Hot days make for great gaming opportunities to enjoy some A/C and the Tuesday night group was all about that as they gathered at Game Nite to get in two historical scenarios. A reprise and slightly tweaked Battle of Valcour Island part of our AWI 250 Project and the ACW Battle of Fredricktown, Missouri from early in the War Between the States.
Valcour Island which ran at our previous Semi Regular Retirees game pitted Benedict Arnold and his cobbled together fleet of a few masted ships and bunches of gunboats against a British force of superior quality on Lake Champlain in 1776. It was Arnold’s goal to engage the British and to delay their arrival at Fort Ticonderoga.
The Patriots (Mark J and Kevin F) had a free deployment behind Valcour Island with the wind to their backs. The Royal forces (Jay C and Kieth S) were on the other side of the land mass heading south when the game began.
With the forces quickly closing it soon became part free for all, part melee and all parts trying to get in a good raking shot down a bow or stern when possible. The oared powered boats took full advantage of their maneuverability to get in faster turning where they could.
To reflect the kit-bashed nature of the American fleet, we reduced their range from 24 to 18 which hampered things a bit, but it was soon just a dogfight on the waters of the lake.
The Cutter Lee took the bulk of the initial British fire and was soon turned out of line with firepower, crew and watertight integrity vastly reduced. A desperate charge by the Lee to launch a boarding attack resulted in the Lee becoming British property.
The American screen soon engaged the British while they raced to outflank the Patriots and cut them off this led to some close in combat and several ships striking their colors as sides battled it out.
Overall a slight victory to the Americans from a hard fought battle. A few minor tweaks to be made but we have the basis of a very good game that is very representative of the historical situation for the era and a pretty good game.
On our second table we saw the Union taking on the Confederate forces in an action at Fredricktown, Missouri in 1861.
Union forces (Tim L and Coby R) were soon to be fully engaged with the boys in gray (Pat L and Nate R) in this early war battle in our own state prevented by Andrew B using a modified “Rebels & Patriots” rules system.
Andrew was kind enough to send in some pics and a bit of a description so we will toss the cannonball off to him.
“Rebels and Patriots! Battle of Fredericktown 1861!”
“Union fire starts to tell on the confederate lines as a gap appears, with Union infantry ready to pour through!”
“The Union cavalry is driven off, but the casualties in the confederate lines have made holding objectives troublesome if the federals decide to advance. “
“The last confederate unit hears mom calling from Arkansas and decides to head for the hills of the Ozarks!”
A Thank You to Andrew for his AAR and photos, our Game Masters and the players that came out on this brutally hot St. Louis day. Our appreciation to Game Nite and the fine folks there for their continued support of our historical table top gaming community.
Remember to shop local.
