Monday, June 27, 2016

Monmouth Courthouse - Lee Attacks! at "The Weekend"

I travelled down to Lancaster, PA to put on a game using my computer-moderated rules, The Electronic Brigadier. The scenario was the same one I ran at Huzzah a couple of months ago, Lee's attack at Monmouth. It's an alternate version of the battle where Lee has the full volunteer regiments in his command instead of the hodge-podge units made from individual volunteer soldiers that doomed him to failure at the historical battle.
 











In this game, the British were very patient on their right flank and in the center. The Americans attacked more aggressively on their right, the western flank, and towards the end of the battle that's where the British units were failing morale and routing. Elsewhere the Americans were more deliberate which allowed the British to set up good defensive lines. American attacks late in the eastern half of the battlefield went in piecemeal and were handled easily with two and sometimes three British line regiments defending against single attackers - disastrous for the Americans.












The players all seemed to take to the computer interface quickly, both the younger players as well as those less experienced with the use of tablet computers. By turn four or so I was mostly only answering tabletop miniatures questions.

In the end, the stiff British defence in the center and on the eastern flank paired with the piecemeal attacks there by the Americans sealed the victory for the British. The post game statistics also support this conclusion:

British Rear Guard
  • Army cohesion: 68.2%
  • Total Casualties: 586 / 6640 (8.8%)
  • 3 routed units
  • 2 shaken units

  • Honors to: 113 - 2nd Grenadiers
American Advance Guard
  • Army cohesion: 70.1%
  • Total Casualties: 609 / 7420 (8.2%)
  • 4 units dispersed
  • 5 shaken units

  • Honors to: 221 - Grayson's Brigade
Thanks to all the players for their great game play, sportsmanship and feedback on the rules. Hopefully next year I can return to The Weekend with a new scenario, and possibly even a new historical period.






1 comment:

Unknown said...

Great blog - looks like you had fun!