So, how did the campaign turn out? Most excellent if I say so. The campaign generated a number of interesting battles. Due to the variable order of battle determined by dice roll fighting the same battle over could be very different. In addition there were a number of actions that did not get fought which with a different roll could have. So playing the campaign out again could provide very different results.
Interestingly the campaign followed the historical one very closely up to the end. The results of the fight between Morgan and Rawdon mirrored the Cowpens results. And the Cowen's Ford action mirrored the historical one. Although with that battle Davidson lived to fight another day which I am sure his wife appreciated.
The only oddity was the final battle with Greene attacking Cornwallis. The Crown forces had a superb army, including the units from Cowpens. Yet the Americans destroyed them in a decisive victory. This I feel was due to the unusual British set up and lack of aggression in the part of the British commander. But hats off to the three American commanders who fought a excellent battle. I am sure they received the thanks of Congress and a sword. Future generations will name numerous schools, ball fields and streets in their honour.
War game rules used for the battles were the set from Fife and Drum miniatures. These are a one page set of rules which provide a fun and fast game. I will post a more detail explanation about the rules and the interpretation and house additions we use with them.
This has been a long goal of my mine to fight this campaign out since I first read Steve Haller's article in The Courier (vol. 1, no. 1). It was great fun and I hope to do it again next year.
Congratulations on achieving your aim of playing this campaign Mark! I have only played one campaign - "Habitants and Highlanders" French & Indian Wars years ago - but it was great fun and gave a very different perspective on each game, when you had to consider the effect that losing troops in the current battle would have on your order of battle for next weeks game!
ReplyDeleteThank you. As you say it does change how you look at a battle when your casualties carry over. I wonder if the British commander in the last battle kept the Guard's out of it since they were slightly smaller due to casualties from the previous battle? That, or he just forgot about them!
ReplyDeleteThese two battles, as yet unfought on the tabletop, have always struck me as fascinating. Since about 1982, when I first read about them in The Encyclopedia of Military History by Ernest and Trevor Dupuy. Hmmm. I might just have to take a crack at a similar small campaign this summer.
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Stokes