Guns of Liberty AWI battle

I ran a AWI game using the rules Guns of Liberty by Eric Burgess. This has been my groups go to set of rules for AWI for several years and I've run them at our local Enfilade convention in Olympia, WA.  This past Saturday I ran a game at our local 1 day convention called Ambuscade. It is held at Guardian Games in downtown Portland.

I had 5 players for the game, 2 Continental commanders and 3 British. Each side had 4 brigades each of various sizes. I setup the scenario with the Continentals holding the large field in the center of the board with their militia off to their left and a reserve brigade behind the large field. 

The scenario setup was this. The Continental general knew the British was in the area but had conflicting reports about their composition and true whereabouts. They knew there was at least 2 British brigades coming straight at them but didn't know where the other 2 were going to come from once the  battle started. I also told them by turn 6 they had to start to retreat if they felt like they would loose their army.

The British were told that the Continental army was around the large field and that they had some militia holding a section of the line.  The British were instructed to take 2 brigades and hold them off board and by turn 4 they could bring them on one of the short sides of the table. They chose the Continental left.

The battle started with the British moving up the center and on their left to match the militia.  The Continentals held their ground and the reserves were left out of reach waiting to be deployed. 

Both sides traded shots causing few casualties and by turn 4 the British had moved up to charge range and then the flank columns came on marching through the woods on the Continental left.

The reserve unit marched out to meet this new threat and formed a line that anchored the large field and stretched into the woods.  The British units closed with blood lust boiling up! Melees broke out all along the Continental front with them falling back in disorder but still able to maintain a defense in depth.

By this time Turn 6 rolled around and I reminded the two Continental commanders of their need to save the army if they thought it was necessary. They did!

In the most orderly withdrawal I've ever witnessed in a war game, the Continentals by turn 8 were able to remove 50% of their force from the table and kept a nice gap between them and the closing British.  The British called the game saying they couldn't catch up to the fleeing army.

I called the game a minor victory to the Continentals since neither side really inflicted heavy damage on the other but they were able to save themselves in the end.

Overall everyone enjoyed the game and from the start everyone was engaged from the start. Below are pictures from the game. Unfortunately, the lighting in our area of the room was rather poor so some of the photos didn't turn out well.