MT05 1775-77

Round 2 005 Long Island - Grant’s Attack (27 August 1776)

Justin (Continentals) 2 banners, 28 blocks lost
Mark McG (British) 8 banners, 11 blocks lost

Despite failing my first rally attempt with a full strength unit, the Brits managed to pull it all together and give the upstarts a thrashing. Lot of the action on Battle Hill, where the Provincials got a Glasgow blessing, and on the other flank, where Grant took the steady Regulars up the hill as foretold by the Duke of York.

Justin couldn't roll Infantry to hit, and I couldn't roll Swords to capture Parsons!
 

Round 3  006 Long Island - British Flank March (27 August 1776)

Eric (Continentals) 0 banners, 26 blocks lost
Mark McG (Brits) 8 banners, 5 blocks lost

Paralysis on the Continental left made this an easy victory for the British flanking force, that ate up the centre and left, whilst the Hessans sat on their arses until the very end where a Steal a Mrch card put them comfortably on the hill, taking the banner from the Continentals, and winning the game for the Brits. Hard work for the Continentals at the best of times, and this was not their best of times.


 

Rd 6 - Renaud vs John (K01 - White Plains)

The British played the left flank and won. They had good cards -- 2 Line Volleys, and 2 Bayonet Charges and a Quick Step followed by a Forward to finish it off. Only real bad luck was only 1 activation on a King & Country card. Tough one for the Continentals.

Brits - 5 VP (none for empty flank as it only happened on the 5th kill), 5 blocks lost
Continental - 0 VP, 20 blocks lost

rjvonline wrote:

Rd 6 - Renaud vs John (K01 - White Plains)
Tough one for the Continentals.

Brits - 5 VP (none for empty flank as it only happened on the 5th kill), 5 blocks lost
Continental - 0 VP, 20 blocks lost

Funny how scenarios vary in playing..   I found White Plains an absolute tussle, the  Continentals winning 5-4, with the Brits finding it very hard going up the ridge!

Well, that's the beauty and heartache of C&C in general, and Tricorne in particular. As Justin will report I lost 4-6 as the Brits in Bunker Hill because 3 of my full-strength units and 1 leader failed their rally rolls; meanwhile a 1-block Continental militia passed theirs... There were also some dreadful attack rolls...

Pell's Point - do the Brits move first, per the indication on the Vassal board, or the Continentals per the scenario notes on Vassal and in the physical scenario book? George and I followed the latter, which certainly does not make it easy for the Brits as they have an exposed Regular unit on their rear line, which can can be hit with 3 dice (not including combat cards) by Glover and his Lights. In our game, Infantry Range Bonus added 2 dice, and that Regular unit was history (1 hit, 2 flags, so 3 hit, and a failed 1-die morale check)...

Round 4:     Pell's Point
rjv (British) 2 banners won and 19 blocks lost
gdnuke (Continentals) 5 banners won and 9 blocks lost

As Renaud said above, this scenario started out with the British taking a tough loss of an unsupported Regulars unit on their baseline. We saw that that vassal mod gives the British the first move, and the situation on the map sure looks as though they should move first. The scenario notes and the Scenario book give the first move to the Continentals, and that is how we agreed to play it. One early banner to the Continentals before the British even play a card. The British have a tough time anyway in this scenario as the Continentals have loads of leaders, a 5-2 Combat Card advantage, and some good defensive terrain.

The play of a Scout card by the Continentals gives them a Victory banner, so the British don't have time to be careful or methodical. That brings up another question we had while playing. In other Borg games, the "Time Pressure Scout Card mechanic" for want of a better term, does cost the player playing the card for a Victory Banner the option to draw 2 command cards and discard one, and it cannot be used to gain the final Victory Banner needed to end the game. We did not see any such limitations in this scenario or in this game's rulebooks. The Continentals only had one Scout Card to play and did for their 3rd Banner, but the British had a Scout Card that they needed to hold for the rest of the game fearing a Counterattack Card that would end the scenario.

No game on vassal is ever complete without a "what just happened?" moment. The Continentals have a Light Artillery unit that simply vanished from our game. I noticed a few turns later when a great shot by one of Renaud's units scored 2 for 2 hits to eliminate a Continental Regular unit and then a saber to take out their leader. I knew I had 6 units to start but the loss of one had me down to just 4. We noticed that the Light Arty was nowhere to be found. I put a replacement behind my other units, and he did not get the chance to do much, but that was very strange.

This was a tough one for the British. The Continentals have a lot of advantages noted above, and my cards and dice were better today. Cards and dice can surely tip a Commands & Colors game to one side, and they did today. Renaud played well and was a fun opponent, as always. We did want to note our questions since we are probably the first to complete a Round 4 game. 

** Edited to add blocks lost information.




 

rjvonline wrote:

Pell's Point - do the Brits move first, per the indication on the Vassal board, or the Continentals per the scenario notes on Vassal and in the physical scenario book? 

The physical scenario book is the source of truth, so whatever it says.

 

George writes;
The play of a Scout card by the Continentals gives them a Victory banner, so the British don't have time to be careful or methodical. That brings up another question we had while playing. In other Borg games, the "Time Pressure Scout Card mechanic" for want of a better term, does cost the player playing the card for a Victory Banner the option to draw 2 command cards and discard one, and it cannot be used to gain the final Victory Banner needed to end the game. We did not see any such limitations in this scenario or in this game's rulebooks. 

The Time Pressure Objective is in the Tricorne rules,  on page 8 of the French expansion rules. Looking at the other scenarios in the book, they all use the same phrasing.
• The British player is racing against time. The Continental player gains 1 Permanent Victory Banner for each Scout Command card he plays.
So I'm guessing that the first sentence of the Special Rule is meant to invoke the Victory Condition on Page 8. Otherwise there is no instance where the scenario special rules specifically invoke Time Pressure Objective. 

Time Pressure Victory Banner Objective - When Time Pressure
rules are in effect against the attacking player, he is racing against
time. The defending player, after playing a “Scout” Command
card, may draw 1 Command card and take 1 Permanent Victory
Banner instead of drawing 2 Command cards at the end of his
turn. Taking a Permanent Victory Banner is not possible, if doing
so would give the player his final Victory Banner to win the battle.

It seems harmless to include and would help the British slightly.  So unless there is some strong dissent, I suggest we take this Special rule phrasing to mean use the Time Pressure Objective rule.

I certainly agree with you, Mark. We should have caught that, but in the middle of the game we didn't. That's how I'd play if we played again.