The Battle of Hubbardton

Andy T made the trip over the passes from the Palatine County to South Yorkshire. We had a game of Maurice planned and used the scenario from the last issue of Wargames Soldiers and Strategy magazine of the Battle of Hubbardton - part of the Saratoga campaign. 

We fudged the forces to suit our favoured ruleset of Maurice. I was the Americans, with a force of 6 Regular line battalions and 3 Irregular skirmishers (1 of which was represented by some Woodland Native Americans). Andrew brought a force of Brunswick grenadiers, British regulars, some light Highlander infantry and skirmishers plus a cannon. We added some Notables to represent the traits of the various forces. More details of his own account of the ection will be found on his blog
Lavrenti accompanied one of the skirmisher units who had a range of 6 BW's, which was to prove incredibly useful. 
The Earl of Bragge was somewhat incongruously attached to a unit of American regulars. Who knows how the fickle winds of Fate blow ones career?
the battlefield was quite small and heavily wooded and be-hilled, appropriate to the backwoods of New York state. 
The river was fordable with 1 Disrupt being taken by units. 
The game started briskly with some cagey movement of the Crown forces shaking out into line, followed by some heavy exchanges of volley fire, with the Rebels getting the best of it initially. 

The skirmishers on the hill kept the Highlanders at bay with their longer range musketry and came close to breaking some of the regular line units but were eventually overwhelmed by disciplined fire from the British. 
In the woods by the Sacker Brook, the Jagers exchanged fire with the US skirmishers and even launched a bayonet charge which came to nothing. 
The Rebels were giving an excellent account of themselves in the centre, but the Lethal Volleys of the Grenadiers was causing the Disrupt markers to rack up. 
Eventually the Americans were reduced to 2 units of regulars. Then one. With their Army Morale at one pip, Andy played the Death of a Hero card, which reduced the Americans to zero. So, a minor victory for the British although the battle was meant to be a delaying action and the Americans certainly gave an excellent account of themselves and would certainly have reduced Burgoyne's forces for the rest of the campaign. 
An excellent game, the game could have either way and the rules really need a player to give thought to how to plan their use of the Action Cards. We had some time afterwards too... 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Crisis Point Day 2

Image
Day 2 started with the dizzying highs and crashing lows of the CWC 2 Command system. The JS3 battalion attempted to get into the fight with the first dice rolls of the day. A double 1 command bonus! They then rolled a command blunder on the next roll!  More airstrikes we're called in by both sides. I don't recall any targets being destroyed, but suppressions caused the advancing Soviets to slow down their advance.  the Mig 15 was neither use nor ornament!  overall view of the action on day 2.  The JS3s finally get into action.  The battle raged on, with the Soviet T44s on the right flank making more ground and trading shots with the Czech armour. The infantry on the left finally began to benefit from supporting fire from the JS3s and some brave riflemen were seen to be shouting "urrah!" and charging some of the entrenched infantry. Break points were perilously close to being reached and brea...
Read more

Crisis Point- forces and Day One

Image
DAY 1  The Soviet aim was clear- advance across the board, reduce enemy forces but bypass strong resistance and continue the push to Prague. The Soviet forces available were:  224 Motor Rifle Regiment  Mech battalion 2 HQs 3 companies of 6 infantry + 3 M3 half tracks AA M14 half-track with quad .50cals Support company of 2 82mm mortars and 1 DsHK HMG Motor battalion  As above, but mounted in trucks 2 battalions of T44 tanks. 9 tanks + 1 HQ per battalion. The latest in Soviet armour technology and basically what you would expect a tank to look like if a T55 and a T34 had a baby.  Recce- elements of the regimental reconnaissance force- 3 M3 half tracks plus 4 Recce Support T34/85 tanks. In CWC2 these recce support forces are whatever that unit is, in this case, tanks, but with the Recce ability.  Artillery- 2 batteries of 3 152mm guns each, 1 battery of Katyusha rocket launchers Regimental Command element - CO, FAO, FAC. There was a pool of aircraft that woul...
Read more

Crisis Point 6th & 7th April 2024

Image
Initial briefing and scenario details  The annual gaming meet up, hosted and curated by Richard Crawley, took place this weekend in the usual delightful environs of Dungworth, on the edge of the Peak District, west of Sheffield and east of the moon..  This year, the theme was an alternative history of the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1948, following a failed Communist coup. There are better write ups of this scenario elsewhere-   Andy Ts blog  and  Richard Crawley's blog  have more background detail of the political and military situation of the Soviet reasoning behind the invasion. Suffice to say, myself and Andy were responsible for the CWC2 game, a move towards Prague by Soviet armour and mechanised infantry against a hasty defensive line of Czech forces in entrenched positions.  Below is the Soviet briefing. There was a similar one prepared for the Czech defenders.  And here is the initial sketch that I did for the scenario. ...
Read more