Two Electronic Brigadier Games at Historicon 2022

I ran two sessions of my Battle of Monmouth scenario at Historicon 2022 last Saturday in Lancaster, PA. It was a marathon day but well worth it! The players seemed to have a great time and I got to show my rules to a bunch of new players. The experience has me re-energized to push forward with finishing up Napoleonics and to work more on getting the game master portion more public ready so I can start letting others use the rules.

More photographs can be seen in this gallery. 

This YouTube video shows the table between games. 

Also, if you're on Facebook, I've started up a group there for Electronic Brigadier. Announcements on when and how to become a play tester will likely be broadcast to that group first. It's an open public group. Feel free to join!

Electronic Brigadier - Freeman's Farm Game at Huzzah! 2019

This past weekend I ran a Freeman's Farm game using my Electronic Brigadier computer-moderated rules. This scenario has been tweaked over the years and after tuning is now great as an attack and defend scenario.

The British in this game used their reserves well, punching a hole in the middle of the American lines driving Morgan's rifles and several other units off the table. On the flanks the British suffered due to allowing the American militia units too much respect which allowed the minute men the ability to pour volley after volley of fire into the British. Flank attacks in the dense woods on both flanks while successful, were too slow to impact the battle's outcome.

In the end the British won the battle decisively, but at a cost similar to the historic battle - opening the door for a later successful American attack from Bemis heights.

I had the luxury of having all great players, many with Electronic Brigadier experience from previous conventions. Game play was at a very high level for a convention game. Hats off to all who played!

End of game statistics (28 turns played):
 
British Forces

Army cohesion: 68.6%
Total Casualties: 479 / 4427 (10.8%)
4 units dispersed
2 shaken units

Honors to: 112 - 20th Foot

American Forces

Army cohesion: 68.3%
Total Casualties: 442 / 4205 (10.5%)
4 units dispersed
1 routed units
2 shaken units

Honors to: 211 - 1st New Hampshire

Videos of the Game

Huzzah! 2018

I took a trip up to Huzzah! 2018 in Portland, Maine to host an AWI game of Electronic Brigadier. Huzzah! is a well run local convention hosted my our northern neighbors, the Maine Historical Wargamers Association. Huzzah! is a great place to meet up with local friends from other clubs in the area, play some games and do some shopping. There are great game offerings, and several excellent vendors. Here is a photo of club members Dave and Greg having a nice talk while Greg ran his Great Northern War game.

Speaking of Greg's game, here are some photos of it during setup and play. The game featured many of Greg's beautifully painted GNW figures, all painted by Greg himself. Greg's game ran concurrently with mine, but fortunately at a table in the same room as mine so I was able to snap these quick photos.

Greg's game ran smoothly and ran to conclusion before the end of the generous four hour game period. 

My friend Ed from Ed M's Wargame Meanderings blog also ran his game concurrently with mine. I took a few more photos of his game, which you will be able to view soon over at his blog.

My game was one that I've run before. The scenario was my Monmouth Courthouse game, "Lee Attacks!" This what-if scenario poses the question what would have come of the battle if Lee had convinced Washington to allow him to attack with volunteer regiments instead of only the individual volunteers from those units.

I was blessed with many players returning for their 2nd or 3rd time playing Electronic Brigadier. The two new players picked up the system quickly and by turn three the game was running itself with me providing a clarification on procedure or GM table ruling here and there. The 27 turns played during the four hour game period went quickly enough that I don't have a great memory of the entire flow of the battle, so I'll just list some significant events from it below.

Both sides played very competently. Dick Bryant's 1st British Lights skirmished the entire game and kept the British left flank secure, while his Dragoons went for a romp in the American back lines, causing some initial panic, but eventually the Americans turned a regiment of continentals and a battery in the direction of the Dragoons which sent them running back to their camp.

On the East flank the New Jersey militia got off one volley before being sent to the rear by a British charge. The 4th brigade commanders seeing how easy that was tried multiple charges into the New Jersey state troops, which were supported by a section of 6# artillery. These charges didin't go as well, eventually exhausting the 4th British brigade.

In the center the British advanced guard slugged it out with the American lead brigades. The Americans formed up their skirmishers after the first wave of charges sent them to the rear. Both armies had good solid lines. Mid-battle the casualties were slightly in favor of the Americans but late in the battle the British made up a lot of the lost ground in that department. In the end two successive charges by the first Guards regiment ended in catastrophic failure as they were repulsed by solid Continental line units. A quick review of the melee 'dice' rolls in the system showed that they got the worst side of  'General Dice' this day. 

At time, both armies had a significant amount of their force streaming to the rear and both armies suffered significant casualties. The American army got the better side of this near draw. End of game statistics were:

British Rear Guard Army cohesion: 64.1% Total Casualties: 737 / 6240 (11.8%) 3 units dispersed 1 routed units Honors to: 132 - 42nd Foot (3 stands)

American Advance Guard Army cohesion: 61.7% Total Casualties: 695 / 7420 (9.4%) 4 units dispersed 2 routed units 1 shaken units Honors to: 204 - 4th, 8th, 12th Virginia

Electronic Brigadier at Huzzah! 2017

This past Saturday, I hosted a game using Electronic Brigadier at Huzzah! 2017. The scenario was my Bemis Heights scenario, Gates Attacks! My previous play test report for the scenario can be found here.

