Two Check Your 6 Battles!

So Saturday night I ran 2 Check Your 6 battles. I had planned on only one but it finished so fast we ran a second.  The first outing was just a simple 4 on 4 battle with 2 Spitfires and 2 Kittyhawks going up against 2 MC.202s and 2 BF 109s.

This game was a refresher for me (and the group) as I am running a battle on 12/5 at our local one day convention. I also taught the game to 2 new people so it was an excellent primer for the convention.

Andy had control of the two Kittyhawks.

Kevin had the Spitfires.

Jeff (new player to the rules) controlled the Germans.

Jeff's planes closed in quickly on Andy.

They caused Airframe damage!

Justin (the other new guy) had the Italians. Here they are closing in on the Spitfires. Surprisingly both sides missed their targets the first time.

One last picture of the Italians and Brits.  The game ended so quickly I didn't get any other photos. The Axis players came out on top which isn't bad for 2 new players.  I think they enjoyed themselves.

For the second game Andy decided to pull out all of the Bettys I had and put them on table and said "Give them 3 Wildcats each and I'll try to survive getting across the board!"  The above and below picture are the starting positions. Again, Andy chose this folks!

Kevin's Wildcats circle around the Bettys.

Jeff's Wildcats fly through the middle.

One Betty is smoking already.

A Betty goes down!

Another Betty has gone down in Flames!

The lead Betty also goes down in Flames!

And then there were 4 Bettys.

Now there are two Bettys.  That didn't last long. The last two went down on the next turn and we called it a night.  The Wildcats only suffered 1 damaged plane in this attack.  

Don't worry folks I won't be doing this for the convention. I will come up with something a little more even. :-)  We had fun and thats all that matters.

Battle of Abigail's Farm, 1777

So tonight we ran a 10mm AWI game using Eric Burgess' rules Guns of Liberty. These have become my go to set of rules for this period.  This was a fictitious battle where the British and Hessian troops were out on a foraging party when they came across advancing Continentals.  I based the battle in the year 1777.  We had 4 players tonight with me being one of them. :-)  I was rather happy to be able to roll dice and push lead tonight.

The table layout is as follows: the road down the middle is a dirt path and clear of trees.  The only other section that isn't woods is where the little farm house and field are situated.  

The Continentals started on the North side of the table with one brigade in road column and the other 3 brigades marching through the woods. Jesse played the role of the CinC for the Continentals and I had told him that spies had told them about the British foraging in the area. The Continental forces had 3 brigades of Continental troops (3 units of 4 stands each) and brigade of militia (3 units of 4 stands).

Gabe (right side of the picture) and Andy (left side) played the British with Gabe being the CinC.  The British forces consisted of 3 brigades.  One was Hessian with 4 units with 3 stands each and the British had 2 brigades of 3 units, each with 4 stands.  There was no artillery or cavalry for this game.

The Continentals all started to move forward making their way through the woods.

The British formed up in column along the road marched quickly to establish a defensive line by the farm house.

The Rebel Scum, as Andy called them, continued to move forward.

The British and Hessians set up to receive the rebels.  The Hessian brigade took the field with the rail fence to their front protected by Foot Jaegers.

They are getting closer.

The armies closed and shots were fired. Both sides proved to accurate with their aim as numerous men fell on both sides.

The lines inch closer to again take aim and fire!

The British start to break their defensive line and move forward with cold steel.

Some close ups of the Continental troops.

The Hessians push forward and with cold steel crush the rebels and break left wing.

The right flank of the rebels takes a beating from fire and melee but manages to hold on.

The center however goes to the Continentals as the British fall back from repeated fire and a failed melee attempt.

The Hessians continue to push their advantage pushing the left flank back.

The center still holds but now the right flank starts to give way.

The overhead view from the Continental side.

The British center gets decimated but it will have no effect on the outcome.

The left flank of the Continentals continues to fall back.

We called the game as the two flanks for the continentals became unstable and with a relatively untouched Hessian units still waiting to roll up the flank of the center units Jesse decided the battle couldn't be won.

Over all everyone had a great time.  We started the game at 5pm and were down by 730pm.  Not bad to have a game run to a fairly distinct conclusion in 2.5 hours.