Neilson House - Saratoga Battlefield

The Neilson house is the lone original building remaining on the Saratoga battlefield. According to our guide, there was also another house on the battlefield at the time of the battlefield that was similarly constructed. The plaque says this is a replica, so possibly the other one is the original. Either way, this is as accurate as you can get for a Saratoga house. This small house was the home for 11 people during the period before the battle.

According to our guide, the front porch was most likely a post-battle addition, probably done by the park service for the comfort of visitors to provide some cover during rain. The interior of the house is currently furnished as it might have been during the battle - as Benedict Arnold's headquarters. I took ample photographs of this building in hopes of making one for myself using my laser engraver.

Saratoga National Park Visit

The second day of our trip was to Saratoga National Park. For those who haven't visited this park I would highly recommend it. The park is well preserved and encompasses the area for both battles (Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights) as well as the entire American Camp at the top of Bemis heights as well as a majority of the British non-combat areas.

We hired a private tour guide, Jim who was excellent. Jim's knowledge of the battlefield was vast, including being up to date on current interpretations from various sources and authors. Jim wore an authentic Canadian Coureur de Bois reenactor's uniform to add to the ambiance of the day. Jim had experience playing boardgame wargames and tailored some of his explanations to our hobby for us which was fantastic.

My only regret is that I took very few good photos of the battlefield terrain itself. For more photos, you can see the photos from my previous visit to the battlefield here. Amazingly enough, our guide Jim was also at the battlefield that day as my previous photos show. This was a fantastic day, even bearing to mind the oppressive 95-degree heat.

Bennington Battlefield Visit

Last week, six of my fellow Northern Conspirators and I took a four day road trip to visit the nearby AWI battlefields of Bennington, Saratoga and Hubbardton as well as to attend the 2016 reenactments at Fort Ticonderoga. Since I took a ton of photos, and some video at the Fort Ti reenactment, I will be breaking the trip up into multiple posts. This first one will cover the first stop on our tour, the Bennington battlefield. The Bennington battlefield is preserved by the State of Vermont. It is the battlefield that we collectively knew the least about, despite having gamed it several times. The primary feature is the hilltop location of the German fortifications. The height of this and the slope of the surrounding terrain is impressive. It's not quite as rocky or difficult to climb as the front face of Little Round Top at Gettysburg, but the rise and run of the elevation are both greater when compared to the more well known feature. 

At the top of the hill there are a couple of plaques which give a general layout of the battle as well as a highly detailed cast (bronze?) relief map of the battlefield area showing the layout of the hills and valleys.  This was a quick stop at the end of our half-day drive from the seacoast of NH to Bennington, which is on the western border of Vermont.

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.

Photos From The Weekend 2016

I've been out of town the past 10 days, primarily to take an RV trip to Lancaster, PA to attend Otto Schmidt's "The Weekend". This is a invitation-only non-convention - a weekend of informal gaming with a bunch of your new friends - at least that's how I see it. Otto arranges for the hotel and conference space. There is a bring-and-buy table and everyone who contributes to the 'snack table' can enjoy munchies and drinks all weekend for free.

Otto does a great job of setting up a schedule of games. Then a bunch of us show up play and run and play in those games and a bunch of others. If you're looking for some good gaming on Father's Day weekend in PA, drop Otto an E-mail at sigurd@eclipse.net and he'll add you to the invitation list. I highly recommend it for people who like to game, meet new friends, and don't want the hassle of a formal convention.

These first three photos are of Otto's game which I spent considerable time watching. The rest of are other games that I thought looked interesting. My next post will contain photos and an after-action of the game I ran on Saturday at "The Weekend".

HATG Play Test Game

Last Friday six of us got together at my uncle's to play test some upcoming changes to Hanibal at the Gates. The changes are mostly in how warriors (Gauls) work and some fine tuning to how armor interacts with the combat tables. The game was a Roman attack straddling a river with a two reinforced legions on each side of the river. Mike and I pushed our half or the Roman army against Byron, who had the Carthaginian hoplites and cavalry from the Carthaginian army. On the other side of the river Rob pushed his force against Hanibal's Gaul wing commanded by Bob.

It seemed like all the changes were good improvements to game play and enjoyability.