To the woods-an FIW game

The British column advances flanked by the light companies

For the first time in a long while we played a French Indian War game using Parkfield’s Rolling Thunder rules with companies of eight figures.

The British column of two line companies and two light companies were to advance through the woods, cross the river and collect fresh supplies from a small farm occupied by militia.

The French, whose Indian allies had been tracking the column, had to stop this happening. Indians set up in ambush along the track and the two light companies advanced through the woods to attack the column in a pincer movement.

All went well until the French players drew the correct card and managed to spring their ambush whilst the Coureurs de Bois and Compagnie Franche de la Marine advanced to the edge of the track to fire on the British.

Meanwhile, due to exceedingly bad die rolling, the French regulars failed to appear and on hearing the sound of far off gunfire decided that this wasn’t for them and ran away.

Meanwhile, on the track, the first Indians charged the column, took casualties from a snatched volley and totally failed to gain an advantage, but did cause some casualties, but the column continued. The light infantry from both sides exchanged volleys and then closed to hatchet distance.

With the hatchet fight going on, the second Indian unit charged into the fray and, after causing a few casualties including one of the British officers, decided they had done enough and disappeared through the woods, as did the French lights, leaving one British company depleted enough to take no further part in the action.

Meanwhile, the Scots withdrew, towards the farm as it was away from any enemy and met up with the militia who had, at last, decided that as the battle was almost done it was time for them to join in.

The last minutes of the attack before the Indians withdrew into the woods

All in all a fun game with the British players thinking they had it easy until the Indians sprung their ambush. The British gained a victory only because they managed to get the remainder of their column to the farm to resupply.

The Scarecrow

Smugglers in the mist

We tried the Gloire rules out last week at the club pitching a gang of smugglers led by the Scarecrow against the revenue men. Each of the four players controlled one grade three figure, one grade two and one grade one figure, with a number of ‘extras’ milling around.

The game started with a boat tied up along the river and a couple of smuggler types unloading the contraband into a waiting wagon alongside which was the fish wife who took the initiative and attacked an advancing revenue man with her boat hook.

Meanwhile elsewhere the revenue men, led by an army captain home on leave, attempted to get between the wagon and the village but were attacked by the Scarecrow and his minions. The Scarecrow, although wounded, put up a valiant fight alongside his comrades and managed to fight the revenue men off and began to back away towards the village as the wagon approached. Unfortunately the two men on the wagon lost their hold and fell off leaving the horse free to approach the local minister who got it under control and led it into the village where the goods could be stored away from prying eyes.

The revenue men were at a loss now and attempted to get close to the squire but the fishwife intervened with her boat hook and wounded the revenue leader whilst the squire backed away and a sneaky smuggler managed to untie the boat and take it to safety down stream.

The game was a lot of fun but in hindsight I think there were too many figures on the board and if we play this game again then fewer figures will be used. The game is very dice heavy with rolls to hit and to determine the location of the wound as well as the possibility of attempting to stave off any damage. With fewer figures I think that it could have been easier to keep track of individual figures but all in all a fun game with plenty of laughs along the way.

Warmaster medieval Armies club game

We tried the new Warmaster Medieval rules on Tuesday evening. A 1500 point English Hundred Years War army against a similar strength French one.

The English army was primarily Bow and Knights/Billmen with a small reserve of Knights and Sergeants. The French were heavy on Knights and cavalry with crossbows and cannon in support.

The variant of the rules allowing battles to move in ‘brigade’ style regardless of the number in the unit allowed the English to move on to a hill and take up a position with stakes to their front. The French advanced very slowly towards it with an emphasis on their left where the English had left a gap.

Seeing the threat to their right the English angled back to receive what appeared to be a looming charge. A failed command roll prevented a weak line of archers from putting down stakes and the inevitable French charge caused several casualties.

The small English reserve of Sergeants however were in a position to plug the gap and realising this the French withdrew before being counter charged. With only two turns remaining the English attempted to make good the imbalance in casualties with a charge of their own which sadly did not cause any real damage to the French.

The rules worked well with the subtle changes on battles and smaller fall backs from shooting giving a period feel to the game. The English needed to be defensive but this prevented any use of initiative. Having worked hard to get in to contact at a weak point the French did enough to secure a points victory.