Sharp Practice: Bloody Work at Roebuck Fields

Despite being ridiculously hot at BIG (both inside the building and outside) Andy and I met up for another AWI Sharp Practice bash, Andy bringing along his nice new snake fencing he'd recently made. Looking through the scenarios in the rulebook, the Defence in Depth one immediately put me in mind of a number of battles of the Southern Campaign with the British attacking two or more lines of American troops, so Andy agreed we should try it out.

I had a primary deployment point (off camera) aside where the road exited the table on the left, with a secondary one (the hay cart) near the crossroads. Andy had primary and secondary deployment points on the right edge of the board...

A group of Light Infantry Skirmishers under the command of Corporal Lockharte reconnoitered the ground in front of two groups of Line Infantry under Sergeant Hughes...

Militia Skirmishers under the command of Corporal Rowsick spoted another unit of British Light Skirmishers led by Ensign Foley, open fire and wound the young British officer.

Meanwhile three groups of Continental Line led by Captain Pollack entered the field of battle at the American primary deployment point.

The command tokens begin to favour the British with Foley's Skirmishers moving across the road and opening fire...

...hitting Rowsick's Skirmishers and inflicting Double Shock on them!

On the other flank Corporal Lockharte's Skirmishers killed two American Militia Skirmishers under Corporal Horowitz, wound him and inflict Shock on the group...

The British Skirmishers follow this up killing another American and inflicting more Shock which causes the Patriot Skirmishers to run. The American Force Morale loses two points due to this and the wounding of Corporal Horowitz...

My cunning plan, which I had based on American tactics in the Southern Campaign, was unravelling. My flanks had been exposed and Sergeant Dorfman's Militia, who I had deployed from the secondary deployment point near the crossroad ready to face the advancing British Line found themselves outflanked!

Whilst I had wanted to save the Militia to fire a controlled volley at the British Line I had no option but to detach one group of them who promptly swung to their flank and fired at Corporal Lockharte's boys killing one and inflicting shock on the British Skirmishers.

The Gods of War(gaming) smiled on me then as the next Command token was Lieutenant Kraslow with two groups of Lee's Legion Light Infantry in Line. They immediately deployed to face the threat on the flank and unleashed a volley at the British Skirmishers...

Two more Skirmishers fell dead and the group took five more points of shock causing them to break. The British force morale dropped a point following this.

Meanwhile on the other flank Corporal Rowsick's boys engaged ineffectively with Foley's Light Infantry Skirmishers picking up more shock.

Ensign Foley smelt glory and order his boys to charge the Americans, who picked up even more shock as the British Skirmishers threw tomahawks at them as they charged in.

The hand to hand combat result was to be expected. Three Patriot Skirmishers fell dead and the remainder fled. The American force morale fell one more point. Gulp!

With Dorfman's Militia exposed near the crossroads, the two British Line Infantry formations under Captain Clarence and Sergeant Hughes bore down on them...

Captain Clarence leading from the front to engage the rebels!

With zeal and bayonets only Clarence's Line smashed into Dorfman's Militia group...

Killing four, wounding Dorfman and forcing the Militia back. Fortunately for the American force morale no one cared Dorfman was wounded when I rolled on the Bad Things Happen table!

With the situation starting to look desperate, Kraslow ordered Lee's Legion to swing round to face the oncoming British and they unleashed a volley at Sergeant Hughes and his two groups of Line inflicting some shock on them.

In a desperate attempt to stem the redcoat tide the detached Militia group turned about face and not having had a chance to reload their muskets, bravely charged into the flank of Clarence's Redcoats!

In the melee they were beaten off and forced to retire but this left it clear for Captain Pollack to order the Continental Line to fire a controlled presented volley at the British.

The British formation took more shock and Andy used his Holy Man (a loyal Methodist preacher) to 'inspire' the British - removing a couple of points of shock off Captain Clarence's groups.

Unfortunately for the Redcoats this availed them little as Lieutenant Kraslow ordered Lee's Legion to fix bayonets and charge in, throwing tomahawks at the British as they went...

Before they could do this though Captain Clarence challenged Lieutenant Kraslow to a duel!

After three rounds of duelling, both men withdrew sporting light wounds but honour intact...

Unfortunately for Captain Clarence his Line Infantry were unable to withstand the charge by the American Light Infantry and both groups broke reducing the British force morale...

The British situation was made worse as Clarence's men ran through Sergeant Hughes' men following them, reducing British force morale further.

The battle appeared to be swinging back in favour of the Americans but Sergeant Hughes snapped his men into line and bravely led them into battle against the Rebel Light Infantry...

Captain Clarence then abandoned his fleeing men and joined Sergeant Hughes formation, taking command.

High on adrenaline after routing one formation of British Line, Kraslow's men tried to charge in again. Unfortunately the amount of shock they were carrying and my shockingly bad dice roll saw them come up short.

Something Captain Clarence took advantage of as he fired and charged the Legion Light Infantry.

Whilst forced back the boys of Lee's Legion are made of stout stuff and did not break...

Fortunately they remained in formation and so do not negatively impact the American force morale,

Despite having forced the Legion back British force morale was teetering...

...and a final round of musket fire from the Militia group inflicted enough shock on the British Line to force one group back more than two inches breaking their formation and reducing the British force morale to zero! The stars and stripes flies proudly over the bloody ground at Roebuck Fields!

Another enjoyable game of Sharp Practice with Andy, I really thought I'd blown it early on as his Skirmishers took mine out and exposed my flanks. Fortunately the Command tokens came out to my benefit at this point and the arrival of Lee's Legion was able to stem the inevitable collapse in the centre. 

