HTL Quebec session report

As I alluded to in the previous post, Mark K. and I played a couple of games of the Quebec battle scenario from the Clash for a Continent scenario book, although we used the slightly different rules published in Hold the Line along with the components from that game.

And as I mentioned, the outcome was a bit unexpected, as the French managed to win both times. Historically, of course, they were decisively defeated in a very short fight, about a quarter of an hour.

Both our games went far longer than that, nearly running out the 20-turn clock as a matter of fact. As the scenario map shows, both armies begin the action within engagement range, which is not common in the series.
I started with the French. My initial plan was to try to advance on both flanks and then use Bouganville's reinforcements to hit whichever flank was the weaker one. As an aside, the scenario includes Bouganville's detachment, which historically was not on the field. Montcalm chose not to wait for his detached troops before beginning his advance.

The initial shooting from the French artillery and the Indians in the woods was highly effective and prompted the British to refuse both flanks and drop their hole line back out of artillery range. I became concerned that I might run out of time so I decided to try pushing on my left (the British right) flank because I thought there's be a greater chance that Bouganville's troops would be able to get onto the field without being too cramped by terrain and enemy units.

And this was essentially how it played out, as Bouganville came on the board next to the small knoll next to the river. It was, however, a close-run thing as the close-rage fighting was naturally quite bloody. With both armies teetering on the edge with 5 VPs each I closed with several units. This risked a lucky leader hit bringing the battle to an end but the British muskets, while able to cause a lot of damage to the troops, were unable to find an officer. With many muskets to bear the French return fire was able to get the last VP. Final score 6-5.

The flip-side of the match was much grimmer or the British. Mark's Indians were very active, seeming able to run up, take a shot and run back unscathed. His militia was also uncharacteristically deadly, with a couple of British line units actually being destroyed by militia fire. Each attempt to advance into effective range left a bunch of British units shattered. By Turn 12 the French were up to a 5-0 lead.

The surviving British hunkered down in tight formation and several fresh units formed a human shield while Wolfe rallied some of the shaken survivors. The French had a hard time getting that last VP as their muskets fouled, apparently. The British even managed to morale boost by finally killing a French unit. Still, the French edge was overwhelming at that point and it was only a matter of time before the final VP came their way. Final score was 6-1.

Our initial impression had been that the French were likely to face a hard time in this scenario, being outnumbered at the outset and being stuck with militia for a significant portion of their OB. Mark called them "walking Victory Points." Normally that has been out experience, but in this scenario the militia, especially in the second game, performed way above expectations.

Similarly the Indians ended up performing very well for both of us, which is a little surprising because there wasn't an awful lot of woods on this battlefield.

I'm not entirely persuaded that the French are favored in the scenario, despite the outcomes of both fights, but they clearly are competitive with the British. Having twice as many guns and a veryn open battlefield in which to use them seems to go a long way towards evening the score.

Units of Hold the Line

Hold the Line, along with its French and Indian War expansion and the very similar predecessor Clash for a Continent uses a relatively small number of disparate unit types to recreate a large number of battles in North America during the 1758 to 1781 period. It will be interesting what adjustments the system will see as it moves into the more complex Napoleonic era later this year.

Warfare in North America in the latter half of the eighteenth century was very much a foot soldier's fight due to the challenges of the wilderness and its distance from European bases of supply. In Hold the Line and its sister games a lot of the interest provided by the battles is in the interaction between the orders of battle and the terrain. This makes the more flexible command system it uses seem more appropriate to its setting than the more formal left-center-right breakdown used in Borg's game system would be. That seems better suited to the more formal nature of European warfare.

Still, it's the units that decide the action, so here they are. In each case the order is, from left, British, American and, when present, French:



Regular Line Infantry -- These are the ubiquitous, core element of the game, appearing on at least one side in every single scenario. Most of the time the infantry has a morale point (MP) strength of 4, but occasionally understrength units appear with an MP of 3. The forte of these units is staying power. Except in rare cases, they cannot be destroyed by a single volley and most of the time will have to be whittled down by repeated attacks. At full strength they will probably succeed in making a Close Combat morale check. Likewise they will probably hold their position when facing a Close Combat attack.

