David R. Moody - Sep 8, 2005 6:41 pm (#10751 Total: 10764) Last played: Gringo, Downtown, ASL, Band of Heroes, Grant Takes Command, Pirates, WMD, Lock 'n' Load (ANZAC expansion), Brandywine (GMT), B-17, Settlers of Catan, Down in Flames. Reading: The Supreme Commander (Stephen Ambrose). Played Brandywine, part of GMT's Revolutionary War Series, at Endgame last night with Joe Oppenheimer. It's the only one of the series (aside from the about-to-be-released Savannah) that I hadn't played, so I was looking forward to it. Also, one of my ancestors, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, was there, on George Washington's staff. We had both played the series before, squaring off at Guilford Court House some time ago, and fortunately the system is fairly simple, yet elegant, so we got into it again fairly quickly. We played the full battle (12 turns) with me taking the Americans to Joe's Lobsterbacks, Hessians, and Tories. Joe brought Khyphausen's (sp) men on, and the battle was joined, with fighting erupting between his lead elements and Maxwell's Detachment, across the Brandywine from my main force. I even inflicted some losses on the redcoats and forced them back. Historically, Maxwell's men fell back behind the Brandywine, after which a lull ensued until Howe arrived with the flanking column. I probably should have done that as well, but instead, flushed by my initial success, chose to fight it out. Joe's superior numbers (once he could get them into action), quality, and some good die rolling began to push me back, though we did fight hard. One of the interesting things about this game is the Army Morale Track. You lose morale as you take losses, take Disruption results, etc, and gain them as you rally and inflict losses on your opponent. The trouble is, as army morale dips, unit morale does too--it's harder to rally, units get adverse modifiers in combat, etc. The result is a slippery slope, which my army began to slide down as Joe pushed forward. Soon he got more troops (under Grey) into action, forcing a crossing of the Brandywine further north and engaging Sullivan's men (my right flank). My army morale kept sliding, as Joe, helped by a double turn, overran a couple of my batteries and drove my units back. Foolishly I tried to send part of Greene's men across to help Maxwell, getting a very good unit of Pennsylania Rifles cut off and destroyed to no good purpose. Finally, around noon, I pulled back, and Joe followed, trying to force more crossings of the Brandywine. I lost a dragoon unit in a furious counterattack, and managed to plug Khyphausen with rifle fire, but Joe continued to grind forward, pushing across the creek, driving some of my units back with accurate artillery fire. Then the flanking units showed up, with dragoons from both sides clashing at the crossroads near the Birmingham Hill (I lost another unit). With it getting late, my Army Morale a few spaces from 0, and a British horde about to descend from the north, I conceded. It was only a matter of time before Joe got a Substantial victory, barring a drastic change of fortunes, and with the large number of my units in the Eliminated and Captured boxes, he would at least get a Marginal. Most glorious, at any rate--I remember why I like this system, and I'll know better next time. Next week, Wellington. I hope to give Nosey a damned good thrashing to make up for my defeat at the hands of these Redcoats. Padua is the next target for Mike Lam's B-17 game, I have to finish my army build this weekend for our PBEM MechWarrior game, and I want to get back to Churubusco (haven't looked at it in a couple weeks).