Anyone playing King Philip's War?

[Inkpaduta]

I have a number of the really nice KPW figures from Brigade.
Just haven't played with them much as I can't think of many scenarios
for the war. So, just wondering if others are playing KPW and, if so,
what type of game scenarios do you do?

[zippyfusenet]

I'm interested in KPW, I have 25/28mm figures from several manufacturers, but nothing is painted yet. I've read Leach's Flintlock and Tomahawk, the standard history of the war, and the relevant parts of Parkman some time ago. Jennings also wrote about KPW in The Invasion of America. Jill Lepore The Name of War is a more recent history of KPW. I've recently started Zellner's A Rabble in Arms, a study of the Massachusetts militia in KPW. I bought the boardgame, too, but haven't cut the counters yet. My reach often exceeds my grasp, I must admit...

KPW started with a wave of Wampanoag attacks on the back country Massachusetts settlements and these continued through the war. The settlements were mostly very small, but it was the Puritan custom for several families to build close together to form the nucleus of a town, rather than living in scattered houses on their farms.

In early war scenarios, the settlements were often surprised, with little organized resistance, non-combatants at risk, panic and havoc. The Indians made a point of burning buildings and killing livestock, and kidnapped women and children when they could. Later, the non-combatants were mostly evacuated to the coastal towns, but men were ordered to stay and continue farming. Buildings were fortified and militia garrisons were assigned to hold the towns and to actively patrol between the towns.

Early in the war the Indians used muskets in their attacks, and some sources (Malone The Skulking Way of War, in particular) say that the Indian muskets were mostly flintlocks, where the Puritans were still using matchlocks. It didn't take long for the Indians to run short of ammunition. After the first few months, they would mostly be shooting arrows.

A variety of attack-on-the-settlement or warparty-meets-patrol scenarios could be constructed from these elements, larger or smaller, early or late war.

Once they recovered from the initial shock, the Puritans mounted strong expeditions to track the Wampanoags to their camps and attack them there. By mid-war, the Indians were starving, as well as short of powder, and the Puritans had more success on the offensive, destroying several camps. There was at least one battle early in the war, at Bloody Pond, where a large Indian force ambushed a company of Massachusetts men and cut them up badly.

In the winter of 1675, when the Wampanoags took shelter with their Narraganset, neighbors, a large (about 1000 men, including 150 Pequot and Mohegan auxiliaries) Massachusetts army attacked the main Narraganset fortified settlement in the Great Swamp Fight, over-ran and destroyed it, dispersing the survivors. This was the biggest battle of the war, you'd need not only a lot of figures but a rule-set that could handle such a large engagement in order to model it in a wargame scenario.

[The Gray Ghost]

I bought the figures but have never done any gaming with them

[michaelsbagley]

I don't have figures specifically for this, but have a good amount for small to medium skirmishes that could be used.

Never gamed for this era, but would love to.

[Mindenbrush]

I have run a King Philip's War game using modified Muskets & Tomahawk ruleset - minor tweaks to add spears, pikes and swords.

The game I ran at Historicon 2015 & Hotlead 2016 is based on an Indian raid on a small village, standard scenario but in both cases the Indians managed to capture a female settler.
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=81336.0

The next game will be a raid by the settlers attempting to free the female captive,  which will no doubt lead to something else.

[nervisfr]

I have run a King Philip's War game using modified Muskets & Tomahawk ruleset - minor tweaks to add spears, pikes and swords.

The game I ran at Historicon 2015 & Hotlead 2016 is based on an Indian raid on a small village, standard scenario but in both cases the Indians managed to capture a female settler.
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=81336.0

The next game will be a raid by the settlers attempting to free the female captive,  which will no doubt lead to something else.

What a lovely table !

I use song of Drums and tomahawks for french indian wars but i ll go into this period in a near future.
Using The Assault Group 30yw, for europeanand some converted indians for this period by changing musket for mtchlock/flintlock

[Inkpaduta]

I remember seeing your board and was very impressed by it.
Looked like a really fun game.

[zippyfusenet]

Great looking game, Mindenbrush. Will you bring a game to Cold Wars this year? Or to any of the Big East cons? Militia pikes! I'm loving it!

[mikedemana]

I agree -- great period! There are simply so many conflicts to choose from on the Native American frontier as the Europeans slowly expanded their foothold. Lots of interesting gaming opportunities.

We intend to put out a series of books covering some of them with scenarios, historical background info, and special rules to recreate that particular time period. Keep posting what you're doing...very interesting stuff!

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/