With Crook at the Rosebud: Partizan 2022

[sjwalker51]

Our refight at Partizan on Sunday saw the Sioux led by Crazy Horse fight George Crook’s Yellowstone Column to a standstill with over 600 28mm figures on a 12x6 table.

Rules were Men Who Would Be Kings, with our own house amendments for the period, completed in a leisurely 4-5 hours with plenty of time spent chatting to old friends at this excellent show.

[AKULA]

It was even better looking than the photos do justice.

Full marks to everyone for engaging with punters and answering all manner of questions, mine included 

[CapnJim]

Wow!  Like Custer once said "Look at all them f***in' Indians..."

Very nice looking.  Well done!

[diehard]

Very impressive, even more so considering that they are 28mm. And I totally agree, those games where you can take your time, bullshit with your friends and in general just have a lot of fun are the best of times.

[FifteensAway]

Glad to see Rosebud, the better battle - as I like to call it - getting some gaming 'love'.  It is on my agenda to do in the, hopefully, not too distant future.  You might call me a bit of an 'evangelist' for Rosebud over Little Big Horn - though the latter is on my to do list as well.

Game looks good and I'd love to see your "order of battle" for it.  If you put it on again, feel free to add lots more 'vertical' terrain north of the river, the actual terrain undulates on an upward slope from the creek bottom and with at least three dry creek beds from east to west dissecting the rising hills and with a key knoll or three.

[sjwalker51]

FifteensAWay, you’re right, we could only produce an very simplified version of the complex terrain of Rosebud for our game - it was a bit of a compromise, I know - we approximated the rocky wooded bluffs north of the Rosebud and we try to put on games like these which any club or group of friends could put on, using terrain cloths and readily available terrain pieces rather than purpose-built boards, which would be needed for the ravines and so forth.

I’m hoping that Dan Hodgeson, the maestro of 6mm big games, can be persuaded to recreate Rosebud once he’s done his LBH game.

OOB was roughly 1:5 based on the orbats in Hedren and Mangum’s books on the battle (but I need to find some better Cree and Shoshone scouts!)

[FifteensAway]

Rather thought that might be the issue, a traveling game.  Here in California where I live we almost all have personal vehicles - and usually with some cargo capacity which makes it easier to travel with terrain.  But even a traveling game in the UK can add a few more of those hill bits you have - and better a few more of those in place of the trees.  Not a lot of those trees on the battlefield, except maybe near the creek itself. 

And, yes, having the right native figures can be a challenge.  Not sure about the Cree, my reading says Crow and Shoshone allies - and the shoshone in 'military' formation when riding into camp upon arrival!  Maybe Cree and Crow equate?  Have to check it out myself.

[sjwalker51]

Yep, typo - meant to type Crow rather than Cree 🙂

The photos of the battlefield Ive seen included quite substantial stands of trees but, of course, they may not have been there in 1876, or not representative of the entire field.

[FifteensAway]

Wondered - and autocorrect can play into it. 

Not saying there were no trees on the battlefield just that replacing the trees with more vertical terrain better represents the battle.   Can still include trees, especially if you represent the eastern most section including the creek itself as it turns from eastward towards its northward flow.  I think at a minimum, the more central draw of Kolmar Creek (dry at the time) should be represented - but, again, sometimes hard to do with a traveling game.

Though keep in mind, at the time of the battle and certainly not too long before, there would have been plenty of buffalo impacting tree growth - the site includes a buffalo jump.  I am now curious about the impact of large buffalo herds on tree growth and how that may have kept large areas prairie (?).  Something I'd not really considered before.  Off to start finding out.

[RedDeadRevolver]

Fantastic looking game! 

Are the amendments to MWWBK posted anywhere or can you share them?

[sjwalker51]

Thanks!

Our house rules for the Plains War can be found on the following thread

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=133832.msg1705358#msg1705358

Or also on the Facebook MWWBK fan page

Any questions, just shout - we made a few tweaks to the rules for the Rosebud scenario, but nothing too significant other than giving the Lakota Discipline 0 instead of -1.

[Galloping Major]

Gorgeous stuff there mate, and yes, great to see the Rosebud getting some attention. 

Cheers,
Lance