American Revolution

Mat and I played about five American Revolution games over the last few weeks. We alternated between British and American/French sides.

I painted some new units to supplement my existing armies which are not huge for this period. I  also used a wild assortment of Indians, sorting them into bowmen and muskets. The British had the most Indian units.

The disadvantages of the Indians were  they had shorter ranged weapons and the cover save from arrows was greater than from muskets. The other disadvantage was that each time they received casualties from cannon fire they had to roll for leadership. If this was failed they had to retreat. The advantage was a plus two in combat in or attacking out from the forest and they could move a half move and shoot. They also had a slightly greater movement. Needless to say, the best place to put them was in the forest.

The British guardsmen had the highest morale/leadership and a bonus in close combat. Next were those designated (on both sides) regulars and then the militia or Minute men. The worth of American militia is often debated but I gave them the lowest morale but equal ability in shooting. Their morale could be bolstered by the closeness of the general. The only unit with superior shooting was a buckskin clad unit on the American side who had a plus one.

Actually I should qualify my term, 'American side' as I also included, on the British side, green clad American loyalists. Some estimates say one third of the colonists were pro British, another third supported the revolution and another third were neutral. There were many loyalist units and a favourite colour was green, although others wore red. After the war many of these loyalists moved to Canada. This wart was a civil war before THE Civil War.

We didn't use cavalry, partly because, historically, it was mostly an infantry war and more so because I didn't have revolutionary War cavalry.

Our victory conditions were mostly based on table quarter conquest plus unit destruction

  These bowmen were out of range most of the time but kept the revolutionary flank occupied.

          This one was a miniature version of Bunker Hill. The British went on the offensive and suffered for it.

                                            Colonel Bighead's grenadiers.

                                           British regulars

                                                      A canon blows up, taking its crew.

                                            Indian musket men. I penalised the Indian's firing, assuming lower quality muskets or shooting. I don't know how historical this assumption is.

                                              They exchange shots with French regulars.

                                   Revolutionaries and French in a strong defensive position.