Elite Infantry -- Only the British and Americans have these units. They're pretty common in British armies, appearing 21 times in the 33 scenarios of Hold the Line, HTL French and Indian War expansion and Clash for a Continent. The Americans get elite infantry in just four scenarios. In most cases the "Elite" infantry doesn't represent formal elite units such as Grenadiers (although they can represent them sometimes) but merely regular line units that distinguished themselves in the particular fight. Elite infantry shares all the characteristics of Regular Line Infantry with some additional benefits. One of the more important benefits is that they get a +1 bonus on all morale check rolls, which means that they are very likely to stick around for Close Combat. Their most useful characteristic is that they get a saving roll whenever they might lose their last step and half the time they don't. While certainly not something to build a battle plan around, their refusal to die can be very annoying to your opponent and a source of good cheer to you. The advanced/optional rules give them an additional benefit -- at full strength they roll 4 dice when attacking. The British counter appears to depict fusiliers.

Light Infantry -- Their forte is movement -- moving twice as fast as line troops, while having equal firepower. They have slightly less staying power than most line troops with a maximum strength of 3, but their biggest foible is simply numbers. While they show up fairly often (there are just 12 scenarios where they don't appear on at least one side), it's never in large numbers. The most any side will ever have is two in its order of battle, making them just supporting units.


Militia Infantry -- They have no forte, aside from existence. They show up a lot, there are only 13 scenarios where they don't appear. Unlike the Light Infantry, there's often a lot of Militia Infantry. On the positive side, they fire as effectively as the regulars, but with just 2 MP they are always just one bad roll away from sudden disappearance. It's rarely worth spending action points to rally them so the best thing to do with a damaged militia unit is pull it out of the line, if you can. There are no French militia in the countermix, they use the Tory militia


Indians -- While sharing the vulnerability to fire and bad morale of Militia Infantry, Indians have some special abilities which go a long way towards making them useful units. For one thing, they can move and fire or, perhaps more importantly, fire and then move, making them good at harassing enemy troops while being tough to come to grips with. Combined with the fact that they do NOT have to stop when passing through woods hexes and they become quite dangerous. There are a a half dozen scenarios that involve a large number of Indians such as the Battle on Snowshoes, Bloody Bridge, Fort Dusquesne, Lake George, Oriskany and Bushy Run, but the other four times they show up only one or two appear, making them bit players. There are only two battles, Lake George and Oriskany, where Indians appear on both sides in a scenario. Interestingly, the Indian "flag" on the counter is the flag of the Iroquois Confederation. The different colors are used to tell the units apart on the few occasions where Indians were on both sides.


Rangers -- Definitely the best units in the game, they have the mobility of the Indians and the firepower and benefits of being Elite troops. Their only drawbacks are their MP of 2 and the fact they are exceedingly rare, appearing in just the five scenarios of the French and Indian War expansion. And except for the Battle for Snowshoes, where they represent the entire force, they have just one or two units present, making them another supporting unit. They only fight on the British side, although they are colonials. Oddly, the Ranger counter is double-length, even though they're only a 2 MP unit. They are the only such unit in the system. All other 2MP units are square, while all the other double-length counters have maximum MPs of 3 or 4.

Dragoons -- Unlike European warfare of the era, fighting in North America rarely involved more than a handful of mounted troops. Often the dragoon unit in a HTL scenario represents as few as 20 or so troopers, which would be a negligible number on a European battlefield. Their very rarity could give them an impact far outside of their numbers in North American fighting, as many troops (militia, Indians) had no training at all in anti-cavalry techniques and even the line troops could be caught by surprise. The Dragoon units are speedy, moving up to three hexes, and have the ability to move and attack, although less effectively than infantry. They cannot Close Combat, which seems a little odd, frankly. They also have a maximum strength of 2, which means they won't take much punishment. They don't appear very often, in just 14 scenarios. In just two cases (Brandywine and Cowpens) are there enough dragoon units on both sides that anything like a cavalry battle might occur. In nearly every other case there's just one of two dragoon units present, often only on one side. There are no French dragoons in the counter mix. The British Dragoon shown is from Tarleton's Legion.

