Trouble on the Road

 Stand and deliver!

Last night mate Rick and I had a super French Indian Wars game using Sharp Practice rules.

Rick wrote the scenario:

Every month the British send a supply convoy from Fort Ticonderoga to Fort Crown Point protected by a mixed force of British regulars and Indian Allies. The regulars stay on the road and the Indians combs the woods.  The French have been spying on this for a while.  Their challenge is to put together a force to give themselves a sporting chance and attempt to capture the British supplies.  The British move first with a free move of 12” from the centre of the left-hand edge.  Each leader can activate one wagon.  The French can have up to two DPs, that can be anywhere except the left-hand edge.  If under attack, once any unit has reached the point, halfway across the table, then the British have the option to retreat from whence they came.  The French win by capturing the two supply wagons, the British by denying them.

So Rick would be British with 4 groups of regulars and 2 groups of Indians. I chose a force of 2 groups of Franches de la Marine skirmishers, 1 group of Coureurs de Bois and 3 groups of regulars. The latter admittedly not ideal for an ambush in the woods, but I’d just spruced up the French regulars so wanted to get some on the tabletop. 

You may not be familiar with Sharp Practice. It’s a Toofatlardies skirmish game with card-driven initiative. Great fun rules IMHO. Rick introduced an interesting problem for both sides in that we each only had 2 level II commanders. Command and control was going to be tricky…

The convoy and escort. They needed to get all the way down there…

Time to spoil their day! Haw hee haw.

I deploy my skirmishers on the flank of the British. My intention was to lurk, let the convoy pass and pounce on the British rear. I misjudged how close I was and my garçons are spotted by the enemy’s allied Indians. We give them hell!

The Indians suffer and skedaddle! A small dent in the British Force Morale. The British regulars turn on my skirmishers and the Indians from the other side of the road are on their way. My skirmishers are hotly engaged!

Meanwhile the regulars make slow progress. They can hear the firing, but I had deployed them with the expectation that the convoy would get a fair distance down the road. They have some ground to cover to join the action.

This is the Regiment de Berry. As good chum Roj drummed into me this week each group in SP is effectively a platoon and a formation is a company. However I like my formations to look like a regiment. Hence the presence of officers and flags flying. 

My skirmishers have taken a hiding. They’ve clipped the wings of both the regulars and the Indians, but that half of my force is in tatters.

The Indians attacked the Coureurs de Bois and were forced back. The Coureurs de Bois were heavily Shocked though and spent as a fighting unit. The Indians then destroyed one of the groups of Franches de la Marine skirmishers and then as he found himself alone in the woods they killed the commander of this contingent (he takes 2 Indians with him!). The British Force Morale had only dropped 1 to 9 whilst the French are down to 7… then to 6… It started so well when we mauled the first group of Indians, but now seemed to be going south…

This is when the cavalry arrive in the movies…

The French have no cavalry, but here’s the regulars arriving. A welcome sight to the few exhausted skirmishers left to see them.

The British regulars on the other side of the road move up and give the column a volley. 

Unfazed, the French form line and present…

First volley. Controlled volley. I need anything but a 1!

 

I miss one shot…!

 

Rick rolls for the casualties. 5 dead and 6 Shock caused! Ouch!

With double Shock that group of British light infantry are broken.

The second group of light infantry gamely engage my line. It takes a little longer for the French to better them, but using Sharp Practice* more times than I’ve ever done, and continuing controlled volley fire, they are forced to withdraw. I get some good firing dice again (eg last photo above; needing 3+ now), but cause zero casualties! A couple of rounds of firing see massive Shock suffered by the British (eg those nine 4s and 5s above rolled by Rick; only 6s kill). With excess Shock, the British are forced to withdraw. 

*Sharp Practice special rule allows a group or formation to perform a single firing action, be that firing or reloading. If you’re firing controlled volleys then the firing with Sharp Practice is controlled.

Both the British and French Force Morale are down to 6.  It could still go either way…

Rick's commander leads forward a much reduced group of British regulars. He means to demonstrate the use of cold steel!

It’s looking like this might actually work. I’m not haw hee haw’ing now!

Then a weakened Franches de la Marine snipes  a Brit and the group are down below half strength (bad news for the Fisticuffs). Then I managed to wheel my line a mere 3” and the British are no longer behind my flank (more bad news for the Fisticuffs!).

They charged anyway, brave souls…

My French regulars meet the charge well. I get great dice again and cause 5 casualties (on 3 blokes!). The group is wiped out. Rick rolls a 6 on his risk to leader roll (higher than casualties suffered), so his commander survives to run away!

British Force Morale is down to 4 and there’s no protecting the wagons from the French. Victoire!

Very enjoyable game. Interesting swings in fortune. The small number of leaders not only made command and control difficult (and fun and interesting; a good representation of fighting in closed terrain?), but affected how the card deck worked. Lots of short turns, lots of random events (caused by 3 command cards being drawn in a row) and lots happening after the Tiffin card was drawn. 

Great game. I don’t really blog game reports usually. I’ve a poor memory for the details if I’m honest, but thought you deserved to hear about this one lol. I get to play with some beautiful figures and smashing friends.

Recent such games this month have included:

Grim Dark Future; free and better than 40K rules.

Live Free or Die; also free and great to use for AWI.

More Sharp Practice action. A first try at gaming the ‘45 with these rules. See what I’m not sharing!

All the best

Chris

(Roll on Stockton show!)