Colonial Campaigns Club (CCC)

Recently the old Chief has been engaged in various discussions related to how well the games reflect the actual history. Note the Chief is more of a gamer and analyst then he is an historian.

Phil Wilson pointed me to the History Channel series on Battlefield Detectives and last night's program was on Cowpens, which happened to be the focus of another recent discussion.

Now I don't know if I should believe everything I heard during the program (I thought another program on Monmouth was a little too selective in the topics it covered). However, it ocurred to me if you made a modified Cowpens based on the History Channel show, it would definitely play differently.

So for those who have not seen the show, this is how I think you would modify the scenario:

More American Militia -- show stated there were more likely 1800-2000 patriot troops at the battle, a 1,000 of which were musket armed militia. The additional militia probably should be D rated -- not E or F on that day.

British Fatigue -- the British were up since 2:00 am marching to the battle, the Americans slept on the field the night before. That should be worth a few fatigue points to start with.

Less maneuverable terrain -- I didn't catch all the details on this, but the overall terrain was soggy the day of the battle which would limit cavalry movement and there were many areas that were swamp like (i.e. impassable terrain), which funneled the British advance on the patriots. They showed a map. It is clear the game map is much more open then the battlefied apparently was. The Cavalry movement restrictions suggest the Continental Lt Dragoons could not function as B's on that day. Same is true for the British Lt Dragoons -- I missed that the first time I wrote this.

Rifle Effects -- while the optional rule in the game is too aggressive, the tactic was clearly in play on that day. Perhaps it could be best modeled by giving some of those newly discovered miltia rifles rather then muskets.

Morgan's leadership -- Morgan's Command/Leadership ratings 4/5 are already pretty good, but it was argued his plan was brillant and his inpiration surperb on that day. In particular his ability to motivate the militia. I think that reflecting this in the game system would be best done by increasing Picken's ratings of 2/4 to perhaps 3/4 or maybe even 3/5 -- again not because of Pickens but because of the "spirit of Morgan". Also while he didn't get a lot of favorable coverage Tarleton's rating of 2/5 seems a bit low, 3/5 might be more representative. The above are simply guesses, the point being the Americans had inspired leadership on that day.

A bit of luck -- I think it was the British Higlanders who charged what they thought were fleeing Continentals (the show claimed the Continentals were marching away because of a confused order) only to find the Continentals to turn and fire a surprise volley at point blank range. This resulted in a rather sudden and dramatic change in the motivation of the British troops. In thinking about the game engine the availability of supply is a way to model this and while the Americans do have supply, I think a second wagon closer to the front should be considered.

So if someone is looking for a scenario design project, a History Channel version of Cowpens might be a good one.