Okay, so - as promised / threatened - a game report of sorts, plus a few pics...
Unfortunately, I didn't get too many pics, because when you're running the game, there isn't too much time for faddling around with the camera. But enough to give you a flavour...
To recap:
Deer Creek: middle of the table, a few settlers and a contingent of Highlanders.
Fort Albemarle: a little way off in one corner, cannon and redcoats.
All around: hostile Huron and Abenaki.
The Indians want: white women, plunder and scalps in that order, and score points accordingly.
The Settlers want: to live by reaching the safety of the fort - most especially the womenfolk.
The Redcoats want: to save the settlers and kill Indians.
Victory points were available accordingly, with a possible 100 points up for grabs per player.
We played twice.
Game 1:Highlanders and settlers:
Gamer MacColonel Kyte and redcoats:
DriscolesThe Huron:
MalamuteThe Abenaki:
GrimmThis game displayed the perils of
not play-testing one's scenario before unleashing it on an unsuspecting public.
The relatively random placement of the assorted white womenfolk in the and around the fields of the settlement meant that as soon as the first Indian appeared, the girls were off and running. And they ran so fast – and with the initiative draw falling in their favour a couple of times – that by the time we decided to change the rules to make the women run a bit slower than the men (what with voluminous skirts, dainty little feet and all) they’d pretty much all made it to the bridge over the river and near safety.
Driscoles covered this indecently speedy and effective flight by lobbing cannonballs over their heads from the fort, successfully knocking off a few Indians foolish enough to appear on hilltops. He also despatched an orderly screen of infantry to the bridge to cover the ladies flight. It was, all in all, an admirable demonstration of Teutonic efficiency, and frankly he didn’t have to do very much at all.
'A new game - Among the beer glasses...'
There was incident elsewhere however, as Gamer Mac played a bit of a blinder with his Highlanders (as befits a true-blooded Scotsman).
He waited a couple of turns for the Indians to surround his barrack block and start setting fire to it, held his nerve until he won the initiative, and then sallied out en masse with ‘attack’ orders to launch a furious hand-to hand assault on the startled besiegers who had been eagerly anticipating a firefight greatly in their favour.
Sadly, this heroic action resulted in the total loss of the Highland contingent - but they took quite a few Indians with them, and took the pressure off the fleeing womenfolk to a great extent.
In summary: The game lasted around 2 hours, resulting in a pretty conclusive victory to the British, who - apart from the loss of the gallant Highlanders - suffered hardly any casualties.
All the women and a couple of the male settlers made it to the safety of the fort.
The disgruntled Indians made off with most of the available plunder and a few scalps - but then that wasn’t really what they’d come for.
So they burned all the houses on their way off, just to show their displeasure.
Hostile Indians are like that. No sense of humour.
Game 2:Highlanders and settlers:
OxianaColonel Kyte and redcoats:
Westfalia ChrisThe Huron:
BullshottThe Abenaki:
FastolfrusA couple of adjustments were made for the second playing of the game.
Firstly, the women were placed so that it wasn’t quite such an easy escape for them.
And secondly, their run distance was reduced from the outset.
This game went quite differently. In part, it has to be said, because both the initiative cards and the fall of the dice went quite heavily against Oxiana and Westfalia Chris – but hey: that’s wargaming for you.
The opening was much the same play… Indians on, no shilly shallying around, the women start running, and the male settlers put up a desultory defence and a couple get popped off straight away. Some Indians pursue the fugitive girlies, whilst other start to encircle the Highlanders in their barrack block, set fire the rear of the building, and so on.
Alas, this time, it worked less well for the Highlanders. Instead of winning the initiative and sallying out to assault the besiegers and go down in a blood-spattered blaze of glory, this time, a lot more Indians had managed to take up position behind a wall for what can only be described as shooting fish in a barrel.
'Making ready for the turkey shoot...'
