28MM BLACK POWDER - FRENCH INDIAN WARS ACKIA 1736

On Monday I went to Falkirk and District Wargames Club.  Dave Paterson, Dougie Kirby and I played a modified version of the Ackia scenario from The Last Argument of Kings, the first Black Powder Supplement.  This is a very different French Indian War scenario as the French are fighting the Indians who also have defences.   The game is set in 1736 when the governor of Louisiana led a punitive expedition to attack the fortified Chickasaw Nation settlement of Ackia.    

All the French and their Choctaw allies come from the FIW collection of Angus Konstam while the Chickasaws were from my AWI collection.  My thanks to Angus for loaning me his figures whilst he is away in Orkney.

The French regulars

Orders of Battle

 

French CinC  SR 8

French brigadier SR 7

Veteran infantry
Regular infantry
Militia infantry

Choctaw Leader  SR 7

4 bands of Choctaw skirmishers

Chickasaw Forces

Chickasaw CinC SR 7

Chickasaw Leader SR 7

4 bands of Chickasaw skirmishers

Chickasaw Leader SR 7

4 bands of Chickasaw skirmishers

Terrain/Rules

We used the 66% scale version of the rules.  The entire table was assumed to be forest.   We used the following rules to deal with the issues of forest fighting:
French infantry move at half speed in the forest.  The native skirmishers move at full speed. 
The French infantry gain no cover advantages in the forest – they are still a clear target and get no extra saving modifier. 
No unit gets a cover modifier from the forest in hand to hand combat.  
All units get cover modifiers for the ramparts.
Units on the French side cannot charge the ramparts from beyond musket range.

French infantry close up on the Chickasaw defences

Deployment

As we don’t have a native village we assumed that the Chickasaw village the objective of the French force was of table behind their baseline.   LAOK suggests using hidden deployment for the Chickasaws.  As an alternative we used the following approach:
I deployed the 4 sets of outlying ramparts/earthworks on the Chickasaw side of the table with a unit of skirmishers behind each.    The French then deployed their 2 brigades.  The other 4 units of Chickasaw skirmishers were deployed in reserve behind their baseline.

French regulars about to charge and take  the forward rampart

How it Played

I commanded the Chickasaw defenders, Dave the French infantry and Dougie the Choctaws.  Initially everything went well for the French.  On their left flank Dougie’s Choctaw units drove back my units helped by my appalling dice rolling.  Eventually all the units in my right flank brigade fled the field.  However I had inflicted enough casualties that Dougie’s Choctaws became a broken brigade and they had to withdraw to recover.    On the other flank the French infantry advanced steadily and the regulars managed to storm the most forward rampart.  However a change in my luck allowed my skirmisher fire to break the militia and shake the other 2 French units which made them a broken brigade.   As both the brigades in the French army were now broken they had to retire from the field.  A Chickasaw victory – a historical result!

More gaming this week - Thursday Vietnam War game , Saturday Carronade 2013 at Falkirk, Sunday Wartime Experience at Scottish National Museum of Flight.  More info here
http://www.falkirkwargamesclub.org.uk/Carronade%202014/Carronade_Home.html
http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/national_museum_of_flight/whats_on/wartime_experience.aspx