Some time ago, I discovered a couple of boxes of 30mm American Revolutionary War figures on my shelf, unmounted, mostly Scrubies with a couple of Surens tossed in.. When I was finished with them, I had placed 2 figures on a 2-inch by 2-inch base for two reasons. First, I only had about 30 to 40 American figures and the same number of British figures, and thus wanted to fill out the maximum number of stands, and second, occasionally I take out a large, table-top size green vinyl table cloth, gridded into 2-inch squares, and the basing suits the gridded area just fine. I set up a large scale game, defining a single stand as a regiment, and 2 or 3 regiments as a brigade. The brigade was the combat element… units fired and fought at the brigade level. Brian Dewitt and Fred Haub arrived to run the 5-brigade American side, while I commanded the attacking British, who were given an extra brigade. Each side had one artillery battery. The map shows the Americans initially placed in the town of Montcarp in the west, while the key defensive position was that of Fort Lork, bastion of liberty. When activated, a side was given 2 actions and could use them for either movement or firing. Artie Conliffe once expressed a distaste for the term ‘activated’, and so, if ever Artie picks up a copy of this REVIEW (and he swore up and down a couple of years ago, that he would never touch this magazine after I knocked his WW II combat rules SPEAR HEAD), let’s use the term ‘energized’. I’m always in favor of placating an old friend. In our game, the rules set used the typical Simon ploys… first, the active side moved and fired, then the non-active side was permitted to react, and then the active side was permitted to react to the reaction. I wanted no ‘gotchas’… both sides were given opportunities to respond to the actions of the opposition. My focus, the British focus, was on Fort Lork, defended by a brigade of 3 stands (3 regiments) and an artillery battery. The town of Montcarp was secondary… if I captured the fort, said General Howe, safely seated in Boston, he would double my pension. Note on the map that the Americans were essentially split into three sections, separated from each other and isolated by the terrain features. Montcarp, on their right flank, had a Tory brigade in it, but most of the regular American units were concentrated either in mid-field or around the fort. Up came the British 2-stand artillery battery, and in my haste to fire at the fort, I had the crew unlimber and blast away as soon as I thought the fort was within range. Artillery fired line-of-sight, and when the gun fired, the procedure was… a. First, the gun received 2 Hit Dice (HD, 10-sided dice), one for each stand b. Second, since the gun was firing for 2 actions (2 volleys), it received another 2 HD, one for each volley. I now had 4 HD. c. Third, I measured the range, which turned out to be 28 inches. The range deduction was predicated on the ten’s digit of the range measurement… the ten’s digit of 28 was 2, hence the deduction was 2, and my total number of HD was reduced by 2. This left me with a grand total of 2 HD. d. Next, a cover modifier for the guys in the fort. This deducted another of my HDs, and so I was left with one lousy HD. e. I tossed the single HD, looking for a 1 or a 2… only 1’s or 2’s registered as hits. Nope, no impact. f. Seeing that I had set up the gun too soon, I ordered the crewman to limber up again, and close the range. Later in the battle, when I closed the range, the battery was more successful. As my brigades closed on the fort, the sequence gave me an opportunity to blast away: The basic steps of the sequence were a. The non-active side used his Reaction Points (RP) to fire or move. A side needed 3 RP to complete a reaction. Note this was done even before the active side moved up. b. The active side now moved his forces c. The non-active side had all his units fire d. Now the active side can use his own RP to respond to the non-active side’s fire. e. Finally melee is resolved. As they approached Fort Lork, My British infantry brigades first directed their fire at the artillery battery within the fort. If hit, a unit must take a morale test. A couple of British volleys, a morale test, and WHOOSH!… the American gun crew thought the whole thing over, and decided to leave their guns and run off. Successfully passing a morale tests required a basic toss of 1-to-7 on a 10 sided die. The basic toss was modified… a regular British or American unit raised the level by +1, an officer nearby by another +1, a casualty figure reduced the level by -1, and so on. Finally, the time had come! Despite heavy defensive fire, I had 2 British brigades at the base of the fort walls, which towered over the men… these Americans, when they built a fort, built ‘em real good. And so it was time for the scaling ladders to be erected. The British troops got out their hammers and nails and Elmer’s Glue and a couple of 2-by-4’s, some 2-by-6’s, and thud!, thud!, thump!, thump!… up rose a scaling ladder. This was all accomplished on a single die roll of 1-to-7, i.e., there was a 70 percent chance that the Brits could erect a ladder in a single action. And now the key question was… having erected it, could they scamper up the ladder? Another 70 percent chance of success, and my valiant British troopers were on the walls engaging the defenders in hand to hand! Another British brigade was equally as successful, and I now had 2 full brigades on the walls. The presence of the second brigade was important, since in the melee procedures, combat was fought brigade-versus-brigade, but an additional Hit Die was given to a unit if a supporting unit was present. Inside the fort, the defending Americans had a supporting unit present… this was the headquarters of General Washington himself. If you look at the phases of the sequence I listed, this was accomplished on Phase b, the active side’s movement, when the British were the active side. But now, Phase c followed, and the non-active side, the Americans, got a chance to fire. Un-nerved, the American volley was ineffective, and so we now came to Phase d, when the British troops got a last chance to blast away… no luck… and it was now Phase e, melee time! As in the firing procedures, each unit was given a number of Hit Dice and tosses of 1’s or 2’s placed a hit on the enemy. When I based my troops, I did so randomly, without looking at the various poses assumed by the figures. But now, in melee, the poses gave additional Hit Dice (HD) to the units. There were four distinct poses in all, and a 10-sided die was tossed to see which pose was significant: Toss of 1,2 Each man in the brigade with a musket stock grounded adds 1 HD Toss of 3,4,5 Each man with musket at the ready adds 1 HD Toss of 6,7 Each man firing adds 1 HD Toss of 8,9,10 Each man with musket on his shoulder adds 1 HD In addition to the above HD, the units got additional HD for the number of stands, if an officer was present, for a support unit present, and the defending Americans, in this particular combat, received an additional 2 HD for manning the walls of the fort. Tossing their HD, both sides scored on the other… each hit indicated by a casualty figure. And then, to judge which side won the combat, you looked at two parameters: First the number of stands in the brigade, N Second the number of casualty figures, C, on the opposing unit To determine the winner, each side multiplied the sum, N+C, by a 10-sided die, and the higher product won. A high toss for the Brits, a low toss for the Americans, and Fort Lork was ours! On to Philadelphia to capture the Liberty Bell! Back to PW Review May 2000 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com