Hold the Line! AWI Tabletop Battle & Chew House

This post is a bit out of order in that it actually occurred almost a week ago, but life conspired to get in the way and so here it finally is.  With all of the talk about the AWI lately on the blog and thinking about my buddy Bryan L's excellent Hold the Line: Germantown game from Fall In 2019, I thought I would play an experimental game of Hold the Line on the tabletop using only the QRS and downloadable rules I've been able to scrounge up from Boardgame Geek.  (fear not, gentle reader, my new copy of Hold the Line arrived in the mail on Thursday)

I think it looks amazing in miniature but I leave that up to you.  I should also mention that I played against a more unusual and wily opponent - my wife.  This marks the second time she's played a game against me.  The first was in a game of 15mm Bolt Action where she showed no mercy with a company of Soviet SMG troops... (my word look at my basement here in these pictures.  Hard to believe this was 6 years ago).

Anyways, for this game of Hold the Line i allowed the Americans and British each 2 AP to start, with a 1D3 dice roll for extra AP.  This added a fun and interesting element of tension and chance to the game.

the table is reminiscent of the Germantown battlefield but on a 6 x 6 grid!  The Colonials are bearing down upon the light bobs at Chew House and atop Kelly Hill

   

Howe sends a spoiling attack, the Grenadiers, forward into the woods!  I allowed artillery to be co located with a unit in a square.  Here Marylanders with  3 hits will engage the Grenadiers to their front!

Elite Continentals face off against Hessians on the American right

The Americans head straight for the Chew house which looks suspiciously like the Essling Granary from our huge Aspern Essling Game!  Dont worry I'll make up for that later in this post!

  My wife is an aggressive player in these matters and as the British player she takes a remarkable aggressive stance, throwing forces northward in an attempt to stop me.           

The objective are the 2-house square in the upper right of the picture, and the Chew House

                                                   

Knox's artillery unlimbers to fire upon the Grenadiers to the front! 

Insult to injury!  My Colonial general is killed!

The center with Kelly's hill sees a see saw of back and forth action with the British losing, and then retaking the hill.  The Hessians are soundly beaten and the Colonials take Chew House but don't have the forces to surge against Germantown now at least on their right.  

Colonials in the Chew House facing south.  Note the British units guarding the approach to the objective.

 A lone Pennsylvania unit on the Colonial left goes for broke against the "back row" of squares and turnsA (1 turn in a square is free) towards Germantown.  There is a reserve British unit in Germantown with which to deal with them. They defend in the square to the east.

British moving south to bar the door into Germantown.

Grenadiers, with 5 hits (7 kills a unit) move back towards Germantown as the lone American unit hacks its way, or ties to hack its way, into the town proper.

Endgame in Germantown!

Once we hit a certain number of turns played (or casualties on a side I cant remember which) you start rolling to end the game.  That was my rule, not Hold the Line's rule.  This was a neat element of tension as well to an already fun and simple game. 

This engagement, the melee with the Guards in Germantown, came right down to the wire and the British roll to end the game due to their casualties.  In this case, they WANTED the game to end because they held Germantown.  The roll was achieved and the game was called!  We added 1 to the die roll each time.  So for the first opportunity if you roll a 6, the game concludes.  The next is a 5 or greater, then a 4, etc.  My modifications are as follows:

• All units except the light detachments took 7 hits.  Lights took 4.
• All units may fight to their front 3 squares, however diagonal movement or firing costs 2 AP.
• All units were allowed 1 free turn, meaning at no AP cost to turn to a new facing in their square.  They can still fire after their free turn.
• Attacking a flank allowed double firing or melee dice.
• Actions allowed were Move, Fire, Melee (2AP), Rally, Double Move (2AP)
• Elite units do everything at 1 better, so their "hit" at 3+ instead of 4+.  
• Grenadiers specifically do not lose 1D6 when assaulting terrain.  
• Light detachments may move and fire for 1AP but shoot with 2D6

This was a great game and really shows the potential for holding a MEGA GAME with these rules which are simple, fun, and exciting.  In my case, I can't take any credit as the inspiration came from Bryan L. 

And speaking of the MEGA GAME, I found a suitable representative for the Chew House in my lead pile, buried beneath of bunch of junk - I think this is part of the JR ACW collection but I felt since it was big and imposing, it would make a great Chew House for the Germantown game.  A few coats of dry brushing, some trusty Nuln Oil and more dry brushing and we're done!  I think it looks good next to my unit of Guards.  Not as elegant or stately as Clivedon of course, but an imposing stone structure that will certainly do for my humble table.

Not bad eh?