Muskets & Tomahawks

Here are a few photos from a game of Muskets & Tomahawks which I played some while ago (I only just found the photos on the camera - doh!)

It was a relatively straightforward scenario except that one of the British officers was a French sympathiser and managed to keep his men out of the fighting some quite some time (I know this could have been a little frustrating but the side plots really do help add narrative to the game).

F&IW: Highlanders

The latest addition to my growing 28mm French & Indian Wars collection are some Highlanders from North Star figures:

Once again these were painted by Roger and based by me.

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F&IW: Compagnies Franches de la Marine

The next addition to my 28mm French and Indian Wars collection are some Compagnies Franche de la Marine from Redoubt Enterprises:

As usual the figures were painted by Roger and based by me.

 

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F&IW: Armed Civilians

Returning to my 28mm French and Indian Wars project I have added from armed civilians from Redoubt To populate my 4Ground buildings:

The figures were painted by Roger and based by me.

 

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First Play: Muskets and Tomahawks

Our next game was also a first time outing for a set of rules - this time Muskets and Tomahawks - and also for my Northstar British and French Wilderness Forces.

Lenin took command of the British and I took the French.  We then set about putting together two forces of equivalent value (200 points) from the army lists using the figures.  Once this was done we generated a scenario from the rule book.  Our rolls determined that, in a reversal of the expected roles, the British were raiding and the French defending (it should have been protecting but this wasn't going to work when I don't have any civilians!).  In addition to raiding the British officer had to take a prisoner as his side plot and mine had taken an oath to bring his militia home safely.  We set out the table and determined out starting positions.

Lenin began to advance across the table with his Rangers and their indian allies on his right flank.

I deployed my militia around the homestead and had my indians over to my left.

The Rangers approached the homestead and exchanged musket fire with my men.

The two indian parties clashed.  I let him get off a shot with his muskets and then rushed into melee (not least as I had given my indians the Savage trait) and the enemy came off worse.  They fled towards the Rangers but I caught them and cut the remaining ones down.  Now my indians were in the Ranger's rear!

The Rangers turned to face but they were now caught between my militia and my indians.  The Ranger's musketry felled a couple of my braves but the others moved in with their tomahawks and a bloody struggle commenced.

In the end my indians were wiped out but not before the Rangers had taken quite a few casualties from melee and musket fire and decided to retire and fight again another day.

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We both got to grips with the rules pretty quickly and learned a lot from this first encounter.  I like the card driven activation; however, as we both had irregular forces we didn't see it to its best effect I suspect (cue me buying some regulars?).  The varying objectives and side plots add just enough interest to the remaining relatively standard rules to keep them interesting and I'll certainly be getting these rules back to the table.

First Play: A Few Acres of Snow

A Few Acres of Snow is board/card game covering the French and Indian wars designed by Martin Wallace - a man whose name will be familiar to anyone who is interested in boardgames.

At its heart A Few Acres of Snow is a deck building game - which is a genre I haven't particularly been interested in - with the board being used to show links between locations and who controls them.

The game cleverly uses the deck to simulate the logistical problems of fighting in wilds of North America and Canada (as they became) at the end of a long supply chain which stretched back across the Atlantic.  If you want to settle or attack somewhere you need to plan it carefully in advance!

Lenin and I had a first game of A Few Acres of Snow in between miniatures games with Lenin playing the British and me the French.  It took a little while to really start to see which cards to select and how best to put them together to best advantage.

The game went back and forth with both of us settling new locations but Lenin concentrating more on developing his locations and me on raiding.  It wasn't clear who had actually won until the end of the game and I think both of us would like to play it again now we have an idea how best to put our plans together.

If you would like to know more about the game here's a video review by Marco Arnaudo:

French Wilderness Force 4

And to finish off the French Wilderness Force from North Star - the Hurons:

French Wilderness Force 3

Here are some more of the North Star French Wilderness Force set:

French Wilderness Force 2

Here are the next batch from the North Star French Wilderness Force:

French Wilderness Force 1

Having finished basing the British I moved onto the French Wilderness Force from North Star:

4Ground New England Settler's Cabin

To accompany my muskets and tomahawks figures I decided to purchase one of the 4Ground buildings from their American Legends range.  I plumped for the 28mm New England Settler's Cabin: