The Wetpowder Wargamers of Lees Summit Mo. met for their July game of American Revolution at Steve Niner’s house. The monthly topic was American Revolution and our host & game master Steve Niner had set up the table for the 8 members that came. We split into American & British teams then with a sketch map of the table layout we retired to the garage to plan our "battle plan". The situation was Tory spies had reported the American forces (mostly militia) gathering down the road at Niner Bridge along a narrow fordable creek running along the long table side. Gen. Howe had detached Gen. Roby’s division of 3 brigades of veteran Brit. Regts. & Tory Regular troops with 1 brigade of attached Hessians under Col. Von Morgan with orders to go "disperse this Rebel militia trash" so as not to interrupt the Spring offensive into the south! The British forces had a total of 12 regts. in 4 brigades each with an artillery gun attached. Gen. Roby’s plan was to column march up the road early in the morning and catch the Rebels at breakfast in smoke & mist, then grab the two hills of any significance from the Rebels to place his artillery, then disperse the American forces with an attack on the bridge position with his best troops (British Regular veterans) breaking the Rebels into fleeing pieces! The map showed Apple Orchard Hill on the British left and Baldy Hill on the British right with a road going across the middle of the table toward the bridge. Gen. Roby assigned the Hessian Brig. & a Tory Brig. to take Apple Orchard Hill on the left while his British Regulars and the other Tory Brig. took Baldy Hill on the right. The American forces were encamped all along the creek with a regiment of militia on Apple Orchard Hill. The Americans had about 9 militia regts. and two artillery guns total (and 3 Amer. regular regts. encamped on the wooded hill on the other side of the creek off to the right that the British didn‘t know about)! As the British columns approached rapidly knocking off the American sentries, each Amer. militia regt. had to roll to "alert to the danger & form up" before they could perform any actions! The militia on Apple Orchard Hill "alerted" and immediately rushed down the back-side of the hill toward the creek as the Hessians were marching up the British side of the hill (the Americans choose not to defend this hill position which would waste strength)! The militia around the bridge failed to ‘alert’ at all in these early turns! The British Tories Brig. on the right took Baldy Hill as the British Regulars under Gen. Roby drove straight for the bridge position in the middle of the American line! The "late-rising" American militia regts. at the bridge rose from breakfast just in time to taste British steel as the British Regulars drove them off across the creek. The defending artillery gun here was captured by the British and "spiked" (less guns for those damned Americans - the British already had their 4 guns shelling the American lines)! The American’s best troops (3 regts. of regulars) on the wooded hill behind the creek had formed up and crossed the creek on the British right to counter-attack there! The 6 militia regts. on the left advanced on Apple Orchard Hill but were "stunned" by the "first-fires" (double hits) of the Hessians on top of the hill. The Tory Regulars & Hessians on the left with their artillery guns were making each Amer. militia rgt. there roll "morale checks" each turn - those that failed would fall back till rallied by the Militia Gen. Lewis on this flank then re-enter the lines to keep the pressure on this flank. The Americans tried to move around the left flank of the Hessians a little at a time here. In the middle at the bridge, Amer. Gen. Washington showed up with 2 regts. of Regulars to reinforce the failing middle and an artillery gun which he sent over to the left flank to attack Apple Orchard Hill. British "charges & melees" in the middle and to the right caused the hard-pressed Americans here to retreat and fall back only to be "rallied" by Gen. Washington and sent back into the battle! The Amer. Regulars on their side of the creek traded shots across the creek into the "bloody" British Regulars there. On the far right the American Regulars under Col. D. Lewis attacked the Tory regulars on Baldy Hill and the far right flank supporting the British hill position under Col. Lawrey. On the British left, both British & Hessian brig. there detached 1 regt. each to go reinforce the British middle & right (they felt the British were winning on the left and could spare the troops - rarely do commanders of this period show individual initiative)!! As the British & Hessian reinforcing regts. reached Gen. Roby he ordered the Tory regt. to support the far right & the Hessian regt. to support the failing middle - just then the British Regulars at the bridge "routed" as did the British Regulars on their right leaving a gaping hole in the British middle! The Amer. Regulars here advance across the creek under Col. Platt into the middle where the "rallying" Brits & Hessians blew them away. The Hessians secure the bridge (and set charges just in case) while the middle British regts. (greatly weakened) form up a line in front of the advancing Americans. As the British position forms again in the middle, the Tories under Col. Lawrey on the far right "route" failing morale!! The British Tory regt. sent by Gen. Roby to reinforce the far right arrives just in time to re-establish a line on this right flank. The British Tory regt. on Baldy Hill is now out on its own exposed on three sides to attacks by the advancing Americans but the Americans have only 1 Regular regt. under Col. D. Lewis advancing up the hill and daylight is fading (11PM real time)! There is time only for one more attack into the exposed British positions on top of Baldy Hill. We check the strengths of the units involved and find it’s a 50/50 roll for possession of the hill! Both roll and the British fail morale and retreat back down their side as the victorious Americans wave their flags in the fading light from above Baldy Hill!! Off to the left flank 2 Amer. militia regts. also fail morale and retreat off the table there. The British forces were bloody and hurt! The battle is over! The British victory conditions were to hold both hills and they failed that - the Americans failed in their victory conditions also - the battle was a draw (but politically an American minor victory - they stood up to the British and held their ground)!! We had a good time playing this game of American Revolution and look forward to next month’s topic - American Civil War, and the Summer Camp Con at Ft. Leav. Hunt Lodge July 16/17th in support of the Historical re-enactors group there! Till then, good gaming all, Harold Morgan in Gladstone Mo. (N.K.C.Mo.) Back to Table of Contents Penny Whistle # 60 Back to Penny Whistle List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Lion's Den Publications. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com