"AWI battle report" Topic

blundersonthedanube.blogspot.no

Hey all,

I recently ran an AWI 15mm game that turned out pretty fun. Gonsalvo posted a battle report on his website, "Blunders on the Danube".

I've just recently started using FOB2 for the AWI, to great success. I'm still experimenting a bit with how I rate the troops, something I find more difficult than with other periods. The Americans turned out to be a bit too stalwart for the 1776 NY/NJ campaign. But, with FOB2, setting your preferences and determining the quality of the sequence deck and/or troops is part of the fun!

Also to note…Mike and I, who ran the Americans, had some of the worst dice on record!!!

Regardless, the game was great. Check out the link above!

J

One picture of Jared's excellent 15mm troops from the game, which was based upon the battle of White Plains, October 28, 1776:

Direct link to the post:

link

Peter

Ahhhhhhhhh…………my favorite set of rules and a period I will be using them with FOB in the near future! Nice looking armies! The American Rev war is one of my favorite periods. My buddies Ed and Rob and I are doing it in 28mm. I was doing it all in 1/72-20mm by myself at first. I will still complete those at some point.

Thanks,

John

I have a couple of issues with FOB and the AWI. One thing is I don't feel that militia rout easily enough. The max a single British unit can do us 3 hits which will only cause a rout if they rolled even. I'm thinking of making it that militia units only have 3 hits instead of the normal 4. That way they auto – rout with 3 hits.

Second is that experienced players will lead with their high D units because they are less liable to take hits and reduce AMPs. In real life the militia was put up front to get off the first shots – once the shooting started the militia was likely to run even if placed in the rear. Since FOB doesn't have morale checks for units routing nearby, this is an issue. I'm thinking of making it so that militia doesn't count for army morale – so they put no AMPs into the pool and take none out when they are hit.

Finally, another FOB issue is that unit maneuverability is based solely on the commander and not the unit's training. Outside of a Benedict Arnold I was thinking maybe militia should only change facing on a Manuever card (and not on an even Move roll) and maybe cut down on how many move segments they can get (like maxing it out to 2).

Anyway, that's my current thoughts. I only do ACW with FOB right now and my next venture might be Gauls vs Romans using POB so AWI is still down the road for me. I'd be interested to know if you think my ideas have merit.

Hey Dave,

I absolutely think your ideas have merit. As I said in the initial posting, I find the AWI one of the most difficult periods to play balance because of the vast gradations of American troops, particularly when up against crack British troops such as the flank companies, guards, 33rd, etc…

When I started playing AWI using FOB2, I rated the militia really low, usually CD8 DD4. Some of the better militia I rated CD10 DD4. What I found was that in most cases, especially if the cards went South, that these units were pretty much worthless. From a game standpoint, if 25-50% of the force is rated that way, I found that there wasn't much of a game to be had, especially against British troops that for the most part were CD10 DD6 or in some cases CD12 DD8!

For this past game, I made a few changes. I rated all the American troops CD10, with a mix of DD4 and DD6. I also made some of them an automatic DOWN1 in HtH. For the British, I kept most of them CD10 DD6, with the elites mostly being CD10 DD8 and a special UP1 in combat.

My intention here was to even up the firefights a bit (as per research done using "With Zeal and Bayonets)) and encourage the Brits to charge more, given that many of the Brits would be up UP2 against the worse militia. And in those cases, the vast majority of the time, the militia would break and run.

What I found, though, was that the Americans were too tough, not to mention the fact that they were in works. If the Brits closed and the Americans were unloaded, most of the time there would be no melee.

So yeah, I don't disagree with some of your points above. It's the sort of period that really needs to be toiled with to get the numbers and feel to be right.

One thing that might help is enforcing deployment on the players. GM sets up the troops and board. That could force players to place the weaker troops in front, as was done during many of the Southern battles post 1780. For me running 1776, I just need to incorporate more militia or ragged line into the fold. The Americans were just too stalwart!

J

Dave,

I think your suggestions are both quite reasonable. D4 defense die type troops are quite brittle as it is, though. Having only 3 UI to lose may actually be a bit of a perverse advantage, as it means one less MP lost each time a Militia unit is destroyed.

Jared has some good ideas, including with a "Down 1" in Melee for units lacking bayonets (most militia). The added Maneuver restrictions for Militia are worth considering. This could even be dependent upon rating – the better militia (CD4, DD10) might be exempt, while raw units (DD4, CD 8) might be effected. There are a number of tweaks that can be made without breaking the system!