Showing posts with label French Indian War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label French Indian War. Show all posts

Saturday, 19 July 2014

"The Battle of Fort Louis", July 20th 1758, 28mm FIW Skirmish Game.

7 Rejects gathered for a French Indian War skirmish game a few weeks ago, myself, Lee and John randomly picked the British through scrunched up pieces of paper, myself and John were horrified that we had drawn Lee"Offends Dice Gods" Hadley but what can you do?

We tried bribery but Postie wanted too much, something about firstborn?


"Fresh from their victory twelve days ago at the Battle of Ticonderoga the French have sent a small force across Lake Champlain with the intent of building another Fort directly opposite Fort Carillon. This new structure will be called Fort Louis and will be another blow to British morale and prestige. The British commander in the area, Major General Abercromby, has dispatched a small force to try and disrupt the French plans. 

The French start the game busily building Fort Louis, some troops are on patrol, some resting, others being trained in fighting skills. The mood in camp is quite relaxed as no trouble is expected. Meanwhile the British start the game moving towards the French position but no French troops have been sighted yet."

Kind words and introduction above written by the Dark Lord himself........Postie!

Order of Battle
French Forces - CO Surjit, 2iC Smiffy
  Leader Major - 1
  Guyenne Line (Muskets) - 18
  Compagnies Franches de la Marine (Muskets) - 12
  Quebec Militia (Muskets) - 10
  Indian Warband (9 Muskets + 1 Rifle) - 10
  Indian Warband (Bow/Hatchet) - 10
  Pioneers (Improvised Weapons)- 6
  Character (Rifle) - 1
  Camp Followers - 4

British Forces - CO John, 2iC Fran, 3iC Lee
  Leader Colonel (Mounted) - 1
  60th Line (Muskets) - 20
  80th Gages Light Infantry (Muskets) - 20
  55th Line Marksmen (Rifles) - 6
  Rodgers Rangers (Muskets) - 10
  Gorhams Rangers (Muskets) -10
  Militia (Rifles/Muskets) - 12
  Characters/Indians (Rifles) - 2




The French consider the wood for the trees.........

Seriously over the top with the trees Postie.........

I started at the table edge with militia and rangers......

John had the regulars or don't go in to the woods infantry........

The French Indian allies gather.....for football.............

Construction on Fort Louis stops when word of the British reaches the camp.......

Supplies or a handy escape route..........

The felt is also considered forest or something to snag on your clothing..........

Smithy, the Indian leader or also known as "Runs with Scissors"...........

The advance starts as we run towards the woods..........

But the French wait, this figure is considered hidden unless he fires.........

John is still upset with Lee being on our side..........

The British advance with still no sign of the French..........

Lee hides his forces in the woods.......

The French start sniping and the first British casualties occur......

The French would and then move back in to the trees where they could not be targeted.......

Regular French forces are dispatched from Fort Carillion........

My boys have entered the woods to smoke out the French.......

We are getting nearer and nearer to the sneaky French.......

My Rangers break cover to draw French fire, you had to spend a turn reloading or they would have to retreat further in to the woods....

The regulars continue across the lake, the French had to dice each turn to see if there was a mishap on the lake........

Lee waits in the woods for the right moment..........

Just on a side note, the wall of fame was updated...........

My advance gives Lee a chance to........

.....and he's off........

Lee would have limited success as some dice rolls for morale went a little sideways.......

Giving them a volley..........

An aerial view of the fighting..........

A mishap on the lake........

John enters the woods in a desperate, some would say (Lee) foolish gamble to engage the Indians........

Surjit has a good run of dice and likes to show his unsporting joy...........

Contractual Postie shot but John is nervous..........

The casualties mount on both sides.........

Who ate all the Viennese cakes, 2 boxes of them......... 

This was John firing approx 19 shots at the Indian leader, needing a D20 in all fairness......

No success at all, Smithy seems happy...........

Ray had turned up and joined in with the mocking laughter.......

This would lead to some close combat and melee with the Indians, don't get in to melee with Indians for future reference.......

We would get victory points if we could stop the construction......

The casualties are still mounting........

The face of evil and cake scoffing..........

The winners and Lee ..........

The game was called and went on victory points, about 15 leaders (captains, lieutenants and colonels) had died, unit and army morale checks and in the end it came down to 12 points (3 Indian casualties), luck swung back and forth and don't engage Indians in the woods with regular forces, a very close game but a good game to spend in the heat that day.........

Monday, 19 March 2012

15mm French Indian War Test Game at Ray's.....

...testing his The Jumaville Affair FIW rules on Friday night which are his own creation to a point. I should let you know that I'm not that well this morning, I'm a little hungover, Ray is on days with me again, the Irish rugby team were a little fecking disappointing and my Mothers Day phone call opened up the guilty feelings again that only Irish mothers can do and I think the fish and chips Ray bought on Friday night were dodgy!

On to the game and pictures (all the figures belong to Ray)....

The rules are a card based system with actions (you need an action to move, change formation, fire etc....), the least you can get in a turn is one unit/one action and the best is three units/ three actions (a big difference), the quality of generalship denotes better action cards (I chose dawdler but Postie got an ass!)

Initial table set up, the British have started to clear an area to build a fort, the French have decided they don't like this idea and have dispatched a large force to throw the British out of the area..

A close up of the initial position....

These cards signified real and dummy units hidden in the woods...

The hill position with the highly skilled craftsman at work and to be protected at all costs...

The 42nd Highlanders behind redoubts....

A small militia unit holds the right flank...

A better view of the Highlanders.....

French line infantry La Reine infantry start to appear....

Quebec militia.....

Lots of real and dummy units......

Postie realising he's short...

......and much prefers umpiring!

Compagnie Francaises de la Marine and Indians clash in the woods, the marines would eventually be wiped out to a man...

More Indians and Courer de Bois tangle at the river crossing, the French would fail two morale tests and quit the field...

The card system in use, 3 actions for 1 French unit.....Ray's unused camera as umpiring is a lot more stressful than he remembered???? (It's been a while).

The highlanders split into 2 units to deal with the French attack....

French Jesuit Indians clash with Rogers Rangers, the Indians will lose but through attrition the rangers have to be pulled back but not before smashing two units of Indians....

Postie trying to figure out where he's hidden some of his hidden units....

Loyal French Indians appear in the woods....

The umpire contemplating giving Postie a swift kick in the crackers.....

Didn't get to use my "Dawgs" but victory was mine at the end....

The game only went about 3 turns of the card system, an end of turn card is in the deck, what did me and Postie think? The randomness was too random as it could give one side too much of an advantage so Ray changed that to a you go I go system but the amount of actions remaining random, the melee was a little confusing and he will be changing that too but all in all nothing wrong with the system, nice figures from a period that is very varied, another thing are random event cards in the deck and on a D20 you roll for what they are, this can be anything form units having to use actions to pull back, officers getting drunk or a unit getting a blood lust and their skill improved (this was a random pain in the arse if you ask me).

Postie had no luck and poor placement, I had a lot of luck and knocked the "merde" out of most of his units with a lot of good dice rolls, all in all the dice gods won! Ray will be discussing more about his rules on his own blog sometime soon.

Not bad at all Ray.....