MT05 1775-76

Semifinal Game 2 Freeman's Farm

JR (Continentals) - 5 banners won, 33 blocks lost
Mark (British) - 7 banners won, 30 blocks lost

I had hoped to achieve a victory using some manoeuvre around the flanks, and it was a story of two flanks.
On the British right, aside from the Grenadiers, it looked underwhelming with the Provincials in support. Whereas on the left, the Hessans looked a lot better equipped to push past the colonial light troops. So I sat tight on the right, and went in on the left. However, the attack kind of stalled on the left for the lack of Command cards, and whilst the troops did chase off the Light troops out of the trees, they just retired and retired and always rallied. When I finally got them to the back line, Poor's militia and Arnold's regulars saved then, and killed off my flanking force. Throwing good money after bad, I Quick stepped up more trrops, and got shot to pieces.

At this stage it stood 3-5 in JR's favour, and I presumed I had lost. He in turn repeated my assault on the right, and stepped into the same sort of buzzsaw he gave me.. First Strike, Ambush etc.. but I wasn't getting hits, lots of flags, but his full strength units were rallying.

My saving grace was the artillery, which fired from Left flank across the centre into the rear of the right, it sent units scurrying to the rear, a militia simply ran, and a Regular failed a 5d rally check.

Another tough game, everything I expect from JR. Lucky to pull off the win, and the Semi-final by 1 banner.
 

Continental Semifinals

Game 1
Steve (Continentals) - 4 banners; 31 blocks lost
Justin (British) - 7 banners; 26 blocks lost

Each of our left flanks did major damage with not much standing of the opponent's right flank at the end of the game. I lost my grenadier unit fairly early on in the game with a bunch of ranged hits so he was ineffective at best for me. No leaders were lost and I don't believe any full strength units melted away as each had some damage done to them before failing rally checks.

Game 2
Justin (Continentals) - 6 banners; 35 blocks lost
Steve (British) - 7 banners; 22 blocks lost

In this one it was our right flanks that were dominant with mine being at range and Steve's in melee. My fortune started early as a British full strength unit fled the field due to an ineffective Philips who left at the same time. Then as Steve was trying to set up for a bayonet charge he placed a German unit in front of two other units and I rolled an abundance of flags to claim him and foil that attempt. The sharpshooter card claimed Reidesel and the unit he was with was attacked and failed the rally check. My left flank then completely collapsed as the grenadier's acted like tanks and just steamrolled me with two militia units and two regular units folding (nearly a third with the leader). Always fun playing Steve even with his advantage of playing in the future!

Multiple logfiles as this was played over a longer period of time:

Finals
Game 1
Justin (Continentals) - 6 banners; 13 blocks lost
Mark McG (British) - 2 banners; 21 blocks lost

Brits are outnumbered in this scenario almost 2:1, and worse, and facing Continental Regulars lining the woods. My initial efforts with the Hessan Grenadier did some damage, but lost me the Grenadier, Light Inf and a Hessan Reg in the gun duel, and shortly after, the Continentals Rallied back to full strength. At this point the Brits dropped back a pace to avoid the sniping from the trees, and tried to use their artillery to reduce the Continentals down. Despite trying again with a Bayonet charge, the Brits could only manage 2 banners before the weight of the Continental Army overcame it.
 
Game 2
Mark McG (Continentals) - 6 banners; 12 blocks lost
Justin (British) - 1 banner; 30 blocks lost

In the knowledge I had to win this one, and not lose very much at all, I played very conservatively in this game. As a result it was a long game, not helped by my family shorting a fuse (and hence my PC) mid-game. Not sure how plugging a faulty microwave that was shorting the fuses into a different powerpoint was going to produce a different result, or why with a choice of oven, stovetop, toaster, airfryer, gas BBQ or sandwich press that it HAD to be microwaved, but there we have it.

Anyway, the Continental tactics were very conservative, but Justin took a page from the previous match and fell back early, so it was a matter of whittling down the artillery, then approaching from behind the hill to make the attack. I lost 1 unit in breaching the position, and it all looked to be set when two leaders fell and all it needed was for a 4d attack to force an unsupported 2 strength militia off the baseline. However, Morgan fluffed the roll, and it looked like the Hessans might manage at least to gather another 1 or 2 banners, but a series of good rally checks saved my day, and eventually the Hessans failed a rally check of their own. The last 30 minutes of the game were very tense, especially when the power went off.
 

Wow, sounds like a great final! Congrats Mark, and my sympathies, Justin. Thanks again, Mark, for organizing - that was a lot of fun.

2nd final was a tough match, 2.5 hours long, and a lot of concentration to take few chances.

Great tournament, it was lots of fun. Thanks Mark for organising, and congratulations for winning! And congratulations to Justin for getting to the Grd Final