Game Three Saturday Afternoon
The British and Colonials entered the long table edges closer to the canoes and quickly made the tree lines to start firing on the Natives as they left the cover of the houses. One warrior scaled the tower to get a look around and was Shaken by a shot from the woods, then failed his Rally test on his next turn and fled the field!
The Rangers moved in quickly to fire the village and the Native response was up close and personal. Shooting started at close range with the Natives getting the worst of the early exchanges.
Then Special Event #1 occurred. . . a light rain began to fall. The Rangers were stoking the fires they started, but the rain slowed progress and even made it a little more difficult to start fires. It wasn't a hard rain but it was damned inconvenient. . .
Native casualties were mounting, but a couple of warriors made it to the canoes, just about the time (3 turns later; Special Event #2) that everyone discovered their powder had become too wet to spark. There would be no more shooting the rest of the game!
A literal hatchet-fest ensued. While the British tried valiantly to start more fires, the Natives rushed the hated enemy to hinder their efforts and add more points to their trophy poles.Special Event #3 was a heavy smoke that settled upon the village, decreasing visibility, which only added insult to injury since combat was all at arms' length anyway. The warrior in the foreground below was shot three times before a hatchet blow ended his attempt to crawl into the bushes and escape!
When time was called the British had burned down three of the village houses and killed more Natives than they lost. It was the best British performance so far. When we totaled up the points we found the British had lost by eleven points. . . ten of which were scored when those two warriors exited via the canoes - one was the Chief!
Native victory, but what a contest! And yes, the British Light Infantry got mauled again.
Stay tuned for Part Four, the final battle!
Game One Friday Night
Dawn. . . the British enter the field from three different edges to surround the village. The British Rangers fire into a longhouse from the cover of the woods' edge, signaling the start of the attack. The Natives begin to emerge form their houses o confront their attackers.
The Light Infantry bore the brunt of the Native fury - they were directly between the village and the canoes.
The rest of the Brits and Colonials provided covering fire for the overwhelmed Light Infantry and halfheartedly stoked some fires, but in the end the Light Infantry died to a man and the Chief made it to the canoes.
Native win!
Talking to the players after the game we decided I may not have made the importance of the canoes and point structures as clear as I could have, so rectified that in the ensuing games.
Game Two Saturday Morning
Back to the Lee's Summit High School gym bright and early (9am) for Game Two. It starts with the same British opening moves but the Natives are out of their houses en masse right away.
The Natives make it into the cover of the woods quickly, where, once again, the Light Infantry find themselves at the point of the enemy spear. Meanwhile, the Rangers make a more concerted effort to burn the village.
Two of the village houses were successfully torched, but the raiders couldn't keep the Natives from loading up the canoes and paddling their Chief to safety. Again, the British Light Infantry were killed to a man.
Native Win!
Stay tuned for Part Three. "Special Events" did not play large roles in the first two games; that would change in Game Three!
The games were based on the Revenge scenario from the Red Hatchets & Black Powder supplement for the Wiley Games Fistful of Lead: Horse & Musket rules. We played the rules and the scenario straight up - except the FfoL grognards informed me I wasn't handling "Shaken" properly but at least I was consistent through all the games!
The scenario is a dawn raid by British and Colonial Lights and Rangers on a Native village, retaliation for a Native raid (and so it went over and over on the frontier) the week before. The village has a fordable river running through it. The wooded areas provide light cover; the rocks and the logs in the woods are hard cover, as are the Native houses.
The Natives have three players, each with a group of 5 figures; each group with one leader. One of the leaders is the Chief, who tries his best to remain anonymous through the game. The British also have 3 players with groups of five figures: one unit of British Light Infantry, one of British Rangers and one of Colonial Rangers. To keep
things manageable in the convention environment I limited Traits to
"Dead Eye" for the Light Infantry and "Stealthy" for everyone else. Then
I assigned one random Negative Trait and one Positive Trait for each
player to assign to their figures as they saw fit.
The British goal is to burn the village and kill as many Native warriors as possible - especially the Chief. Each house burned is worth 5 points (it takes 6 fire markers per house to burn it and one soldier one turn to randomly create one or two markers), each warrior killed or routed is worth 1 point, and the Chief captured or killed is worth 10 points! The Natives only earn points by killing the British - four points for each soldier killed or routed. The British can't win by trading casualties, they must put the village to the torch, and capture the Chief. The Natives can avoid the British win by getting their warriors - and particularly their Chief - off the board by exiting down the river via the canoes at the edge of the table.
The Natives start the game inside their houses; the British can enter any woods edge they choose. The Natives know about the escape plan while the British are only told that the canoes are "important."
Dawn comes to the village. . .
Stay tuned for Part Two!
Six hours on the road to Lee's Summit, Missouri for four games of French and Indian War mayhem with Fistful of Lead: Horse and Musket with The Baron and friends at Recruits, and a tense Chiefs win enjoyed with the family. . . and then 6 hours back to Minneapolis made for a pretty full weekend! After I get rested up, and caught up, I'll share some more pics and descriptions of the games.
Thank you, Jamie, for helping set up and tear down the game table!
See ya.
