Below is the last in a 3-part AAR series from Mark Miklos covering the Battles of the American Revolution tournament at WBC 2019. Parts 1 and 2 can be found here and here. Enjoy!
There is a small amount of admin required when the game transitions from Strategic to Tactical phases. The weather marker is moved to the Coup d’ Main turn track and that weather continues for the rest of play, in this case rain which would handicap all British defensive artillery fire by -1 DRM. The Spanish, having declared Coup d’ Main early (meaning prior to turn 16) were entitled to draw any remaining random event cards called for on the turn track as an early-assault incentive. In this case Father Todd was entitled to one extra random event card while the British were not. Finally, the players review the number of breaches on the board. Having achieved only one breach the Spanish were penalized -1 army morale and the track was re-set to 20:14 in favor of the Spanish as Coup d’ Main began.
Father Todd wasted no time in attacking. De Galvez led an attack through the breach against the Prince of Wales redoubt. The attack was supported by the play of the “Yo Solo!†random event card which gave the Spanish an additional +3 DRM to his attack die roll in addition to standard modifiers. The odds, however, were only 1:3 and even with the good modifiers the result was an attacker disruption. Elsewhere Don Giron attacked Queen Anne’s redoubt at 3:2 but with -3 net DRMs. This attack resulted in a mutual retreat.
The British counter attack at the breach managed to pin the Spanish Sappers. This unit was subsequently eliminated due to a British back-to-back move on the top half of turn 2. Losing the Sappers during the strategic phase of the game is more serious than losing them during Coup d’ Main because as engineers they have limited combat capacity. Nevertheless, Father Todd regretted his careless play in exposing the Sappers at the front line.
During the bottom half of turn 2 de Galvez battled the Pennsylvania Loyalists and would have been captured had it not been for Father Todd spending momentum to re-roll the die. The loss of de Galvez could have been catastrophic so this was certainly a good use of momentum. In the re-roll it was the Loyalists who became captured; turn-about being fair play.
The British moved first on the top of turn 3 and the action swirled around the Prince of Wales redoubt where the British had concentrated their available mobile forces. There was pushing and shoving as when two Sumo wrestlers lock horns.
In the bottom half of the turn the Soria Regiment suffered a step loss from British defensive artillery fire that adjusted army morale to 19:15 in favor of the Spanish. Father Todd also played the “Spanish Navy Raids†random event card that lowered British morale by -1. The Spanish also attacked three times in the turn. At Queen Anne’s redoubt they went in at 3:1 with -2 DRM and caused a disruption. At Prince of Wales redoubt, they went in at 3:2 with -1 DRM and again achieved a disruption. The third attack occurred in hex 2724 at 2:1 even and caused the defender to retreat however the hex was held by artillery and there was no Spanish advance. After the turn the morale was 20:12 in favor of the Spanish.
Turn 4 was relatively quiet. Father Todd spent momentum (he seemed to have a limitless supply ☹) to influence the initiative die roll and failed; a moral victory for Mark’s Brits who successfully rallied two units on their half of the turn bringing morale back to 20:14 in favor of the Spanish. On their half of the turn the Spanish danced.
Determined to win the initiative on turn 5 and exploit Mark’s weakened position Father Todd spent two momentum chits. When added to his bonus for high morale he would be adding +5 to the die roll…and it succeeded. But wait! The card that Mark drew during his earlier intelligence coup was now played; the dreaded “Initiative Shift.†A giddy Father Todd who mere seconds earlier saw victory with in his grasp was now crest-fallen when Mark threw down the card and took initiative for the turn. Three momentum chits spent in two turns to influence initiative and all to no avail. There was an audible groan from among the spectators around the 4’ x 6’ Big Board Games copy of Pensacola that was being used for the final match. And Mark smiled ?
Following movement and combat on the top half of the turn morale was readjusted to 18:15 in favor of the Spanish. Is it possible the British were flipping the script?
