Daveshoe's Sail and Steam Navy Adventure

We've probably played a half dozen games of Sail and Steam Navies from Bay Area Yards.  I have to say I like it. As with any other miniatures game it requires fairly regular play to master.  Still, it's easier to play and introduce to other casual players than Ironclads.

It's also become a great vehicle for converting to a sail only game for the War of 1812.  Though we chiefly remember this conflict for the great frigate actions between the Constitution and the Java or the United States against the Macedonian, the war had two important campaigns: the war against British merchant shipping and the campaigns on the Great Lakes.  It's the latter, in my view, that has the most potential for great games.  Unfortunately, most Age of Sail rules focus on large numbers of large ships, such as 74-gunners and up, and leave out the small schooners, brigs, and sloops altogether that constitute the vast majority of the lakes games.

The American schooners race across the table, as the British sail in two lines to cur them off from their objective.

Dave Schueler, a game designer himself, is always able to see the value in rules to get where he wants to go.  After playing S and SN for ACW, he saw no reason the rules wouldn't work for War of 1812.  Using Mark Waddington's beautiful handmade 1/600 ships, Dave tinkered with other rules, including Prevailing Winds to host the Burlington Races game last summer.  These were clunky and Dave moved on to work S and SN to make them suitable for his project.  I missed out on his playtest and Enfilade scenario, so I was really excited to play in a one off game on Saturday.

The game was fairly simple.  The Americans had six small schooners laden with supplies headed for Sackett's Harbor to aid in the construction of the frigate General Pike. A British force went out to intercept the Americans, including two schooners and the 20-gun corvette, Royal George plus the 18- gun brig Earl of Moira.  The British had the weather gauge and a short table to cross to intercept the American convoy. It was wolves among the sheep.  However, creeping onto the table were the American 24-gun Madison, and the 18-gun brig Oneida. The American schooners were chiefly armed with long guns, including larger 24 and 32pdrs, while the British were almost entire armed with shorter range, but deadly carronades.  The two larger American vessels were also armed almost solely with the stubby and nasty carronades.

As the game began, the British players made one fateful decision-double shot their carronades which required them to be fired at short range or six inches. They proceeded with their plan to cut off the schooners.  As they did, the smaller American vessels opened fire as their long guns came into range.  While the schooners, mounting between 2 and 10 guns, didn't have the heavy broadsides the larger square rigged vessels mounted, they usually had a couple of heavy guns on pivots with a larger field of fire.  There were plenty of opportunities to shoot, and with shooting comes hits, and with hits damage.  One of the British schooners took a broadside from Madison, hulling it badly.  The smaller schooners focused on Royal George and its schooner escort, plinking away at both ships, while the British could only plink back in return because they were out of range for their double-shotted, death dealing carronades.

Though the American schooners raced along along the shoreline to reach their objective, the British eventually succeeded in cutting the American line in two.  Three of the schooners, including some of the smallest tried to fight their way through the British while the others dodged the Brits to the north, shooting as they went.  At this point the Brits were finally able to unleash their broadside, badly damaging the  3-gun Ontario and also hitting the 3-gun Conquest.  In the exchange, however, the British schooner Sidney Smith was badly holed, and forced from the action. 

The tiny Ontario fouls the Royal George, bringing both to a stop.  Though Ontario would be sunk, the remaining American vessels would pound the large British ship into submission.  In the foreground, the sinking Sidney Smith sails for the shallows and beaching.

In the ensuing turns things came to a rapid conclusion.  The second British schooner, Beresford, already damaged by Madison, was sunk, leaving only the two large British vessels, both pinned against the shoreline.  Royal George, with significant mast damage, sailed off to the east ahead of the American schooner line.  However, Ontario, with a damaged rudder, fouled Royal George as it attempted to pass astern.  Though Royal George dispatched the smaller ship with its stern chasers, the two vessels remained motionless for a critical turn as the remaining American ships closed in.  Earl of Moira was sunk without a whisper.  The game ended with Royal George nearly dismasted and the Americans circling for the kill.

It was a fun game.  I ran the Ontario and somewhat larger Scourge. Despite their lack of size and relative frailty, I never felt like I was out of the action.  The larger ships always had to cope with the lack of long range weapons, so the small schooners always had the opportunity to be an important part of the fight. I really liked the flow of the rules with its two movement and fire phases, and the opportunity to fire specialized ammunition such as chain, grape or double shot provided some important choices.  Dave, did a good job of adapting the rules over to sail, and I hope he shares it with the Sail and Steam Navies Yahoogroup.

