Muskets & Tomahawks-Battle in the Wilderness

Last Thursday week, myself and Luis got together for a game of Muskets and Tomahawks. It is always good to get in a game with Luis as he is a spirited player. It was also important to get in this game as I was doing a demonstration game with 2 new players three days hence and I had not played for a while. It was good that we did this as I had really forgotten some of the mechanisms but after a couple of turns we were good to go.

We decided on a 500 point game with the following warbands.

We diced up for the type of game, it was going to be in the Wilderness, and we both ended up getting Battle as our victory condition and deployment criteria. Luis was the attacker.  I will let the photos do the talking.

Terrain

The British Assault

Compagnies Franches de la Marine

The Coureurs Devi Bois and Canadien aligned Indians advance

I was able to sneak up a unit of Rangers which gave the Canadians some trouble

The battle line, the river made it difficult.

It was a fun game, with a marginal British victory but we did make an error in set up as I initially gave myself a Sachem with only 6 Indians giving me a bit of an advantage with the Avant Garde card, so it was ultimately a draw. Certainly this outing confirmed what a good rules this is.

 

Pennsylvania Regiment

After many months, I finally got this unit painted. I must of started just before last Xmas but they were in Montreal while I have spent most of the time in Salem. They are lovely figures from one of the Brigade Games kickstarter but I do not feel I did them justice. I found the details a little difficult to pick out. These were painted in the traditional fashion, it might be that I am getting used to using speed/contrast paints and I am losing my touch although I am not really sure if I ever had it!

This Provincial Regiment are to join my British forces for Muskets and Tomahawks. I decided to go with the Pennsylvania Regiment, as they had somewhat of an unusual colour scheme. I think I might be done now for the French Indian War. I really have more then enough forces, although I may be temped to paint a few more Native Americans. I have no regular French forces but have no plans to add them yet.

I am a completist, and I was missing a French Militia man so I added him into the pile.

Well, where to next aside from adding the occasional unit to my present forces. I really do not have a laid pile just some bits and pieces lying around. 

I do have a box of Rubicon Marines for Vietnam as well as some Perry Samurai, I am tempted to move them on to the table next.

Attack on the Settlement

 

Last night myself and Pierre-Yves got together for a FIW game using Muskets and Tomahawks. I had planned to have a game of "O" Group but I forgot to bring the terrain to Montreal! I did not have a whole lot of time to plan nor do I have a lot of terrain for FIW here, but I made do.

All the photos were taken at game end, my deployment edges were the near and far  ends of the table. P-Y had to place one deployment point in the settlement and he placed one on the hill on the near left of the photo. Once the red clock card came up I placed the 2 withdrawal points, one being next to a deployment point in the right foreground and one being on the right edge.

We decided on a 400 point game with the scenario being set in a civilised area. I won the toss and decided to play the French Attacker. My goal was to occupy the settlement with no opponents within 4" while P-Y had to get half the civilians off the table.

French

Compagnie Franches de la Marines Officer

Compagnie Franches de la Marines-2 units of 8 men

Sachem

Indian Veteran Warriors-2 units of 6 men

Milices Canadiennes- 1unit of 6 men

British

British Infantry Officer

British Infantry-2 units of 8

Ranger Officer

Rangers-2 units, one of 8 men and one of 7

Elite Indian Warriors-1 unit of 6 men

Civilians-10 and a priest.

We struggled a bit as we had not played the rules for sometime but after about an hour things got going and we played for about 3 hours in total with P-Y getting a clear victory. The weird thing about the game is although we have played quite a few games it is the first time we actually played in person!

Anyway it was a lot of fun, the ruleset gives a good and challenging game. I will not bother to do a report but here are some more photos taken at the end of the game.

These civilians were well escorted by a large unit of Rangers

Really did not do much with my infantry

My Indians got thumped by the British allied Warriors

Desperate attempt near the end of the game to get my milice in the settlement.

French Indian War Milice

 

Slowly adding to my French Indian War collection with some Milice canadien and some Indian warriors. These figures were primed black and then a white zenithal highlight was added. I am trying to use up all my Citadel acrylics as they are all drying out. They are good paints but I am all done with them because of their packaging. I will stick with their washes as well as their contrast paints, these are much less likely to disappear on you. I have been using Scale 75, Vallejo and some Army Painter acrylics in dropper bottles. For basic airbrushing through I have been using Tamiya. Paint choice has really evolved for me over the past 20 years.

These are really nice figures from Brigade Games and were a joy to paint. This particular lot of Milice maybe slighter in build than the ones from Conquest Miniatures but have no problem mixing in with in the same force. The red coated figure will be a colonial militia sergeant in my Devil in the Wilderness force. I originally painted these milice to be used as Colonial Militia in DiW games but I think I will substitute them with some previously painted militia figures from my FIW figures, these figures are more how I would imagine as Coureur des bois

These figures are from the Conquest Miniatures Delaware Indians pack, certainly distinctive looking and will be used in DiW games. 

