Patriot Games with that battle from Hobbiton

"Oh, so you are doing as fantasy game this evening" says Mrs T. "You what?" says I. 

"The email says 'Battle of Brandywine'. That's in the Shire..."

"Yes, it is, but it's not that Brandywine".

Jon F hosted for us this week. He offered to put on another battle from the AWI. this time we were in 1777. I don't know much about this campaign. Jon sent us several pages of background information, explaining that this was a bit of a "what if" scenario. With my total ignorance of the actual battle I didn't need to adjust my expectations, but take it as it comes.

Ian, Steve & I were the Patriots. Richard and Chris were the stooges of an autocratic state.

The picture is taken from behind the Patriot lines. I have Maxwell's brigade, which is across the river with the orange markers on the units. Ian has a Division behind the creek, to the left, Steve likewise to the right. The creek is only passable at the fords. The forces of repression and their German mercenaries are off table at the top of the picture.

Richard is coming down the road on the left of the picture. He is leading with his infantry, and deploys into line as quickly as he can. Chris is on the other road, and has his artillery in front, and the Germans behind. I immediately counter attack with Maxwell, and inflict some minor damage. The British have to capture the crossings and exit the bottom table edge in a given number of turns. If we fight them as far up the table as possible, this may well cause them to run out of time.

Ian and Steve both decide to support my endeavours by crossing the creek. I am unsure about the wisdom of this action.

Chris is deploying his artillery. He has a lot of it. He deploys it in a line, blocking the road. I'm secretly both worried and happy at the same time. As far as I can see whilst he will be able to pound our infantry he won't be able to use the road for faster movement, slowing down the advance. Out on his left (our right) he sends out his dragoons to contest the high ground.

The fight around the farm area top left gets intense. Maxwell's guys aren't doing a lot of damage - Richard can swap units around to prevent me concentrating my fire and breaking anyone of them - but despite his best efforts Richard can't deal with them. His frustration is palpable as he goes through every movement permutation in order to surround them on all sides. He finally gets everything where he wants it, attacks, and is driven off having inflicted no casualties. All the while Ian is able to bring up his Division and take the fight to Richard.

The first of Chris' line infantry appear.

On our right Chris' dragoons have occupied the farm on the hill, supported by some riflemen. Steve launches a vigorous attack to dislodge them, and occupies the farm in the centre of the board. Ian is driving his men forwards to attack Richard's Division, which is swarming around my last surviving infantry unit.

Steve clears the ridge on our right, as Ian launches a wave of attacks on the on coming British. At the top of the board, on the left, my last battalion has lined up a weak unit on the road. I aim to attack them vigorously and break out of the pocket.

I destroy the unit ahead of me, but I need to survive another turn to break out. Chris is forced to deploy off the road because his artillery is in the way. Steve has had to drop out, so I take over his forces. I retire my infantry behind the ridge on the right, out of artillery shot, and bring up my reserves to cover the ford.

In the top centre, I launch an attack with the infantry from the farm onto the unsupported gunline. What I failed to notice was that I was still on the ridge, and so all of the British artillery could hit me, as I was on higher ground, firing over each other. Oops. One of the perils of on-line gaming.

This blunder condemns that regiment to destruction. And then Jon gives in to some special pleading and allows the German infantry to pass through the previously impassable gunline, which caught me out a little bit.

On the left the struggle between Ian and Richard is intensifying. I think Ian is doing rather well, given his troops are outclassed by the superior quality of the British regiments. 

Ian is taking some damage, but he is dishing it out too. On my flank there are suddenly a lot of Germans rushing towards me, supported by heavy artillery, pounding at anything on a ridgeline. My musketry is fairly ineffective, and they just keep on coming. I have reinforced the ford, and am now relying on crossed fingers.

Ian counter attacks again, and is mauling Richard fairly badly. Chris releases the light artillery to his command. He doesn't need them anymore, as more and more Germans pour up the road. I think I'm going to be overwhelmed.

As we approached midnight, this was the final game position, taken from behind the British lines. Ian is holding out well, and probably has that flank won. Chris is poised to crush the troops on his side of the river, prior to attacking the ford. All that could stop him was the end of game countdown. From the next turn we were rolling for game end, starting with a 1 on a d10, then 1,2 etc. If we got lucky and the game ended, then we had a comfortable win. Otherwise in another 3 or 4 turns Chris is across the creek, and exiting the board.

Phew! A titanic struggle, with 5 players, 20+ units and a lot of action in about 4 hours of playing. The highlight was clearly the bravery of Maxwell's brigade, which will become the stuff of legend.

(The screen shots do not do justice to Jon's beautifully painted toys, so here's a close up taken by him, which he shared with us after the game. This is the tussle around the farm. Maxwell's last unit is on the right behind the fence, apparently sniping at the mounted officer in the redcoat).