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Friday 29 January 2016

It all started with a shortage of latex.....and went downhill from there.

 Last Saturday saw the first meeting of the T.W.A.T.S   for 2016 and I was in the chair. After a lot of umming and awing I decided on the AWI as the period for this game. Now my collection for this period is not exactly extensive but will suffice for a small to medium sized game- in 25mm of course or 28mm if you are under 40 or have 3 millimetre angst- Its all the same Dudes.
 Any how the weather was  pretty 'orrible so I decided on a re-fight of the Battle of Princeton,
 This was a smallish action in the AWII - large enough for my smallish collection to handle- with a few spare units left over..
 There were 3 battalions of British regulars against 2 brigades of Americans-  over half of the Americans being Militia of one sort or another- a good number of them rifle armed- which meant they could shoot - but being without bayonets at a disadvantage in a fight so the British plan was obvious- take the bayonet to 'em-
They do not like it up them ! (No neither would I).
 Present were your gentle Author Andrew the Tekkie , Floating Jeff(some of the time) Mechanical Shaun and new boy Brummie Paul  so a respectable turnout. Rules used were British Grenadier- the only local amendment being to lengthen rifle ranges a tad  so that they were one third longer than musket range which to me seemed a better proportion.
 So let .. er battle ... commence.
Right away it was obvious that the British had forsworn the direct approach- in other words the British fannied about. They did not even try to win the race for the farmhouse hill but allowed 1 American Brigade to take this position unfought whilst the second American Brigade made for Princeton. The 2 British Battalions covering that town skipped out of the way "in order to manoeuvre" and abandoned the Ravine, though to be fair  the second American Brigade was some distance off.
The British never really got going- perhaps the reason is obvious. 

 Mean while around the Farmhouse hill the Yankees were having fun picking off the British more or less at leisure only slightly daunted by the British Light infantry. The Large British battalion  bimbled about at the bottom of the hill and eventually decided to pick on the Militia battalion that was the American reserve. However to do this they took an enfilading volley from the much smaller American Continental unit on the farm house hill . This together with a volley from the Militia meant that- although they saw the militia off they were in no state to continue without some reforming as they had taken both casualties and disorder points.
The Brits could have reached the hill but didn't try.

Bimleing and more bimbleing 
 On the other side of Farmhouse hill... more bimbling- again the British taking enfilading fire this time from the Rifle armed troops on the hill - nothing serious really but the Brits simply did not get on with job .  Had they gone at the Yankees there would not have been enough survivors to take the news home but no... more Bimbling.
the inevitable result.
 the second American Brigade meantime sent its rifle armed companies into princeton to burn the supplies while the rest held the fencline for the inevitable British assault which never happened.. After Jeff left  to some personal stuff Andrew more or less packed it in.
As always Lunch provided by our hostess Jean was splendid and included Cake !
 Teachers report- Must Do Better.
 Next game- probably Moderns- more Andre the Tekkies thing...

2 comments:

  1. Beerglass Mountain - not an easy obstacle to manoeuvre...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I find them quite easy to shift ! from full to empty ....

    ReplyDelete