The Road to North Point

The Battle of North Point was fought between Maryland militia defending Baltimore in 1814. It was critical because the energetic British commander, Robert Ross, was killed in the action and the subsequent siege and assault on the city proceeded slowly and carefully. This allowed the city to gather its strength and deter a prolonged effort to capture this important Chesapeake naval base

Before I left home I saw (or thought I saw) the North Point battlefield was preserved and I was determined to see it. I left Bladensburg at about 1:30 and headed for North Point east across the bay from Baltimore. The route to the park was clear and except for a minor incident involving a bridge toll and non-payment thereof (eep) I made it safely to the park by 2:45.

North Point is beautiful. Semi-rural, wooded and green as much of Maryland seems to be, it is quiet and lovely and it reminds me a great deal of Washington's Long Beach peninsula. I paid my admission and drove on to the visitor's center. In speaking to the park staff I learned the actual battlefield wasn't in the park. Rather it was located over in Dundalk, near a place laughingly referred to as Burger Junction because of the location of MacDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's on three of the four street corners.

Burger Junction was easy to find but locating the battlefield took most of an extra hour. Though the field is owned by Maryland State Parks, it has only two small markers and really nothing about this important action. Nine acres of the field in this developed semi-urban community is all that exists of the battle of North Point.

Hope fully, given Maryland's important role in the War of 1812, and the arrival of its bicentennial, the state will invest in some interpretive signage. A map of the dispositions. Perhaps even some unit markers if those spots are known would be helpful. Honestly, I'm skeptical this is the location of the action, but it's hard to know after two centuries. It does however demonstrate the difficulty of protecting historical sites in the midst of development and urbanization.

O' Maryland, My Maryland (actually, you should have let the Brits takeBaltimore)

Today was my big day of driving around to War of 1812 sites. Unfortunately I only made two-Bladensburg and North Point. I'm posting from my iPhone, so I'm not sure about pics but I'll do my best.

I blew out of Baltimore this morning at about 10:30 and successfully navigated my way south toward D.C. Not an easy feat given the aggressive drivers near our nation's capital. Lots of highway should make it easy to find things, but it doesn't. I finally broke down and used information from websites and the GPS feature on my phone to locate the village of Bladensburg on Maryland Hwy 1.

Bladensburg is located on both sides of the Anacostia River. It seems pretty unprosperous by any standard I'm used to. The Maryland Historical Association/Society received a grant to begin studying the battlefield, which includes the state highway bridge over the river and a lot of privately owned businesses.

There are two valuable sites to see in Bladensburg. First is the Waterfront Park on the river. From here you can look across the Anacostia along the British line of advance. The other site is the Fort Lincoln Funeral Home/Cemetery-strange place for awar memorial. Yet, at the top of the hill behind the largest structure on the grounds is a marker showing the position of Joshua Barney's flotilla men and a memorial to the handful of Marines that accompanied him.

North Point post tomorrow

Fort Lincoln Cemetery is located on the site of Fort Lincoln, an actual Civil War fort in the outer defenses of Washington D.C.  In the distance is Lowndes Hill which was more easily defended than the Bladensburg crossing

View upriver to the (Maryland) Highway 1 bridge.  Likely crossing point for the British, and proposed archaeological site.for Maryland Historical Society

Marker for the small band of Marines that fought alongside Barney's bluejackets.

Barney's view from the American third line, down the hill toward the Anacostia crossing

 

 

 

Plaque dedicated to Barney in the Fort Lincoln Cemetery

British view of their line of advance across the Anacostia River.  Taken from the Bladensburg waterfront park.

Bladensburg: The British

72 hours since my last visit to TMP.  The urge is growing less all the time. 

The British marched to the Bladensburg battlefield under orders from Admiral Cockburn to punish Brother Jonathan.  The British force, commanded by General Robert Ross, was landed on August 19th,  marched up the Patuxent River, accompanied by come of Cockburn's smaller vessels.  He forced the burning of Barney's flotilla of gunboats before turning inland toward Washington and Baltimore.

