FIW Batrep - The Battle at Fort Dan

 

The Reject meet up at Posties for a game of Posties, French Indian War, Skirmish Rules.

Call myself a Wargamer? It was my first Face to Face game proper in the shed this year, How ridiculous is that!!

You may have already seen Richard and Lee's posts about the game, if not click their names.

Postie does set up a nice table.

Richard, Colin and myself picked out the French

Dan, Lee and Surj picked the British

If we could we were tasked with attacking and capturing the fort, bridge, burning the town and disposing of as many British Foot and settlers as possible.

I started on the round with the Royal Rousillion ret and a unit of Compaginie Francais se la Marine

Facing me were the Massachusetts Provincial regt and a host of retreating settlers.

The town that needed burning.

Colin's troops some Natives and Courer de Bois were in the woods on the Brit right flank, (the blue circles) We had several of these to place down on the table, some were bluff cards.

The bridge, right across the other side of the table, 14 feet away from our starting point.

It might as well been on the otherside of the moon!!!

Colonel Dan is showing off his troops to Lord Howie's daughter!!!

Lee had 2 companies of the 55th Foot roaming around the table.

Here's the other one.

If we ran, which meant we couldn't fire it would take us 8 turns to get to the fence line.....

Somehow I think the tables a tad too big, and our objectives are errrrr impossible!

Anyhow, we had a fun day.

They all look happy don't they the miserable buggers!!

Colin, Surj, Lee and Dan!

A full move forward for us, meant a full move back for the Brits

And they shot at us..... the cheek!!!!

Nothing seemed to go our way in the game, I'm not sure how many turns we played, it must have been 8ish. But we only won the first move once, that meant Surj would fire and move back each turn.

We just couldn't catch up.

Richard had 2 units of Natives on our right, hidden under the blue circles, he was facing 2 Brits blue circles himself, but were they troops?

Bang Bang!

Colin came outta the woods with the Quebec Militia

Now that is a pretty line!!

I had a sharpeshooter character named The Fish, you can see him waving a tomahawk.

Colin ventured a tad to close to the edge of the woods and had to reveal his Courer de Bois.

Hmm? That looks like dinner over there????

Richard moved his 2 units forward and the blue circles were revealed. His 2 Native companies faced a Rogers Rangers and a Native unit. 

To hit with musketry you had to through a D20, being as we were shooting at long range, most of the time you had to throw 17 or over.....which we didn't manage to do very often!!

Sigh....

After a few turns of shooting and fighting our right flank was looking depleted, both d=sides had taken many casualties.

Jeez, That's around 30 inches I moved so far only another million to go..........

With the blue circled removed its difficult to see who's friend or foe, Richard's just edging it though.

I did say Richard was edging it didn't I?

Well I was wrong!

All four units lost so many men that the stragglers just buggered off. 

That was the end of Richard's command

Or was it???

We did know we had these re-enforcements paddling down the river. But we wanted until poor Dan, who was literally, "holding the fort" got bored and moved out. So when he did...

Four canoes and 16 Natives with ladders arrived!!

Woo Hoo!!!!

Hmm? the bridge or the fort???

To move the canoes, Richard had to throw 3 Average dice, the first time he threw an 11, so a good move, the next time he went back to throwing crap and only moved 6 inches.

Looking at the map, it could take him another 6 turns to get to the bridge....

Surj continued to fire and move back, he had a good turn and killed 4 or 5 figures, with lucky dice.

We didn't get to fire back as it was agreed between the 3 off us, we had no chance of getting to the town, Fort or Bridge, so the towel was thrown in.

We could have carried on, but we'd lost heart, our morale was lower the guy in a red top's expectations of survival in an episode of star trek!

Umming and Arring about what should have been.

Conclusion

It was great getting back in the shed for a game, the game unfortunately just didn't go our way, the dice gods didn't abandon us, they kicked us in the butt! The Brit dice was only slightly better, which helped them out. Some you win some you lose, but the best winner was getting together with your pals and having a great laugh, at each other and at yourself.

Ray

AHPC 13 - The Directors Chair - 15mm French Indian Wars

Red Security Pass:

If you have completed at least four Green locations and four Blue locations, well done! You’ll now be welcomed into the Studio of the Great Show-Lord himself to collect your Red Security pass. The Show-Lord will give you one task to complete. If you succeed, you’ll have earned the chance to sit in the Producer's Chair. Everyone… please be quiet…… shhh!! ….Lights. Camera. Action!

After a quick and short email from the Snow Lord I was given the task of ....

"Now, what do you have in your collection that you may have been avoiding, or been wanting to get to, but something always seems to get in the way of completing it? Basically, let’s come up with a task for you that is fun but also a bit of a challenge."

Hmm? I had to think about this one? I suppose the key words were "wanting to get to, but something always seems to get in the way of completing it"

Way back in the misdt of time 2012 infact was the last time I painted up some of my 15mm French Indian War collection, so I thought I might brush the dust off the mega box of unpainted goodies.