During the bottom half of turn 5 the 2nd Cataluña regiment was captured (morale 17:16 in favor of Spain.) Brigadier Ezpaleta was killed by defensive artillery fire (morale 17:16, advantage British.) Spanish seamen were disrupted by the Chickasaw (morale 17:15 British.) The British light infantry took a step loss (Morale 16:16) and another Spanish unit was disrupted (army morale at the end of the turn 16:15 in favor of the British. Could Mark actually prevail in the game having trailed throughout? Inquiring minds around the table wanted to know.
The British moved first on turn 6. They rallied a unit and disrupted two Spaniards during combat. (Morale 17:13 British.) On the bottom half of the turn the Spanish captured a British artillery unit and forced a disruption result (morale 15:14 advantage British.) The capture of a British garrison artillery unit moved morale to 15:14 advantage Spain and a final British disruption in the turn left morale at 15:13 advantage Spain. Turns 5 and 6 certainly caused a stir and gave each player cause for both hope and concern. The math seemed to suggest that it was still anybody’s game but the tactical situation on the map indicated otherwise. Queen Anne’s redoubt was severely pressed, the Prince of Wales redoubt was breached and all available British reserves had been committed.
Father Todd finally got his long-awaited double move on the top of turn 7. A Spanish unit rallied but then another received a step loss during British defensive fire. (morale 15:14 Spain.) Then the British position collapsed!
Queen Anne’s redoubt was finally captured and after multiple combat results in the effort the morale stood at 17:12 Spain. The turn saw a lot of combat and after more captures and a British step loss the turn ended with army morale at 21-9 in favor of Father Todd’s Spanish troops including morale gains for having captured the redoubt and burning the Indian village which motivated the final two Indian units still on the board to exit the map. Mark would never come close again. From this pint on it both played like and felt like a mop-up operation.
On their half of turn 7 the British failed every rally attempt and out of desperation, spiked the artillery in the prince of Wales redoubt and withdrew its embattled garrison to the safer confines of Fort George.(Morale 20:8.)
Father Todd was having dizzying success now. He carried the works at Prince of Wales and caused more casualties in the process to readjust morale to 21:6. On the bottom half of turn 8 Mark managed a rally within the walls of Fort George (Morale 21:7.)
Getting a back to back move felt like a Pyrrhic victory for the British forces who used the extra time to set up a final defense in and around Fort George and do some stack management in anticipation of a final do-or-die Spanish attack. Father Todd could certainly have disengaged because he more than had the requirements fulfilled for a marginal victory, as several bystanders pointed out, but his army was led by de Galvez after all and de Galvez would hear nothing of it. On came the Spaniards in an all-out assault on Fort George during the bottom half of turn 9. Praying for a lucky artillery shot that might eliminate de Galvez, Mark was ultimately disappointed in that no Spanish leaders were lost and no casualties were suffered among the attacking troops; just some retreats. The Fort held but the Spanish marginal victory seemed assured in any event.
Mark’s initiative dice remained hot and once again the British got the back to back move. Mark re-set his defense on last time, looking for ways to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. On the Spanish half of the last game turn three attacks hit the walls of the fort. It was daring of Father Todd to take the risk of exposing de Galvez when the game was already won but he wanted a last try for decisive victory. In retrospect it was a noble way to seek glory and worthy of a good player.
The Fort held, de Galvez survived and Father Todd won a marginal victory with final army morale resting on 21:6. The time was 8:40 PM! It had been an eleven-hour and forty-minute match with one thirty-minute meal break; epic in its length, epic in its play and epic in its outcome.
A round of well-deserved applause resonated across the gallery. The protagonists shook hands and hugged and Father Todd, his smile beaming, notched the win after an impressive and dominating display of generalship throughout the week-long tournament.
Many thanks to AGM’s Dave Stiffler and Rob “Cappy†McCracken who helped in all phases of the tournament throughout the week. Rob, in particular, was parked table-side during the final and took the majority of notes from which this AAR is compiled.
CONGRATULATIONS Father Todd Carter; 2019 BoAR WBC CHAMPION.
Postscript: Father Todd improved his AREA rating by 57 places, climbing from 74th to 17th by his virtuosity at this year’s WBC BoAR tournament. An unprecedented achievement!!
Articles in this Series: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Author: Mark Miklos
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