Muskets & Mohawks, Sharp Practice French and Indian War

I just realized that it has been a long time since I made a post here, so here are figures for my French & Indian War games.

The first unit is Front Rank's British in campaign dress, mainly because I hate painting full dress uniforms.  There are 24 rank and file and 3 officers.  This gives me 2 full units in Muskets & Mohawks and 3 groups in Sharp Practice.

Next are 16 British light infantry by Regimental Sergeant Major. They are painted as Gage's light infantry.  RSM's figures are all in the same pose with separate weapons and command included.

And here we have 20 Old Glory Provincial Militia, really from their AWI range, but close enough. There is also an officer.

Old Glory Roger's Rangers.  I only have 8 figures, but that's enough for most games.

Native Americans by Old Glory.  They come from 3 different packs. They'll do for a unit in either rule set.

Highlanders from Old Glory. There are 16 plus an officer and musician.  They are the forty-twa before they got their royal designation.  (I just liked the yellow better!)

French line.  They are really Spanish that I got from The London War Room.  Yes, I know they are not quite right, but they were already painted and only need a change in button color and a Languedoc flag to fit in.  There are 24 rank and file and a few officers and a musician.

Couriers de bois. Once again, only 6 figures.  But that is all that are allowed allowed in Sharp Practice, and enough for Muskets & Mohawks. Old Glory.

French provincial militia.  I have the entire bag of 30 painted.  They are allowed in groups of 6 in Sharp Practice, and as many as the die tells you in Muskets & Mohawks.

More Native Americans, this time from RSM.  There is more variety in this pack than in the British light infantry.

Civilians.  This is a real hodgepodge.  There are figures from Old Glory, RAFM, Dixon, Amazon Miniatures (long gone!), and Black Orc Games, also departed.

And more Native Indians, a mix of Old Glory and RSM.  I didn't realize that one of the Old Glory figures had a musket ball hole in his forehead until I began painting.

I also have 16 French marines painted plus officer.  They are a mix of Old Glory and Warlord Games.  I don't have any pics yet.  I found both brands to be underwelling.

So there we have what I have been doing for a while since Bayou Wars.  Chris and I got to play a game of Sharp Practice, and totally botched the rules but had a good time anyway, good enough to get me to finish my FIW figures!

Pistol's Revoult. English Civil War

These are the entire figures for the game that I will be putting on a Bayou Wars on Friday morning this year.
Pistol's Revoult was on Ed Allen's Hobby Hovel in the 1990's, but it's since disappeared in the the fogs of time. Though the site is available on the archive site, the scenario seems to have gone.

I'll be using Two Hour Wargame's "Long Rifle" with mods for the ECW that I've got pretty well complete.  Boy, will matchlocks take a looong time to reload, at least to the player's viewpoint.  This is definately a skirmish rule set.

Without further ado, here are the figures:
Royalists:
Pistol's Band of Rebels

Flee Protestantism Pistol: The worst kind of rebel leader. Totally paranoid and self important with a firm belief in maintaining his roots - hence the scythe. A reasonable shot and deadly in hand-to-hand due to his fanatical belief in his cause.

Pistol is at the left.  He's an old Redoubt figure.  The rest are Dixon, got for 50 cents each on Wargames, who is closing them out.  These are his party.

Pistol's Band of Rebels - Part the II

"Nutter" Cooke:  A former Clubman and all around nasty piece of work. Only in it for the fun and the grog.

"Nutter" Cooke is to the left, and these are his men to command.  All Dixon.

Sir Hugh Chomley is sent to put down Pistol's revolt, but joins instead.

Sir Hugh Chomley's Company of Foote

Sir Hugh Cholmley: A typical landed lord prior to the rise of parliament. Fat, arrogant and more than a little inbred. He is convinced of the idea that some people and simply better than others ie., him and commoners. Also a firm believer that the King, be he an addle-headed, drunken fool is still the King and therefore unimpeachable.

Sir Hugh, to the left,  and the drummer are Dixon; the rest Perry Miniatures metals.

Sir Hugh Chomley's Company of Foote - Part the II

Sergeant Blomfart:  Late of the Continental Wars, a man of considerable girth and ferocity. Another believer in the divine right of King Charles. 

Blomfart, left, is Dison, the rest, Perry's.

Parliamentarians

Fairfax's Company

Away With This Popery Fairfax:  The kind of zealot that gave Puritans a bad name. Totally dedicated to the Parliamentarian cause and rooting out Popish heresy wherever it may be found. Voted for cancelling Christmas, banning dancing and singing, and shooting all small animals owned by continental royalty.

These are all Redoubt, and painted about 10 years ago.

Fairfax's Company - Part the II

Anthony Scrope, Esq.:  An aspiring officer in the Parliament army. A crack shot.

All Perry's.

Fairfax's Company - Part the III

Sir Digby Strange:  Horsey chap. Runs to hounds. Good egg. Not much between the ears.

All Redoubt, and painted about 10 years ago.

Pistols reload quicker than matchlocks.  Pistol's party are in The King's Head Inn, a decent spot to defend.  Hopefully, this will make up for the lower quality troops on his side.  Each mounted man carries two wheel-locks, so Parliament has 12 fire-arms to the Royalists 9 fire-arms and 3 bows.  Should be interesting.

Oh, each player will control the figures in one of the photos above.

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!