Game Three at Recruits started at 1pm on Saturday afternoon.
You can review the scenario here, the AAR of Game One here and Game Two here.
The Indians run and the Rangers give chase. . .
A tied Initiative roll brings on The Preacher (see Game Two AAR for the explanation).
The Indians make it into the woods "en masse" with the Rangers in hot pursuit.
The Rangers follow into the woods where the lessened visibility and the higher cover modifiers to shooting make it more difficult for both sides to hit their targets.
And the Indians scramble their way to a 2-point win!
We had a lot of fire combat in the woods this game and a frustrated Ranger player wondered why his activated Fire combat was at a -3 Marksmanship roll because of the Medium Woods modifier and the enemy's Opportunity Fire was a -2, so the Opportunity Fire actually had a better chance to hit. I didn't have a good answer for him during the game but after some thought the rule makes complete sense to me. Here goes. . .
Opportunity Fire is permitted against a unit that moves 1/2 of its normal movement rate or more, at -2 if the firing unit has not activated this turn or -3 if it has, ignoring all cover modifiers. So why doesn't the woods always confer at least the -3 cover modifier? Opportunity Fire always ignores all cover modifiers. The target gets the full cover of the woods when stationary or moving slowly enough to be partially hiding behind the cover, but when moving more quickly is "less covered up" by the cover. So it makes sense to me.
Game Four started at 5pm that same afternoon and turned into another very close game with even more fighting in the woods!
The Rangers win by 2 points!
I am very impressed with how well This Very Ground handled this straight-up skirmish game.
Another Recruits is in the books. See ya next year!
Game Two started at 9am Saturday morning and deployments were similar to the previous game, including one unit of Indians that started in the farmhouse. We had one Indian player that had played the night before and his advice to his team mates was to start as close to the southern edge of the farmstead as possible. The player that deployed in the house ignored that advice. . . begin foreshadowing music. . .
You can review the scenario here and the AAR of Game One here.
And so the running firefight begins. . .
. . . and the Indians finally leave the house hoping to get away before the Rangers can cut them off.
Then a tied Initiative roll triggered a Special Event; the re-roll going to the Rangers. The Ranger unit closest to an Indian unit is suddenly joined by "The Peacher," toting both a bible and a musket, adding an able body and commander-worthy Courage rating - to reflect the power of The Good Book - to a seriously depleted and grateful unit.
A second tied Initiative Roll went to the Indians triggering another Special Event. The Indian unit closest to a Ranger unit was suddenly seen to be leading a captive! Appropriately enough, this turned out to be the Indians that had been deployed in the farmhouse. . . and now we all knew what the delay had been about!
The Captive was worth 3 victory points to the side that had possession of her at game's end. The Indian owner immediately asked if he could "tomahawk her," in true stereotypical roleplay fashion, to deny the Rangers the potential points. I replied, "Of course," but he decided to wait.
A threatened charge by the Indians sent The Preacher and his Rangers over the wall but Ranger support provided covering fire that disrupted the Indians. While disrupted the Indians couldn't do any tomahawking. . .
And there was a chance that The Captive could be hit if the unit was fired on. . .
The game wrapped up when the last Indian holding The Captive was killed, after which the Rangers "rescued" her, while the remaining warriors left the field.
When we counted up the points we got a dead even tie! "Arrgghhh! I should'a tomahawked her!" Indeed, those three points denied the Rangers would have given the Indians the victory!
Sidebar. . .
On the table next door The Baron was running a game using wooden miniatures! Same era and figure scale as Hunting Grounds but with a very different aesthetic. Check it out here.
Next post: Game Three. Oh, and this is my 100th post to the Cluck Amok blog!
See ya!
