Long Rifle: The Defense of Blye's Farm

Two Hour Wargames has just introduced two new rule sets aimed at the French & Indian war, one of my favorite periods.  The rules for larger games is called "Muskets and Mohawks", and the rules for smaller games is called "Long Rifle".  They can be found here:
http://store.twohourwargames.com/

 I chose to use "Long Rifle", since I am in the process of painting up more FIW figures.  "Long Rifles" uses some mechanics from "5150: New Beginnings", but is quite different.

The first thing I did was set up the scenario.  Somewhere in the wilds of America:  Corporal McTeague has realized that he is near his maried sister's farm, gets permission to go on a scout, and takes private Smith with him.  His sister, Ruth McTeague Blye, is married to settler Prosper Blye.  They have 3 children, 15-year old Samuel, 8-year old David, and 7-year old Hanna.  They were rolled up from the settlers table in the rules.

It's a nice little farm with a log cabin, pig stye, and cow pen.  Prosper has fenced off the farm from the open woods to keep out wildlife, and keep his cattle (not painted yet, so they don't appear) from wandering too far.

As always, you can click on the picture to enlarge it.  The log cabin is from Acheson Creations, and the fence and pig stye were obtained from a craftsman at Colonial Barracks whose name I failed to get.

Here are the residents of the farm and the Rangers.  The picture is a little shaky because I forgot the tripod. Sigh.  Note that their Reps are on the picture, and the figures are WYSIWYG for the rules.



Turn 1:  Settlers 1, PEF's 6.  Oh, the Level of Investment was 4, so there are 4 PEF's of Rep 4, until revealed.

Turn 2:  Settlers 4, PEF's 2
McTeague has everyone spread along the fence, and Prosper sends the children to hide near the pig stye.

Turn 3: Settlers 1, PEF's 3

PEF's 1 and 4 move closer together, as do PEf's 6 and 8.

Turn 4:  Settlers 1, PEF's 3

Pef 6 moves to the fenceline and is exposed as 6 Indans (roll on tables reveals 1 less than company, and you count everyone, even the children.) Another PEF moves forward, and the rest stay put.

In the rules, everything caused by the PEF being revealed is acted upon and concluded before anymore PEF's are revealed.

The Indians are Reps 5, 4, 3,3,3,3, probably a group of hotheads out to prove their manhoods, led by a warrior looking to better his standing. This activates an In Sight! 

Now this gets complicated, with so many figures per side.  The following picture has little boxes to show the success that each figure has.  This is based on the Rep of each figure and any modifiers to determine the number of D6 rolled per figure.  Of course, more successes allow you to react before the others.  Successes of the same number act simultaneously.  O succesess and you stand there like a bump on a log.

McTeague fires at the Indian nearest him and misses.  Ranger Smith fires at the Indian nearest him and strikes him in the chest, putting him out of the fight!  His simultaneous fire misses. 

The Indian in front of Ruth fires and misses.  Ruth fires and hits him in the chest putting him out of the fight.  

 Prosper sees nothing as an arrow whizzes past him with no effect. 

 Samuel, the teen-ager fires and hits the Indian opposite him in the arm knocking him down and stunning him.

Reactions are not done until after the In Sight is finished.  Private Smith would fire, but he is unloaded.  Private McTeague, with his musket empty, charges the Indian in front of him, who has a warclub for defense.  Both roll 6D6.  McTeague passes 6, and the Indian passes 2, is knocked down and bayoneted in the chest, obviously dead.

Ruth, who is unloaded, Ducks Back behind the cabin.

 Prosper, who had an arrow go past him, finally see the Indian, and fires, missing.  The Indian fires another arrow at him, and Prosper, now unloaded, Ducks Back behind the scrub in front of the pig stye. 

 Samuel realizes that he is unloaded and also ducks behind the scrub.

The remaining Indians Carry On.  The score: Rangers and settlers all hale and healthy.  The Indians, 2 out of the fight, 1 dead, and 1 stunned, leaving only 2 upright; a Rep 4 and a  Rep 3, and no leader.

Turn 5:  Settlers 2, Indians 4.  Only the Rep 4 Indian may act, and he reloads.  All of the settlers and rangers reload.

Turn 6: Settlers 3, Indians 5.  The settlers and Rangers move back into view of the Indians.  McTeague, who has already jumped the fence, moves out of the brush.  Everyone takes an In Sight.

McTeague, with 3 successes, acts before the Rep 4 Indian and shoots him in the gut, rendering him out of the fight. 

 The Indian with the bow fires at Prosper again, and misses.  All three of the settlers fire at him, and miss! (Actually, Samuel hit him in the leg, but as he is in cove, this is a miss.  Location, location, location!) He fails his Received Fire and is forced to take a Cohesion Test, and runs away!

Turn 7:  Settlers 2, Indians 5.  McTeague, unloaded, runs to the stunned Indian, who has never been able to recover because he is a Rep 3, and kills him with his bayonet.  Meanwhile, everyone else reloads.

Turn 8:  Settlers 5, PEF's 4.  Another PEF moves to the fence, and is neutral settlers.  "Looks like you've got the situation well in hand!  We can spare a little powder, if need be, and if you can spare a little lead, for we are short on shot." 

Turn 9:  Settlers 2, PEF's 4.  The two remaining PEF's stay in the woods.  McTeague, "I recon I'd better reload!"

Turn 10:  Settlers 6, PEF's 3.  The settlers learily eye movement in the trees, that proves to be an errant breeze. (A PEF moves to the fence and is revealed as nothing!)

Turn 11:  Settlers 2, PEF 6.  The settlers and rangers move to the fence to keep an eye on the forest.

Turn 12:  Settlers 5, PEF 4.  The last PEF moves to the fence and is revealed as friendly settlers.  "We heared the shots, and come to help, but I see the Lord has helped you first.  Got a leetle usquebea, if'n you're of a mind to share a sip, and Ruth'll make some o' her good biscuits to cut the edge a little."

Total success for the settlers and Rangers.  4 muskets were retrieved, with shot and powder, and a bow.  McTeague appropiates the warclub from the Indian he killed in single combat for bragging rights.

For successful episodes, one gains fame points.  McTeague chose to help the settlers defend their farm.  He gains 5 Fame Points for all of the enemy that were killed, 3 Fame Points for preventing the cabin from being looted and/or burned, and since none of his party were lost or killed, he loses none.

I will make McTeague my star, "until I find someone better, or he's killed." (Starship Troopers, as if you didn't know.)

Though it's not in the rules, the Blye family has gained the reputation of being good people in a fight, and Ruth in particular, as an Indian-slayer.

Though this was very successful for the settlers and rangers, a single change of a die roll, or PEF resolution could have turned the tables distasterously.  I don't imagine they would have fared so well against French soldiers, but luck was on their side.

To run this at a convention, I would suggest that each player be given no more than 3 figures each, and that markers be supplied to indicate who is active, because it's easy to get lost on the In Sight, and some results depend upon whether the figur is active or not.

I love it!