Robert Ross forces his way into Washington D.C. through the American lines at Bladensburg.

Again, the scale for this battle are 50 men per stand.  We use the Regimental Fire and Fury rules, plus the additional support provided for the War of 1812.

The British order of battle for Bladensburg is as follows:

Commander:  General Robert Ross

1st Brigade (light infantry) Col. William Thornton
Converged Light Infantry battalion           six stands                        veteran light infantry
85th Regt.                                                  twelve stands                   veteran light infantry
Royal Marine light infantry                       four stands                      veteran light infantry

All these troops are capable of fighting in extended (skirmish) order.  Facing the Maryland militia, with three sections of artillery in fairly close proximity requires this brigade to form skirmish order and cross the bridge in skirmish order.

2nd Brigade Col. Arthur Brooke
4th Regt.                                                   eight stands                     veteran line infantry
44th Regt.                                                 eight stands                     veteran line infantry
Royal Marine rocket battery          three-four sections                     veteran rocketeers

This brigade appears at the bridge on turn 3.  The rocket battery was extremely mobile and should be two-action artillery.   The battery had some sixty rocket frames and fired quickly.  If you have a copy of Rocket’s Red Glare, the rules by Canadian Wargamers Group, you might take a look at the rocket template in those rules.

3rd Brigade: Col. Patterson

21st Regt.                                                eight stands                      veteran line infantry 

2nd Battalion Royal Marines                  eight stands                      veteran line infantry 

elements 3rd Battalion Royal Marines    four stands                        veteran line infantry 

Colonial Marines                                     four stands                        trained line infantry

 This group appears at the bridge on turn 6.  

A modern view of the Bladensburg battlefield.

We've played this scenario a couple of times, and both times, nobody was particularly satisfied with the outcome.  The Americans just can't be as bad as their morale and training were, and can't be as poorly led as badly as their political and military leaders made use of them.  However, I'm working on it.  

This summer I'll be painting a unit of the Annapolis militia and the U.S. Marines using Knuckleduster Miniatures.  I'll also finish assembling and paint up the battalion of converged British light infantry using Victrix figures.  Maybe I'll get more than that done in July and August, but I'm not going to stress myself out about it. 

Planning for Bladensburg: American Order of Battle

I've been able to stay away from TMP for 24 hours.

I am actually trying to plan for my summer painting and I've pretty much settled on the two areas I'll be painting.  Once I clear my painting table of  a few extraneous units I'm working on, I'll focus on two projects.  The first is the Battle of Bladensburg in 1814, and the second is the Battle of Poitiers in 1356.

Bladensburg is the battle outside Washington D.C. in 1814.  There is a simple synopsis.  The Americans, with a superiority in numbers opposed the crossing of what is now the Anacostia River by a British force.  The British fired some Congreve rockets at them and the Americans fled.  Though some units in the American third line resisted heroically, they were outnumbered by the advancing British, were overwhelmed and the Brits marched on to Washington. 

Lossing's map shows the deployments of the Americans.

Doug and I have run Bladensburg before, but I've decided to paint all the units actually at the battle.  We will use Regimental Fire and Fury with the War of 1812 modifications.  Each four man stand represents 50 men.  I'm working in 28mm, but there are certainly some fine 15mm War of 1812 ranges from Old Glory and Blue Moon. I'll be using Old Glory and Knuckleduster miniatures for my Americans, and Victrix and Old Glory for the British. The source is Lossing's Field Book of the War of 1812.

American Order of Battle  under command of General Winder

American First Line-Pinkney
Pinkney's Maryland Riflemen           three stands                raw militia
Maryland Militia Artillery                 three sections 6 pdrs. raw militia

Sterret's 5th Maryland eventually broke after its supporting units dissolved.  But it regained its reputation as a fighting militia unit as depicted by Troiani fighting at North Point.

The first line is entrenched, facing the bridge the British will cross over the Anacostia River. Unfortunately the embrasures for the guns are designed for larger guns, and the gunners are forced to scrape out new ones.

American Second Line--Stansbury
Sterret's 5th Maryland Battalion        nine stands                   trained militia
Schurz's Maryland Militia                  seven stands                raw militia
Raglan's Maryland Militia                 seven stands                 raw militia

These troops, together with Pinkney's small corps form the volunteers from Baltimore.  Their original position, supporting Pinkney was changed by James Monroe, Secretary of State.  Monroe sent them up the hill to the rear, to far away to be a support to Pinkney and exposed to fire from the British rocket batteries and musket fire.

