Yes I got the year right this time! Stop sniggering I can't help it!
Ok so for the Broadside Game this year Tim Hosted the game using all his figures and scenery and his knowledge of the rules. The Rules we were using were "Muskets and Tomahawks" and the setting was the French Indian Wars, somewhere in Canada. Matt played the British, Tim acted as Ref and I played the French. All the figures were "Redoubt" and painted by Tim. And I must say did look good.
There were a couple of side missions, My Indians had to loot the village for example and Matts Civilians had to escape! Both Matt and myself set up our regulars in the open areas opposite each other with our irregular troops in the woods and for the most part across the river.
The doors for the show opened at 10am so that is when we started simply chatting and going over rules and forces before that time. No point in stressing about it. I must say we could have all played faster, but that would have meant no time away from the table for a look around or shop and a lot less time chatting to the people there, but as both those activities are important to a show I am sure you'll forgive us all.
After a very short time the Irregulars were in a position to start firing. The card activated turn sequence was with me and I got the first few units to fir. While not devastating it did give first blood to me as my Indians with muskets and frontiersmen chance to get their eyes in. I do send a small unit of Indians towards the village and they take 3 activations to cross the river. But they have no muskets and only hand to hand weapons.
Two casualties from the British Rangers who were not in cover thanks to some lucky dice and Matt learnt that cover is your friend as his return fire was not as effective as that and I took no casualties. But the skirmish in the woods was underway and it would continue all day long in real life or about 30 minutes in the figures life.
Out on the open areas, again my French big units fired first. If you have never played Muskets and Tomahawks with big units and several people during the day said they had not, you will note that they can take a lot of casualties before they need to worry about morale very much. Likewise when they do shoot they can and do make a bloody mess. On Average between 7-9 casualties inflicted each time they fire.
Matt was eager to get the civilians away and lead them straight in front of the French firing line. We did suggest he was employing them as a human shield to protect his regular units. Tim said any casualties inflicted would have to be on the Civilians before the Regular British units could take a single hit. Did that stop me firing at the unarmed civilians? The short answer is NO! I was not aware of Matts secret mission at this stage. But one phase of firing and they were all dead and some excess hits had gotten through to the British!
Out in the open areas the mas ranks of the firing slowly grinds units down until they start to fail morale tests. The British will fail a morale test and withdraw 4 inches in the French turn. Then in the British turn they will advance back into the firing line and fire on the French, forcing them to withdraw. And so it continues neither side giving an inch to the other player but the mass ranks getting more sparse each turn.
Meanwhile back in the woods. The British Indians move up and bring fire on my Frontiersmen who instantly fail a morale check and they flee back to safety and out of sight hovering 4-5 inches from my base line. Lucky shots from some of my Canadian militia force the British Irregulars back as well.
To make things a bit more interesting Tim brings on some reinforcements for the British, A small bunch of civilians with a mission. And my closest troops currently hiding due to the morale can make no actions at all so have to let them get very close.
Another British unit (Large and Regular) is also bought onto the game. But these are to make the game look better and are a long way from any action and knowing the day is coming to a close I decide not to bring my reserves on, as the only logical place would get them into the fight far too early and would unbalance the game.
But as the show ends in 15 mins I make a mad dash with my melee Indians and get them to the outskirts of the village. In truth they had moved at every opportunity in the game but had taken their time in clearing the river and the wood edge, but they did finally make the village just as the game was set to end.
And as my last action my Frontiersmen recovered from the disastrous morale check of earlier and were able to assault the civilians. Which resulted in another casualty for them and my slaying of Uncas and my capturing of one of the females!
That was it and the time had run out. It pretty much was a draw, but Tim and Matt declared it a French victory as I had managed to capture one of the cinematic leading ladies and had the Indians in the village to loo as much as they wanted. But the cost to my regular troops was so high that in reality it really was a draw. But a fun game and the rues worked very well and gave a fun game and that means as far as I am concerned Mat, Tim and myself were all equal winners on the day.
Thanks for looking today more again soon. Cheers from Clint
Yes part 2 will be along in a couple of days. yes these were the first batch of Miners shown over a week ago on the Analogue painting challenge. The rest will follow in the next posting. They are of course painted for my mate Matt and equally obviously they have a flag by Pete Barfield. These are part of the socialist assault column in VBCW. 
Most have miners helmets but as 1/5 of the Kent miners did work above ground not all are wearing them or have them slung on their belts. But there are enough in the group to make it look like they are mostly equipt that way. All dressed in sombre colours appropriate to the time and all as keen as mustard to get stuck in against the London Fascists and the Kentish fascists as well. 
