No-one Has Blundered!

 Face to Face gaming resumed in GHQ after a week's forced hiatus resulting from illness in Phil's close family and isolating in mine following close contact with a Covid 'leper'! With luck now we will be back to gaming in alternate venues, so for this last time in GHQ for a while I asked Phil to choose a game. His choice fell on an AWI game, so I first laid out a table and then decided on the armies: Hessians v Continentals! Von Bikelberg v Benedict A Robinson perhaps? See how it panned out now in the following photomontage ~

In Turn 1, with the initiative lying with the American Rebels, their first brigade advances very slowly along the road bordering the Watkiss Farm.

Their slow approach allows the sluggish Hessians to rouse themselves in their camp on Watkiss Meadow and push out troops to stall the American advance.

In Turn 2 Von Bikelberg arrives at the head of the second Hessian brigade. The Fusilier regiment with support from a 4ld gun makes a sweep to the east of the farm while he leads the remaining troops straight up the road for the farm.

By Turn 3 the American Continentals are finally getting into their firing lines, harassed by the fire of the Dragoons and the Light artillery piece.

The Fusilier regiment and their supporting 4ld gun are making heavy weather of their flanking move, allowing Arnold's Second Brigade of Continentals to steal the advantage.

In the distance as Turn 4 opens we see Arnold's Second Brigade of Continentals begin their advance on the left flank of the First Brigade , whilst the remaining Hessians finally get organised in the meadow and begin to form for action. 

The Hessian Fusiliers are deployed lining the fences surrounding the farm's cultivated fields, isolated from the test of the force they ready themselves for action.

Support is slow to arrive on the Fusiliers' left, but mercifully Arnold's Continentals are equally tardy. In the distance fighting has erupted around the Hessian camp in the Meadow. Casualties there are mounting steadily and troop morale on both sides is shaky already.

A closer look at the fighting around the Hessian camp in the Meadow reveals the toll already taken from the 5th New York while the Hessian Dragoons and Light artillery piece have also lost men in the developing firefight.

The Regiment Von Rall has finally deployed into a firing line in time to confront the 3rd New York who have relieved the battered and Shaken 5th. The 9th Pennsylvania have moved up also to engage the Dragoons lining the Meadow's fence line.

The 3rd New Jersey, the Blues, boldly advance through the crops to attack the Hessian Fusiliers who calmly await their fate.

Regiment Von Rall and the Dragoons have the better of the firefight! The 9th and 3rd are driven back Shaken while the 5th are on the verge of collapse when the Brigade's commander is shot down!

He met his fate unflinchingly leading his men, dying with his face to the enemy. The 5th are Shaken by this and fall back as the Regiment Von Rall advances on them, bayonets glinting in the Spring sun.

Back on the other flank the fighting is fierce as the 3rd New Jersey are joined by the 4th and 8th Virginia Continentals. Casualties mount for both the Virginians and the Hessian Jaegers as neither will yield ground to their foe!

On the other flank the determined advance of the regiment Von Rall drives back the Broken First Brigade, although the retiring Yankees keep up what fire they can to discourage the Hessians from closing with the bayonet!

The Fusiliers, supported doggedly by the brave Jaegers, have halted the remaining brigade if Continentals in the fields and along the road. Surviving heavy fire they shrug off loses and hold their ground.

Regiment Von Rall is finally broken in rout by mounting losses caused by the galling fire from the retiring Brigade. Von Bikelberg has too many Shaken units to press the Americans closely. Their Broken brigade will be able to safely withdraw from the field unmolested by their foe. 

The remaining brigade of Virginians and the New Jersey Blues are too strong to be assaulted by the remaining Hessians. The brave Fusiliers, supported by the stubborn Jaegers have fought the Continentals to a standstill but lack the support to press them as they prepare to withdraw from the action.

A smaller game than many here in GHQ produced a tense fight over the full twelve turns. The fortunes of war swung both ways from turn to turn, but never favouring one side for long enough to turn the game in their favour. An honourable draw then, slightly in the favour of the Hessians! Black Powder 2 as ever gave an excellent and gripping game right down to the wire! All being well next week will see a SYW game featuring here in GHQ, allowing the Hessians to flex their military muscle in a European setting for a change alongside their British employers.