Home from Recruits!

900 miles round trip for 4 games of Fistful of Lead: Horse and Musket. Worth it? Sure, this was Recruits! More on the games in later posts; stay tuned.

Fistful of Lead: Horse and Musket at Recruits

If you're in or near Kansas City this weekend, or can get to Kansas City this weekend - OK, actually Lee's Summit, MO - consider yourself invited to come play some Fistful of Lead: Horse and Musket with The Baron, Cluck Amok and the Big Toys at Recruits.

See ya?

Some more Muskets and Mohawks

We hosted our second game of Muskets and Mohawks at The Source last weekend. It was Aaron's and my second game, and Steve joined us for his first. We set up another meeting engagement, essentially to compare against our previous game, with the hope we would get more of the rules right this time. And we did! We made a few mistakes but did way better.

Aaron took the French: 2 units of Colonial Regulars (Rep 4, Leader Rep 5), one of Marines (Rep 4, Leader Rep 5), one of Coureur du Bois (Rep 5, Leader Rep 5) and two units of Indians (Rep 4, Leader Rep 5).

I took the British: 2 units of Regulars (Rep 4, Leader Rep 5), one of Rangers (Rep 4, Leader Rep 5) and one of Light Infantry (Rep 5, Leader Rep 5). Steve played two units of Provincial Regulars (Rep 4, Leader Rep 4).

We played for possession of Jenkins Ford; quite unimaginatively I pushed the Regulars up into the open field and sent the Lights into the woods on the left and the Rangers into the woods on the right. We held the Provincials back to act as a reserve.

The French Regulars met the British in the open with the Marines on their own right flank, while the Coureur faced off against the British Lights in the woods.

The Regulars began trading fire, while the British Rangers added their fire from the protection of the treeline, the French Marines supporting their own Regulars on the opposite side.

 By the way, the "skull" markers are filling in for the Leaders I forgot to bring. The British Regulars were getting the worst of the volley fire, the Ranger shooting was completely ineffective, so the British brought in the Provincials. On the British right flank the Lights opened fire on the Coureur, who promptly charged them.

The Coureur mauled the British Lights, who managed to break off the Melee and continue the fight at range, while the second unit of Provincials rushed to support them.

But not to save them. . . the Lights were killed to a man. The Provincials opened up on the Coureur and after a short firefight, the Coureur failed a morale test and ran away.

At this point the two Indian units showed up, one on each flank. While the British Rangers were locked in a firefight with the French regulars, one of the Indian units charged them and butchered them without a single casualty (this was one of the things we did wrong but at least we did it consistently - at the start of a Melee both sides are supposed to take a single casualty automatically).

In the center, the French Marines only casualty was their Leader, and the British Regulars were being shredded, but just wouldn't break.

The Marines failed a morale test and ran away, due to a heavy Provincial volley, made even more effective by the previous loss of the Marine Leader. Then the tide turned against the British. The Indians facing the Provincials in the woods charged them, and the Provincials bolted! The British Regulars were able to regroup and recoup some of their casualties, and even fall back out of range of their French counterparts. But the Indians in the woods on their right flank found a flanking position and broke one of them with a single deadly round of fire. Flanking fire is deadly with a decent die roll!

 At this point, with just a Provincial unit and a couple of Leaders left, the British conceded. . .

We really like these rules. Play is very streamlined and every die roll is nerve-racking. We see a campaign in the near future. . .

Speaking of rules, Cluck Amok will be taking his big toys on the road to play Fistful of Lead: Horse and Musket with The Baron at Recruits in Lee's Summit, MO the last weekend in August. You're invited, too!

See ya. . . maybe at Recruits!