Quebec, Plains of Abraham 1759. 28mm. Black Powder.

[Jabba]

Last Friday saw a SYW battle at New Buckenham Historical Wargamers. Specifically the battle on the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec in 1759. As a change from our usual SYW rule set it was played out using Black Power with The Last Argument of Kings supplement providing the period flavour.

Things didn't go too well from my point of view as General Wolfe. Our command rolls proved to be variable to say the least with several poor rolls occurring at critical times. This quite badly hampered our initial moves, preventing us from deploying exactly as planned. The French players also benefited from a more generous Governor of Quebec than in history, releasing more of his garrison to help bolster Moncalm's forces, as well as the earlier arrival, in more strength, of Bougainville's reinforcements to the British rear.

All this saw a battle with the British fighting to their front and rear with the usual random events thrown up by Black Powder adding to the confusion at times. Some success was had on the extreme left flank with Roger's Rangers and other light troops driving back their Canadian and native oppostion despite being charged by Bougainville's dragoons. This left both units effectively out of the fight though.

By the time the game was called, as a French victory, both sides had amassed casualties, but those received by the British had resulted in broken brigades and Wolfe looking to pull back what remained of his force back down the cliffs to the waiting Royal Navy below.

All in all a great game with the rules holding up well.

More about the game on my blog Jabba's Wargaming

[Sir Dryden]

It's nice to see this battle on a table. Your Plains of Abraham look the part, though you're missing a patch of woods halfway through the table. No big deal, it's still a very impressive setup.

[zippyfusenet]

Thanks for the AAR. Your game looks great. That's a *big* table you're playing on.

"...charged by Bougainville's dragoons...", that sounds like a tough day for the Lobsters. Probably not feasible to get the men back down the cliff and into the boats, so a mass surrender is in prospect. Hopefully Wolfe doesn't live to see it. Probably not feasible to feed all those PWs through a Canadian winter...better parole them and send them them home down the St Lawrence before it freezes. I hope we can count on everyone being Enlightened like that, mais non?

[DrunkenSamurai]

Wow!  Great looking game!