THE NIAGARA CAMPAIGN FOR BLACK POWDER

A good friend of Knuckleduster, Tim King, has put together a PDF guide to battles in the Niagara campaign using Black Powder Rules and kindly offered it to me to post on the blog.

This document provides detailed scenarios for Chippewa, Lundy's Lane, Fort Erie, St. David's, and Cooks Mills.

LUNDY'S LANE PART III; THUNDER ON THE NIAGARA!

Blood was first spilled at Lundy's Lane by canonballs from the mouth of the British guns, and our game begins with the British side attempting to do the same (and generally succeeding). The batteries in the graveyard could have been represented with a section of six-pounders, a congreve rocket team, and a ridiculously-large 24lb gun; however, a 5.5inch howitzer was present in the British OB, and we chose to give the British player this toy to play with instead of a boring old six-pound gun.

Drummond's gunners take aim . . .

The three different types of ordinance present the players with a lot of rules to manage, and we wrote up an alternate cheat sheet that added a table of artillery rules (how many dice at what range with what to-hit number for which gun). We used the rules for artillery chapter and verse from the Black Powder rulebook, with the exception of giving the 24lb gun a couple of advantages. The heavy gun's fire dice are 2-3-4 (long-med-close). Additionally, there is no -1 penalty for long-range fire.

Glengarry light infantry advances. This unit was divided into two small units; we have found a normal-sized unit of skirmishers to be too powerful. These troops are considered Marauders in Black Powder.

Inevitably, Glengarry light infantry is pushed out on the American left flank by any British player with the slightest grasp of the Art of War, and anyone not in possession of a good set of loaded dice fails the command roll necessary to get the York and Lincoln militias to follow suit. A player given Rialls's command  who is impulsive, recklessly brave, drunk, or suffering some kind of fit will break ranks with the Incorporated Militia and march them forward, a mistake that becomes apparent at the beginning of US turn 2 (as you shall soon see).

In a year-and-a-half of running this game, the first round of British artillery fire has not caused an American unit to break entirely, however Scott's Brigade is routinely rendered a disordered mess incapable of mounting a general advance on the hill. Some players have managed to push one or two units raggedly toward the British line, but most will hunker down and refuse their left flank to fend off the green coats worrying them from the fence line.

Towson's US artillery; the gun is by Elite, which I have found too large for my figures; I plan on replacing them with either Front Rank or Perry. The figures are Knuckleduster late-war artillery.

During this first turn, the American artillery will try to place fire on the hill, however a -1 penalty is assessed due to the elevation; not in the rulebook, but necessary to portray the difficulty with which Towson had trying to get roundshot to do anything but bury itself in the dirt.

At the beginning of Turn 2, the British have the opportunity to be patient, continue pounding the hapless grey coats, and perhaps run some skirmishers into the orchard to their immediate front. Most players will trust to the strength of their position and wait for the Americans to come on, however a few will lose their heads and turn loose the Royal Scots or, God Forbid, the 89th from their snug spot supporting the guns.

The American "surge." Ripley's division arrives.
In the distance can be seen Porter's militia brigade, equal in every way to the US regulars.

An aggressive move by the British early in the game, before the Americans have shown their hand, is punished during the beginning of the US turn 2 when the American reinforcements arrive. Brown arrives with Ripley's brigade on the road in the US rear. It's wise to give them one free move on the board in order to them into action as soon as possible, but we've also required command rolls to bring them on the table; your choice. Simultaneously, Jessup's 25th, supported by the skirmishers of Ketchum's company (a tiny unit)  enters in any formation  they wish astride the road on the British left flank, just inside the deep dark woods. 

"Crap."

