Battle of Fort Despair 1758.

Last night,Paul,Graham,Brian and I had an interesting and unusual game,played out in the wilds of Canada,involving French,British,Rangers,Courer de Bois and Indians !!

Top photo shows the scenario,botom shows the table before any movement.Brian and I took command of the Regular French troops and Indians,whilst Paul and Graham commanded the relief column and fort troops plus some "friendlies"

My Indians begin their attack!-I was hoping to stop the column,giving Brian time to either storm the fort,or turn to face the British threat.

With a "whoop" and a "holler" my Indians gave one blast of muskets,then in with the tomahawk and knife-the British responded with a tremendous volley,then fought for their tiny lead lives!! The British "friendlies" attacked my left hand village,and by the rules of the night,I had to defend it-and so I did-however not very well!!!!!

Brian's troops(all the regulars!) seem not to have noticed the masses of red-coated figures bearing down on his position-surely he must have a "master plan" up his sleeve?????

My Indians,everywhere, are facing shit,shot and shell,and being forced to retire(it's good being retired!) some from the table-this is not looking good!-Brian's troops will be facing the same very soon,is he prepared?

Well,he has turned one regiment to face the British and moved two regiments against the "intact" fort walls!! What will he do next?(not even Brian knows the answer to that question!!!!)

After getting his a--e kicked at the fort walls,he is being assailed by the bulk of the British,whilst his other two regulars are admiring the view over the lake-it was all over-the Indians have fled,and Paul's out-flanking manoeuvre is being put into practice-the fort is still in British hands,so the game was declared for Paul and Graham.-another laugh and banter game!

Roll on next week!

As an up-date to my "Epic" project,I have completed 40 "regiments (20 per side) and I think they look good "en masse".......................

I am really enjoying painting these little beauties,and have adopted a fast-painting method,which I am calling "essential painting"-I am only painting the essential parts of the figures,which involves NO DETAIL whatsoever-and from three feet away,you can't tell-simple but effective!

French/Indian Wars-Battle of Lake Biscuit.

At last I have played this game through to an exciting conclusion,and enjoyed every minute of it!
I decided to approach the game a bit differently to the way I would normally play,ie. I played both flanks out to a complete conclusion,before I tackled the main assault on the Fort.

These two photo's show the "brisk" action on the lake-the rangers were in position first,so got in a great volley against the Indians-killing their "chief" with the first dice throw!!

Top photo shows the Indians paddling back across the lake,having been forced to retire(it's good being retired!-but a lot of you will be seeing what it's like due to "lock down!!)
Bottom photo shows what is left of the rangers,about to disembark to support the eventual attack against the fort by the British.

Meanwhile,on the other flank,the raiding party is attacking the village,and making "mincemeat" of the defending Indians-but will the Indians and Courier du Bois in the Fort village be coming to help??
Well,I threw a dice for each,and they both decided to come and assist-this could prove tricky for the Raiding party-and it did!!!!

Top photo shows the "help" on its way,bottom shows the Plight of the defenders! but the rangers are taking up positions to attack the "helpers" when they arrive!!

Top shows the rangers and couriers engaging in a most one-sided fire-fight-the couriers were using the latest laser guided Kentucky rifles,and shot the rangers to bits!!!-the Indians then fought the raiding party Indians and sent them "packing"-oh dear!!!!-this was to prove quite a problem for the advancing British and their supporting rangers.

Top shows the British marching into position,whilst the supporting rangers(from the woods) move to take on the couriers moving through the woods to attack the British flank-they were completely successful,and secured the flank after a hard fight!!-The rangers(depleted) from the lake fight,have been sent forward to skirmish with the fort defenders,and paid a heavy price for being so bold-ie. they were slaughtered!!!!

The British artillery open up,inflicting "telling" casualties!

The assault begins-first volley from the troops attacking the fort threw the requisite dice and killed the fort commander!!!-this is not looking good for the French!

After a brief melee,the fort is taken,and outside the French defenders are fleeing,with the Scots chasing them,no couriers or Indians are left to help out,so an emphatic win for the British!
This was probably the most satisfying and exciting solo game that I've played-possibly because I took my time,and spread the action over two days.

French/Indian Wars.

Having painted up some Rangers and Courier du Bois recently,I though I might come up with an interesting scenario to use them in.

Scenario.-Major Rogers(of rangers fame!) receives a report that there seems to be a build up of Indians around Lake Biscuit.
Rogers sends out a patrol,who confirm that there is indeed a build up of warbands but,more alarmingly, a French force has actually built a small fort on the shore of the lake!
The British are alerted who immediately march to drive the French away and destroy the fort,meanwhile Rogers orders a raiding party,of rangers and friendly Indians to attack the Indian village farthest away from the fort,hoping to draw some Indians and Courier du Bois, to the village,leaving only the French to face the British.
Rogers also orders a ranger unit to paddle across the lake to assist in the attack on the fort-HOWEVER,an Indian warband is also paddling across the lake to reinforce the fort troops!!
This could turn out to be quite a "brisk" fight.

