From Richard Bach

That’s what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we’ve changed because of it, and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning. - Richard Bach

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Replay #3

In this replay I try having the British follow what Washington was hoping they'd do, with the results Washington was hoping for; A major American victory!

Cornwallis determines that the rebels are thickest on his left flank, and that's where he decides to concentrate his artillery.




                 When the bombardment is complete, the North Carolinians are in disarray.


General Howe weeps at the staggering losses he sees before him. Abercromby's men were cut down like so much wheat by the Gentlemen farmers and grey held his men back that they might not share that fate. On his right...Oh the horror shall never recede. The Grenadiers and then the Hessians under Donop were layed low in an endless and deadly fusillade.

General Sullivan let out a whistle, "That was close!" It is a good thing I stiffened up Stirling's New Jersey boys with Maxwell's light infantry, those lobsterbacks and their damned Hessian hirelings will think twice before they tangle with ours again!


Washington watches as the remnants of the North Carolinians and Henry Knox's guns withdraw from the British troops coming across Brinton's ford. The British horse wheel and face Bland's cavalry.
General Cornwallis snaps to his subordinates with fury, "This is no time for weak hearts, can't you see they got the worst of it? Once more into the breach will do it!



Late afternoon wears on and there will be no supper this night. Both sides take a breath before getting stuck in.


Knypshausen finally comes out of the woods and gives Nathaniel Greene what for while in the center the two cavalry forces tilt against each other!


At Wistan's ford Wayne loses a brigade and the rest of his men are stunned, but they have destroyed Fraser's Highlanders and driven off the hessians supporting him. Greene's division holding Wistan's ford repelled their assailants also but fell back to recover just as Bland's cavalry fell back recoiling from the titanic clash with Tarleton's men.


At eight o'clock the light is all but faded and the British gather for one more drive to save the day.


They cannot clear a road to Philadelphia, but maybe they can destroy the remnants of the rag tag barefooted upstarts...


But no, its worse than that! They lose yet another brigade as Stirn's Hessians are added to the casualty list. Five brigades of the Kings chosen have suffered irreplaceable losses while exacting less than half as many casualties on the rebels. But neither commander is happy, it was a bloody day. Nevertheless, it was a major American victory, the British thought they could sweep Washington aside like an annoying gnat, but Washington made a complete asp of himself!

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Replay #2

Replay 2 starts with the what if; "Washington suspected strongly of Howe's flanking maneuver coming from upstream and sent Greene to meet them?" Furthermore, what if he guessed wrong and the British went down stream and crossed?


Here midafternoon we can see that Greene has heard the warning bugle that says the attack is coming from below! Also note that the ever aggressive Cornwallis has sent Mathews and the Coldstream Guards to cross Chadds Ford, with the loss of them in an expensive trade with the rebels.


On about dinner time we see that Gen'l Sullivan has shown his true merit and performed a most skillful delaying action!


As the day's shadows grow longer the militia hides in the swamp and Sullivan continues his skillful delaying action as Greene makes his way towards the sound of gunfire.


In a last ditch drive the British throw themselves at the colonials in an all out drive to push them from the roads. Sullivan is out of tricks as he can no longer afford to give ground, he  must control those roads!


The Last minute drive to clear the roads fails, but the colonials have paid dearly for the ground they keep. As darkest night descends too much patriot's blood waters the tree of liberty. Howe gains a moderate victory.








Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Replay #1

Introduction to my replay format: There are essentially two threads in my replays. In Italics I will have all my in-game narration and in regular font I will have my meta-game commentary.


...the continental army would have been lost if it had not been for a skillful delaying action fought by Nathaniel Greene.

So begins the ending of many a description of the battles fought in the American War of Independence. Brandywine is no different. Although I did not plan it this way, this is certainly the way this game was turning out, and thus makes a fitting opening replay for this blog.

When I set up this game, I decided to assume that Howe would follow his historical precedent and flank by crossing upstream of the Rebel army. To that end I placed Greene's troops on the Northwestern side of the map. To further test how that might have worked, I had Howe follow his historical plan.

The setup looked like this:

One thing you will notice right away is the limited information the game gives to your opponent. Neither side knows where the artillery is, nor the cavalry. For explanatory purposes I will tell you that Howe is on the British left and Washington is over on the British right. Although Washington's placement made sense tactically, it came to haunt me as the battle opened and he was out of range to help Greene alter the turn order.

A word on turn order, as it is a critical mechanic in this game. The main reason for this is that units can leave contact with an enemy when they move. Because of this, the command that moves after the enemy commands can decide which battles it wants to fight and which it wants to escape from. This may seem a tad unrealistic until you realize that the commands aren't necessarily figuratively moving in that order, but rather they are maneuvering such that after they have moved they are arrayed as shown on the battlefield. When, say, the British are advancing a short distance to contact a colonial, and then because of turn order, the colonial backs up just a smidgen out of contact, it doesn't mean that some gamey mechanic has yielded an unrealistic result. Rather, it is simulating effective skirmisher action, and possible command indecision. Why exactly is left to your imagination. What the game is simulating might be an outwitted and outfought British General, or a General trying to conserve his unit's integrity and not be shot to pieces. Remember, it was very hard and expensive for the British to replace their losses, whereas the colonials were recruiting in their own back yard.

Unfortunately, I boloxed up the first photo for the end of turn one, so the first picture will be of the end of turn two. Washington could have barraged the British right flank, but he wasn't interested in attacking across the Brandywine and he'd rather not give away the artillery's position. As long as the British don't know which block is the lone colonial artillery unit every block (especially those behind the lines) must be assumed to be the artillery block. In Brandywine an artillery barrage can't actually destroy a unit, but it can cause them to be flipped to spent and/or retreat) which means it is really useful in its traditional role of softening up the enemies line prior to attack.

