French and Indian War Trial Run

 

Why "Trial Run?" Finally, I (or better, "we") have taken the first step toward realizing the "dream" of a fully-fledged wargame campaign of the French and Indian War. I have been collecting all/most of the forces involved in the French and Indian War in ten-figure units in order to, ultimately, organize a map-based campaign designed to produce tabletop battles. The collecting has been the easy part.

 

The original plan was to use the GMT boardgame Wilderness War as the basis of the campaign. Wilderness War is THE game of the French and Indian War. Part of the visual appeal of this period for me is the variation of unit types and differentiated uniforms, and each of these units is represented as a counter in the game. Then Bayonets & Tomahawks was released and I was immediately impressed by two elements of this new game. First, the game board features a clever use of a period mapmaker's perspective of the theater, that despite the modern graphic design, immediately "transports" you back in time.

 

 

Secondly, the scale of the counters is larger - each counter represents two or more battalions - still specific battalions - that entered the theater together, which practically represents my collection as is. So fewer units to collect but with the requisite variety of uniforms; I just need to paint some orange and black facings and the Drab-colored uniforms of the NY Provincials still. 

 

Generally, though, board games don't make for compelling tabletop miniatures battles. They are designed for the most part to produce lop-sided battles that strongly favor the attacker - as they should, or why fight? When used for miniature campaigns, the games are usually won on the map and not on the tabletop.

 

Then I remembered Habitants & Highlanders, written by Bruce McFarlane of the Canadian Wargamers Group, one of the essential reads for a gamer of the period. It includes a map-based miniatures campaign, Wolfe and Montcalm, along with lots of battle scenarios and other period info. The map is neatly similar to the map above and by making some slight adjustments to the forces to reflect my collection and to keep the force balances in proportion, the campaign rules can be used straight from the book. From the author:

 

 

The "Trial Run" was for the miniatures rules to be used for the campaign. The Baron and I have recently committed to a bi-weekly gaming schedule and for the first game at Castle FusterCluck I invited The Baron over to play my favorite F&IW rules, Muskets and Mohawks by Two Hour Wargames. It would be his first time playing with the rules and it was important to me that he get a good representation of them so as to be willing to play again! You can use the labels on the blog to find a full rules review and some thoughts on why I prefer Muskets and Mohawks to some of the other rules currently available.

 

To set up a smallish game with five to six units per side we could finish in an evening, I pulled the La Belle Famille 1759 scenario from the other essential game read for the period, Warlord Games' Black Powder: A Dark and Bloody Ground. I removed the ambush and made it more of a straight-up attack/defend scenario. I gave the French one extra unit since they were attacking works but reduced the effectiveness of two units to compensate. The British start with one unit of Regulars in the works and one unit of Grenadiers arriving via the road, and one unit of Rangers/Irregulars and two units of Natives arriving in the woods. The French arrive in the clearing opposite: two units of Regular Marines, two units Irregular Marines and two units of Canadian Militia (the downgraded units). Each side had two Leaders.

 

The Baron chose to defend with the British and the game was on. Views of the battlefield : 

 

 

And starting positions:

 

 

My plan as the French was to use the two units of Regulars to engage the troops at the works and the Natives I presumed would be at the edge of the woods while the two units of Irregulars went around whichever side of the defense works opened up, while the Militia units waited in reserve to prove their worth. It started out as planned. . .

 

 

The British Grenadiers and Rangers deployed to the left of the works (from the French view!) while the French Regulars engaged the British behind the works with their first - and inconsequential -  volley. Damn those timbers!

 

 

On the right, the French Regulars charged the edge of the woods where the Natives had taken up a good firing position, rather than trade fire and take more casualties (I didn't get any photos of the initial charge!). The Irregulars eyed the gap between the works and the woods while the Militia made it to the edge of the woods on the far right.

 

On my left flank the Regulars traded fire and the French Irregulars opened up on the Rangers.

 

The French Regulars on the right that charged the Natives in the woods were roughly handled. The French Irregulars rushed into the gap between the works and the woods and then instead of rolling around the works charged and joined the melee in the woods. The added enemy numbers were too much for the Natives, who died to a man.

 

 

 

Back on the left side The French Regulars lost a Morale check after sustaining several casualties and were forced to Retire. The British Grenadiers charged the Marine Irregulars instead of joining the firefight.

 

 

And then I cheated and broke the game - with apologies to The Baron. I correctly attached a Leader to the far right Militia unit to get them to charge the unengaged Natives in the woods, but I incorrectly used the Leader's REP (Reputation: training effectiveness) to fight the Melee instead of the unit's REP. This definitely skewed the Melee results, and in fact, the Militia won the combat. The fact that they won was the impetus to go back over the rules to see if I had made a mistake, and indeed I had. My only excuse is that I hadn't played the rules for quite some time (years) before this game . . .

