The Battle of Monmouth, Part 2 - British Grenadier AAR

This past weekend, the group finished up the Battle of Monmouth started the previous week at Ted's.

Unfortunately, Chip was a little under the weather and couldn't make it, so it was up to me to command the entirety of the British facing Ted's and Steve's Americans.

It started out with a failed charge with a combined regiments of Grenadiers and my pulling back of the Light Dragoons (which would be an error I would rue for the rest of the game.

One of my artillery batteries also broke and ended up fleeing from the battle. 

On the British right, however, my original command was doing well against Steve's defending Americans. While another combined brigade was rushing to reinforce the colonial forces, my skirmishers moved up to continue to plug away and cause casualties. 

As Steve's infantry was forced back, his cannons stopped their retreat and unlimbered, just in time to catch the Queen's Rangers who had planned to run down the American artillerymen!

While the Grenadiers stalled in trying to oust the entrenched Americans, the artillery finally got their range and blasted Ted's cannons out of place, with some help from a small unit of British skirmishers. The Americans promptly fled before they could be rallied.

Meanwhile, the Light Dragoons were making a break for the American rear, weathering the artillery from the American brigade on the hill, just out of shot. 

Steve's brigade continued to hold the British back, but the weight of fire was deadly and the American's couldn't return enough fire to dissuade the attack. The Queens Rangers had managed to scoot around the guns, but ended up blocking a number of shots from the skirmishers. 

The American's could definitely put a feather in their cap when the Grenadier regiment broke and fled! This left a worrying gap in the British line, and threatened the flank of my second combined Grenadier regiment. 

The end came before the American's could exploit the absence of the Grenadiers, however. Steve's brigade broke and collapsed, leaving the American left flank open to a relatively fresh British brigade. 

Both sides decided to withdraw, as the British rearguard had succeeded in spoiling the American attack. 

Ted's brigade on the hill overlooked the American right flank. The Dragoons were just within range of another shot. If I had pressed them forward from the start of my taking over their command, I may have been able to threaten the larger artillery battery in the American center. 

Meanwhile, the Foot Guard troops had positions themselves to hold the center. They were stubbornly difficult to get rid of, although one regiment had suffered a number of casualties between Steve's infantry and Ted's cannons. 

All-in-all, it was a fun conclusion to a great game. There was a discussion afterwards between Steve, Ted and I as to how the game may have gone differently. One suggestion was for Steve's brigade to abandon the farm and retreat to the hill to combined with the arriving reinforcements, instead of trickling into an ongoing fight in a position the British could flank. But as Steve pointed out, that would have left Ted's command vulnerable, and cede a larger amount of the battlefield to the British that the Americans would then have to fight to retake. 

Hopefully we'll get a chance to replay the game and test those theories.