American Third Line-General Winder.

Joshua Barney led his mixed force of green regulars, Marines and bluejackets to the battlefield at Bladensburg.  His naval gunners did great execution among the British, but their resistance collapsed when Barney fell wounded.

 

This line begins arriving on turn 1 and includes the following troops:

 

Scott’s Regulars                                              six stands                    raw regulars

Marines                                                           three stands                 veterans

Barney’s Flotillamen                                       six stands                   veterans

Barney’s Naval Artillery                                 two sections                naval guns

The next group begins arriving on Turn 4 and includes the following troops:

Beal’s Annapolis Militia                                 six stands        raw militia

Morrison’s Annapolis Militia                         six stands        raw militia

Wadsworth’s Militia Artillery                         two sections    raw militia artillery

The final groups begins arriving on Turn 7 and includes the following units: 

Three Units of District Militia                        Four stands each         raw militia

The Americans mustered about 6,900 men for the battle.  Of those troops, about 700 or so were regulars.  The rest were militia.  Of the militia, only the 5th Maryland had a reputation for being well drilled, and well trained.  The rest were raw.

Victrix Napoleonic British WIP

I'm over here at Central Washington University in beautiful Ellensburg.  I opted not to bring a laptop with me, know I have my iPhone and will have access off and on to a computer lab.  I'll have some down time so I opted to bring along a box of my cherished and well-buried Victrix Napoleonics.

A few years ago at Enfilade I spent some of my earnings from the bring and buy on a few of boxes of the newly released British, the flank and center company boxes.  I purchased these to form the British troops that fought in the Chesapeake region during the War of 1812.  You know, burning of Washington, rockets red glare, those British.  Unfortunately, they've lived quite happily in my garage, never saying a word, until I moved most of them into my painting room this spring.  They cheered a little.

This past Tuesday I opened a box of the little fellows and looked carefully at all the little men and all the little sprues of heads, backpacks, and arms and quickly put them back in the box and put them away.  I was scared.

The Victrix British come with eight sprues.  Four are mostly bodies with backpacks and heads.  The other four are full of fiddly bits-standards, half-pikes, muskets and arms. Don't be daunted.

A sprue of fiddly parts.  There are three more just like these.

This morning, while I packed, I stuffed a box of Victrix center companies into my handy messenger bag in the place my laptop would have gone. After checking in to my room early, I opened my box and looked at the sprues of bodies, arms, heads and equipment.  Oh my God, where to begin?  I eschewed my typical male response to reject the instructions.  The instructions have tons of information, including a rulebook. Most importantly they have a diagram showing how to make the various body styles with the multiplicity of arms, legs, head styles and equipment.

The assembly instructions.  Keep these around; they'll make your life easier.

After looking at the body styles, and all the bits that would be glued to them, I decided the best course of action was to cut out the full bodies and separate them into types.  There are four slightly different body styles for the privates.  There are drummer figures, nco figures and officer figures.  Be sure you have a sharp hobby knife, and remove all mold marks because fit is so important when it comes to gluing. I found all the parts to be relatively free of flash.

I sorted my miniatures into four groups-basic infantrymen, drummers, nco's and officers.

Once the figures were sorted, I decided to assemble the special figures first, and that is as far as I'll go with this entry.  I began with the drummers because they were the most distinct and with few options.  First I assembled the drums.  They come in two halves with a hole for the peg on the figure.  These halves fit together quite neatly, but they have to be wiggled around a bit to snap into place.  I used Zap CA glue to assemble my figures, but plastic cement might work better. After assembling the drums, I glued them on to the figures.  Mistake!  I encourage you to glue the arms on first, let them dry a bit, and then glue the drums on.  With drum on, there is much less room to fiddle with the left drum arm in particular.  The drum pose seems odd to me, the drumsticks seem to cross a bit too much, and I feel like the drummer is sending out some strange gang sign I don't understand. I also gave the drummers a knapsack and blanket roll.  There are some nice choices here.  Cut them out and clean them and you're ready to glue them on.  I encourage you to put your glue on the belting on the back because it's more likely to touch the knapsack than putting glue on the latter.

