Sharp Practice AWI American v British

My last game of 2023, an AWI Sharp Practice against Jerry and Dave playing a scenario from the 2023 Lard special "Raiding the Wilderness". Jerry took the British with Indian allies, I had the American Militia and Dave commanded the Continentals and State Line.

The British and their allies were attempting to raid a Rebel farmstead, seize supplies and ideally burn it down to show the Rebels the price of disloyalty!

All is quiet at the farm:

Beasts lurk in the woods while one lucky Native tries to drag three women off from an isolated hut:

The British are coming! Some militia skirmishers prepare to contest the farm:

A messenger sent back to the local Rebel commander has run in record time and returns with some State Line and Riflemen:

The Riflemen lead the way:

More Militia gather at the farm while the British send some Loyalist skirmishers into the woods. No sign of the Natives yet!

The Natives appear! Fire from the Militia is effective though reducing their numbers:

Fighting rages around the farm:

Natives mass on the flanks, the Militia are determined to defend their homes though:

State Line move up to threaten the flank of the British line:

The Natives have not managed to co-ordinate their attacks and the farm holds out:

One group of Natives charge home against the Militia! 

The State Line advance ominously on the British line:

The Militia hold the farm against the Native attack. Continentals charge the Natives in the rear!

With the farm solidly in the Militia's control, the British line heavily outnumbered and their Native allies fleeing the British withdraw and victory goes to the Rebels:

Another excellent game of SP with a bit more movement than usual. The variety of units was interesting and the scenario seemed better thought out than many. 

Jerry couldn't really co-ordinate his Natives into a single attack leaving them to be picked on one by one and the early appearance of Dave's State Line and Continentals didn't help either. The Militia also resolutely defended the farm to the death!

American War of Independence Rebels

One of the long abandoned projects I found when I did my inventory was a box of Essex 15mm American War of Independence figures.

Since I already had a load of 25mm AWI figures I have no idea why I bought these (or their British opposition). Looking at the figures there were enough for six 20 figure infantry regiments, three guns and crews and three generals.

As with the HYW English army I painted a few weeks ago I went for a quick and simple paint job on them to make them useable rather than works of art!

A Continental or State Line unit in brown coats:

Another Continental or State Line unit this time in blue coats:

A Militia unit prepare to defend their homes:

Another Militia unit emerges from the treeline:

Riflemen defend an earthwork:

The Green Mountain Boy's, a State Line unit, advance:

Three guns and crews:

The Rebel high command:

As with the HYW English I think they look okay considering how long I took to paint them. The Essex AWI range is quite limited and lacks a bit of variety really.

The question now is what to do with them? I have an equivalent number of 15mm AWI British most of whom are painted so they do have some opposition.

I thought about trying to turn them into a 'King of the Battlefield' army but firstly they would probably do very badly against 7YW armies and secondly there are nowhere near enough of them!

Once I finish the British I might try using a very old rule set, Washington's Wars, which I used to play many many years ago and enjoyed as they have some interesting ideas. Probably the most realistic thing to do with them though would be to stick them on eBay!

Rebels and Patriots AWI British v American

Having played several games of 'Men Who Would Be Kings' and heard good things about Dragon Rampant I bought a copy of the latest Osprey ruleset 'Rebels and Patriots'.

Once I'd had a quick read-through I thought I'd give them a trial solo game using the basic 24 point British and American Militia forces (though with the American mounted riflemen replaced by more infantry). Dicing for the officer personalities gave the British a 'Ruthless' officer who had to issue attack orders within 12" of the enemy and "Cunning" for the Rebels which would have let them use some dummy units.

I set up a fairly open table and deployed the two armies:

Both sides advanced with the odd unit failing to activate. The British Light Infantry got some lucky hits on the Rebel Riflemen and put two disorder markers on them:

The British officer was shot down and severely wounded by the Rebel Militia, slightly disconcerting his unit. Rebel Skirmishers tried to work around the British left flank:

One unit on each side has become rather exposed and have started to take hits:

The isolated British Infantry break for the rear but the British Grenadiers plug the gap. On the right the British Light Infantry push forward:

The isolated Rebel Militia unit takes heavy losses and falls back:

As the Rebel Riflemen are 'timid' in combat the British Light Infantry charge home but only inflict a single hit:

The two lines exchange fire. The British Light Infantry fall back reduced to half strength:

The British Infantry in the fenced field break and rout after a disastrous morale test. It's all over for the British!:

In total the British lost 26 figures to the Rebels 24.

So how does it compare to Sharp Practice and MWWBK? I think once you got the hang of it the game would play faster than SP. The unit activations (basically throwing 6+ on two die with various modifiers) are quickly done and do give some flavour to the different units.

Unlike MWWBK each side only has one officer so the effect of having a useful/useless officer with each unit is diluted. Looking at the traits table for the officers they don't seem as extreme as MWWBK.

Firing is simple to resolve as are the morale tests. The firing is not as deadly as MWWBK. Odd things happening on a double 1 or 6 for unit activation can have a big effect as well (similar to the 3 flags thing in SP). Movement is a set distance unless you issue an attack order where it is variable.

So a fairly simple ruleset that would give a quick game. Gary is a big fan of Dragon Rampant so perhaps we can give the rules another runout at the club sometime.