The British response to this action can be quite amusing, especially if the Incorporated Militia has been pushed forward, bringing the Americans on the board behind them. We are very generous with units that must extricate themselves from trouble, knowing that well trained troops with good discipline can execute any number of maneuvers to reorient themselves. We employ a house-rule, apparently a popular one among Black Powder players, giving a disordered unit the chance to make one move backward in lieu of rallying in order to extricate itself from peril. We instituted this fairly early in our experience with the rules after watching a French dragoon unit trapped and annihilated by rifles; an entire regiment completely unable to run away and save themselves being nibbled into oblivion by a handful of skirmishers.

Glengarrys pelt the American left. They always prove a distraction to the
Americans far  beyond what their numbers justify.

The middle-game consists of firefights on the British left, Scott's brigade totally consumed with rallying units and fighting off the threat to their left, and American and British reinforcements filtering forward into action. Here the key to the battle becomes apparent; the Americans must get Ripley's brigade to the hill as quickly as possible and must charge the guns with alacrity before the British can reinforce the graveyard. 

Marching up and down the square. British reinforcements arrive . . . 

All of this time, visibility is reducing. Turn two it falls to 24 inches, turn three 12 inches, and turn four a mere six inches. By this time, both armies are heavily engaged and a long painful night has begun  . . . 

NEXT: LUNDY'S LANE; ENDGAME

LUNDY'S LANE, PART II: AMERICAN DEPLOYMENT

US forces arrive. Left (your left) to right: Towson's artillery, US  9th, 22nd, and 11th infantry. Winfield Scott just behind them, discussing with his aide ways to have them all killed.

At a quarter-till-eight in the evening, American commander Winfield Scott emerged from the woods with his 1st Brigade of the Left Division and immediately came under heavy artillery fire as his troops hastened into position. There were remarkably few incidents of disorder during this challenging deployment, due in no small measure to Scott's belief in extensive drill and harsh military discipline. It was this discipline that gave his units the ability to march into effective artillery range, about 400 yards from the enemy, and stand there like Russian grenadiers, to be murdered by the bushel, as their commander tried to decide what to do next.

Winfield Scott was a blunder waiting to happen. An arrogant, aggressive, moody, and unpredictable martinet, he was also a remarkably unimaginative field commander who allowed his brigade to be practically annihilated, using up ammunition in wasted shots at out-of-range targets. We didn't use any special rules for him, but there are certainly opportunities to do so. If anyone would suddenly lose patience and order a headlong charge into the teeth of the guns, it would be Winfield Scott, as you will see in time.

Jessup's 25th advances up the right flank along an easily-missed camouflage cloth path.

Fortunately, Scott had an ace-in-the-hole: Jessup's 25th infantry, which was sent on a deep flanking maneuver up a recently-discovered track through the woods along the river on the American far right flank. The 25th included a company of light troops under the command of Ketchum, who skirmished ahead of the main body, and was responsible for taking many officers and messengers prisoner before the night was over. We did not actually march them up the flank as in the photo, but held them off-board and placed them at the start of  American turn 2 astride Lundy's Lane in line, just inside the woods, with Ketchum's tiny unit on their right in skirmish order.

And now for the fashion show. As you're no doubt already aware, Scott's brigade was issued short grey roundabouts instead of blue regimentals due to supply shortages, and the dark machinations of rival commanders elsewhere in the theater. All four regiments under his command sport these, along with the false-front "Tombstone" leather shakos, white summer trousers, and equipment as depicted below.

 Blanket rolls were not unheard of in the war, and the standard-issue pack was plain buff canvas with a light blue painted flap.  The lettering on the flap as well as the "US" on the canteen are available as water-transfer decals from Knuckleduster. The designs in the photo at left were hand-painted.

Scott was accompanied by Nathan Towson's artillery, a section of two 6lb. guns and one 5.5" howitzer, represented on the board with a 6lb. section. The gun is large; it's made by Elite and it probably a bit too big for our figures. I may be replacing these with Front Rank until Knuckleduster can design ones of their own. When choosing artillery pieces to use for the Americans, French Napoleonic pieces work well since the US appears to have mounted their guns using the Gribeauval system, and with mostly iron barrels. I had to file the Napoleonic eagle off this gun (heartbreaking thing to do to an Elite artillery tube) and sculpt an American eagle in its place.

