Mark and I both went into this scenario highly dubious about the British army's chances. I got the British for the first go-around,
While the British host grossly outnumbered the French, half of it was American militia, which experience had already shown us were as likely as not more trouble than they were worth. I know I had no intention of letting many of them anywhere within the range of the French.
The remaining British were high quality 4-factor line, a couple of 4-factor elites and a 3-factor light infantry and led by two officers, so they had an edge over the French, who were all 3-factor infantry, except for a couple of generals. But the French manned a line of entrenchments with a 2-hex wide field of fire, so it looked like t would be tough for the British to avoid losing six VP worth of units before they killed a like number of French, and the three VP counters deep inside the French position looked quite out of reach.
My plan as the British was to extend my left through the woods facing the French right, mostly to pin those French in position. Then I would attack the opposite end of the French line, next to the waterway, hoping to induce a gap in the French center which would then be assaulted by my third wave, the two elite units and a helper.
In the actual event the waterway flank assault, despite taking some grievous losses from French volleys, managed to get a full-strength British line unit next to the entrenchments. With a hurrah they scaled the parapet and gained entry. The immediate French counterattack failed and I rushed some more nearby British units into the breach, including one of the elites. The French were forced to fall back to the central hill. After a slight detour to collect the victory point inside the fort hex, the British successfully stormed the hill. Between the VP markers on the hill and French casualties they made their six points.
We were a little surprised by the result and concluded that the scenario was more competitive than it first appeared. It does leave me pondering what the French defensive policy ought to be, because it appears that the entrenchment line isn't quite the obstacle I thought it was, based on previous battles. One key difference in this particular fight is that the French have no artillery at all, whereas in previous scenarios the forts always had a cannon unit which was usually devastating to some attackers. In this scenario on the other hand, it's all up to the muskets.
While a Clash for a Continent scenario and played under that game's rules, we used the pieces from Hold the Line. this worked so well I'm considering freeing up some shelf space by eBaying my copy of Clash.
One way in which things could have gone very differently would be if you had lost a leader early on (before gaining the ramparts) or even later. Your actions would be reduced by one which I think would be a very significant handicap. As it was, I had plenty of chances to kill leaders but the dice never came up. I think it might be more prudent to storm the ramparts without the leaders, actually.
ReplyDeleteThe French on the other hand can, at least at the beginning, use their leaders more safely since they will generally get the first volley at close range where the leaders are most vulnerable simply due to the number of dice being rolled. I moved my leaders over to my right flank to respond to your feint and then did not get them back to the left quickly enough. In the future, I will leave them in the center although it is VERY difficult as the French to just sit there and do nothing for several turns. That's what they need to do though.