The Battle of Guilford Courthouse, 1781 - Live Free or Die AAR

My last game at Historicon was the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, using Live Free or Die, and run by Pat.

This is a scenario I have experience running, as it was what we played using Washington's Wars back when I was in New Jersey.

Pat had been running the Southern Theater over the weekend, with the result that Tarleton's Light Dragoons wouldn't be appearing in this version of the battle. 

There were some further additions to the rules introduced by Pat, such as the use of buck and ball by units of both sides and effective ranges for musket and rifle fire. This led to an overall increase in lethality. 

The British goal was to inflict more losses on the Americans to score a minor victory, and to capture the two road exits on the opposite side of the table as well for a major victory. Any other result would count as an American win.

I was one of two American commanders, and there were two British commanders. 

The game began with the British encountering the first line of American militia. 

The militia were pushed, though not without some fallen redcoats in return. 

To stymie the British, Harry Lee and his light horse launched an assault on the British right flank. Unfortunately, even with favorable odds, the cavalry were repulsed. 

Both sides continued to move and fire. Occasionally a unit was able to halt and fire and volley, or the British decided to launch a charge. 

The American position began to falter somewhat as the first line of militia met the second and tried to move through. 

The Americans did managed to sneak a unit of militia through a gap in the British line, using them to fire upon the redcoats' rear. 

Realizing that having a rebel unit, even a small one, dealing damage in their back lines was a problem, the British quickly routed the militia. 

Having swapped a good part of their lines, the fresh American militia waltzed right into British volley fire. 

At the very last moment, the Continentals stepped off so they could show the British just how well they marched in step. 

The game ended with a decisive American victory, though one with an asterisk. While the Americans caused more casualties overall, I only realized a day later that I and the other American player missed that units moving backwards only do so at half speed. While slower movement would have still kept the British from approaching the two road exits by the end of the game, there's a chance that being forced to stay closer to British units would have results in more American casualties. 

Regardless, Pat ran a fun game, and it was a great way to close out my time at Historicon. 

Brandywine About It - Live Free or Die AAR

After grabbing some lunch and meeting up with some old gaming friends from my time in Pennsylvania, I finished up my time at the convention on Saturday afternoon. 

The theme of the convention was the American War of Independence, so I needed to play in at least one game of that war. I spotted a game of Live Free or Die, the fast-play rules from Little Wars TV. For a bonus, it was Brandywine, which I had played back at the Historicon that wasn't Historicon a couple years ago. 

The GM, Tom, had set up a gorgeous looking table with plenty of terrain and a very clever means of outlining hills with flock. 

The (very well painted) Americans formed a solid line on top of the hill, awaiting the approaching (and also very well painted) British. 

Unlike last time, where I commanded the Hessians under von Donop, this time I played with Cornwallis' command which was the only British brigade to start on the table. 

With Tom asking me to "keep things interesting" on this side of the table, I started off with a brisk approach towards the Americans. 

The rebels levelled their muskets and opened fire on the approaching British skirmishers. 

Over on the other side of the table, the reinforcing Meadows', Matthew's, and von Donop's brigades were sorting out a traffic jam before shifting into line and approaching the Americans. 

One of my skirmishing units had failed their morale check after losing a base, causing a number of DMZs as they passed through an infantry regiment and a cavalry regiment. Not a great start!

However, I figured that my higher quality infantry should be able to get stuck in with the Americans and see them off after a spirited bayonet charge. So I asked for most of the Command Points we generated this turn...

And whiffed to disastrous results. 

The 16th Dragoons and 1st Light Infantry regiments rolled so poorly that they were thrown backwards, creating a DMZ cascade. I lost all but one stand from the dragoons, and the 1st Light Infantry were several moves away from getting into the fight. 

Luckily, the 2nd Light Infantry, with Cornwallis attached, did much better. They forced two American regiments to retreat and destroyed a 6-pounder gun. 

As the 2nd Light Infantry held the gap in the line, I was desperately trying to bring up the 1st Light Infantry and the Hessian Jagers. Agnew's Brigade  was coming around the farm to reinforce Cornwallis' attack. 

Over on the other side of the battlefield, the Americans, British, and Hessians were coming to grips.

