BP, and I don't care...since the games it gives are accurate, fun, elegant and (key) leave very little room for argument. Most of the things we either discussed or got wrong in early editions have been resolved in the Road to Glory edition (including return fire from destroyed units and units going stationary on turn 'after' disorder).
View from the British start line, include Tarleton's Dragoons on the road
Easy Mel...I said Tarleton...you know the real guy? Not that Tavington guy?
On the British right, where most of the fighting would take place
The British left; quite un-historically this became a firefight at the fence-line. The fisrt shots from the militia.
The British triumphant, on their right, pushing those damned militia back (clearly they have fired the two vollies they promised).
We see militia units rout in the midst of British Guards and highlanders pushing hard to their right, supported by von Bose's Hessians
British fire on the right is devastating
However, one of the Guards units is defeated in melee by militia units, who still have at least one good volley left
Cornwallis himself, as army commander attaches to the 71st highland foot to make a difference
As we ended the game, the British right had lost a unit, and had two brigades reaching exhaustion (Division Exhaustion / DE - under same rules from the army/regiment level game). We reasoned that yes, this would mean that they could drive for the Maryland units at the end of the table and yes, they might even gain a tactical victory, but again, Cornwallis's army would be pretty exhausted. Our conclusions were therefore that V&B works again - for this level of game.
Some rosters:
The American Battlefields Trust's excellent videos on the battle:
...and no, I am not referring to the online media frenzies over all things related to pandemic relaxing, mid term European War or new excitement over collapsing / resurging / realigning governments and inflationary 'excitement' (delete as applicable - I'm sure there will be media 'reality checks' for us all, so that we don't have to do our own research on such things).
Indeed...I am referring to 'Operation Typhoon' the 1941 German drive on Moscow, which Norm recently played out (in terms of the GDW/Victory Point Games Army level game) over on his excellent blog - Battlefields & Warriors.
Now, since I am always interested in a smallish map that allows me to co-ordinate larger divisional sized campaign fights for 'Field of Battle ww2', I went hunting for the game on Boardgame Geek ...and found this link to a 'play on line' version: https://oberlabs.com/b4m/
The Drive on Moscow - a nice journey through light traffic...?
Each turn is a week - and army units are Corps
Needless to say I was hooked - though of course ended up in defeat - twice!
It does give a great game, and since there are only 7 turns, and there is a bit of 'movement in the rasputitza' issue mid game, it's a tough ask for the Germans. I am now on the search for similar GDW programmed modules. Very impressive stuff here.
the intro screen - I did make the mistake a couple of times of playing against myself rather than selecting the AI - which will from here on be known as SKYNET ...grrr
Rules and turn sequence is solid, like all GDW rules dna ...Soviets can use rail movement as a benefit; Germans get panzer advance as an extra move for armoured units.
Prepping the thrust for armour is actually quite critical in the early turns...as I rapidly learned to my cost.
It's still a long way to Moscow, and the Sovs (the damned SKYNET AI) will get reinforcements.
A breakout, but not as exciting as it seems, as mud will hit soon.
October 10th - Turn 2 - Germans hit and take first line of defences.
Movement Phase on Nov 1st - and the mud hits. Highly mobile Wehrmacht units...not liking the mud.
By November 23rd however, things are looking up - the problem is that it is now turn 6 - and the game ends on turn 7... Sovs (the damned SKYNET AI) still hold Tula and downtown Moscow.
German's last movement phase. It wasn't going to end well at all...
Red Army wins. A tough ask; I'll play the Soviets next time and watch what SKYNET does ;)
A great version of a classic I think - certainly, the gameplay was very tense. Worth a look...
Addendum...Addendum ...Breaking News
I actually caught a break ...and beat the machine ;)
I've waxed lyrical about these rules for years, and I had Brandywine set up for Fitz and I to have a go at, even before we tried the FKaP game last episode. That said, I do want to try the FKaP hack for Williamite wars, plus I needed the table for another side project, hence we had to get Brandywine done...
We have done Brandywine before, so rather than go through the battle (the British won it again :O ), it was indeed refreshing to see the elegant simplicity (without being simple) that is V&B in all its glory.
Granted the new edition simplifies a few things, gives an extra dice for regimental stuff due to some Napoleonic battles now have linear vs brigade bases, and sorts out the skirmisher issues, but we used the original rules for this one.
It did make me think again about using the wing scale rules for AWI (which extends range, but allows for individual battalions, or even companies, depending on scale); indeed, perhaps V&B are the perfect set for AWI, especially so with a multi battle campaign in mind. Definite food for thought. They also make a perfect group game.
An inch is 100 yards at Divisional scale, a strength point 500 men. you can field large regiments or brigades.
PLAY SEQUENCE is Command Determination, Move, Rally (by touch), Morale tests (in contact or short range - muskets don't have a short range though - later firearms do), Combat.
Roster sheets are used, but they have never caused me great issue; in fact their contribution to logging the numbers vs an eventual division exhaustion total, can be quite tense.
COMMAND DETERMINATION is fairly simple - the only downside is the number of commanders due to 'better' staff. French Napoleonic armies have officer clutter everywhere. I have considered fixing this by using division 'counters' as commanders.
MOVEMENT is 'BIG' : 12" for an infantry regiment/brigade. NEVER forget the advantage of going stationary after movement however. You double your fire effectiveness. This is the dirty little secret of the original game.
DISORDER effects can radically reduce effectiveness, allow saves from firing etc. requiring rallying - which is where the high number of officers come in where relevant. Older C18th armies miss this benefit.
Units moving to contact, can't move obliquely, but CAN make a facing change at the start of movement. This makes decisions very interesting along the line of firing. Actually a very well thought out mechanism.
MORALE TESTS - built into the turn sequence - can be devastating for poor troops as they disorder. Double disorder is a rout. The mechanisms here are well thought out and work well.,
COMBAT has some nice touches; again, stationary units can win out simply by virtue of being well formed and in good order.
SAVING THROWS - NOT like BP in this regard, as they are used vs disordered fire, buildings, arty vs arty, and skirmishers. That's pretty much it - buckets of D6 you will not see here.
DIVISION EXHAUISTION - my single favourite mechanic in the game. As the brigade wear down, they contribute to the overall division 'number', which can be 40-60% of overall strength. This is absolutely key, as when DE is reached, it can't move to contact, and then has to roll vs morale collapse, which means permanent disorder. Rallying will help for DE, but not morale collapse. It's the nicest mechanism I've seen for seeing your division just devastated in the midst of battle. I can see it happening in everything from Williamite wars through to ACW.
A lovely system, which has also been hacked for many periods and does deserve more attention. I have often considered using it with hexes, but that, is as they say, another story.
View across the Brandywine, form the American lines
The Americans keep a decent reserve throughout the battle, but...
British assaults on the fords
Hessians make massive gains on the flank
At the fords, fighting is vicious, with units being shot to pieces
The Americans make an error, pulling back from British artillery, but leaving room for British manoeuvre en masse
'Here they come' Cornwallis's flanking actions make massive inroads against what would have been the American reserve
British pressure on the American right flank
A few isolated British regiments, could have been pulverised, but American caution was too prevalent
Washington splits his forces, then splits them again. The battle become three separate fights. (This also happened last time, if I recall).
There was simply too much British pressure, and allowing them to move around the fords, permitted too many units to gain ground. The Americans simply ran out of units. But again, these rules let us fight big battles, and get sensible results.
I have a few of the additional books, and really must analyse the Scottish Jacobite one in some detail.