 

 

On the left flank the British Grenadiers lost their Sergeant in the Melee and subsequently failed their Morale check and Retired behind the Rangers.

 

 

With the survivors of the fighting in the woods to the right of the road now threatening the British avenue of retreat down said road. . .

 

 . . .the British ceded the game. It was close, and if it hadn't been for my inadvertent (I swear!) cheating, it would have been closer. I hope the Baron will overlook my unintentional offense and play again!

 

If you want to see what CluckAmok looks like - and I am not sure why you would - The Baron has provided a look. 

Added Some Canoes to the Collection

 

Annual Revenant Hunt

 

 

The Baron invited me to his annual Birthday/Octoberfest/Halloween game last weekend. I've had several invites over the years but this time I was able to go! The Revenant Hunt pits 6 teams of four Victorian-era Zombie Hunters against, well. . . zombies, and each other in an infested Gothic ruin. Rules are Wiley Games' Fistful of Lead: Tales of Horror. There are six Spawn Points in the ruins and each noise made - chiefly the use of gunpowder weapons - spawns and attracts zombies. Each zombie "killed" awards a team one point. There are bigger threats that can be attracted, too, like werewolves and ghosts, which are harder to kill but award five points. Destroying a Spawn Point is worth five points, too, and eliminating them is the key to surviving the game.

 

 

Here is my intrepid team; characters and cards created by The Baron. Actually, everything in this game including the terrain and painted minis are courtesy of The Baron.

 

 

My starting position was on the left side of the center ruin so the team headed off to the left away from the other teams. The yellow bursts represent noise from shooting, which causes zombies to spawn and head toward the news. Here they come, from two local Spawn Points, the graveyard and the idol.

 

 Clementine was given the job of destroying the idol but zombies kept spawning from it. . .

 

 

I never had to face a werewolf but did have a ghost harass us for awhile until it left on its own. Two of the teams faced off against each other for the right to destroy a spawn point. When the game was called I ended up in the middle of the pack points-wise, and never got that idol destroyed.

 

After a chili-dog break The Baron set up another game for us. This was a pulp-era aircraft game a la Crimson Skies. The Baron and I both love the old school Crimson Skies universe and the boardgame, but the game takes a long time to play with more than two players. You can do it, as I proved when I lived in Tulsa, but the games turn into day-long marathons because of pre-turn plotting and the graphic damage tracking. The damage tracking is fun if you get into that but it is inherently unrealistic as neither pilot would have access to that info in "real life." You can check out some of the earlier posts in my blog re Crimson Skies.

So The Baron has adapted the post-apocalyptic auto racing game Gaslands (with help from the internet) to play with the Crimson Skies models. I've never played Gaslands. The adaptation gets rid of both the pre-game plotting and the detailed damage tracking, using a staggered turn sequence with initiative and move templates to direct movement. This game was not as pretty as the Revenant Hunt - except for the pretty airplanes - as it is still in play-test mode, but it was great fun to have the Crimson Skies models on the table again!

 

The aircraft from Dixie (think re-branded Confederacy) were supporting a bombing run into the Industrial States of America (think "Rust Belt" states). I controlled the Behemoth - the bomber - and the Valiant. The Behemoth is a big slow beast with a lot of hull points that can absorb damage while the Valiant is a fast, nimble little fighter. . . that didn't last long in this fight. Our opponents from the ISA:

 

 

My Behemoth's job was to make a slow (no other choice) straight run down the gauntlet to the bombing target. My team mates were to clear the path of ISA interceptors. Here you can see the planes beginning to engage amid the various templates, each matched to the current speed of the aircraft, that one can choose to maneuver the planes. 

 

At one point in the game an ISA plane flew directly in front of my Behemoth; I did not expect to have such a clean opportunity for a shot since everyone knew I had to basically fly straight forward as much as possible. The Behemoth has machine guns AND six rockets. . . and I immediately flashed back to a Crimson Skies game I played in Tulsa YEARS ago in which I was flying another lumbering bomber, a Phalanx, loaded with eight machine guns AND eight rockets. I found myself - inexplicably - directly behind an Ace pilot with a perfect bead on his plane. My dilemma: it was early in the game and I had a long bombing run to fly and if I used my rockets now I wouldn't have them later. . . and what if I "needed" them later? So I unloaded with all my machine guns to little effect and then watched helplessly as the Ace "Immelmanned" behind me and blew my bomber, with its full complement of bombs and rockets, to bits. I vowed then and there I would never waste an opportunity like that again. I related this story to all at the table as I readied eighteen dice worth of potential damage - six rockets at 3D6 each - let all 6 rockets go and rolled eleven hits, 2 of which were saved, which left nine hull points - and the aircraft - destroyed! A very satisfying salvo that cleared the way ahead, while my team mates shot the last ISA fighter off my tail.

 

And here is how I immortalized that little story about the "Big Bomber That Couldn't" all those years ago: