AWI Sharp Practice Sweep the Table Game

For our second game of Sharp Practice we wanted to try the 'Sweep the Table' scenario. This entailed myself as the British searching buildings to rescue a spy who is in hiding while the Continentals, being alerted to British activity in the area, deploy to counter them. We divided the table up into six equal sections and rolled to see where the buildings where located:

Among which was the beautiful Hartwell Tavern and barn which Mark from '1866 and All That' https://stracmark.blogspot.com/ had recently created for me:

A card was randomly placed under each building with one representing the hidden spy, and each structure was then assigned a value with the tavern being 30, the brick house 20, and the barn 15. When the British searchers occupy a building they roll two D6 to indicate how much of the house they will search that turn, until the value is reduced to zero and the card revealed to indicate whether the spy has been successfully located or not. 

We then rolled to see which end our respective forces would arrive from. Aside from the normal fixed deployment point each side has also elected to pay for a moveable deployment troop which can be placed up to 30 inches away from the fixed point but is placed once a troop type with that characteristic is activated. The Continental arrival is to be delayed until their force commander has rolled two D6 each time he is activated and the accumulated total reaches fourteen points.

Rather amusingly, the British roll to come on very close to the Hartwell Tavern which allows me to place the additional deployment point equidistant between the tavern and the brick house. If the spy is hiding in either of these two structures the game could be over very quickly.

First on for the British is a unit of light skirmishers:

Followed by a group of Native American allies who activate the second deployment point and arrive virtually on the doorstep of the brick house, which they will all quickly enter to commence their search much to the horror of the lady of the house:

This allows the provincial regulars to follow the Indians and despatch a group into the tavern while the other two groups cover the road:

Last on is the British regulars who, along with the lights, start toward the barn albeit at a very leisurely pace. Still no Americans on the table at this point and my opponent Dale has had little to do for the first forty minutes or so of game time:

Finally, the Americans arrive in force with a unit of skirmishers and another group of frontiersmen through the moveable deployment point on the left, and a unit of light dragoons followed by a unit of Continental and a another of State line:

The American skirmishers advance toward the brick house just as the Native Americans complete their search and draw a blank. Four Indians fire at the Continentals and manage to kill one of the group of six. Meanwhile the search of the tavern is also complete drawing another blank, so the searching group re-emerges to rejoin their compatriots on the road:

This means that the spy can only be hiding in the barn and so the race is on to reach it first. For the sake of the game this is obviously a good thing as it  otherwise would have been over by now with only one salvo from four Native Americans and a dead Continental skirmisher as a result. 

Being the fastest unit on the table the light Dragoons race to cover the road approach:

The British regulars wheel to meet them, albeit at a snail's pace:

While the lights continue their similarly languid progress toward the barn:

The light dragoons get to within charge range of the British provincials who let loose their first long-range volley causing seven points of shock from the twenty muskets it can bring to bear:

The light dragoons decide that they are not going to prevail over so many muskets and about-face:

But are unable to escape a second volley which kills five of their number and also injures their leader, knocking him out:

The Continental skirmishers now decide to head toward the barn where the informer has now been determined to be hiding, before the British can get there:

But three of their number are picked off before they can get inside:

The Indians in the brick house, having now completed their search and with nothing immediate left for them to do, decide to exit the way they came in. The Continentals Lights surprise them and manage to inflict seven points of shock, with the Native Americans subsequently returning fire and managing to kill another American plus inflict an additional point of shock:

Meanwhile the Continental Line with the State Line in support manoeuver to cover the crossroads:

The cavalry, still with their unconscious leader draped over his saddle, obligingly vacate their field of fire and disappear up the road:

Leaving the Line free to unload their first volley on the British line, inflicting two points of shock, and the British reply causes one casualty:

The six British lights with their leader now decide to storm the barn to take on the three remaining American skirmishers. In the ensuing melee three British and two Americans are killed, with the British leader rendered unconscious. This is enough to eject the British from the barn which is now held by one American skirmisher and his leader. 

It is at this point that we realised we had actually been working to different assumptions, in that I mistakenly thought the British were searching for a spy who is in hiding and awaiting rescue, whereas Dale assumed that I was searching for an escaped prisoner or informant who was in hiding from the British. 

Dale's interpretation makes more sense as there wouldn't have been much point in the British actually spending time searching buildings to find the spy/prisoner/informant, while the scenario itself uses the words interchangeably. We therefore decided to roll a die, with a 1/2 meaning the remaining Americans in the barn could now rescue the informant and escort him to the Continental baseline, a 3/4 indicating the informant has to join his rescuers and defend the barn before fighting his way clear, and a 5/6 resulting in the death of the informant.

The Americans rolled a 2 so the remaining Continental skirmisher and his leader with the informant in tow started to hightail it to the rear of the table with a very healthy three dice movement throw:

At this point I am hoping that my British lights, with their still unconscious leader, can reactivate to give chase, although the Continental lights have a healthy head start.

The action however continues elsewhere, with the Native Americans managing to force the Continental lights to withdraw with several casualties, while the Volunteers of Ireland exchange fire with the Continental Line:

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Rather amusingly the leaders of both are hit and rendered unconscious, with two leaders from each side now having been hit. The British however get the better of it with their morale now reduced by only two points to a still rather respectable nine, while the Americans are now down to a rather precarious five. If the British can reduce their morale down one or two more points it could slow the escape of the informer. 

And, as if on cue, the British lights finally activate to give chase, skirting their way around the barn, leaving their still unconscious leader behind:

The Continental skirmisher, his leader and their are however well on their way to the table edge:

Finally the main British line, in spite of having the overall commander and an additional leader attached, reach the fence line adjacent to the pigsty so that they can add support to the brave provincials:

They both let loose a volley at their American opponents with the Continental line are starting to thin out:

The Indians also advance and fire their muskets at the cavalry, still milling about with their unconscious leader, causing them to break and exit the table:

The resulting morale test results in the loss of a further two to a total of three points only remaining. This causes the Americans lose two of their command cards from the deck, meaning the activation of units for them becomes more difficult and the loss of the remaining three morale points will lead to their surrender. If the British can gain another couple of activations it is likely another one, and possibly two, Continental units will be forced to withdraw or break.

British hopes are also lifted when the leader of the light troops regains consciousness and rides over to join his troops in pursuit of the informant:

The next unit to be activated however are the frontiersmen, and they make their escape with their escortee in tow.

Another close and exciting game which provided quite a few laughs along the way. We are enjoying the rules and the scenarios have seemed quite evenly balanced to date with both sides seemingly in the game until the end.

There does seem to be a predilection to engaging in only limited movement and manouevre in favour of standing and blazing away once in range, but perhaps that is down to us still learning the rules and playing it like a larger Napoleonic game. We have already set up the next scenario which will involve the British going from one end of the table to the other, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out.