Freeman's farm

 Following after Bennington the outnumbered soldiers of Burgoyne must capture the heights of bemis

 First into the fray are the grenadiers

 That rout a unit of miltia

 Burnswickers and regulars are menacing the rebel right

 The grenadiers follow up with their charge by killing Arnold

 Then charging the miltia in the rear

 That surprisingly pushes them back

 Another unit of minutemen scatters the elite redcoats

 In bemis a lively crossfire has erupted between germans and continentals

 The americans charge

 And are pushed back

 Finally a volley of merc fire routs them

And so in the last turn the americans fail their morale roll and the brits win in extremis

Militia

  Some minutemen for Freeman's Farm

Battle of Bennington

 Place is pretty much in lockdown due to Corona so we've taken the chance to play a AWI game, the patriots (left) are attacking a hessian camp full of redoubts

 Stark leds the assault (pity he left his suit at home)

 Hessians in the advanced redoubt

 They deploy in line to fire better

 Early in the battle Breymann comes in with the reinforcements

 The americans move in a double pincer

 Flanking right

 And left

 A lively fire soon erupts in the center

 The militia has reached the british rear, but the reinforcements arrive to plug the gap

 The forward redoubt is evacuated by outflanked mercenaries

 A deadly crossfire batters the militia

 The supplies are in danger so a batallion of hessians wheels about

 The germans charge the milita

 Who surprisingly repels them

 More milita deploy in line to menace the center

 The hessians fall back, but with a crashing volley send the rebels packing

 The  avantgarde deploys into line to counter the attack

Time has run out and the patriots retire form the field, leaving a battered but intact german force that rejoins Burgoyne's army with vital supplies

The Saintes 1782

 The final battle of the minicampaign is the Saintes, both fleets are sailing on opposite course from each other, the british have the edge in number and weight of ships, with no less than four three deckers. Admiral de Grasse has just ben issued with a fresh first rate, le Bretagne, to replace the captured Ville de Paris in a previous game.

 Both sides begin within gun range

 The french have some extra punch in their van

 De Grasse aboard Bretagne

  The british van under admiral Drake aboard HMS Barfleur

 Admiral Rodney leds the british fleet from HMS Formidable, with the 90 gun HMS Namur ahead

 The french start by extending their line

 And opening a deadly fire

 A french group has detached from the main force, and is pounced upon by the brits in the van

 Formidable crosses the T of the enemy line

 The jack tars try to cut the enmy line trough a gap in the center

 Formidable pounds the enemy with her triple batteries

 Getting into close quarters, the british fleet attempts a risky move

 In the british van the ships become embroiled in a fast paced engagement

 Formidable and Namur move down the enmy line sanwitching the ships there

 The heading french man o' war is the first to strike

 Then the one astern

 Another ship of the line surrenders to point blank barrages

 As does another one, under the fire of three opponents

 The Barfleur rakes a poor 74, reducing her to matchwood

 Not everything goes the britons way, a mauled ship burns out, the fire reaches the powder store while the crew jumps for dear life into the water

 Another brit has had enough

 And yet another

 In the last turn, another french strikes beset by three enemies

 The battle ends after roughly half an hour of real time combat

 The outcome: six french lost for four english, quite a balanced result 24-16, and the closest game in quite a while to grace the pages of this blog

The final episode of the engagement is down to the burning british ship, blowing to kindom come

The press is quick to capitalize on any victory no matter how small. After such a string of defeats the british colonies in the caribbean are more than safe, remaining crown posessions despite the defeats further up north in the revolutionary war.