Monday 21 December 2020

Last Game for 2020?

Yesterday (Sunday) while large parts of the globe are facing a worsening situation with COVID-19 seven of us got together on a hot and sunny day to play what could well be our last game for 2020 - a War of 1812 game.

Set somewhere in upstate New York stood a small town of significance because it held a good supply of grain. The place was guarded by a brigade of militia with a n antiquated gun. The town itself was protected by a blockhouse (with a touch of irony the game was played in the Auckland suburb of Blockhouse Bay about 800 meters away from the site of a blockhouse built during the New Zealand War in 1860 to protect the portage track between the east and west harbours of the modern city).

Intent of securing the grain the British mounted an expeditionary force of four brigades (19 battalions and four batteries) of regulars and Canadian militia. Upon hearing of the size of the approaching British force the militia commander called on four nearby regular brigades (14 battalions and 4 batteries) for help.

The British would arrive on the table in the position marked on the map on turn 1. The Americans would bring one column on turn 1 and the other on turn three. In the woods were five units of Indians, two allied the Americans and two to the British. The allegiance of a fifth Indian unit will be determined when contacted by rolling 1xD6 (456 British, 123 American).




The advance started slowly with the British working their way forward slowly, feeling out the woods as they went. They soon contacted a group of American allied Indians that roughly handled one battalion before they were shot to pieces by two converging British units. Then the second American allied unit was found. It too what defeated and sent packing, but not before it had delayed the British infantry for three turns. Meanwhile in the other wood the British found two of their own allied Indian groups and then when the found the fifth, it allied itself to them too.


The action started in front of the fort with the old gun popping away at the British, but doing little damage. Unknown to the militia commander the gun had the potential to burst after three shots and although it failed to burst, disaster struck the militia when a shot from a British howitzer set fire to the blockhouse and the militiamen failed to extinguish the flames. The fire quickly blazed out of control and the place was abandoned.

Meanwhile the Americans formed their main line perpendicular to the town intend in drawing the British on to them, using the militia (as the regulars delightfully described it) as “the speed bump to slow the British advance”.

The British infiltrated the woods opposite the town, but when they came to the edge found an American brigade drawn up facing them and were unwilling to exit the woods in the face of this force. One of the US regiments entered the woods to try to force the issue, but only got itself embroiled into an inconclusive fight that lasted for the rest of the game.

The British were now compelled to funnel themselves between the woods but soon found that the US artillery dominated the ground and although some battalions managed to make some initial headway against the militia, when one of the British brigades fell apart the game was up and they were obliged to concede.




It was a pleasant way to spend a lazy Sunday.

18 comments:

  1. Sounds like a fine way to spend the day. Nice looking collection too! Nice to see the Americans victorious. (I'm from the US)

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    1. It was a wonderful way to spend the day...much better than being in the office.

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  2. A nice scenario there Mark with some great photos of lovely figures. We too are heading towards major issues on the Covid front, with large parts of the UK back in near on full lockdown:(.

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    1. Thanks Steve. I feel for you in the UK. This is one of the few occasions that I am pleased that we are separated from our nearest neighbour by thousand miles of ocean and have a small population.

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  3. Nice report Mark. I will try to get my version done in the next day or two - depends on how knackered I am after returning to work - 300+ emails this morning but I managed to whittle it down to 60 odd by the end of the day (which doesn't include the ten per hour new ones that arrived today!)

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    1. I am dreading the mass of emails that will come in over the Christmas break but I am going to make a determined effort not to look at any over that time so that I can get a good break. A bunch of people here about to have their Christmas leave cancelled for an emerging operational issue...that won’t go down well I fear.

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  4. Superb game to end the year on.

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    1. Thank you Norm. We are largely taking the face to face gaming for granted now, although in reality with what is happening elsewhere in the world it is a great privilege.

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  5. Mark thank you for organising the game, it was a nice relaxed game.
    Even though I felt like the Grand Old Duke of “New York” marching my US regulars back & fourth.
    My first militia battalion has its base contrast coats on, hopefully I can complete this week?

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    1. I thought the Brits might have ignored the woods a bit more and just deployed through the bottleneck quickly which might have given them some advantage of numbers. I felt the fighting in woods went well though.

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  6. A nice way to end 2020 Mark and great to see the 1812 figures and your blockhouse in action again. It will be interesting to watch the COVID-19 numbers here in Australia over the coming days. Why they were letting international aircrew wander around Sydney is beyond me, but NSW always seems to have had a far more relaxed attitude when compared with other Australian States.

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    1. Yes it was a nice day’s gaming. I agree we have very tight isolation rules for crew here - forced isolation. We do the same for out crew overseas. But all of this is putting that bubble at risk!

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  7. A great looking game Mark...
    One of my favourite periods... I should probably start painting some shouldn’t I 😁
    Flutter Flutter...

    All the best...a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly. It was a goo game...the comment was made during the game by Keith that we probably had more regiments on the table than took the field in any one battle from that war! But we had six players and I really couldn’t just give them three or four units each. Merry Christmas to you too...Stay safe.

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  8. (Sorry about previous 'test' comment, the security settings of Firefox have been updated and it does not seem to always want to publish comments!)
    A great (finale?) to your games for this year. The explosion/fire was superb. It developed really well with fabulous looking firing lines from middle to end.
    Regards, James

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    1. Thanks James. It was a great looking game indeed.

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  9. Lovely looking game, nice figures and the blockhouse is ace!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you Iain. The blockhouse is one of my favourite pieces.

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