Sunday Game - French and Indian War

 Our gaming buddy Rick has built up a reasonable collection of FIW figures using the Warlord Black Powder range. Today, they had their very first outing, augmented by a few extra Front Rank militia units from Julian's collection.

I took about 40 photos so I am not sure I will bother labelling every single one - but I might! 

The scenario saw a French trading outpost at one end of the table and a British one at the other end, with a river bisecting the table between them. The aim of each force was to take control of the other sides trading post - neither of us came close and the game ended in an inconclusive draw but I think we all enjoyed it except Rick, who suffers from the unfortunate trait of pre planning the scenario in his head and then being eternally disappointed by our inability to stick to his mental script for the game!

We played length ways along the table - this is the view from the French end - trading post in bottom left

View from the British end - the half table to the left behind the tree line was ALL forest - concealed movement was managed by using markers that included "bluff" fake markers too.

The larger British force ready for the off

The French force

Nicks force of forest fighting experts

The British Regulars commanded by Chris move off

The French Regulars commanded by yours truly 

Rick had painted up five canoes, two crewed by First Nation warriors, and one each by Rogers Rangers, the Coureurs de Bois and the Trois Rivieres Regiment ( I think, unless it was the Compagnies franches de la marine...?)

The British settlement was defended by two stalwart female settlers from Julian's collection

French Regulars advance

I won most of the initiative rolls - this was a classic - as I had won initiative at least twice in a row, I was up to three dice (the maximum total) v's one for Chris. I rolled two ones and a two - and won initiative when Chris rolled a one! This sort of result happened several times and the French had the initiative about 90% of the time.

The French Regulars abandon their defensive posture at the settlement and move towards the river that split the table in two

Their opponents are also converging on the river crossing

British artillery engages the French - all guns were light and we only had one on the French side and two with the Brits. They rolled a single dice so were never a significant factor.

The "special forces" - Compagnies franches de la marine and Rogers Rangers - confront each other across the river, deep in the forested part of the table

"The British are coming!" Chris made an attempt to cross the river at the only fordable point in the open ground, but I was able to move forward quickly in strength before he was able to funnel over sufficient troops - one round of firing by four French units caused six casualties (the maximum a unit can take) and rendered the unit shaken - next activation, they decamped

Chris attempting to create a bridgehead - he was unable to get these columns across and deployed before the leading unit was destroyed

The action hots up in the woods with Native Americans (or should that be Native Canadians?!) and various European units engaged in fire fights and hand to hand combat

The scene after my devastating volley by four units onto one- no more British coming!

The British artillery was pretty ineffective - Mark in particular had very bad luck with his dice - a 3 or better would get a hit on us, bit he invariably managed to roll a 1 or 2 - and on the odd occasion he actually hit me or John, we generally rolled a saving throw!

Chris redeployed his remaining Regulars to support the other British units in the adjacent forest - by this stage, Rick was complaining bitterly about our lack of aggressive spirit, as neither side could find a way to cross the river without suffering crippling casualties!

Marks rules allow for inconclusive melee-ing in the woods that can go on and on..and on ...for the entire game!

Nick crossed the river by a hidden ford he had located (by rolling a 6) and engaged one of Chris's Regular units in melee

More shots of the conflict inside the forest between Julian and Paul (British) and Barry and Nick (French)

Unable to ignore Ricks constant barrage of complaints, I offered to prove to him why it was a bad idea to try to cross the river in the face of opposition musketry, and formed these two units into column for the purposes of demonstration - however, Rick declared the game to be over (it was 3pm) and this manoeuvre remained theoretical!

A few final views up, down and across the table at the conclusion of the game

As I said at the outset, I think most of the players enjoyed the game and were happy with result - I certainly felt like I had won, by giving Chris a bit of a bloody nose at the river crossing. Rick was less happy and was still muttering about incompetence and timidity as we helped him pack his beautiful collection back into their storage boxes!