I had several players return from previous EB convention games and a few new players. Everyone took to the rules and tablets quickly and seemed to have a fun time. The scenario was a close-fought affair with both sides losing units during the game. In the end, although the Americans were doing well, the British kept control of the redoubts and held the field for a marginal British victory.

The American commanders discuss their battle plan before the first turn.

The British commanders recording on the tablets while the Americans take their first turn.







Additional in-game photos below.

Final results at the end of the battle:

British Army Army cohesion: 64.6% Total Casualties: 577 / 4920 (11.7%) 2 units dispersed 1 routed units 2 shaken units Honors to: 104 - Rangers and Marksmen

American Army Army cohesion: 66.1% Total Casualties: 640 / 6800 (9.4%) 1 units dispersed 2 routed units 1 shaken units Honors to: 224 - 2nd New York

During the morning session I was also able to sneak out and get two photos of Earl's game. Apologies to Phil, as the photos I took of his game came out too blurry. 

Adler Con - After Action Report

Yesterday was the first Adler Con - a small one-day gaming convention for historical, science fiction and board gaming. Several of my fellow Northern Conspirators hosted games. I took a tour of the venue in the morning during set-up and snapped the following photographs.

Being the first time this was run, attendance was a bit low. There were more game slots than attendees. This is of course less of a problem than the reverse, but there were some games that didn't get filled. Mine was among one of those. Still the quality of games was very high, and everyone who attended had a good time. More about my game below these photos:

For my offering, I chose to re-run my Battle of Monmouth scenario that I ran at Huzzah! 2016 and The Weekend 2016. This is my planned final public running of this scenario for a while. Next Huzzah! I'll be running a new scenario for the battle of Bemis Heights - the Colonial army attacking the British redoubts.

For this game one of my blog readers, Kevin, was keen to see the Electronic Brigadier rules in action. Without the full compliment of players, we decided to use one brigade each from the scenario and try out a small game. Kevin played well, and took good advantage of my aggressive play, eventually routing my best unit. From there the writing was on the wall, but we played on for fun, eventually with additional units on each side leaving the table or in serious jeopardy. In the end, Kevin's regiment of light infantry and his howitzer remained on the field of battle with my force heading for their camp. Well done Kevin!

Adler Con

My friend Gordon from Adler Hobby is going to be running a one-day gaming convention, on January 28th. For more information, visit the convention website at http://minigamecon.bravesites.com/

There will be plenty of historical wargames, science fiction, board and fantasy games as well. I'll be running my Battle of Monmouth scenario with The Electronic Brigadier.

"Robbie Con" 2016

This past weekend, a bunch of us headed up to Chester, VT to game Friday-Sunday with our friend and fellow Northern Conspirator Robert "The Rouse". Robert has an old Victorian Vermont home that the company he works for has converted into a conference center. With us all chipping in a few dollars he can rent it for the weekend and game with a couple dozen of his closest friends. This was a half board gaming and half wargaming weekend. The wargaming happened on top of a ping-pong table located in the "creepy clown room" - named for the photo on the wall pictured to the left.

I messed up and didn't have my memory card in my camera until we were wrapping up and doing the AAR for our first game. Apologies to Charlie, who ran a great game of Napoleon's Rules of War - French vs British and Spanish. Ed will have plenty of photos of this game on his blog as soon as he posts his update on Robbie Con.

As you can see by the photo of my sector of the battle below, Robert did an excellent job of destroying my command which was supposed to hold the flank. The troops you see there surrounding Robert's attacking troops are ones Ralph committed from our reserve. Without them we would have been toast.

 

 Next up was a Galatian vs Ptolomaic battle run by Ralph using Hanibal at the Gates. Rob, Charlie and Ed played the Ptolomaics and Byron, Dave Cheng and I ran the Galatians. Dave runs the excellent convention Council of Five Nations which is coming up in a week in a half. If you're not busy check it out. In this one the Ptolomaics had the run of the barbarians. Early clashes between elephants came up all Ptolomey and the Ptolomaic cataphract and infantry battle lines held strong to combined Galatian infantry and cavalry attacks.

The final game on Sunday was Robert's house rules for Napoleonics. These rules will re-use our extensive collection of 15mm Napoleonics that are based for Volley and Bayonet. Robert's rules have a few similarities to V&B, but for the most part are a complete re-write with new combat and morale systems. Robert has done an extensive amount of work on the rules and every time we play them they get better and are more fun.

In this game the scenario was Ralph, Robert and I commanding the French and Dave, Charlie and Rob command the Austrians. We gave our largest division to Robert with a command to attack the Austrian left. Ralph massed artillery in the center in hopes to support the attack and I held the right with a lesser force hoping to buy time for our attack.

Robert's attack went in hard and fast. It also got destroyed hard and fast (sorry Robert!). The Austrians countered Robert's attack with their heavy cavalry and a series of surgical counter-attacks. In the center Ralph's grand battery just managed to hold, although it was well battered. On my flank I gave as good as I got, but with less assets the writing was on the wall, with the Austrian converged grenadiers moving to my flank to guarantee the job got finished properly. Victory to the Austrians.

Three days gaming with friends. You can't get any better than that! Thanks for a great weekend Robert.