Sunday 20 November 2016

Battle of the Kanavagan

 Summer 1775: the british recruit reinforcements in New England and Bengal, while launching a ship of the line in Portsmouth: The americans can do little but save money for now.
 The new bengal army marches into the Mahrattan territory, while in America Lord Howe attacks Philadelphia and Washington the Ohio Valley.
  Burgoyne leads a bloodless camapign of conquest, bagging another territory for the East India Company, the locals are so impressed that join him, adding 1 SP to his force. This addition brings the total output from India to 5 tricornes, enough to recruit a batallion per turn. I'll leave then the company to its own business since their conquest of the subcontinent feeds itself.
 We rolled for the two american battles, and Washington got to go first. The english had luck with the random scenario and turned a river crossing into a fortified nightmare for the attackers. A field hampered the advance on one bridge, while the other was overwatched by a village and a redoubt.
 The redcoats await confidently behind the Kanavagan river

 The advancing columns soon were raked by cannonballs
 Soon to be answered by a furious bombardment of the village by american guns
 The mounted militia marched to the bridge
 Then dismounted to fire better
 The first unit to rout was one of continentals under concentrated fire
 The mounted militia was surviving miraculously under a tremendous crossfire
 Then the red line parted and the cav stormed through
  
 The milita killed some of the riders but broke under hessian fire
 The other bridge saw massed charges of americans during all day
 But the position became a conveyor belt of death under british guns and muskets
 The cavalry crossed the Kanavagan, followed by infantry support
 The americans were not without reserves, and another unit of mounted milita appeared, running on foot to join the battle
 The american center squared up
 While the redcoat dragoons fanned out
 Seeing the battle lost, Washington ordered a general retereat, leaving a poor unit of continentals in the village bridge to act as forlorn rearguard
 The grenadiers soon charged and scattered such nuisance, then persecuting the retreating milita across the river

The dragoons dismounted, since the field wasn't ideal terrain for cavalry fighting
The battle came to and end with the americans bloodied but unbroken. Washington lost four batallions while George III none.
Updated map with the american losses, another battle will be fought here since the result was a draw. The british will have to play more aggressively, to kill some rebels before they retreat back again to their capital.

Frankly, the british had their work cut out for them since it's very hard (or impossible) to dislodge a defender entrenched behind an impassable river through only two narrow bridges.

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