The Highlanders duly emerged blinking from their quarters at the end of turn two, Fastolfrus’s surrounding groups of Abenaki won both first and second initiative in turn three - and in the ensuing turkey shoot and massacre, the Highlanders were wiped out with hardly an Indian casualty.
'Captain Campbell's last stand - and grisly end. Mercifully screened by trees... '
Meanwhile, Bullshott with his dastardly Huron was gleefully hunting down white women fleeing from the fields.
Horror of horrors, he caught the slowest and carted her off to a fate worse than death.
He actually caught a second one too, but she – doughty lass – fought off her attacker with a cutlass and damned near killed him. For once the luck fell Oxiana’s way, and with the initiative the following turn, she and the other women made it to the bridge.
Meanwhile Westfalia Chris had been unsuccessfully lobbing cannonballs, with the kind of dice-rolling nobody likes to see. He then sent out his rescue party, who were smartly across the bridge to set up a defensive screen for the fleeing settlers, led by the gallant Colonel Kyte in person on his bay charger.
The gallant colonel urges his men over the bridge... 
Sadly, this led only to disaster as Kyte urged his steed to leap the fence into the orchard just across the bridge, where a party of dastardly Huron volleyed the noble fellow, shot him stone dead and proceeded to scalp him.
The Indians that killed Colonel Kyte in the orchard...
And the ones that helped... 
Without their commander in chief, things went from bad to worse for the British.
Not only did the redcoats come off worse in the ensuing firefight with the Huron, but whilst they managed to hold the bridge long enough to allow the women to reach the safety of Fort Albemarle, horror upon horror, they quickly found their line of retreat cut off.
No way back for the poor doomed fellows... 
The wily Abenaki of Fastolfrus had forded the river further upstream, and raced down the western shore to come to the entrance of Fort Albemarle, just as the fleeing ladies slammed the gates behind them – shutting out the pursuing Indians: and the remainder of the unfortunate Kyte’s command.
The settlers now safe within the fort - the redcoats, alas, caught in the open. A minor military disaster...
To be fair to Chris, he had foreseen this consequence, had loaded his cannon with chainshot, and as soon as they were close enough, he unleashed hell into the party of half a dozen Abenaki racing down the path from the ford. Sadly, although he hit four of them, the dice suddenly went against Chris, and all but one survived the ‘damage rolls’, when they should have been wiped out. Clearly most of the chainshot slooshed harmlessly into the waters of the river.
Along the river track... 
So – picture the scene: The Indians have taken very few casualties. They’ve already managed to carry off pretty much all the available plunder, and have a prized female captive. In a trice, they have surrounded the isolated survivors of Kyte’s command and butchered them. Kyte is dead. His redcoats are dead. The Highlanders are dead. The Indians are inside the outer palisade of the fort in large numbers. They’ve set fire to the gate. They’ve set fire to the inner palisade. In the fort are some women and some artillerymen. Just across the river, more Indians are ascending the hill opposite to pour fire down into the fort…
The rampant Indians ascend the heights of Mount Albemarle...
The gunners make one last desperate attempt. At point blank range, they unleash another load of chainshot into the Indians milling around the palisade… And miss.
It was that kind of game.
And then we had to finish to make way for a wedding reception. Funny old world.
Darth Bullshott moves his Huron into the fort. Westfalia Chris and Oxiana can only look on in glum resignation...
In summary: A convincing victory for the Indians. Had the game gone on another couple of turns (this time it took three hours), the Indians would undoubtedly have been into the fort, butchered the gunners and carried off the women.
This might have cost them quite a lot of men, but the outcome was pretty inevitable.
All in all, an interesting and (I hope) enjoyable couple of games, with two very different outcomes from the same scenario.
The tactics of both sides were similar in both games, but – largely down to the dice, initiative, and a few tactical decisions here or there – the end result was very different.
Thanks for looking
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April 27, 2024, 07:19:42 AM
September 27, 2009, 03:53:19 PM