I had decided before the game that I wanted to use them aggressively this time, rather than use just trading musket fire with their opponents as previous, and their charge and destruction of the British Line had a devastating effect on the British force morale which then disintegrated more quickly than mine (which was dropping at a worrying enough rate early on).

With three victories under my belt as the defender in each scenario I think it is only fair that next time the Patriot forces take to the offensive to see if we can show the British how it should be done (or more likely not!).

Sharp Practice: The Bettys Rescue

Following last week's battle, Andy and I met up again at BIG for another Sharp Practice AWI scrap. Andy suggested we try the Sweep The Table scenario with 80 points each. The scenario requires one side to sweep across the table attempting to find something, whilst the other filters onto the table as the game progresses and tries to stop them. We decided to continue the narrative from last week's game so it was agreed that the notorious British spy Thomas Bettys had feigned death and not been killed in the escort mission and was now hiding behind enemy lines with the British looking to rescue him!

The table was quite terrain heavy with five potential hiding places for the spy marked with little bits of paper...

The American deployment was delayed and each time their force commander's chip was pulled they roll 2D6. Once the total of that reached 14 they begin deployment on subsequent leader activations. This allowed the British to steal a march on the Americans with two groups of Light Infantry Skirmishers, two groups of Light Infantry in Line and three groups of Regulars swiftly entering the field of play...

Fortunately, for me, it only took two turns for me to roll a cumulative 14 and a group of Rebel Militia Skirmishers under the command of Corporal Rowsick quickly deployed into the orchard.

The British were swiftly moving up the board though, with Captain Simmonds detaching one group of Regulars under the command of Sergeant Palmer to investigate a house to see if the spy was within. Lieutenant James deployed the Light Infantry into line, whilst Sergeant Crawley and the skirmishers moved up past their flank.

Fortunately for the Americans two groups of Lee's Legion (Light Infantry in Line - using the British stat line) arrived under the command of Lieutenant Kraslow...

And then a unit of Militia commanded by Sergeant Horowitz who slowly moved into the orchard behind the skirmishers.

Spotting  Lieutenant James's Lights nearing the road junction Rowsick's skirmishers opened fire but missed!

Crawley and the two units of British light skirmishers rushed past the junction and up the road...

Whilst Sergeant Palmer and his Regulars searched the first building... only to find Tom Bettys was not inside.

By now Captain Pollack and this three groups of Continental Line had arrived along with another two groups of Militia under Ensign Dorfman.

Lieutenant James's Lights started trading volleys with the Lee's Legion formation under Lieutenant Kraslow's, both sides taking casualties and the British a lot more Shock than the Americans...

Corporal Rowsick's Militia skirmishers opened fire on one group of the British skirmishers, again missing the target (...so much for their legendary sniping capability!)

The British charged, throwing tomahawks at the Americans, forcing them to flee and taking double shock!

They then mercilessly stabbed the retreating Americans in the back capturing Corporal Rowsick! The American Force Morale dropped two points after this disastrous engagement!

Meanwhile Captain Pollack deployed his Continentals into Line despite marching through a wood.

And whilst this allowed Simmonds and his Regulars to get a volley off at them and inflict a small amount of Shock and one dead, they were able to retaliate with a devastating volley!

Rocked, the British regulars lost three men and gained a lot of Shock, but the ordeal was not over!

Before they could react, Pollack's Command chit was drawn again and the Continentals fired another volley into the British Regulars killing four more, piling the Shock on and forcing them back! The British Force Morale took a hit here...

.Captain Simmonds ordered Sergeant Palmer to hurry up bringing his house searching Regulars into line. A Firing Event caused by three flags in a row being drawn saw a pall of smoke settle between the British and Americans reducing the ability of both to hit their opponents.

Back in the orchard, Sergeant Horowitz split his formation, deploying one group of Militia against the British skirmishers who had captured Corporal Rowsick.

Eleven muskets shot out and three British redcoats fell dead, the remainder of the group taking Shock. Fortunately the captured Corporal Rowsick was not hit!

The other group of British Light skirmishers under Sergeant Crawley moved into the orchard and charged the second group of American militia...

A bloody melee ensued with four Redcoats dying but also five Americans with Sergeant Horowitz being wounded...

However he was still in command range of the other Militia group who themselves attacked the remaining British skirmshers...

...wiping them out...

...and capturing Sergeant Crawley in the process. With a group destroyed and a leader captured the British Force Morale dropped again!

Subsequently the Militia opened fire on the Redcoat skirmishers with the captured Rowsick. Accurate musket fire killed the remaining British, though the poor Corporal was knocked out by a glancing musket ball!

Back in the centre Sergeant Dorfman moved his militia up through the wood between Lee's Legion and the Continentals, one group unleashing a volley on James's Lights from the treeline...

Inflicting casualties and adding to the Shock built up against Lee's Legion, James's Lights were pushed back...

With one group breaking and running for the safety of their own lines! This resulted in the British Force Morale reducing to zero, the Americans had won the day!

A very enjoyable battle, I am getting a better handle on the rules, though thankfully Andy is a patient teacher when I get a bit confused! It was interesting to see how much more effective my Militia were in Sharp Practice compared to their usual ineptitude in Rebels and Patriots, though they still suck in melee combat.

Epilogue: aftre the battle Thomas Bettys was found hiding in the orchard by Patriot militia and will be tried and executed as a spy at a date to be decided by General Washington.