As noted previously, we had 7 players for Game Three of Blooding at Jenkins' Ford. Here is the scenario description if you need a reminder. It's basically "kill or be killed;" the winner is the side with the most combatants alive at the end.
Here is the troop disposition at the end of the first turn's activations:
Of the three games, this third displayed the most strategizing and cooperation among the team members. The French weighted their right flank heavily and were very aggressive with their Indian allies. There seemed to be a tidal wave of Indians pouring through the woods!
The Indian onslaught forced the Rangers out of the woods on the east side of the river, who formed a sort of "covered square" in the woodline with the British Regulars on the west side of the river.
In the center, a unit of Colonial Provincials left the cover of the woods and received a brutal volley from the French Regulars, which sent back into the woods to lick their wounds.
The effect of this volley seemed to embolden the entire French army and they advanced all along the line, shifting to their right to put more pressure on the British left.
And as the Indians on the British left stormed across the river and charged the British "square" in the woods, I got so caught up in the action (and figuring modifiers to Courage scores) that I stopped taking photos!
When the Indians killed the Regulars to the last man, with a unit of Provincials nearly wiped out and the Rangers with no option but to run, the British ceded the game. A very dramatic finish to a game played well on both sides.
I think I will take this scenario to Recon in a couple of weeks. I am not sure how many players we will have and the game scales up and down just fine, so we can be flexible as needed. If you're in the Twin Cities on April 23rd, come see us at Recon.
See ya!
In our first game on Friday evening we had 6 players, and for the third game Saturday afternoon we had seven, but for the Saturday game at 9am we only had one player, "Andy." So I suggested we play a game together with just a few units so Andy could get a feel for the rules, This Very Ground, which he had not played before. And I would get to play in a game!
Andy chose the French so I took the British. We each took one Regular, one Irregular and one Skirmisher unit and deployed on our base edges, per the map above. Then we advanced. . .
I decided to advance my Regulars into musket range so Andy could see how volley fire worked. It was devastating!
Seven of the ten soldiers in my unit were killed, and I rolled the only number on a D10 I could have to fail the subsequent Courage test - 10 - and my remaining 3 soldiers scurried into the cover of the nearest woodline without firing a shot, earning a red "Disruption" marker. Now my right flank looked pretty weak, and the Coureur unit advanced to try to finish them off.
So I pushed my Provincials and Rangers across the river, both into cover, while the French Regulars advanced into the open and the Indians through the woods to meet them.
The Rangers held the Indians at bay, causing some casualties, while the Provincials used the rocky cover to reduce the French Regulars to two cowering survivors.
When the Indians finally crept close enough to charge. . .
. . . they wiped out the Rangers in hand-to-hand fighting. This success got the Coureurs all fired up and they charged the depleted Regulars, whose Leader had seen the charge forming and attached himself to the unit in the nick of time, adding his "body" to the pending fight.
It's a different story charging into bayonets, and the Frenchmen died to a man, leaving only the brave Leader left alive. Huzzah!
So with only two Regular soldiers and a weakened and disrupted Indian band facing a full-strength unit of haughty Provincials, the French quit the field, leaving Jenkins' Ford in British - Colonial, actually - possession.
Thank you, Andy, for a fun, fast game - maybe the most fun I've had a convention!
Next post will feature Game Three. See ya!
