The battle for Arlington county (Blucher meets Maurice)

I am getting ready for another Blucher meets Maurice big AWI game. The setting is some time soon after the last battle. The Rebels got a minor win but at them cost of most of their artillery and nearly half of their brigade commanders. Now they are on the offensive attacking Arlington county with a view to capturing the town and armoury of Arlington. While the British are trying to hold the town long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

This game is a bit more ambitious than the last game. First, there is a custom map to deal with.  The map was created using the wargames compendium drafted in autorealms. The map was created semi randomly with the olny fixed point beign the city of Arlington must be somewhere in the centre of the map. Second, irregular detachments start to make an appearance. These are smaller units more inclined to skirmish and snipe from cover rather than the normal regular units eg rebel riflemen companies.  Finally the British start in better positions since they are defending while Rebels outnumber them 5:4.

The battlefield:

Arlington county

The forces

British forces available for the Arlington county campaign Converged Grenadiers 14th regiment of foot 15th regiment of foot 27th (enniskillen) regiment of foot 35th regiment of foot 42nd (highland) regiment of foot 50th regiment of foot 52nd regiment of foot 85th regiment of foot 87th regiment of foot 88th regiment of foot 89th regiment of foot 16th Dragoons British legion Cavalry A battery Royal artillery regiment A battery Royal Irish artillery regiment A company Arlington militia B company Arlington militia C company Arlington militia D company Arlington militia

American forces available for the providence county campaign 1st continental regiment 2nd continental regiment 3rd continental regiment 1st Maryland regiment 2nd Maryland regiment Converged foot 1st regiment Providence County Militia 2nd regiment Connecticut militia 3rd regiment Connecticut militia 1st regiment New York levies 1st regiment Continentals Dragoons Maryland rifle company Dade county rifle company Providence rifle company Miami rifle company New Orleans Grenadiers Lauzun legion (Huzzars) Lauzun legion (lancers) Lauzun legion (Fusiliers) Dillion regiment La Sarre regiment Royal Deux-Ponts regiment Bourbonnais regiment A battery 1st Artillery Regiment

Deployment

Before the game begins each side needs to divide their army into brigades.

Each brigade can consist of four to six units. Detachments (Arlington militia companies for the British and Rifle companies for the rebels) do not counted towards the brigade strength eg you can have a brigade with six units and four detachments in it.

The Rebels start the game off table and move on from the North (top of the map)

The British start the game with one brigade at Arlington (E5).

The rest of the British force is off table and moves on from the South.

The British brigade at Arlington must have at least half of its units as conscripts

Victory Conditions

The game winner is determined in two parts the campaign phase and the battle phase

Campaign phase

The campaign phase is treated as blucher pre-battle campaign with each fraction gaining victory points for each settlement (cities, towns and villages) captured.

The city (Arlington) is worth 3 victory points

The towns (Roslin, Stadman, Cumberland) are worth two victory points

The villages (Etherville, Vander, Harnett, Montgomery, Wadeville, Troy, Harrisville, Pekin, Blaine) are worth one victory point.

Use the difference in victory points to determine the margin of victory

0-2 draw (0 big points)

3-6 minor win (1 big point)

7-14 major win (2 big points)

15+ decisive win (3 big points)

Note settlements captured in the campaign phase can still be lost in the battle phase eg one force is defending a settlement in the battle and loses the the battle

Battle phase victory

The battle step is treated as a Maurice game.

Use the difference in morale at the end of the game to determine the margin of victory

0-1 draw (0 big points)

2-3 minor win (1 big point)

4-6 major win (2 big points)

7+ decisive win (3 big points)

The big victory

Whichever fraction has the most big points is the winner

That is all for now thanks for stopping by