001 Bemis Heights (7 October 1777)

A very exciting game, the British winning 6-5. In my opinion, the Americans will always win a firefight from the starting positions because they are in woods and the British are not. In this game, the Continentals got off to a flying start forcing the grenadiers to retreat onto General Acland and then failing to roll a flag from their 7 dice. Acland turning tail as well was the icing on the cake. The Americans advanced and took out the British light artillery through another failed rally attempt and at 3-0 it was looking grim for the good guys.

Dogged defending by the British brought it back to 5-4 against, but the Americans had a chance to take it with a militia unit taking a shot at a one-block German regular, but they chose to forgo the opportunity and retreated the militia. The German regular was moved to safety and two turns later the militia unit was itself put to flight for a British victory.

April 1st 2020
The Continentals were holding back very well the advancing of the British.
Center Section of the Board was impassable for the redcoats and eventually they had to reform in the left section, moving both pieces of the light artillery. After a couple of turns very lucky to the Continentals the great of the battle was fought into the woods of the center-right and right section. Cards for the Redcoats were really good and dice tosses for the Nation Makers really Bad.
Continentals were winning 3-0 at the beginning but the match was lost for them when Hessian Artillery fire eliminated the last hidden unit in the woods led by general Poor. The game ended in favour of the British for a close 6-5.

Another game, another Hessian Grenadier onslaught. This time General Acland was killed in a volley by a Militia unit (those double-sword die rolls!) but the British player was able to keep the Grenadiers moving and they just rolled what they needed to keep hurting and breaking Continental units. A much closer game 6-5 to the British with the Continental lights well-used and destroying the British light infantry unit with musketry (4 symbols rolled from 8 dice).

I played this scenario yesterday against a player new to Tricorne.

As the Continentals I formed along the woods, and with several Line Commands spent two turns volleying into the British. The Grenadiers took several hits, and the British left dropped back. At this point the Continental right moved forward to try and finish them off. A British Line Volley did substantial damage, including a Regular routing along with Poor. Then the Grenadiers rallied up to Full Strength (from 1 block) and proceeded to Bayonet charge the depleted Continentals led by Acland. Those Grenadiers were untouchable, and took down 2-3 units.

Brits won 6-1

This scenario is more even than it looks, but only if the initial cards fall right for the British. Started with an amazing 9-4 win to the Brits with the Hessian Grenadiers accompanied by General Acland, cutting a swathe through the Continental ranksand turning a 5-4 lead into a 9-4 win on the last turn. The grenadiers destroyed 2 units and a general on the last turn to make a tally of 5 kills for the game. In game turn the Hessian Grenadiers with General Acland in tow cut another swathe through the Continental ranks to bring about a 6-1 win and finish the game on the Continental baseline. These men are truly heroes of the Empire!

In both games the Hessian Regulars were heavily damaged and even driven from the field but enough came from their bayonet attacks to smash a few Continentals before they got taken down. In game 1 General Burgoyne disgraced himself by routing with a unit of Hessians he was trying to rally from a retreat. Despite the results the casualties on the British side were heavy but, hey, that's the risk of a recon in force. General Fraser managed to survive both battles so a turnaround there.

In both games the Continentals failed to take advantage of Morgan's command of rifles and lights but this was as a result of the continued punching of the Hessian Grenadiers on the opposite flank which saw the Continentals always reacting to these and unable to make their own plays.

The lesson for the Continentals is to deal with the Hessian Grenadiers and artillery first at all costs as these two units with General Acland can cost them the game.

A tough one for the British. The Americans won 6-2 with Hessian left over run and then the British line rolled up. The British Lights tried hard and got the American lights out of the woods with General Fraser leading the way but the Militia stabilised this breakthrough and shot it to pieces.

A couple of decent games had with this scenario, the first a close-run 7-5 win to the Americans and the second a 7-3 win to the British.
The first game had the Americans leap to a 4-0 advantage and with the Hessian artillery and British Light Infantry unexpectedly routing whilst at full strength - what are odds?!!!! The Hessians Grenadiers put up some resistance but, isolated, they were blown apart by massed American muskets. Then the British staged a comeback with the Americans getting cocky and sending in a Bayonet Charge. Unfortunately, for them, the British has 2 First Strike cards and routed all 3 American Regulars by scoring some hits and Flags, and the American units obligingly failing to roll a single Flag and routing off the board. With their own Bayonet Charge the scattered British units came within an ace of victory, destroying 2 more American Regular Infantry units and following up into an isolated general, who survived. The lead British unit was, in turn broken and its general fled from the field giving the Americans victory.
Game 2 saw the Americans suffer some heavy casualties in artillery and musket exchanges and the British passing their rout tests. The Americans rallied their line twice and sent in a right flank attack which overwhelmed the Hessians Grenadiers, who took an American Regular Infantry unit with them and then fail utterly in the face of Hessian artillery with an attached general. A British bayonet charge and line volley saw the Americans crumble and flee. Hats off General Fraser and his bayonet happy Light and Regular Infantry who cleared 3 enemy units and killed General Learned. The Hessians and support artillery kept on inflicting hits and the Americans broke. Burgoyne's successful pull-back of his last 2 Hessians units and the two weakened artillery units allowed them the break the exposed American right wing and yet stay safely away from the tree line.