Artillery -- If North America wasn't good cavalry country, it was even worse for gunners. If using the optional/advanced rules, artillery units are nearly useless against troops in woods, and in any case they will find the terrain in many scenarios working against their forte -- range. Artillery units have the longest range of units in the game, although it's not much of an edge -- just 3 hexes compared to the 2 hexes of infantry units. The artillery fires a little more effectively than infantry, but doesn't have the option of Close Combat. With a strength of just 2, the guns are subject to quick silencing by good rolls. They do appear often, however. There are just 6 scenarios with no guns at all, and in most of the other scenarios there are 2-3 gun units on at least one side.


Leaders -- Personal leadership plays a big role in the game, so leaders appear in all scenarios, generally two per side. Leaders provide many direct benefits -- the ability to rally units to replace losses, morale benefits for attack and defense, increased movement and, if using the advanced/optional rules, more dice in close combat. Their drawback is that they can be killed while providing these benefits, giving the enemy a VP. The game mechanic for this (potential hits on a die roll of 1, followed up by another die roll of 1) basically give the attacker an extra bite at the apple when it comes to scoring VPs in an attack, so players need to carefully consider the risks and benefits of leading from the front. Hold the Line introduced leaders with additional combat value and hit values. All the leaders in Clash for a Continent were, in effect 1/1 leaders, which means they added 1 die in combat or +1 to morale and dies when taking a single hit. In HTL and the French and Indian War expansion there are 2/1, 1/2 and even 2/2 leaders. A 2/1 leader adds an important combat benefit, a +2 is a big deal in this game system, but at high risk because a single hit will take the leader out of the game for a VP. Examples of 2/1 leaders are guys like Wolfe, Levis, Murray, Rahl, Kyphausen, Arnold, Campbell, Ferguson and Marion -- inspirational who sometimes took a bullet. Slightly less common are 1/2 leaders. These men, who include Dumas, Fraser, Howe, Greene, Williams, Clinton and Shelby, can be risked at the front a little more freely because they'll get a chance to pull out if they get hit once. The 2/2 leaders are, of course, definitely worth putting in charge of your main effort, providing robust and powerful leadership. The leaders getting this honor include some of the most legendary figures of the wars such as Rogers, Wolfe, Pontiac, Washington, Cornwallis, Rawdon and Mawhood. Leaders move 3 hexes and have combat value of their own, but enhance friendly units.

Quebec 1759 2.0 session report

Mark K. and I capped off our full day of gaming with a match of Quebec 1759 using the new 2.0 version of the rules, which adds leaders Montcalm and Wolfe and changes the value-less decoys of previous editions into 1CV "detachments" that proved to be of considerable value indeed.

Unlike the other session reports from that game day, this one won't include any pregame strategy notes for the very good reason that I had very little clue what I would do under the new rules!

Mark drew the French first, which suited me fine, because that meant I could put off deciding what to do even longer as the British setup is fixed and I could see how Mark might cope with the new conditions. He opted to stick with a typical French defend-the-beaches set up, with his blocks divided more or less evenly between the four zones of Levis, Montmorency, Beauport and St. Charles. I decided to use four of the detachments on suicide scouting missions which revealed that each beach was defended by a substantial force, with St. Charles a little stronger.

As each assault was going to be about as tough I decided to go for Levis, on the theory that it was the hardest to reinforce and success there would open up a larger part of the board. My first attempt at an assault by four 4CV regiments was bloodily repulsed, although I did do significant damage to the defending French militia. A second landing stayed ashore, as the outgunned French took their double-shot volley at the disembarking British and then retreated to Etchemin.

As the British built up their strength the French consolidated their troops at Abraham. There ensued a conventional British campaign of burning farms (occupying zones) and cutting supply (capturing Cap Rouge) followed by a turn 16 move into Abraham for a climatic battle that ended up going the British way.

