War of 1812 Wargame

    With my new board and terrain cards, I decided to try them both out. I had tried out some ideas for skirmish games earlier, and originally were going to try another skirmish game. After setting the game up, I decided to play more along the line of a regular game.

The drawing I made from the terrain cards, which was used for this game. 

Both armies after one move. I wasn't going to record this battle, the plan was to take a couple of pictures  showing the new board.

The Americans had captured the hill; the British managed to storm and take the hill. 

The British have driven back the entire American line. For this game I used my C&C Napoleonic dice , which I converted to C&C, Tricorne. C&C,T dice have two retreat flags, and only one infantry on it. I was playing using BattleCry movement and ranges, ignoring the crossed sabres.  For this game all units were treated as normal infantry (even the Indians).

On this roll the American riflemen rolled three "retreats", driving the British "Over the hills and far away"!

The Americans drove the British back all along the line.

One American unit retakes the hill.

The British drive up the hill...

...and once again captures it.

Another British unit comes up to reinforce the hill.

The American general joins one of the militia units. These two militia units were painted based on an actual unit; the Michigan Legionary Corps, which consisted of one company of riflemen, one company of light infantry, one company of cavalry and one company of artillery. I started painting these in the summer, with the idea of making my own Legionary Corps.

Both the American rifles and infantry in front of the British on the hill attacks that unit. With no place to retreat...

....the Americans eliminate that unit.

Meanwhile the militia punches through the British center.

The British concentrate on seizing the hill.

Once again the British drive the Americans off the hill.

The riflemen counterattack up the hill again (won the initiative roll).

The Americans eliminate the British unit that was supporting the unit on the hill.

At this point the British have lost half their units, and the unit holding the hill is in danger of being cut off. The British  general calls for a retreat.

  This game turned out to be more fun than expected. The War of 1812 was basically an infantry war. I am thinking of using Command & Colors Tricorne units, such as elite infantry, light infantry, Provincial infantry, and militia. It would be easy enough to pick a different class of infantry for Indians, uniformed militia, regular militia, and so forth. I am also thinking of making army lists like the one in  Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames, where you would roll for the army makeup. The list would probably be larger, as there are more classification of unit. It might take 8D, 10D, or possible 12D rolls to decide on the army make up.                                              

I have also started rebasing the units that are mounted on washers, switching them to square bases, like the ones the riflemen are on. It makes the figures more stable, and I can write unit IDs in the bottom if I choose.