Turn one saw Knypshausen demonstrating along the Brandywine. The only concern for the colonials is the two upstream fords that have supported blocks (2 deep) which could assault with a reasonable chance of success across the fords. Since the colonials have no such designs they are spread out only one deep with a few reserve pieces to fill in any wholes that might occur in the line.

I play with the optional road march rules which allows units on roads to move up to 3 times faster, but more important for coming in along the historical route, is the fact that units in road march don't have to pay terrain costs along the road. This means rather than just moving one third of a movement stick they can move enough to reach near the rebel lines before shaking out into line. Since the British are forming up into line Greene need only hold his position.

General Greene is seen riding up and down his lines exhorting the men to hold their position and give the redcoats their due when they draw within range. He is a calm generally placid man, but his demeanor betrays the gravity of his intent. This line must hang together!

Greene's left flank covering Jones' ford is probed by the British under Prescott, but true to Greene's orders the colonials make them pay a heavy toll for crossing the Bridge and they fall back. Their retreat is covered by the Dragons and the Rebels are spent, so they hold their position and combat ends.

Some time after the fighting starts at the Ford General Wayne notices plumes of dust trailing to the right around their flank and he alerts General Washington who sends Bland to Dilworth to reconnoiter the American right flank.

Artillery Barrages Sulivan's Marylanders across Brinton's ford and they retreat in disorder to Roundelay Hill as the British come flooding across. Grant's Brigade under Prescott rallies. Dragoons charge the Virginians who fall back. It seems the center cannot hold. This time Greene attempts to hold the line and Cornwallis pushes with enthusiasm. Green falls back and gives up much more terrain than he anticipated.

Sometime late afternoon the battlefield looks like this:

Fraser's Highlanders seem to be an unstoppable force as they top Roundelay Hill. Stirling abandons Chadd's ford as they head towards the rest of Sullivan's troops on Roundelay Hill. Washington's North Carolinians shift over to Chadd's ford and the militia bolstered by Henry Knox's artillery caver Pyle's ford. Washington is determined not to turn this into a double envelopment like Cannae! 

Even though Cornwallis has attacked all along the line, Greenes skirmishers keep up a steady fusillade and prevent them from really landing a decisive blow.

It is getting late in the day and it looks like the troops will get no dinner this eve. Battlefield lay out at the dinner hour:



Although the British elites are spent, Greene's line is in disarray and Sullivan's troops have a fingertip grip on Roundelay Hill.

So here we are at the beginning of turn four of this five turn game and it looks like the British are about to start defeating the rebel army under Washington in Detail. But Lo! The British luck on maneuver is about to change. For the last two turns Greene and Sullivan are able to make their Alter Turn Order (ATO) rolls. This means the British have to move before these two critical commands. So rather than being forced to retreat (1/3 movement) they only have to slide just out of contact after the British attack. Cornwallis does attack Weedon's stubborn Virginians and Grey's brigade is eliminated for his trouble, though Weedon is spent.

Comparing the picture above with the one below, you can see what a skillful delaying action by General Greene looks like:



At least one of Greene's Brigades on the line have to hold their position or the British will control Street Road. So far the only casualty is Greys' Brigade (British) which will yield a marginal victory to the Americans if they can hold Street Road. If the British capture the road and their are no further casualties, the British will win a moderate victory.

Although there is heated skirmishing as the sun sets completely, the British are not able to engage with the Americans and so Washington Wins a Marginal victory. This particular game was very close. Washington won with one point! The British could never quite close for a decisive battle and when they were able to make contact the Rebels got the better of the exchange. All in all a vary near run thing!



If you look closely you can see the opposing forces are separated by a razor thin margin. This allows the colonials to deny control of the major road without having to fight a full battle. While that may seem a minor technicality, the bigger factor to note is that at one point on turn three it looked like "the continental army would have been lost if it had not been for a skillful delaying action fought by Nathaniel Greene."




Packing and Unpacking

 Not only is the Pub Battles game design different, the packaging is unique as well. It comes in a tube so the Canvass map can be rolled and unrolled. The map lays fairly flat unrolled right out of the box, and a quick counter roll guarantees it lays quite flat. Taking it out and putting it away is quite easy as well, but here is the way I found it goes smoothest:
I'll start with putting it away. First stand the tube on end. Then lay out the map and place the rules and charts on top of it and roll it a little smaller than the circumference of the tube. When it's all rolled up you grasp it in the center with your whole hand and with the other you pinch the end (As shown).
This keeps the map from unrolling as you slide it in place. When you let go it unrolls to fill the tube. I grabbed a couple of Zip-loc bags and filled one with the British and one with the Colonials and the dice. Those and the measuring sticks fit nicely in the tube. Voila!
To remove, I took and lightly sanded the inside rim. There is a little ridge that the map can catch on. You certainly don't need to do this, but it does make for easily sliding the map out.

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Introduction to the Game's Components



So here you see the game's components with the Stickers affixed. When sticking the labels on the measuring sticks you want to attach them in the middle using the guides on the Terrain Effects Chart, this will divide the stick into three even lengths so you can easily measure by thirds. The round command chits are beveled (if you lay them on their sides they roll in a slight circle) and you want to attach the stickers to the wider side.

The black die is for keeping track of turns. The round activation chits are seen in the cup which does extra duty as a dice cup and as the cover to the tube. Additionally, you have some narrower sticks to signify turn order and a spare unit block as well. Note: if you participated in the Kickstarter you have extra stickers for Washington, Howe, and Mathews Elite Guard unit. Be careful not to place the extra Mathews sticker on the spare block!