Pondering the lessons of the first game, I decided that the forward French beach defense was obsolete now that the British had a plentiful supply of expendable scouts. Under the old rules impatient British players might be ambushed by an unexpectedly strong French force and more prudent British players would be forced to spend a couple of turns and risk some decent units to scout the French setup. Now the British could simply send out four detachments to use skirmish combat to reveal the whole French force.

Instead I decided to stuff St. Charles and Levis with units, almost half the French host, while holding Montmorency and Beauport with a detachment and a militia, respectively. My idea was that I would make St. Charles and Levis unassailable and force the British to commit to a north shore advance.

The British did, indeed, land at Montmorency and Beauport and started a buildup. When they got about halfway through I pulled the St. Charles forces back to Abraham and started the Levis troops to Etchemin. This was done to try to induce the British to split their forces and also use the whatever Levis troops survived (they were mostly Quebec militia with a few Montreal militiamen) to reinforce the main army.

About half the British force ended up going the Levis route, followed by the fleet. It soon became apparent that the British were stuck between the horns of a dilemma. Neither half of the British force was strong enough to take on the whole French militia-enhanced army by itself, but there was no way to combine them in the time left. Likewise there wasn't enough time left to capture Cap Rouge and hold it long enough to cut down on the number of Montreal militia. The British conceded on turn 15.

Mark K. and I have decided on a rematch. I want to see if I can come up with a counter for this new French approach.

Hold the Line session report

Continuing my series of prospective strategy discussions followed by post-game session reporting, is a look at the Hold The Line scenario Louisbourg.

This situation is kind of like an Eighteenth Century Omaha Beach. A British force lands on the beach in the teeth of a fortified defensive line and has to fight its way inland.




As always, any discussion of strategy starts with a look at the Objective, what the victory conditions require. As is usual in the Wars for America system, victory is achieved by accumulating victory points, with the most common source being eliminated enemy units, at one VP each.

For the French, victory is achieved by getting 7 victory points or avoiding the British victory conditions.

For the British the goal is also 7 VPs, but they only have 18 turns to do it, which makes this one of the shorter scenarios in the game system. It also clearly puts the burden of attack on the British. In addition to VPs for eliminating enemy units, the British have four victory points of objective hexes deep behind the French lines.

Terrain.

The left two-hex deep edge of the map is the ocean, from which the British invaders will come.

There's one hex of hill on the beach, but otherwise the French have a clear line of fire at the disembarking British. The main French position is made up of a five-hex long line of entrenchments, which provide protection from fire and morale benefits. Behind the French line the rest of the battlefield is made up of clear terrain with scattered woods hexes providing some cover but far enough apart to provide plenty of movement paths.

Order of battle:

The French are heavily outnumbered. They have a single leader, five regular infantry, an artillery unit and one band of Indians. The VP value of the entire force is 8, so the British victory condition is, essentially, to wipe out the French force. The VP hexes mean the French cannot simply run away, they will have to fight.

The British host comprises 22 pieces. There are two leaders, two Elite infantry, two light infanty, a unit of American rangers and 10 regular infantry. They also have five boats to carry them ashore. The first wave of British comprises the rangers, both elites and both light infantry, along with one leader.

Plans:

My objective as the French is to take advantage of the fortified line to achieve a positive kill ratio against the British. I expect British numbers to tell, eventually, and be forced to fall back either because of British flankers or because the British have penetrated the line.

Three of the French regulars will man the line, along with the cannon and fire at will against British troops within range. A fourth regular will pull back slightly and be used to guard the line against any short flanking moves. The Indians will be used to guard against any infiltrating rangers or light infantry. The last regular and leader Saint Julien will form the general reserve, either assisting the Indians if the British try an infiltration strategy or helping guard the flanks of the entrenched line.

My British plan aims to stretch the French by posing multiple threats and then exploit the weakest point in the line that develops. This could mean infiltrating rangers or light infantry past the flanks, taking the entrenchments in the flank or pushing directly into the French main line of resistance.

The British only have enough boats to carry one third of their force at a time, so the invaders are naturally broken down into three waves. The first wave is set by the scenario setup and comprises the rangers, both elite infantry and the two lights, along with 2/1 leader Wolfe. As this wave comes ashore it will pressure the French left flank by threatening to outflank the line with the light infantry. Wolfe and the elites with him will shelter on the hill while waiting for the second wave to arrive. The other Elite will endeavor to occupy the attention of the cannon in order to spare the rangers, who will lie low in the early going.

