Camden 1780

 Battle of Camden, the first scenarion in our southern AWI minicampaign. The outnumbered forces of lord Cornwallis must push through and overcome the masses of militia and continentals.

After the defeats at Boston and Saratoga and the victory at New York, the british army faced stalemante, an army was then sent south under command of Cornwallis to turn the colonies there to the british cause, since it was believed that where large numbers of tories in the area. After disembarking and seizing Charlestown after a brief siege, the british met the main american army at Camden in the first pitched battle of the southern campaign.

 The british have an ace up their sleeves: Tarleton's dragoons

 The rebels americans are first to move, forming marching columns 

 The king's troops attempt a massed attack by the right, hampered by some cornfields

 The militia quickly forms into squares to fend off the incoming cavalry

 The dragoons however, weel left and charge for the guns

 The charge is carried off flawlessly

 But lord Cornwallis is killed at the head of his troops

 Undaunted, Tarleton leds his men against a unit of continentals

 Who form into square and repel the redcoat riders

 Badly mauled, the dragoons are now unable to charge

 Their charge has had a decisive second effect: dividing the american army in two. Now the royalists can attack both halves independently while maintaining their cohesion

 The regulars open up a disciplined fire

 In the american left, the infantry advances in waves against half their number of british

 A unit of continentals is sanwitched between the cavalry and the regulars, nowhere to run!

 The minutement charge into hand to hand, depsite their low rating

 A unit of american line had deployed in line and fires into a depleted british unit

 In the left, the british milita is keeping away more continentals at a healty distance

 The regulars are surprisingly repulsed by the supposedly cowardly minutemen!

 The sandwitched unit is cut to pieces, eventually

 The rightmost british unit pulls away behind the guns

 With the american center destroyed, the line unit in the left is facing two british units

 After a bitter hand to hand, the minutemen are routed by the vengeful english

 However, in the confusion the dragoons lose their nerve when they are passed through by the victorious infanty, and rout from the field

 A gunline covers the royal right

 Volley after volley pours into the americans on the left, who answer as best as they can

 They decide to go out in a blaze of glory, charging forwards into the militia

 A ravaged british unit now faces the double of militia without hope of rescue

 The americans on the right form a march column for unfathomable reasons

 Fire! Combined shots from the guns and the infantry almost kill the march column

 Fleeing the deadly field of fire, the column sneaks through the british lines

 The left americans are finally routed by concentrated musketry

 With the enemy on the left destroyed, the redcoats concentrate on the right

 There are still two units of minutement standing

 But american valour is lacking, and the army flees from the field after failing the morale roll

Great rejoicing ensues from the news of the victory, if a bit tarnished by the death of so a gallant commander as Lord Cornwallis