Battle of Freeman's Farm (1812) - A Polemos Ruse de Guerre AAR

The Battle of Freeman's Farm: One of the scenarios included in the Polemos Ruse de Guerre rulebook is the Battle of Freeman's Farm.  Although in reality one of the battle around Saratoga in the American Revolution/American War of Independence, I set my refight in the War of 1812 instead, as that is what I have (small) armies for.  Gen Burgoyne was trying to outflank the American positions to their left and the American force is trying to stop, or at least, delay, him.
Although Freeman's Farm was a small action in the general scheme of things, the scenario in Polemos Ruse de Guerre is quite big: 36 British bases face 32 American.  But this is using a scale where one base represents 100 men: using Polemos basing, a figure-man ratio of 1:5  For my refight, to fit in with the size of my armies, I re-jigged the scenario for one base represents c.300 men.  This is quite within the scale of the rules, it just makes for a smaller overall game.

The Forces:

United States:

C-in-C: Gen Arnold


Right Wing: Gen Morgan (Decisive)
1 base of Well-trained Riflemen
1 base of Trained Light Infantry

Centre: Gen Poor (Capable)
3 bases of Trained Infantry
1 base of Poorly-Trained Infantry

Left Wing: Gen Learned (Capable)
4 bases of Trained Infantry
1 base of Well-Trained Infantry

Great Britain:

C-in-C: Gen Burgoyne

Left Column: Hamilton (Capable)
2 bases of Trained Infantry
1 base of Trained 6lb Artillery
2 bases of Trained 3lb Artillery

Centre Column: Fraser (Decisive)


3 bases of Well-Trained Light Infantry
2 bases of Trained Infantry
1 base of Trained 6lb Artillery


Right Column: Breymann (Decisive)
2 bases of Well-Trained Infantry
1 base of Trained Infantry
1 base of Trained Native Americans (i.e. This unit is an amalgamation of the Queen's Rangers and de Lacorne's Native American contingent, hence the unusual rating for these rules)

 Note: This order of battle is correct in terms of numbers but has been heavily adjusted to simplify the actual initial British deployment.  The much more detailed scenario in the book has units from all of the different columns intermingled along the line of battle.  I was pretty sure I would lose track of this, so for my refight I decided to simplify the order of battle to reflect more closely the physical deployment.  I still made a couple of (non-serious) errors during the game, mind!  I worked it out okay but I think I may have accidentally given the British an extra unit of trained infantry.

I have used some of the unit designations from the original scenario.  There were some Canadians fighting on the patriot side and so here there is a unit which is fighting on the US side.  They play quite a prominent role in the re-fight, so don't be confused...


The Set-Up:

The heavily-wooded battlefield.  British are towards the top, Americans towards the bottom.  Freeman's Farm is at the centre-right of the US position, Coulter's farm on the left.

Another shot.  The armies start quite close together in this scenario!

The British Right Wing

The British Centre (centre) facing the American Centre (bottom) throught the woods

The British Left Wing

The American Left Wing around Coulter's Farm

The American Centre and Right Wing, based around Freeman's Farm (right)

A view from the centre towards the British Left, along the stream and woods

 The Battle:

The battle begins, with the British attacking in the centre

And rather slowly advancing through the woods towards the American right.  Guns and woods don't mix well!

The first British attack miscarried but without serious loss, so Burgoyne just orders a repeat of the attack in the centre

The British clear part of the woods, but the New York regiment holds their position (centre-right)

The New Hampshires launch a counter-attack, forcing some of the British back through the woods (left)

In order to take the pressure off the centre, Gen Learned orders some of his units to move forward from the woods to start firing upon the British (centre-right)

Gen Poor reforms the New Hampshires in front of the Connecticut Militia, preparing for another counter-attack

A British infantry unit pushes around the American right (right)

The Americans and British trade volleys, with the British coming off worse and incurring serious casualties (centre)

The Americans follow this up with a bayonet charge, urged on by the hat-waving General Learned (right)!  The 1st Canadians push forward to assist (left)

General Poor's counter-attack goes in in the centre

Morgan's Rifles have been pushed back out of the woods and are now outflanked by the British!

