Hold The Line replay
Battle of Bemis Heights 7th October 1777.
In this scenario, the Americans (blue counters) must cross the river, push beyond the woods and capture two of the four redoubts (marked with blue objective counters) and inflict five casualty points on the British. The British also need 7 VP’s to win. There are 25 game turns and the Americans have 4 Action Points, while the British have 2. Set-up is pre-determined.
The River halts movement and units fired upon while in a river hex are more likely to take casualties, so getting across that river and pushing the British back, may be a tough task.
The Americans start by advancing their two flanks into the river, while firing on the British from their centre. Arnold is present
in the centre and he gives 2 extra fire dice. In response, the British begin to stretch their line out along the river bank. At first things look dire for the Americans. They take plenty of casualties as they cross the river and one of their elite units actually takes 4 losses and is removed from play.
However, by the end of game turn 5, American numbers begin to tell and several units have managed to get across the river to compromise the British flanks. The British have hung around a little too long and while trying to extract themselves, lose two units. This is a bad start for them.
As the two remaining British units start to take hits, they pull back towards the redoubts, taking even more casualties as they leave the woods and cross the open ground.
American forces begin to occupy the front edge of the wood and then wait for the rear units to catch up. This re-organisation lasts until turn 17, at which time the American line starts to advance across open ground
towards the redoubts. This is a very strong defensive position and the Americans may have been better waiting an extra couple of turns for all of their units to have come up from the rear, so they could overwhelm the defenders. On the British left, opening defensive fire scores 6,6,5, with devastating effect on an American unit (bottom right unit in the left photo), which takes 3 hits, dropping from strength 4 to strength 1. Unfortunately, the unit next to it had just taken 2 hits and gone to half strength. The American right looks as though it is about to collapse, though further along the line, a very poor performance by the British artillery, has allowed the Americans to advance right up to the redoubts.
The two armies are now in full contact, trading close quarter fire. Both sides take heavy casualties. With 3 of their units still too far to the rear and not enough game turns left for the army to retire, re-organise and launch a further attack, they have no choice but to push on at this critical point in the battle. They manage to overrun one of the redoubts, but this is short-lived , as a prompt counter-attack throws them back out. As the battle swings in favour of the British, Arnold personally leads an attack against the artillery battery but he gets caught in crossfire and is killed. This is a serious loss as the Americans not only lose his extra fire bonus but also their Action Points are reduced by one per turn. The situation
now looks impossible for the Americans and they retreat back to the woods. Artillery fire continues to harass them until finally, another unit is removed from play. This is enough for the British to gain their 7th victory point and to win the game.
This was a tough scenario for the Americans and if playing it again, I think I would take the time to try and ensure that all the American army moved up together, so that the attack on the redoubts could be sustained.
