Reply To: Is the AWI best served with our current crop of rules?

[phaidknott 7023xp 0]

Still on the quest for the “perfect” set of AWI rules. I think part of the problem is also the “scope” of some of the battles. Some well known battles only had perhaps a battalion each side (deployed in various companies), and some were battles more in your typical Napoleonic game with 1000s of men on each side (and AWI wargames rules often try and cover all the bases when it comes to this and doing the job imperfectly because of this).

“British Grenadier” rules seems to rely on the fact that the British forces are usually acting very aggressively and the Americans are formed in two lines of battle (First line made up of skirmishers and militia to put out the disruption chits, before the second line of more “regular” and continental troops attempt to engage as fresh troops on the disordered British lines). Problem usually occurs that by the time the American first line is retiring/routing away from the British lines the entire army moral means the second line is in a fragile state and tends to break and run away (along with the remnants of the American first line). Perhaps the fix/house rule here might be to have TWO sets of “army moral” going on (one for the Militias and another for the more regular troops). It’s hard to find any references/journals for Officers for the day and “if” they paid any attention to what the Militia troops were doing on the day (and were they expected to “run away” as part of the battle).

“Rise and Fight Again” rules use a system of “army fatigue” to model army morale (the morale might be fine, but the troops are just too tired to fight on), and again the battles rely on the American tactic of fighting in two battle lines to try and disorder/tire out the British to even the odds against the better classification of the regular British Line Battalions.

I’ve just also got the Warlord published book “Rebellion!” (written by Steve Jones”) as this was recommended reading from a YouTube Channel I’ve been watching (wish I could find the channel again) that was recommended even if you don’t play with Warlord Black Powder rules (which I don’t). Perhaps this book has the “fix” for things in that the author assigns the Black Powder troop “traits” (things like “weary” or “bloodthirsty”) to the troops dependant on how they fought in the BATTLE (rather than for the whole war). Thus a Militia Regt might be weary for most games but on the day when they outperformed themselves they might get “Fierce” etc. HOWEVER researching and assigning these traits special rules would probably be a full time job, open to debate and critique on your personal findings.

The whole AWI conflict is such a mixed bag when it comes to wargaming, but I’ve still yet to find rules that reflect the conflict without it playing like a normal Napoleonic style of game (and troop classifications) where things start to fall apart when you try and stage an historical refight (with OOBs and Regt troop strengths) rather than a pointed more tourney style of game.