"Battle of Harlem Heights, 16th September 1776 - Maurice" Topic

Hi all,

The Devon Wargames Group played a scenario from the board game "Hold the Line" using "Maurice", capturing the events of the Battle of Harlem Heights in 1776.

If you would like to see how the battle turned out and see our thoughts on using "Hold the Line" as a scenario resource for "Maurice" then just follow the link to the Devon Wargames Group blog

devonwargames.blogspot.co.uk

The Devon Wargames Group is one of the longest established clubs in the South West of England, meeting monthly in Exeter, and we extend a welcome to potential new members and visiting gamers in desperate need of wargame fix.

Jonathan

Nice report and photos.

Nice game and write up, but (and this isn't your fault) the scenario doesn't bear a great deal of resemblance to the actual battle of Haarlem Heights. The original action consisted of:-

1) a skirmish between some British light companies and Knowlton's rangers;
2) the British – reinforced by the 42nd – following up too far;
3) a substantial American counter-attack that had no real purpose other than to boost flagging morale among Washington's troops;
4) the British lights and 42nd being rescued by some Hessians, who withdrew when they ran short of ammo; and
5) the Americans following up and exchanging a few rounds with two grenadier battalions; and
6) the Americans running low on ammo themselves, and falling back to their camp.

If any of you have access to "British Grenadier: Scenario Book 3", a much more accurate representation of the battle is included in the contents (you don't need to use the BG rules to employ the scenarios from these books).

Hi SM,

Good points, and I wouldn't make any claims for the strict historical validity of this scenario, only to say that it is loosely, and I use that word advisedly, constructed around the actual engagement and would seem to be a good resource for Maurice which given the constraints of that rule set would not necessarily work with scenarios in the British Grenadier book.

If you have seen the Brandywine scenario in Maurice, you will see that the scaling of armies and ground can require quite a modicum of compromise to enable armies of 15-18,000 men to fit the 15 or so units listed per side. This level of compromise would probably not suit your regular British Grenadier player, probably preferring to recreate unit for unit, and I myself like that kind of game also.

Therefore the Hold the Line scenarios, all be it with a large element of "what if" built into some of them seem to be a useful resource for these rules which are an excellent and innovative rule set.

Thanks for the comment

Jonathan

Very well done. I particularly like your series of photographs which I find to be extremely helpful to me. I like seeing pictures of miniature armies deployed.

Nice figures and paintwork. Thanks for sharing.

Great looking game.

Excellent write up and photos, Jonathan.

Jonathan,

Ah, thanks for that explanation. I'm not familiar with that particular ruleset, and wasn't aware of those boundaries. As you say, you would need to restructure any scenario to squeeze it into the Maurice; however, other rulesets with 1:10-1:20ish figure:man ratios should be able to use BG scenarios.

As I said, no reflection on a nice game and write up.

Nice

Interesting, thanks!

I love any game that involves the NY campaign, but I can't see how it would work without the Heights themselves. The terrain features played a big role. Nice game!

It should be perfectly feasible to play the game without the Heights themselves on the table, as the British never advanced beyond the Hollow Way that ran across the front of Washington's camp and a little bit to the south of them. It was at that point that Knowlton and Leitch, and Crary's pickets followed by Nixon's brigade, began their counter-attack.

However, there were one or two gulleys that crossed the New York-Kingsbridge road and which formed useful defensive points for the German reinforcements that came up as the two British Light Battalions and the 42nd were falling back due to running low on ammunition.