Here's the post from March 2oth 2012

http://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.com/2012/03/from-rayr-15mm-f-canadiens-generals-106.html

 

And here's a pic, if you don't wanna click.

Well the first thing out of the box were a pack of Matchlock Miniatures Woodland Indians dressed in western clothes, now available from Caliver Books in the UK. The next 2 packs were some Compagnies Franches de la Marine. So it was as easy at that.

They were pretty simple to paint up but look quite effective? And they gave my eyes a rest after painting loads of 2mm too. There are 8 figures here.

There were also 3 French commanders dressed in native garb, so these got a lick of paint too.

Only 3 Commanders

Last up are the French Marines

12 of them to add to the 57 I already have??

Lastly there's the mystery figure on the left, it was in the pack with the French Commanders, so I thought it was a Native leader, but actual think it a lady? Unfortunately this is the only pic I have of her/him?

So as for the points we have 48 x 15mm figures @ 2 Points each.

16 points for the Natives

8 for the Commanders and errr lady?

24 points for the Marines

& 20 points Red Bonus Round

For a grand total of 68 points!!

The Battle of Mount Rock 1757 - A FIW Batrep

 

The Rejects got together on Sunday for another game, this time we used Posties 25mm French Indian War figures and rules.

Gotta say the table looked brilliant from the very start, it all went tits up shortly after walking through the door!!!!

We picked out the hat for sides

British

C/O Lee

2nd in C Smiffy

3rd in C Ray

French & Indians

C/O Newbie Steve
2nd in C Surj

Setting the scene.

The British are building a fort.

Close to a growing village of Mount Rock.

Mount Rock is named after the small rocky hill at the bottom right of the pic.

It's a busy village, the army and townsfolk are going about there business.

A company of the 55th sit atop of Mount Rock, surveying the area.

We knew the French would attack, but where?

It looked like they may attack over the river, the Brits seemed to think so, as Postie had set up

troops guarding the bridge and ford.

And we were right, first turn the French and Indians come charging out of the woods, choosing to get there feet wet, nit going over the bridge of ford.

We were lucky and took a test, hearing the enemy before they charged out. Smiffy's commander by the bridge fired a warning shot, alerting everyone else that the French were coming.

Postie told us all, that the winner will be decided on the number of enemy killed and nothing else.

So we decided to get all the civilians who weren't carrying a weapon well out of the way.

 A company of the 55th form a line and awaite the French.

Steve's French take fire from Smiffy's Provincials

Another company take and give fire, this time against Surj's troops.

Surj's Indian's stalk through the woods and stumble on a hidden BEWARE token!

Last time this happened Lee lost 3 men to a maurding bear! 

Surj was mightely pleased when Postie placed a chicken!

My civilians, the ones with muskets, give fire, but to no effect, my dice rolling was rubbish.

On the other hand, Surj's dice rolling was pretty good.

The 55th still waiting in the clearing. They've been joined by Eagleye, the Scout.

Its not going to well tbh. We can't seem to win the first move. This means the French and Indians move first and fire first. Any kills inflicted can't shoot back.

Still running civilians' back and missing with every shot taken.

We left Lee's 44th foot back at the fort, just in case the enemy had a surprise attack  down the other end of the table. But we now had to take a chance and move them down the table towards the action.

Smiffy and Steve were having a tussle at the top of the pic. Steve was getting the better of Smiffy.

They're moving very quickly

Postie, Smiffy, Steve and Surj.

The 55th still on Mount Rock, but at least they've turned to face the action.

Surj lines the fence line and kills a few of my townsfolk. I miss everyone again......

If Surj had any sense he'd not advance towards the 55th?

Leave the cows alone Surj!!!

The massed Indians, Marines and Militia march onwards.

Our only bit of luck in the game so far. We couldn't outrun Surj's Indians, so we turned back and charged.

Miraculously Smiffy won both melees!!!

Lots of firing and lots of missing. I'm throwing D20's needing 15+. 

Not a hope in hell!

The 55th moved off of Mount Rock to help cover the townsfolk.

Lee's 44th head for the centre of the table.

While I make a pretty pattern and keep my fingers crossed.

But we're running out of time.

We need to be put out of our misery.

And thank gawd, there was where we ran out of time, Postie added up the points.

The Brits 62 - 132 French Indians

An utter thrashing for the Brits, if we'd have had 3 Tiger tanks they would still have beaten us.

There's not much else to add, if one of the three of us could have thrown half decent dice it may have been a closer game. But with the three of us throwing like we did it was never gonna happen. 

At one point I had 5 shots one after the other, needing a 15+ to hit I threw 3, 4, 3, 2 & a 4!

It was a crazy game and well won by Surj and Steve.

Steve was awarded the Man of the Match, because he could throw 15+ on a D20, when he wanted too!

The swine!