"Trenton 1776 game" Topic

We have been wanting to play Trenton for a long time and after quite a while of painting and building the hardware was ready and we were left with the challenge to write an interesting game scenario for this extremely lop-sided battle.

Because, whether you believe the Hessians to have been sober and vigiliant on Christmas morning 1776 or stumbling drunk and hung-over, fact remains that Washington's army not only surprised them but outnumbered them about 8 to 1 as well. In reality, as soon as Rall decided to stand and fight to reclaim his lost cannon, his fate was sealed.

So we had to come up with something more

More on this blog: link

Very nice. What scale was it?

Everything was in 1/72 plastics. Figures by HaT, Imex, Italeri, Revell and Call to Arms.

Houses were a mix of scratchbuilds, Pegasus and papercrafts from link

Great looking game. Nice winter table.

I have gone the 1/72 route for AWI, supplemented with 20 mm.

Enjoyed your blog as well.

Minor nit to pick.

The Hessians were not outnumbered 8 to 1.

And there were other command decisions that Rall made which did not bode well for his command.

But that's a very lovely set up you have and the figure do look quite the thing.

Eric

I say you are right. The text has a typo and it was 4 to 1, which were the proportions we used in the game. Based, btw, on Greg Novaks excellent lists.

Rall did indeed make (or rather declined to make) a number of decisions that brought him into a lot of trouble. Strengthening the village with defensive works, preparing runners for reinforcements (he had some dragoons if I am not mistaken) and cultivating a better working relationship with his colleagues would perhaps have spared him from defeat, as would it have helped him to press his retreat in force instead of charging headlong into the village for his guns into the teeth of an enemy of unknown strength.

IIRC Washington's original plan called for the attack to be launched by three separate bodies of troops. The main force under his command did make it over the river and attacked Trenton. A second force was unable to cross, while the third force got across and re-crossed without attacking. If you are going to allow for alternatives, some of them should include the other American forces.

I do not know what Trenton looked like in 1776, but I do love your scenery. Smoke coming from chimneys is a nice touch.

For further inspiration, here's Der Alte Fritz's take on the Battle of Trenton over several posts from last month.

altefritz.blogspot.com

Jim

IIRC Washington's original plan called for the attack to be launched by three separate bodies of troops. The main force under his command did make it over the river and attacked Trenton. A second force was unable to cross, while the third force got across and re-crossed without attacking. If you are going to allow for alternatives, some of them should include the other American forces

Actually we consciously decided to omit the other columns. American superiority in numbers being bad enough as it was, we didn't think it would result in a better game. On the contrary, we made the random events so that the Americans would encounter only disadvantages while the Hessians mostly benefit from them. All the more to balance the game and give the Hessians a better chance (but still they lost every time!).

I removed the command of Ewing, who was supposed to cross the Delaware at Trenton. Cadwalader was supposed to cross the Delaware further down stream and keep von Donop's command busy. I excluded his command as well.