Some of Gen Learned's Massacusetts' soldiers retire back to the shelter of the woods

Gen Poor's counter-attack in the centre is successful, throwing the British light infantry back to their start line!!

On the American right however, the British volley...

...and charge!

Burgoyne orders his centre to reform and resume the attack...

On the American left, Gen Learned joins the Canadians (left) and launches his second bayonet charge of the day

Which is crowned with complete success!  The British Grenadiers (centre) have retired with loss, whilst the neighbouring unit has been broken by the fire of the Massachussets men!!

In the centre however, Gen Poor's New Hampshiremen have been thrown back again; his New Yorkers just cannot be pushed out of their patch of wood however (centre)! 

On the American right, Morgan's riflemen have been routed (left), although the farm is still held

Gen Learned attacks once again with the bayonet, charging into the British Grenadiers (Centre); one of his Massachusetts' battalions has ushed across the stream in support (right)

Gen Poor under severe pressure in the centre

And is pushed back to the far side of the road

His New Yorkers hold off the British for the fourth time today!

But Gen Poor's command is under severe strain now: a New Hampshire regiment has finally been routed (bottom)

The British press forward again...

On the American right, the British form up ready to attack Freeman's Farm...

The British Right under pressure!  They try to outflank the attackers by bringing the mixed unit of Rangers and Native Americans around the flank...

...not in time to save the British Grenadiers though, who are finally overwhelmed and routed!

However, the American centre is in equally bad spirits: the remaining New Hampshiremen are broken and the supporting Conneticut militiamen are shaken...

The American centre collapses!

The unstoppable Canadians, under the inspired leadership of Gen Learned, beats off the flank attack and the Rangers and Native Americans retire into the woods (left)

Which causes the whole British Right to panic and retire!

However, whislt this was happening, the British have taken Freeman's Farm and its defenders have been killed or surrendered

The victorious American Left at the end of the battle

The American Centre and Right have been destroyed or driven off

 Game Notes: I had great fun with this one, in part perhaps because it was so new to me: I don't really know too much about the individual actions of the AWI.  It really came down to the wire, because although the American centre broke, the army as a whole held on.  Luckily for the British, they broke Morgan's command just at the same time as Breymann's troops were running away, since the British army's morale broke from a single roll.  Since the American army morale failed at the same time, and they had lost more units, the British were the winners (just!). Anyway, the game worked pretty smoothly considering it has been a while since I played these rules.  They really are the smoothest of the Polemos family, with many of the elements that create little bits of difficulty edited or removed.  You can tell that the author is a very experienced Polemos player, since at heart these rules are like the Polemos Napoleonic set, but simplified and - I want to use that word again - smoothed.  The only query that I had which I couldn't answer on re-reading the rules was the effect of enemy action on a 'force'.  If a force of either side becomes physically separated due to enemy action - say two bases are pushed back and two aren't - how is tempo then assigned?  Do they have to physically reform or not?  There do not appear to be any pursuits or follow-ups in these rules either, which I suppose I found a little surprising (since it means that troops don't 'take' a position - they force the enemy out of it and then occupy it next turn, but if the enemy is quick, they can sometimes re-occupy it first without a fight).

Anyway, I heartily recommend players interested in the FIW, AWI or War of 1812 to at least have a game with these rules.  As in all the Polemos series, the use of single-base units rules out dealing with the minutiae of unit and sub-unit tactics and gets one to concentrate at a more appropriate command level so the games really rattle along.

Figures and buildings are from the Baccus 6mm range, other buildings from Leven.

Lastly I must push Steve Jones exquisite AWI set-up in 28mm, including his version of Freeman's Farm for those looking for some proper AWI eye-candy!