I finally received my Provincial Infantry figures from Brigade Games, these were in their 2nd FIW kickstarter and they are about half done now. I am painting them in the distinct green/red livery of one of the Pennsylvania regiments. I also received some Puritans from Brigade Games, they will serve as distinctive civilians for DiW games.

Muskets and Tomahawks: Bataille Sainte-Foy

Last night, I finally got a game in with my friend Luis in Montreal. It was almost 2 years since I had seen Luis, and that meeting had the distinction of being the last in-person game I had before the start of the pandemic. We had planned to play at L'abyss but we found out at the last minute they close early some nights, so we played at Luis's apartment. I can easily say we were surrounded by a lot of wargaming paraphernalia. On the table next to us was a beautiful table for a battle set in central America with some Aztec warriors. As you can see below, the table set up for the Battle of Sainte-Foy was no slouch. Since we were playing a skirmish game, Luis had selected a small part of the battle along the chemin Sainte-Foy. 

Battle fought within the blue rectangle

French Forces

Infantry Officer

2 units of French Infantry

Grandier Infantry

Milice Officer

2 units of Milice Canadien

British Forces

Infantry Officer

British Infantry

Highland Infantry

Ranger Officer

2 units of Rangers

The initial British advance

The French were allowed to occupy the stone windmill and the British were allowed to occupy the house just east of the windmill. Luis (who of course played the French) did choose to put a unit of infantry in the stone mill, I elected to remain outside the house just to the east in cover. We then alternately deployed each of our units within 12 paces of our table edge. You might not notice it as the figures are so well painted that these are actually 15mm Blue Moon figures, really very nice. Because these were not 28mm figures, Luis has invented this notional unit of paces (around 19mm) and rather then use inches we substituted paces. Luis has made some great measuring sticks which made this all very easy!

Victory Conditions

To occupy both buildings

I was able to advance my main force up my left flank, and drove back the Milice Canadien , eventually routing both units off the table.

Luis was quite tricky though and while I was battering his troops in the centre and the left flank, he had advanced an unit of infantry towards the western house on my right unprotected flank.

Time to run a unit into the building before the French got in!

By now the battle was quite heated, I had brought the French force down to within a whisker of morale failure (26 men on, 25 men off). My dice were generally better than Luis's. But he decided to make a typical French sang froid charge into the building, he was repulsed twice, I believe, but on his third charge with 5 men against my 7 men, he forced me out.....Une victoire française!

So I believe we both had a great deal of fun and it was great to see Luis again. I am sure we will meet up again soon.

Muskets & Tomahawks

Last Saturday, I finally got together with my friend Iannick by Zoom to play a game of Muskets and Tomahawks II. Iannick was my first wargaming opponent, I believe we probably had a Napoleonic game more than 10 years ago. Since then, we have had 2-3 games per year in Montreal, mostly Napoleonic but certainly some French Indian War as well. We had planned our first game of Epic Horus Heresy last March, but the pandemic closed the border about a week. I have been encouraging Iannick to have a Virtual game, I believe he has been involved in a Virtual RPG game, but I finally convinced him to try Tabletop Miniatures remotely. 

I decided to go with a fairly simple OB and scenario as detailed below. The victory conditions were Battle for both sides in the Wilderness. As is appropriate, I played the Brits and Iannick played the French-Canadiens.

I believe the French were the attackers, you can see the initial thrust by each side in the photos below. I thought I was playing a very clever game but within 90 minutes all my troops were dead or driven off the table except for my regulars. I blame the Dice Gods, but I suspect that Iannick's bloodlines give him an innate skill in playing the FIW.

It was a lot of fun, I am sure we will get in another game soon.

Battle in the Wilderness 1756

  

Last week after a two week hiatus, I got a game in with Pierre-Yves in Montreal. I had been away so I was looking forward to the game, getting used to at least a game per week during the pandemic. Indeed, I had 2 games last week. What was especially cool was that my old friend Iannick, zoomed in to get a "look see" at Virtual Tabletop Wargaming. We are planning to have a game within the next week or two and it was good that he had a look, we did not get a chance to talk about the Habs and their travails, but it was all good. Pierre-Yves and Iannick, although both living in Montreal had not met each other, so I believe it was a good wargaming connection for each.

 

It was my turn to host, and I had finally got together a 4x4' terrain which is the recommended size for 400 point games with Muskets and Tomahawks II. The mat still needs a little work but I was happy how it came out. In this game, I decided to go with a Wilderness scenario. We added all the whistles with both Intrigues and Commander's Gifts. We both decided to go with Battle Missions.

 

It was quite a good game, around 3 hours and it went back and forth but P-Y's British Allied Indians were able to break my French Canadiens. A few photos.

Getting back on schedule now, with a What a Cowboy game, possibly a game of SAGA (my first in-person game in a year) at the Hobby Bunker this Thursday and the next chapter in UBOOT this Friday.