Campaign 1776: The battle of Guilford Court House after action report part 1

Campaign 1776 is one of the earlier titles that John Tiller did in the Early American Wars series that he put together which also now includes 1812, FRENCH & INDIAN WAR, and MEXICAN WAR.

I had not been able to dive into Campaign 1776 for a while but now I had the time so I loaded it up, patched it and downloaded a few sound and map mods. Off I went and I decided to fight the battle of Guilford Court House (March 15, 1781). I picked this battle mainly because I am from North Carolina and it has always held interest for me. I do not however have the knowledge I should of the commanders and participants. I was going in blind with very little brush up on the rules and trying to do it all by memory. So lets see how it went.

This AAR will be a different because in order to save space and time on writing up a huge post I plan to just use pictures so that you can get an overall flow of the battle and it saves me time. A little lazy I know but I want to get back in game and finish up the battle. This AAR only goes to turn 9 of 30 and judging by the way I am losing I will need all 30 turns to re secure my lines and defend the courthouse itself as the British advance with their well trained troops.

To find out more about the battle of Guiford Courthouse check out this wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Guilford_Court_House

Each hex is 125 meters and each turn is about 5 minutes. Click the pictures for full size to read what is going on. More AFTER THE BREAK:



















As you can see the situation was rapidly falling apart due to me forgetting a few rules about morale and command in this game. First off I should have kept my leaders closer and when I attempted to take out the exposed British artillery early on I should have stacked a leader in the hex on the assault for the bonuses. I also forgot about this little diddy of a rule:

When a unit routs, all units in the same hex as the unit and all units in adjacent hexes to the unit must also take a Morale Check. If any units in adjacent hexes fail the Morale Check, then this process is carried over into hexes adjacent to those hexes.

Also I forgot to move my supply wagons up. I thought the range was a lot longer but it is not:

Units can become resupplied at the beginning of the player’s Movement Phase provided they are not Routed and they can trace a path no longer than 5 hexes long which does not go through enemy units or empty hexes in their Zone-Of-Control to a friendly Supply Wagon. This resupply will reduce the Strength of the Supply Wagon by 1 unit for every 10 men in the Unit. Supply Wagons that are reduced to a Strength of 0 are automatically removed from the map.

I also forgot to check the quality of my units and brought them too far foward. This resulted in a rapid break in my lines when pressed and I didn't have reserves in back up. Now I have to play a frenetic shuffling game to fix this battle and prevent the British from taking huge amounts of area. More later after I finish the battle!