The Rangers, on the right, and Indians paddling across the lake,and no doubt,into conflict!

The raiding party,Indians and Rangers,moving to attack the far village(I know that the Indians in this neck of the woods didn't live in teepees,but I've got them and might as well use them!!)

The British are coming,the British are coming!!

A unit of Rangers wait in the woods to help with the attack on the fort.

The Fort c/w french troops,with an Indian village-hopefully these Indians will reinforce the far village,leaving the French to fight the British(who just happen to have an artillery piece with them!)
I will fight this game later on this week.

Battle of "Trou-Merde" 1750.

Because the rest of the "boys" were recovering from their trip to Vapnartak,it fell to Brian and I to fight this "cracking" game last night.

Top photo is the scenario,bottom is the table before any movement.We threw dice to determine who commanded what,and Brian turned out to be the French commander and I was the British commander.

My plan was simple-Rangers to hold on my left(artillery hill) whilst Rangers on my right were to attack the French artillery and Indian camp,and the British infantry would advance on the French line whilst protecting their flanks!-Brian's plan was similar.All reinforcements were to arrive on the table on move number 4.

The action on my right flank got off to a "brisk" start-after an initial volley,both sides got stuck in with hatchet and musket butts!!-my attempt to take out the French artillery was thwarted by cannister shot-oh dear,how sad,never mind!!

On the other flank,despite a good volley,which killed his warband leader,Brian has made contact with the flanking British regiment-this could be difficult??!!

The rest of my left flank Rangers are keeping the attacking Indians at bay-this was to prove fatal to the attack,but not before Brian's dice throwing had me worried!!

As the flanks are being hotly contested,"tumbleweed" is blowing across the central position,although with the French gun not being threatened anymore,it began to inflict casualties on my flanking regiment,who,eventually had to retire(it's good being retired!)

On my left,my gun has re-aligned,and is giving the attacking Indians a good old battering,forcing them to retire(it's good.......)-Once the flank was secure,the line could advance on the French line-hurrah!!

"So it came to pass!!" the whole line is ablaze with musket fire,neither side gaining an advantage in the early exchanges,but Brian's gun is still causing casualties!!

My reinforcements have arrived and I am moving them onto Brian's right flank,where one of his regiments has been forced to give ground-on my other flank,things are not going well!!!

My Rangers have been forced back into the woods-even the bear is retiring!! however this didn't effect the overall result,but that bloody gun is still firing!!!

In the centre,my reinforcements are making an impact,and Brian's decision to march his reinforcements over to his right has meant that they were out of the action for the most part of the game-with the right flank ,and centre, in British control it was almost game over.

One final shot,showing the British in control of the centre and about to assault the Fort-however,Brian's reinforcements would probably have given them a hard time!!

A good game,involving good tactics,banter,colour and quite a bit of "nail biting!"

Roll on next Sunday,hopefully a full turn out,and probably a Marlburian game.

Fort Panache 1754.

To relieve the boredom of the days between Xmas and New Year,and the disappointment of "Time Commanders" we decided to have a short,sharp and fun game last night.................

Top photo is the scenario and bottom photo is table lay-out before any movement.
We picked sides and Brian was in charge of the British,Graham was in charge of the Rangers,whilst I took command of the French and Irish,leaving Paul to command the Indians.

Brian opened the proceedings with a fantastic attack along the whole line-initially his firing was far better than mine,and I worried in case the scenario would fall apart after three moves!!!
Brian had a waggon full of gun powder at his disposal,which he could push up to the fort gates and blow them down,but he elected to postpone that delight until later on in the game.

Meanwhile,in the woods,the Rangers and Indians were getting stuck into it!!
What both sides didn't know was that there were two Bears hidden in the trees,who would attack any troops venturing too near them!!!-oh how we laughed when they did!!!(if you look carefully at the top right hand side of this photo you can see one of them running away after "biting" someone!!)

The local Indian barber decides to give this Ranger a short back and sides!!

Brian's attack is progressing nicely,and my Irish(who couldn't move until move number 3) are now taking over from the French,who have decided that they have had enough,and are legging it back to France!!!
Brian has deployed his "burning waggon! and although I managed to shoot down the friendly Indians pushing it,they have managed to get it onto the bridge-if it blows up, the fort gates will go with it,leaving the fort vulnerable to assault!!

Back in the woods,all hell is breaking loose!-the Rangers seemed to have laser sighted rifles,and were shooting the Indian chiefs down left,right and centre!!-this was not good for Indian morale(!!)-ie. most of them ran away!!

BOOM!!!-like a scene from the "Italian Job" the doors are off!! however fortunes have turned and I am winning the volley war,leaving Brian with no troops to assault the fort-hurrah!!
Always a tricky thing to do,but sometimes necessary, Brian put his commander in charge of one of his regiments,to stop them retiring(it's good being retired!) and got him shot,forcing his whole command to disappear!!!

With nobody to support,the Rangers gave it up as a bad job,and fell back to the woods,and the game was over!
A good bit of fun was had by all,and the next time we meet will be on the 8th January 2017.
A very happy new year to you all.