Unfortunately, I had to leave at a certain time, and was unable to stick around to see the rest of the game play out. As a consolation, I did managed to win the signed copy of Michael Harris' "Brandywine" which I have read, but will happily add to my historical reference collection. 

A Hill to Die On - Live Free or Die AAR

With Thursday and Friday done, I arrived once again at the Valley Forge Casino for a day's worth of gaming.

The morning game was a refight of the Battle of Brandywine, ran by the Little Wars TV crew. I'm a huge fan of their on-going, fantastically produced battle reports on Youtube, and I jumped at the opportunity to get into one of their games as soon as the convention registration opened. 

I was especially excited because it was an opportunity to play their new set of rules for the American War of Independence, Live Free or Die. 

Before the game began, the British Commanders (myself and Walt) were presented with a couple choices. We had the chance to rest our troops before engaging, which would cost us a couple turns but give us the ability to remove morale hits (DMZs) at the end of a turn. We could also send a flanking force to try and cut the Americans off on another table which was centered on the small town of Dilworth.

We decided to rest our troops (which gave us 10 turns to complete the objective) and send a small brigade of two Guards regiments to outflank the American position. 

Walt controlled the majority of the troops with Cornwallis' and Medow's Brigades, while I had Agnew's and von Donop's brigades. 

The American players (Zach and Ray) had loaded most of their troops on their right to block the road under Zach, while Ray's troops were positioned to block my own. 

The British advanced towards the Americans who, apart from some slight shuffling, held their ground. 

With the Americans angled on the hill, it took several turns of marching before my troops could get into firing range. 

Zach and Walt, on the other hand, clashed immediately, with Walt's troops fixing bayonets and charging up the hill. 

Ray's position on the hill meant that my regiments had to cross multiple obstacles to reach him. Doing so gave my units a DMZ per obstacle crossed. 

I planned to give Ray's troops a round of firing before charging in. 

Live Free or Die is also a shoot-then-move ruleset, and units that don't plan to move can "volley fire," doubling the amount of shots they get. 

The British got the worse of the exchange of volleys, with multiple stands lost and units forced back down the hill (which meant I would have to cross the obstacles once again!).

Meanwhile, the Americans must have gotten word that some force of British was moving on a flank march, because their entire right flank suddenly about-faced and started marching back towards Dilworth.

With his flank in the air, Ray decided against retreating his own troops and instead planted his flag and stood his ground. 

Walt, on the other hand, was chasing after the treating Americans. 

The fighting was fierce between the remaining British, Hessian, and American troops, and ownership of the hill was fluid. Both sides were gathering DMZs like they were on sale.

Walt's path was open, so he split his advancing troops into two forces; one was sent after the retreating Americans, while the other was gathering to push into Ray's flanks. 

Despite being outnumbered, Ray's soldiers stood firm in the face of the Hessian Grenadiers, and sent the whole brigade fleeing backwards when I failed multiple morale checks. 

Despite multiple pushes, I couldn't seem to get my regiments to form a cohesive attack on Ray's position. 

By this time in the game, most of the left side of the table had been completely emptied. 

And the Americans were gathering at Dilworth. 

Now flanked by Walt's troops, Ray wasn't going to do down without a fight, using his skirmishers and last, tattered regiments in a curved line.

However, a combined charge by British regiments saw the last American troops on the hill routed. 

The game ended with Walt's flanking troops advancing on the Dilworth table, but too far away to keep the Americans from consolidating their position. 

The game ended with a somewhat historical result; the British ended up taking the American positions but were unable to stop the Americans from retreating in relatively good order. It had been a much bloodier refight, though, with both sides taking far more casualties than in the original battle.

Given another chance, I probably wouldn't have bothered with letting the British troops rest for two turns in exchange for access to the "Redress Ranks" phase. The cost of losing the extra game time wasn't worth the benefit of removing DMZs, since you have to be outside of 12" of enemy units to do so. That was on me - I convinced Walt to delay the advance rather that immediately step off. A couple more turns may have made all the difference!

This was a fantastic game and one of the best convention games I've participated in. The miniatures and terrain looked fantastic, and I'm absolutely planning to use Live Free or Die as my go-to AWI rules. It looks like I'll have some orders with Pendraken in the next year.