We pulled out the 28mm AWI models because of a scheduling issue. The night was supposed to be a Indian Mutiny but it turned into a wonderful game of Sharps Practice set in North America circ 1778. The game was played over 2 week nights on back to back Tuesdays.
The British force tasked with escorting a wounded officer and prisoner to a outpost had to make it across the board. Their force included
- A level three leader commanding 2 groups of regular line.
- Another leader level two with 2 groups of Light Infantry
- A level one leader with a group of skirmishers
- A level one leader in-charge of the wagon and prisoner
The American force was a bit larger but mostly less quality it did not have milita so famously undependable in the revolution though. Their force was as follows.
- One Level 3 leader with 3 groups of Continental infantry
- Two groups of State line infantry with a level 2 leader
- A level 2 leader with a skirmish unit of Riflemen and a Sharp Shooter
The action was played on a 6x4 table with mostly Perry miniatures and buildings and terrain from our collections.
The British were not aware of the location of the American deployment areas and that led the dispersment of the light infantry. The cart with the wounded office and prisoner moved slowly up the road. The Americans were able to come on in several groups and jumped on the skirmishers pretty quickly driving them back onto the British Line infantry.
The Americans felled a bunch of lumber across the cross roads and Brits had a hell of a time clearing with the Riflemen and Continentals pouring fire into them. Once the road block was cleared the British had to fall back under the hail of musketry. The Riflemen called forth their sharp shooter but he could not hit the stalwart British officer who would spend his next few activations removing shock and trying to bring the Regulars into some kind of fighting shape after the opening fury fire.
While the British Regulars were falling back in disorder the American State line troops push towards their flank. They battered a small skirmish group badly and those skirmishers that remained took cover in a farm house adjacent to the cross roads but shielded from the action there by a thick row that we would call a over grown wind break. The British also dispatched a second group of light infantry to engage the American State line troops and they quickly got them self dugin around a pigsty and would bring the Americans on this side of the action to a stop with telling musketry.
On the far flank the third group of British Skirmishers moved to flank the American Riflemen and as the Riflemen bound forward to assist the stymied State Line troops they left the American Continental formation that had pushed towards the cross roads exposed to a aggressive set of actions by the Brit Skirmishers.
The fighting at the cross roads became intense as the British Regulars used the confusion in the Continental formation caused by the flanking fire to get their act together. If it had not been for the American Riflemen moving forward to melee the Cart guards and capture the prisoner and wounded officer a game that started as a disaster for the British might have ended with the Americans snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