Completed drummers.  These weren't difficult to finish, but I encourage you to put the arms on first.

Next I chose heads to finish the figure off. There are a number of different head styles: the standard with shako plate and plume, shako with oilskin cover, and even bareheaded.  Gluing the heads on can be kind of tricky.  The heads fit very precisely.  Be patient and move the head around in that recessed collar until it snaps into place.  Be sure you've trimmed the neck properly.  I spent a lot of time picking heads off the floor

You can see the standard with its tassels in the middle of the photo.  Take care cutting it away from the sprue, though it was not as fragile as I feared.

Completed standard bearers.  The officers have their sashes to the right, the nco's are sashed to the left.

When the drummers were done I moved on to creating standard bearers.  Each box of mini comes with four nco's and four officers and I used these figures to make my standard bearers.  The standards themselves are quite nice, but they are spindly, and I always worried about snapping the flags poles or the tassels that come with them. These figures went together pretty easily.  The nco's have their sashes on the left (facing the figure) and the officers have their sashes on the right.

This left the remaining nco's and officers.  You can choose to create your sergeants with a musket or a half pike.  My choice was the latter in order to make them stand out.  Again, I was very cautious cutting the half pike out to avoid breakage. You also have a choice of right arms (facing the figure,) either across the body or at his side.  I chose the latter.  For the officers the choice is mostly regarding the sword arm.  The sword arm can be urging the troops on or at attention.  I decided to make one of each.

Nco with halfpike, more assembly to come.

Sergeants with half-pike, the finished product.

Completed officer figures.

I've assembled twelve figures.  I won't say it's been easy, but it's not difficult either.  It simply requires some patience, and it is imperative to learn while you're working.  Careful with the glue, and some tweezers might help.  There are only a couple of times I felt like Edward Scissorhands.

Next up the kneeling and striding figures which require some additional work.

Bladensburg: The Rerun

Doug Hamm and I ran Bladensburg at Enfilade 3-4 years ago. I had a mad hankering to do the battle again. I didn't feel it turned out quite right then, and thought we needed to give it another go.

Mind you, Bladensburg is a tough one to re-fight. A relatively small British expeditionary force of two brigades, with little artillery, led by a great fighter, Robert Ross, routs a much larger American force led by a bevy of nincompoops, including the President of the United States. It is always difficult to play the Americans as poorly trained as the large force of American militia, or to lead as badly as the American commanders actually did. It is difficult to reproduce Ross's brilliance and impetuosity, which paid dividends at Bladensburg but cost him his life at North Point months later.

We had reliable British players and some amusing Americans-some experience and inexperience on both sides. Our rules are Red Coats and Grey Jackets, which is Doug Hamm's Fire and Fury knockoff. I've really enjoyed our War of 1812 project, and love working with Doug. We laid our minis out in more or less historical positions with British having to work their way across the Anacostia river facing a withering fire. They did, but didn't move quickly to outflank the the Americans out of their hasty earthworks. The rockets that proved the deathknell orderly American militia didn't have enough range to reach the Americans (a problem of our creation) and the rapid march of the third American line contributed to the discomfiting of the British attack.

It was a disappointing game. The new untest firing table didn't work as well as hoped. I also believe that the lights have to be able to melee the Americans, not just skirmish around them. The gigantic American militia units really were unwieldy. Once they had to move, they could just runaway at the drop of hat, and god help 'em if they were disordered by fire. We'll need to give the rockets a longer range if they are to have the effectiveness they need.

Regardless, it looked good and I've included some of Doug's outstanding photos. At the upper left are Joshua Barney's naval gunners who hauled a handful of cannon to the battlefield after they burned their gunboats to prevent their capture by the British. The figures and guns are by Abbott's Miniatures. Those at top right are my American Marines. There are pitifully few of these excellent troops at Bladensburg. The figures are from the Dixon Napoleon in Egypt range. I've scraped off some of the shoulder decorations. I like 'em. Center left are British rocket troops by Old Glory. They have a nice batch of these with rockets on the tall firing ladders as well as those firing from horizontal tubes. At center right is the advancing British line. The front unit is a light infantry battalion backed up by line foot. I think all are Old Glory figures. Finally, Doug has taken a great shot of my grey coated regulars we pressed into service as militia.