Germanwine but more like Hessian soda!

Announced as a mix between Germantown and Branywine it turned soon out to be more an Arnheim-Hill or Rourke's Sh..(movement).

Angus, Dave and Donald and me were in for the Crown and Chris, Ian and Jack were fighting for more representation in a less taxing way, or so...

The British plan was to outflank the Rebels on two sides in an visionary attack just like "two Buffalo horns"(The author can confirm, it was still going to be an AWI game, Black powder rules, tuned version), with a strong centre and a fast encircling pincer movement with British Brigades at the left and Hessian at the right, right?

Yes, errrm, but the Hessian weren't that tough or fast, more stereotypical like Cornwallis and Burgoyne would like to have them, and gout-ridden slow, with the maximum movement allowed was 2. A tough choice, if you have to cross a river that cost you 2 moves to cross. As I remembered and had to re-experience a river crossing on its own under enemy fire can be quite a dramatic event (see http://meneken.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-battle-at-creeky-mill-part-two.html).

Additional the deployment zone was some sort of a bottleneck with a tiny patch of forrest which would force the Germans to cross the river in column (Auch!) presenting my flank to the Continental Army ready to fire (Aua!).

The following second brigade was most of the battle off-table. After one of my brigadier Generals was shot down with the front unit while trying to rallying them - I heard, why just cross the river with a follow-me-order, as if being on the other side closer to the enemy would have made my Sub-Hessians less vulnerable to fire.

So the CinC stepped in and let me use his command, unfortunately the other brigadiers hadn't moved and I rolled a blunder ... ts, ts, ts! The British lost a complete round of movement, welcome to my (Hessian-)world, hahaha!

After the initial shock the Commonwealth war effort was continued and the British nearly touched that fence (Huzzah!) they should have taken in the 7th turn, according to the battle objectives, followed up by the taking of the redoubt in front of the bridge of the river in the 12th turn. The Battle and our time ended, where another could have started.

In hindsight, I must say, the British were extremely lucky that the American just did not advance to the river on the whole front, otherwise our buffalo would not have been an unicorn, it would have been a cow.

But after all, it really was a wonderful game and I hope the few good pics can transfer a little bit of the delightful panorama – it is a stunning sight to see so many supremely painted figures on a wonderful table.

The figures were from Bill, Jack, Angus, Dave and me and the wonderful terrain by Dave.
Thanks to everybody involved!

The Centre left of the Rebels

The opposing Redcoats

The right flank of the Rebels, Redcoats in the sunshine

The Hessian Woodstock at the Riverbent

Jägers crossing an eternity

Rebel artillery controlling the river

The death valley of Rebels and Loyalists

The thin blue line

The epitome of the British approach

After 12 turns

The CinC helps out

The 35th Foot attacking the fence -line

The successful British left flank

The British centre on the other side of the blue