On Friday night at New Buckenham we had an AWI game. It was a fictitious scenario that saw Washington attempted to deny General Howe's advance guard from crossing the Indian Run river as the Crown forces pushed on toward the capture of Philadelphia. We used our club rules for AWI ,which I will eventually get round to digitising.
I took command of General Grant's brigade which consisted of the 9th, 21st, 38th and 24th foot on the British left flank facing the rebel battalions of General Sullivan across a shallow stretch of river.
To my right were three battalions of Hessians under General von Knyphausen who were making for a plank bridge over the river. Unbeknown to the revolutionaries General Cornwallis was making a flank march to the far right with the Black Watch, a light infantry battalion and a combined grenadier battalion.
My command advanced across the ford towards the waiting rebellious colonials under musket and light artillery fire, before my lead battalions were given the order to level the bayonets and charge!
Unfortunately both units declined to obey and it was only the direct intervention of General Grant that finally saw the fusiliers charge home against the regulars of the 1st Maryland battalion. The 9th however could not get to grips with the stubborn 2nd Maryland battalion and a close quarter musketry duel commenced.
The 1st Maryland broke before the determined charge of the fusiliers who followed up after the routing colonials. This left room for the 24th foot to charge into Sullivan's militia battalion, with the expected result.
In the centre there had been a furious melee as the colonials tried to stop the Hessians from crossing the plank bridge. The arrival of Cornwallis on the colonial flank eased the pressure on the Germans who finally secured their crossing.
At this point the game was called, it was deemed that Washington would rapidly withdraw his remaining forces after a hard fought action.
More on this game on my blog at Jabba's Wargaming
Tony.
paints brigs for the British fleet.
