Running Bear’s Sacred Tomahawk

Down in deepest, darkest Yorkshire, it was Rick’s turn to come up with a scenario for our occasional French Indian Wars games using Sharp Practice. He didn’t fail to deliver:

The French have captured the Mohican shaman, Moulting Wolf, who has revealed that deep in the forest, Running Bear’s Scared Tomahawk lies buried.  Anyone who holds the Tomahawk can count on the support of many local tribes, which may tip the balance in their favour.  The French have planned an expedition of a force of 75 points (no natives) to retrieve the Tomahawk.  The British have got wind of their plan and have likewise despatched a force of 75 points (no natives) to beat them to it.

The French start anywhere along the right-hand edge and the British on the left.

There are also three Indian bands who start in a random square (D6 xD4) at a random place in the square (D4 x D4).  When their card is drawn, they will be activated and move towards the nearest foreigners if they are within 16” or in a random direction (D8 points of the compass).  They will attempt to charge at the first opportunity.

The winner is the side that finds the scared tomahawk.

 

 This is how it looked below incase that’s not clear above. Pretty sure that it isn’t. Oh and I loved the autocorrect to scared tomahawk 🤣

We used a direction die to determine the direction that the Indians moved in rather than a D8. The initial deployment of the Indians was very much in my favour. Rick’s British had 3 of the 4 groups of Indians close to his deployment point. Speaking of which Rick had purchased a moveable deployment point (with his rangers). Clever! That would get him 12” closer to the possible locations of the sacred tomahawk.

We both had the majority of our forces deployed quickly. Unfortunately for Rick, his rangers were the last to arrive. They have the ability to unlock the moveable deployment point for other units once they’ve used it. This represents the rangers guiding other units. 

Meanwhile I deployed a formation of regular infantry to face the Indians at my end of the table. My first volley seriously weakens them and their leader is ko’ed!

I then deploy 2 groups of my Franches de la Marine skirmishers who pour on the misery and the poor Indians run far, far away into the woods. They’re definitely no longer a threat. 

Those French skirmishers you just saw shooting up the natives then push on through the woods towards one of the possible objective locations. Rick has troops approaching 2 possible locations. His rangers are sniping at the Indians close by and have killed their leader! The Indians are having a bad day. 

One group of Indians moves randomly to the table edge and troubles nobody. Great idea to introduce random chaos, but of course random can go any way.

Speaking of which! Anyone who knows Sharp Practice will appreciate the randomness of this; 6 command cards dealt in a row, triggering 2 random events, followed by the Tiffin card! I can’t imagine I’ll ever see that again.

There follows a flurry of objective grabbing! Rick Rogers’ rangers are first to check out a location for that there sacred tomahawk. I get Franches de la Marine skirmishers to one and then another. The last objective marker has British “light bobs” closing in on it. But who has the objective marker with an X on its bottom…? Who has found the sacred tomahawk…?

The British rangers retreat quickly back to their table edge with the objective marker they’ve collected! Do they have the sacred tomahawk…?

The 4th group of Indians provide the targets for the target practice. Clearly the British grenadiers need it! Or they’re just not suited to fighting in woods. They only give the Indians a peppering rather than a pasting.

British line infantry move forward to engage with the French. Maybe they’re not best suited to fighting in woods either. They come under fire from skirmishers here, there, seems to be buddy everywhere!

Rick attacks one of my groups of Franches de la Marine sitting on an objective marker with his light infantry. And his rangers have abandoned the marker they took. That had been a ruse! All the objective markers have been checked now, and as Rick knows he hasn’t found the sacred tomahawk, he knows I have it!

His light infantry pile in… and lose! That’s the remains of the charging light infantry dragging their ko’ed officer away. 

I start withdrawing my Franches de la Marine skirmishers. They have the 2 objective markers I’ve collected. Rick is going to have his work cut out to catch them. 

His line infantry are the closest, but I’ve continued to target them, even whilst withdrawing and they're suffering…. A 1 and their officer has been sniped…another 1 and he’s dead! They won’t be able to follow up my withdrawal. 

I advance my line, a picket formed from my 2 regiments of regulars, and the British grenadiers, fresh as daisies and unscathed, are still executing Indians - unexpectedly the random presence of natives had resulted in a duck shoot!

I’m getting both the objective markers close to my deployment point (the trapper and mule). With his only real chance of catching me - the grenadiers - far away and preoccupied, Rick concedes. Clear French victory (the British were also down 6 points on their Force Morale. I can’t think of anything that went well for the British 🤔

Great game! Rick has already declared that he will have his revenge!

Cheers for reading

Chris

Westerhope Wargames Group in exile