The priority for commands will be to empty the boats as soon as possible and bring on the second wave at the earliest opportunity. This wave will comprise leader Amherst and five of the regulars, who will join Wolf for the main assault on the French line. Once the French are fully committed the rangers will make a break for the VP hexes. I don't necessarily expect them to make it, but the threat may be enough to provide a critical edge in the main fight by drawing off French units and commands.

The third wave will be loaded and brought on if extra commands allow, but I don't think they can arrive in time to have a real impact.


The Battles:


I started with the French side in my game with Mark K. Frankly things went precisely according to plan for the first half of the game and I was feeling pretty good about the overall situation. Mark was trying to win pretty much with the initial wave, spending nearly all his action points moving and fighting those troops, with just a few spared to bring on a trickle of second wave forces.


And this plan wasn't working all that well. His elite troops and the few regulars on the beach were making no headway against the main French line, and I was even able to wipe out the rangers on the beach with cannon and musket fire.


About the only worrisome aspect of the situation was on the French left flank, where the British light infantry was able to slide past the French flank and threaten the rear VP hexes, although one of those light infantry was reduced to just 1 morale point. As per the plan I had the Indian band and a leader-led regular unit detailed to deal with that threat.


While this should have been sufficient force, it wasn't. The first sign of trouble appeared when I got a little too feisty with the Indians and let them stray within long-range of the lights, who promptly eliminated them with a single volley! Now it was up to St. Julien and his regulars to hold off the lights, a task they failed at miserably. Because the British lights could just sweep up the VP markers without stopping it seemed necessary to park the regulars on one of the markers to force the lights into range if they wanted to claim the points. They accepted the challenge and moved up on both sides of the regulars to set up a flanking attack.


Here I blundered. There was still a lot going on elsewhere and I was loathe to spend my limited stock of command points on just this one threat, so I spent the one AP to fire at the weaker light infantry (in order to break up the flanking bonus) and promptly missed. In retrospect I think I should have spent the 3AP needed to make a leader-led close combat against that weak light infantry because it was critical that it be taken out.


On the following turn the two British lights fired with flanking bonus and wiped out the French regulars, although St. Julien escaped. The way was clear for them to sweep up the four VP markers and they did, suddenly putting the British way ahead in VPs with several turns left to get the last one they needed. The British had 4 VPs for objective markers, 1 for the Indian and 1 for the French regular, so the two British light infantry were responsible for all of the British success! The French tried falling back but the British were able to pick off the last VP they needed for a 7-1 win.


On the flip side, I tried executing my British plan, spending the majority of my action points to bring on the first two waves of British. The created a scenario that really did resemble Omaha Beach, and not in a good way. Mark insisted the dice were about average and they probably were, but it sure seemed like the French fire was exceptionally effective and British casualties mounted. Even though I tried rotating damaged units out of the line to rally them it did no good as the casualties came too fast to keep up.


I was able to spring the rangers into the French rear by covering their advance with regular troops. The Indians weren't able to stop the rangers from picking up all four VP markers, but as it turned out that was a Pyrrhic victory. On the beach the French were closing in on their 7 VP and bringing in parts of the third wave just seemed to add more targets.


The final score was 7-4 for the French.


Mark's approach was probably better, I think the first British wave needs to be active enough that it creates space for the second wave to come ashore. I ended up just giving the French more folks to shoot at.


Interestingly, in neither game was it possible to stop the British from infiltrating someone through to pick up the 4 VPs in the rear. Mark was better able to absorb this loss because he didn't pull any regulars away from the main fight on the beach. My French lost no units on the beach, but also were not able to inflict any permanent losses on the British. Mark's French concentrated on pummeling the beach landing and let the Indians try to protect the rear area unsupported. This proved to be the better solution.


Despite the fact my French lost, I do think my approach could also have worked, but for some mistakes on my part, so I would consider the French side slightly favored in this scenario.