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MONTREAL
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(Fought: 21 July 2007) |
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As I mentioned on the home page, the campaign was well and truly over before this game even began. We had lost fair and square to Kevin and Cooper who led a late game comeback to beat us with maneuver and mass. Again, hats off to the victors. But none of us wanted to end the campaign where all the French just go back to farming and the English go about changing over all of the street signs and setting up wi-fi hot spots in the cafes. Because of this, we all agreed on one more fight. Now this battle was a long shot and both D model and I knew it. The last few battles had been grinding affairs that wore down our regulars and depleted our militia and Indians. We had fought well in most cases and always gave better than we got, but we were still outnumbered and slightly out-classed with the line troops for this battle. The bulk of our army was made up of very fast skirmish units, mostly Indians and militia. We had to find a way to make that work for us. In discussing the battle plan, we knew we could not take the English in a typical stand up fight. We simply wouldn't last as almost their entire army was regulars (over 85% of it), while we were more evenly balanced between line battalions, militia and Native Americans. Our game plan then came to rest on one of our earlier battles where we pinned the English in place and flanked them with the Natives. This caused massive problems for the slower British and we came within a whisker of winning. We knew from that fight that we were only a battalion or two away from winning and today, we had every available troop left in the campaign, so there was no more excuses! As we had far more light troops than the English (who just had the PTSD induced 80th Light, still recovering from losing over 75% of their men in the last battle), they got the 'honor' of setting up first on the table. Kevin had Bill with him today so Bill got the right flank and two decent brigades of line troops, plus the New York Militia. In the Middle was Kevin with two more brigade of English plus the Highland brigade. Cooper had the English left with yet more Highlanders, yet another line brigade and the Massachusetts militia. Most of the army was set up towards the middle (either that, or the weight on the table caused it to bow and pull all the minis to the center) and English right, which made it abundantly clear they looked to win on the French left and center while screening our right with the Massachusetts men. So our plan came to put the worst of the French regulars on the left, where the ground was open and they could volley for much farther out. One Native tribe set up in their rear as a threat / counter-attack force. The middle was occupied by the French militia because there were woods nearby to give some protection and slow down the English advance. On the far French right was the best we had. The high morale regulars, the Franche de la Marine and the remainder of the Indians out on the far flank. In hindsight, we should have divided up the natives equally on both flanks, but it was too late now! The idea was to lure them forward, then crush the British left flank and roll them up like a cheap carpet. At least it sounded like a good plan! Let's see what happened! |
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No Map Today
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What happened?! |
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For some unknown reason, the Light Battalions and units under Kevin and Cooper always managed to come to grief in some bizarre yet tragically painful form. Most of the time - and they will willingly admit this, it is because they haven't quite figured out what to do with them yet. So lo and behold, the remnant of the 80th Light Battalion (i.e. The one's who could run the fastest from the previous game) was once more put on point. Their orders were simple. Go find the enemy! Poof, oh look, enemies! And they have guns! Blam! The 80th Light suddenly had more promotion opportunities! Join the Army, dress in neat costumes, meet strange and exotic people! Just take the King's shilling off the drum and all this can be yours! |
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As Bill brought his troops forward, I countered with the only Native troops I had. I didn't expect for them to slow them down or even stop the advance, but I did want to give him something to think about. |
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This image does a good job of showing how few French were actually left at the end of the campaign. The troops closest to the camera is one of my underachieving French regulars and in front of them is two of our remaining three militia regiments. |
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As the English remorselessly bore down on the center and the French left, we countered on our right. The Franche de la Marines rushed into the trees near the center of the table and to the left of the fallen 80th Light and took the Massachusetts militia under fire. Several men dropped and the remainder disordered under the attack. |
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The Marines movement also gave us a secondary benefit as it forced Kevin to take some of his regiments out of Assault column and put them into line. We didn't expect it, but we were grateful for it as anything that slowed down the English advance was a friend of ours! |
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More British reserves were moved over to support the rapidly failing Massachusetts men. To be fair, they were fighting the best we had so every turn they stayed in place was a minor victory for the British. The Marines were doing a lot better at attracting attention than I had anticipated! |
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Gamely, the Massachusetts militia pushed up to the rail fence to get the rested shot and morale bonus. They continued to get hammered by the Marines though who were looking to clear the fence for the upcoming French regiments. In the rear, the British began moving troops over to cover the potential demise of the militia. |
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Meanwhile, on the far right, I had moved my lone tribe over to cover the flank once the regulars got too close. With nothing else better to for them to do, I spied the New Yorkers trying to work their way down the village. I immediately ordered a charge that broke them and sent them screaming to the rear! This was actually pretty lucky as the New Yorkers had very good morale and this could have ended very badly. |
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Stupid flash! This blurry, gray shot shows the Indians turning around to end up in the rear of the British far right brigade. It also shows how thin the French line was on this flank. For the moment, our luck was giving us the upper hand, but as this image illustrates at the top of the picture, a red storm was coming! |
