The battle of Greenford

From the diaries of Captain Hoehmann.

The rifles and light infantry moved ahead in fine style, however the line units had problems maintaining their facing as they crossed the ridge separating them from the enemy. The redcoats patiently waited in their positions with no sign of panic.

The rifles moved into an excellent flanking position and began long range fire at the enemy unit in the wood while awaiting their supporting light battalion.

Several expertly aimed shots downed the officers in the redcoat unit (O'Reilly's) causing it to waver and then break, However the rest of our forces were way behind and not in any position to exploit the success. The enemy artillery had to this time been pretty ineffectual until they seemed to get the range and caused significant casualties to the right hand light battalion. this caused it to fall back and reform beyond the stream. Another redcoat unit (O'Shaughnessy) wheeled to cover the gap on their right.

The light light battalion then moved forward and drove off the other redcoat unit (O'Shaughnessy) but left itself open to a counter attack (not pictured) by the cavalry and the other redcoat battalion (McShane). The fire of the lights and the rifles held off the cavalry, but the infantry kept going causing the lights to break and reform beyond the woods.

Our first rank of line infantry then stormed forward to try and exploit the enemies position, however they were not supported and this allowed the enemy infantry (Omaghs) in the wood and their artillery to inflict substantial casualties on the 1st/I battalion. Exactly what the plan was intended to avoid.

Meanwhile Brigadier Digby-Smythe had fallen back to try and rally the routing militia, leaving the remaining units without orders. The Omagh battalion were then attacked from two directions as the light battalion and 1st/I line took their revenge. They fought bravely and slowly gave ground though the woods. At the same time the other remaining redocat battalion (McShane's) was routed by an attack by 2nd/I Line

Meanwhile Brigadier Digby-Smythe gave orders for the artillery to withdraw while covering this with the cavalry. An orderly withdrawal was assisted by the rallying of the routed infantry.

This was also a solo play test of the command and control rules, which proved to cause a lot of the failure to coordinate various actions, which was fine for a solo game, but would be frustrating for a normal face to face game. I found various items needed adjustment and I'll post up the changes shortly

Overall the Frundsbergers los 6 strengths points compared to the British/Irish 8 points.