Well it was a club day yesterday and Tim Bought along his "Muskets and Tomahawks " models for a game following an email from me in the week asking what he wanted to do to which he replied "As the oldest and wisest among us I will make the decision! I went with it.
The scenario was pretty much the same one we played at the Broadside show but this time with the British attacking and the French defending. There really were a few differences like all the regular troops starting off table and having to arrive, the French also had an artillery piece (More of that later) and a blockhouse and the British troops had a few special abilities (Rangers with sharp shooter skills for example.) You get the idea basically the same game but with a few tweaks.
The table looking from the wooded wilderness towards the settlement and block house (Top left hand corner.
The three characters from the book/film with Natty Bumpole (aka Hawkeye, you can see why he changed his name!) on the left next to Uncas and Chingwachok (Yeah Ok I spelt it wrong, so sue me!)
The first few actions were all about getting the regulars on the tabe and out of the Block house. I controlled all the irregulars so this was nothing to worry about for me. The cannon might have been a worry but despite it firing at every opportunity failed to make a single hit in the whole game. But it was enough to worry us. I even set the three characters up to take a shot at the crew at extreme range but with typical dice rolling could not have hit a barn door even if I was standing inside the afore mentioned barn. Oh well, it's the thought that counts.
Rob was controlling the French irregulars, against my British irregulars, Tim Played the British Regulars and Mast the French Regulars. Not two separate boards but a river in the middle! (In case you wondered what the Blue strip was).
The French Indians are in quite big groups. And with the Coeur de Bois got lots of actions before I could do very much at all, but being card driven activations I knew I would get mine more towards the end of the turn. But this did allow them to advance quite far into my half of the table without any response.
Yep here they come!
I did finally manage to get some shooting done at them and force a recoil. But my light Infantry (in the Red were in an exposed position.
Meanwhile Tim and Mat get their regulars on the table and Tim looses a volley. Totally annihilating some civilised French Indians. So First blood to the British. We were on a surge!
Over on my side the Indians were now in cover and no matter how many dice I rolled I just could not hit them. So much for my rangers and the "Sharpe-shooters" skill. But they look good in the Photo so that counts for something.
The British Indians are forced by morale to recoil of of the ridge line and out of cover.
Things are not going Tims way either! So much for the surge! The two settlers in the building manage to force the British "Blue Jackets" to recoil. So there would be no burning of the settlement this or the next few turns.
The French Regular Lines fired. Big Units in Muskets and Tomahawks are lethal. Tim looses 16 regular troops in one round of firing.
The British Light Infantry moved both to cover from standing out in the open and getting shot at and to a position to block the French advance.
More regular shooting and one of the British 32 man units is reduced to 4 men only. (Yet somehow passes morale!)
The British Indians fire at the French Locally raised militia and do diddly squat! But all is not lost afterall it is only one round of bad dice rolls.
The French settlers continue to punish the "Blue Jackets". On paper they have no chance but that's before any dice are rolled.
Bob Launches a close assault and I beat them Back. So I launch one in retaliation and cause casualties but the French pass their morale so hold the line.
Then as luck would have it the French get two Indian cards in a row and manage to charge two of my units (the Light Infantry and my Rangers who are already in melee. The writing is on the wall and both my units are instantly reduced to s signal man and an officer each. I pass the morale and they cannot run away and have to fight on!
Time is now getting late and I have far too many troops to hold the left wing and Tim's regulars are so badly chewed up we concede the game. A Major French Victory!
Well done to Mat and Bob. And commiserations to Me and Tim!
While it is subject to change next month at the club I will be teaching some guys "Battletech" and 2 weeks after that we plan to do a Chain of Command VBCW> So that's the plan anyway.
Thanks for reading today have fun and I hope to see you all soon.
Continuing to paint a VBCW force for my mate Matt today I present "The Friars". "The Friars" LINK are a group of clergy from Aylesford Priory on the banks of the River Medway. And being local to Matt and myself he has decided to include them as part of his "Anglican League" force. As such these figures are all in the brown Monks Habits typical of Regular clergy. I am not saying the monks are a violent breed just that they have taken clothing references from Monastic orders. The figures are all "Artizan Designs" in their WW2 French section Link 2 . And rather than painting the clothing as African a simple colour swap to brown has them all in monks habits! I think that was a good spot by Matt and quite clever to see. 
The 6 above are all rank and file rifle armed figures while the 3 figures to the right are more of command bearing or light support support.
Starting on the left you will note the "Adrian" Helmet of French origin as well as the Thompson sub machinegun. A typical squad would not have an smg as they were not standard issue in the 1939 British army. Then we have a Lewis-Gunner. The Lewis gun was a weapon swap carried out by Mat. While an obsolete gun at the time it had only just been replaced by the Bren gun in all units of the British army so is still very suitable for a Very British Civil War force. The last figure (on the right) is armed with an automatic pistol and a walking stick so one can clearly think of him as an officer. But he could be the Lewis gunners number two or a Medic or other supporting role. That is something I can and will leave to Matt to sort out.