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Following up on the unexpected success on the French left, we pushed even harder on the right flank as that was supposed to be the flank we were attacking on. This caused a bit of a traffic jam as units raced up to the start lines. You can see the kluge at the middle right of the image. |
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After several good volleys weakened the English right flank, I decided to launch a limited counter-attack to knock off some of their weaker regiments and force them to commit even more men away from our flank assault. |
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But no! Neither the Indians nor the regulars could be persuaded to charge home! it was our first serious setback of the day. |
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Following up on our failure to charge on the left, the French garnered success on their right when the Massachusetts men finally succumbed to the firepower from the French Marines and regulars. |
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As the charge failed, I had to adjust the line regiments so the militia in the center would have the support to hold on. The La Sarre and Irish Legion moved away from the Artois regiment and into the rear of the Canadians. |
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Before we could get in place, the English struck! The Highland regiments surged forward and smashed into the militia who broke morale and ran away! In a flash, the French center was gone! |
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The Highlanders punched completely through the lines and even captured the militia brigade commander! This of course caused a panic among us French as we were badly out of place to push the Scots back from where they came from! |
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While the militia ran, the Irish Legion shot a volley into the closest unit, but once more, our luck was beginning to wan and we barely caused any casualties at all. |
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With what seemed to be all the time in the world, the Highland regiments shook out into line and fired a crushing volley into the Irishmen, breaking them and sending their regiment routing to the rear! No doubt about it, the center was gone and we were not getting it back! |
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Something had to be done and desperate times called for desperate measures. All that was left was the Artois regiment and it had been bleeding for some time. I called for a charge and the next thing I know, English regiments were breaking and running! Just like that and just that fast, the English right had been shattered! On the bad side though was that my 'pursuit troop Indians' had been caught in the rear and dispersed some time before so I didn't have the ability to finish off the British while they were vulnerable. But it did feel good for a moment! |
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Up north on the French right / English Left, the militia had been dealt with and destroyed. Screaming with fury, the mass of Native Americans surged into the British regiments. Yet this time, they were prepared. In spite of the Disorder result from a previous fire attack, the British regiment refused to yield! Not one step back, lads! We didn't know it, but this attack was the high water mark for French chances in the battle. |
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As the Indians assault receded, the French Grenadiers launched a spirited attack into the lynchpin of the English lines. Due to the left falling back and the right getting routed, the British line looked like a check mark with their left serving as the base. We looked to attack at the apex of the British and that was the 45th Foot who occupied the 'point'. If we could break them, then both wings would be flanked! Once again, however, the British did not do what we planned. The Grenadiers charged and the 60th refused to budge! Both sides clashed into melee and men fell all around, but neither side refused to yield or break! The game would literally end with both regiments locked in combat! Unseen, but even more important, the Highlanders chased off the remnants of the French right. With the center gone and the left destroyed, the game and the campaign were now officially over. British win! |
Where to begin? First off, in spite of the threats and occasion grimace, I have to give the nod to Kevin and Coop for letting us fight out the last battle instead of going home in defeat. We understood it was our decision making and the might of the British Empire that finally saw us off, but duking it out makes losing a lot more palatable! Knowing that we were losing no matter what gave this fight an edge not seen in other contests. We knew the war was over. We knew that we had lost, so in an attempt to win one final game, we called out all the stops and tried to hit them as hard as possible just to serve as a reminder that this campaign victory was not all that easy to secure! In almost every contest we had fought, the French inflicted almost double the casualties they had received. We would stay longer and fight more after the English had broken because we knew (due to the joys of studying history - and the upcoming turns in the campaign roster!) that in time they would be able to overwhelm us with numbers. This was part of our strategy today as well. If we could inflict enough casualties, that would set them up for the knockout blow. What ended up happening though was a fatal flaw in our planning. Due to the size of the English force, we had no reserves to counter any threat. Our small pool of men in reserve were all Native Americans and they were put on the flank effort. By placing the militia in the center, we automatically gave the British the weak spot they needed to break our line. Whose idea was that?! Oh yeah, right... Credit also has to be given to Kevin and Cooper because they found ways to counter-act our strengths with reserves to plug holes like the semi-disaster on their right plus their reserve movement to shore up their left flank saved them from the Indian horde bearing down on it. Those were sound moves. Even the loss of the militia and lights did not disturb their plan or effort to break the line. This they did with authority! So we did lose in the end, but it was a good game. This is how a campaign should end! A good game with one last chance to avenge wrongs or at least set the record straight. Now there is no doubt who the winners are. They took their army and tested them on the field of battle and came out on top. Again, a tip of the hat (without the finger!) and a hearty 'job well done'. Now both of you git to work on those Hessians so we can begin the AWI campaign! |
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Content Owner: |
Larry Freeman |
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Technical Design: |
Larry Freeman |
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Never forget! |
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