I'm Gonna Need More Men!

Here is the thing, for the Fenian Raids, or any campaigns in the Northwest, all infantry normally fought as skirmishers but for a What If 1862 Anglo American war or a traditional Toy Soldier Red vs Blue Wargame, I will need both.

By the time I'd done my homework on past versions and pushed some figures around, I found that, as suspected, I had been over all the various possibilities and resolved the issue a couple of years ago. I just hadn't needed the solution for the NorthWest game or the Great War, so had forgotten it.

The Final Game. In honour of Burns the British force is commanded by Colonel MacDuff and consists of 2 companies of the Scots Guards, 2 of the Black Watch a troop of Hussars and a gun. 

When I started to play the other day, with toy soldiers on my brain and the 6" grid before me,  my mind had gone back to the old Macduff days when I could break down a battalion, detaching a company or two as skirmishers and recalling them later. I don't bother these days. For one thing, my reading has given me the impression that in battle, once half or so of a battalion had been sent out to skirmish, it could be reinforced but it was easier to call up reserves than to recall the skirmishers and reform in preparation for a close order asault.

So it is that in the Square Brigadier there are small light or skirmisher units  and larger infantry units. The line infantry might have a thin security screen factored in but an 1870's style deployment of a heavy skirmish line and supports is to be represented by two light units in game terms.

Flank me? Flank you! Colonel Lannigan has sent two companies supported by artillery to take the farm anchoring the British right while two more companies and a company of cavalry hold the right against four British units.

The real problem was really a scarcity of American toy soldiers preventing a test game with several formed battalions. This was confounded by  a surfeit of recent drafts variously labelled Square Brigadier in X or Tin Army of Y, none currently aimed at the 1860's. I rather need to tidy up the drafts and tuck the old ones into an appropriate folder.

Point of Balance. As the British make headway to the North, Lannigan brings up his gun in an effort to stem the British advance. The garrison in the farm is stalwart and holds.

I ended up playing the game today as originally laid down. Twice actually. One decisive American Win (Not pictured) and what was almost an equally successful British Win which turned into a last 1/2 of the 15th turn win.

The End. Turn 15. American initiative. It looks like Lanigan may have pulled a draw out by having his gun block the road but a desperate bayonet charge by Highlanders with MacDuff at their head drives the gun back and captures Lanigan with the last die roll of the game.