Towson had a lot of trouble putting effective fire on the hill where the British artillery was situated. He tried different angles and methods before admitting that his fire was mostly effective only in bolstering the spirits of the American infantry and gave up. For this reason, artillery fire at the hilltop positions receives a -1 at any range.

The US dragoons. In Black Powder, the commander in the photo is superfluous (I painted him, so I'm putting him in the photo). They are rated as a tiny unit with marauding capability.

The battle began with a token cavalry force of US Light Dragoons and New York militia cavalry sitting on the Portage road awaiting instructions. High command stole them away for messengers and scouts rather than giving them any significant combat role, but they will of course be ridden into the ground by any gamer who gets his fat little hands on them.

In our scenario, the Scott's main body begins the game at the lateral road about 18 inches from the British guns, with the knowledge that reinforcements are due soon and that Jessup is away on his secret mission. The British go first. It is up to the American player, provided he survives the initial British bombardment, what to do with the main body of the 1st Brigade; whether to attack in some manner, retreat into the woods to take shelter until help arrives, or to stay put.

NEXT UP:
PART III; THUNDER ON THE NIAGARA!

LUNDY'S LANE, PART I; DRUMMOND'S POSITION

After much experimentation, our game club has put Lundy's Lane on the table using Black Powder rules. There was a lot of anquish and hand-wringing during the research and conversion of the historical roster into something workable in Black Powder.

We had a look at our limited table size (6' x 8'), and formed our units mounted four-to-a-stand with a 15mm frontage. We chose six stands as the Black Powder average unit, eight stands as large, four stands as small, and two stands as tiny. Any stands of skirmish troops were split front and back into two half-stands, each pair counting as one stand for unit size calculations. Distances were reduced to 2/3 (12" instead of 18" for fire, etc.).


Most units could be represented in a fairly straight-forward way, but some of the smaller light infantry units were combined in order to make formations that stood a chance of survival on a Black Powder battlefield. The light companies of the 41st and 8th were combined into one "tiny" unit ("tiny" being the smallest unit in Black Powder). In other cases, larger units were split up to operate as independent wings, as appears to have been done on the actual day of battle.

DRUMMOND'S POSITION

Let's take a look at Gordon Drummond's position at the beginning of the battle, and begin examining the units involved and how they are represented in Black Powder.

The first view is the center of his position on a 25-foot elevation crowned by a cemetary and one-story log church and meeting house. A potentially unweildy set-piece diorama was eschewed in favor of small stands bearing clusters of tombstones and a stand-alone resin building whose entirely representative position could be nuanced in order to fit troops in where needed.

Morrison and Drummond contemplating the ghastly business at hand.

Here we have the Commander-in-Chief, General Gordon Drummond and to his right (our left), Lt. Colonel Joseph Morrison, who commanded Drummond's center: the enormous 89th, flank elements of the 41st and 8th, a substantial part of the 1st Royal Scots, and an impressive collection of artillery. In addition to these assets, he theoretically commanded 500 Western and Grand River warriors, but they decided not to be commanded that day and took little part in the day's excitement (a few might be found roaming the right flank, skirmishing, taking scalps, posing for souvenir photos, etc.).

On the right end of Morrison's position (here and henceforth his right, the reader's left) were three companies of the 1st Foot, 171 men in total, described in some accounts as "flank" companies, and in others as "light" troops. We represented this with a small unit of lights and grenadiers, the former mounted on split stands for skirmishing in mixed order.

In the graveyard we find Drummond's artillery, including 24-lb. guns (we used Elite Miniatures' Russian Licornes mannned by Victrix artillerists), a 5.5-inch howitzer (all Victrix), and a Congreve Rocket battery (Old Glory). Two of the stands here belong to Morrison; the Congreve rockets and the 24-lb gun. The howitzer belongs to the light brigade, and represents a section of two 6-lb guns and a howitzer. The howitzer was chosen over a gun in order to give the British player some interesting variety; how often do we get to play with howitzers?

