French and Indian War. 17.3.13.

Last night I "rolled out" my Indians and Rangers to the rest of the "boys",after having play tested them with Brian last week,and I got mixed reactions to the project.
I had produced a scenario of an arrogant British officer getting himself besieged in a broken down fort by some hostile Indians,and the Rangers having to "rescue" him. I had set the game up to incorporate a couple of ambushes, but the boys didn't want to get into the spirit of the game,and avoided all the wooded areas like the plague!! Best laid plans etc. etc.!!
However as you can see from the following photo's the terrain looked good,and there was certainly plenty of action.

This is a general view down the table,showing the lake and fort,and various ambush spots.

This is the broken down fort housing the British infantry and their arrogant officer.

Indians surrounding the fort,at the start of the game,Brian and Graham were in charge of the Indians whilst Paul took charge of the Rangers,I was the arrogant officer in charge of the British!!

This,to me,was the highlight of the game,Paul is paddling a Ranger company down the lake,and Graham has spotted him and launched a war party at him. They both decided to fire their muskets at each other! Now I have never been in a canoe,and I have never fired a musket,but I would imagine that the "kick" from a musket would have some effect on the stability of the canoe,so I made a rule,that anyone firing from a canoe would have to throw a dice to see if the canoe capsized or not! Both sides threw the dice,and Graham's Indians decided to have a swim!! Great stuff (unless you are an Indian )

Paul is , cautiously, advancing towards some woods,whilst in the background the Indians are just about to capsize!

I have come out of the fort and attacked twice my number of Indians,not a good thing to do! I was beaten in the ensuing melee and pushed back into the fort,some Rangers are getting a bit close,so help is on its way.

Ah,Indians "lurking" in the woods !This is one of the ambushes that I set up,which was "sprung" by Paul,in the ensuing fight the Rangers got the better of the Indians.

Meanwhile,back at the fort!!

Help!!! However the Rangers did get to me just in time and they saved the day,and my bacon,the Indians were being beaten and "melting away" all over the table,so we called it a night.

On reflection I probably put too many open spaces on the board,and with the boys not being familiar with the period,they took the cautious approach to the game-can't win them all!!

We were due to put on a demonstration game at "Call To Muster" this weekend,but due to transport problems,we've had to cancel.I phoned Dave and Tom this morning and apologised,and wished them the best of luck with their show.