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| Gunfire can be heard in the distance and a concerned Colonel Gardner quickly forms up his men outside Concord ready to move to Lexington. |
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| Meanwhile in Lexington redcoats are seen marching towards their settlement. The militia move off the green and begin to spread out. |
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| A daunting sight greets them as the long snaking column moves into view lead by skirmishers. |
Continued -
TURN 1
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| Gardner begins his move towards Lexington. |
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| The militia quickly moves to the settlement boundary taking cover and opening a resoundingly effectively initial volley. The British skirmishers lose heavy casualties and are both shaken and disordered. |
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| Pitcairn successfully rallies the skirmishers who return fire. Such was their shock at receiving stunningly accurate fire from a bunch of farmers they failed to score any hits! The supporting companies of light infantry formed into line Smith leading the Grenadiers off the road intending to flank the settlement. |
TURN 2
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Another round of fire from the militia proved ineffective. The British took advantage of the slackening fire and their skirmishers charged into the Americans. Losing a casualty to closing shots they launched themselves at the defenders. The militia fought ferociously defeating the regulars who retired disordered. Smith enjoyed good command rolls allowing his Grenadiers to quickly deploy and threaten the defender's flank. |
TURN 3
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| A charge by the formed supporting light infantry signalled to the militia that it was time to leave. They evaded the charge but not by far enough. An excellent command roll by Pitcairn enabled the light infantry to catch the militia destroying 2 of the 3 tiny units. Lexington was on the verge of falling. |
TURN 4
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| The survivors of the Lexington company fired a defiant volley at the advancing Grenadiers as they fell back without causing any casualties. |
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| The Grenadiers were ordered to clear away the last of the militia from Lexington. On this occasion the militia successfully evaded the charge and also survived volleys of musketry aimed their way by both Grenadiers units. |
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| Meanwhile in Concord! Gardner was too busy delivering a rousing speech to his men to bother about the small matter of engaging the British as soon as possible. Successive command roll failures have left them stranded. |
TURN 5
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| Barrett arrives with a single activation. |
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| Gardner seeks to intercept the British advance and delay them for as long as possible. |
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| The British make better progress and in the background, the skirmishing light infantry have reformed along the road in Lexington. Hidden behind the trees on the right, a Grenadier unit engages with the tiny unit of militia in the woods scoring a hit leaving them shaken. |
TURN 6
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| Barrett orders his troops onto the road to speed movement. |
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| In the meantime Gardner begins to engage with the British losing casualties in the process. Off camera to the right, a shattering volley from the Grenadiers destroys the last unit of the Lexington company. |
TURN 7
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| The British Grenadiers waste no time in launching a charge at Gardner's company. Closing fire disorders them but otherwise they are unscathed. An all too brief melee destroys the militia. |
TURN 8
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| Pierce arrives and moves his force towards Merriam's Corner. |
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| Arnold arrives full of religious zeal and races towards Pierce's column. |
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| Barrett begins to deploy around Concord. |
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| The way is now clear for the British to advance on Concord. A light infantry ranges out ahead of the Grenadiers. |
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| Pierce's column poses a risk to Smith's flank and a light infantry unit is deployed to counter the threat. Initial musketry is ineffectual. Smith's confidence grows that he can easily achieve his objective without too much difficulty. The initial scare caused by the plucky Lexington company proved to be a minor glitch! |
Interesting game, a departure from the events of the early morning. Your table setting is evocative of the " battle road " topography and contemporary maps. Wondering if the colonial units will be able to switch to the shoot and scoot tactics as the red coat column starts back.
ReplyDeleteI have been pondering the shoot and scoot tactics the militia adopted and how this works in Black Powder. Currently going through the Rebellion supplement for guidance but not clear (I may have missed something of course!). Evade is the obvious answer but that is restricted to skirmishers charged by non-skirmishers. May have to simply extend that to all the militia.
DeleteI thought you'd start with a stand-off on the green at Lexington, perhaps throwing a die to see who cracked first and opened fire. Having the Lexington militia take up defensive positions and deliberately open fire on the recoats at the first opportunity seems unfair (do I mean unfair?).
ReplyDeleteI was clearly experiencing cognitive dissonance when the first close combat went to the militia, who I thought had no bayonets and thus would be very unlikely to stand, and if they did would lose badly. The later cold-steel encounter went a long way to reviving my shattered worldview.
That said, I'm fully engaged in this one dying to see how it turns out - I have a sneaky feeling the redcoats will find it getting more difficult from here on in.
Deployed as skirmishers, the initial encounter would indeed have lead them to automatically evade had it been a formed unit charging them. But as it was skirmishers v skirmishers they had a scrap. The militia are at a clear disadvantage in h to h combat and had exceptional dice rolls v poor rolls for the Brits in that initial encounter. I read into that that they fought particularly ferociously and combined with casualties already suffered from accurate fire the light infantry were on the back foot during the melee.
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