In the games we have played thus far, the heavy gun was given long range fire with no penalty, and caused a -2 on the target's morale saves. This, combined with the -2 morale save suffered from Congreve and howitzer hits, made the graveyard a daunting position to assault, at least in the daylight, and satisfactorily massacred Scott's brigade if they stood to face it during the long wait for reinforcements.

Along a road behind the guns were posted the 89th foot, rated as a "large" unit in Black Powder. The 89th had black facings, and was one of only three British units that carried colours that day. Not much to say about them, except that they had black facings and, like the other British regulars that day, wore Belgic shakos. Initially, we gave the British regulars all kinds of special rules, such as first fire, crack, etc. We are in the process of taking another look at our use of special rules and perhaps trying a different approach, because we keep forgetting to apply them.

A tiny unit was created from the flank companies of the 41st and 8th. The 41st was said to be wearing white trousers as was their custom (see Osprey's British Infantry Trousers in North America), so I've painted half the figures in white trousers and half in grey. A Front Rank officer rounds out the unit.

LEFT FLANK

The job of holding Drummond's left flank fell primarily upon the Incorporated Militia Battalion, a well-trained formation of Canadians who should be considered regulars in all respects. According to author Richard Feltoe, (Redcoated Plowboys, A History of the Volunteer Battalion of Upper Canada) they wore stovepipe shakos and red coats with green facings, in spite of speculation to the contrary by those who would have them in Belgic shakos and blue facings. The officers were probably in blue facings by recently introduced regulations, however many would probably still be in the round hat, very popular among officers of every ilk during the War. They would not necessarily be carrying colours, a tiny scrap of the truth I stumbled across but can no longer remember where. This is a six-stand, average-size unit in our Black Powder game.

Speaking of powder, here are some troops who took a powder in the battle. This tiny unit of dragoons is composed of Perry figures, and their counterparts were not risked on the field of battle by Riall that day in 1814, which of course doesn't prevent gamers from doing the obvious: frontal assault on the American guns! 


In the background can be glimpsed Phineas Riall, commander of most of the militia and light troops that day. One of the toughest choices to make regarding the command structure was what to do with Riall's division. His entire division is only the size of a brigade, and if two of his so-called "brigades" were only battalion-strength militia units. In our game OB we eliminated all of his subordinate commanders and traced the command of all his units directly to him. This had the most profound implications for the next two units . . .

RIGHT FLANK

Far out on the British right flank were The Glengarry Light Infantry, dressed exactly as Sharpe's boys, the 95th Rifles, but carrying Brown Bess muskets. They were part of Riall's division, but are considered marauders in Black Powder, which makes their extreme distance from Riall no problem when rolling for orders.


We represent them as a small unit (instead of 4 normal stands they are 8 skirmish stands). We found that Average size units with the advantages of skirmishers become far too powerful on the game table; only the lack of rocket-propelled grenades and GPS prevent them from destroying everything else on the board. It is our studied opinion that the spirit of the rules was for skirmish units to always be tiny or small, and that larger formations should be divided into these morsels.

The 36-inch journey to the commander, Riall, was an extreme impediment to the next unit, the sedentary militia of Lincoln and York. If they are meant to take a meaningful part in the battle, one has to ride over to them long enough to put them in march column, run them up the field using that formation's free moves, and then deploy into line or mixed order (they have light troops present) when close enough to use an initiative move.

In their collection of red and green regimental coats and multi-coloured civilian dress, they look just like a heavily-armed Christmas tree marching across Canada.

That does it for the British initial dispositions. The British player has a formidable position at the start of the battle, and one that must be carefully preserved until reinforcements arrive.

NEXT UP: THE AMERICAN DEPLOYMENT . . .