28MM MUSKETS AND TOMAHAWKS: FRENCH INDIAN WAR - BIG GAME 2

On Thursday I went to Hugh Wilson’s for our big game which was originally going to be an AWI M&T game as a follow up to our FIW game.   Having looked at the figures in our AWI collections I decided that they are to formally based for M&T and the terrain setup so we  played a slightly revised FIW game.

French allied Indians attack a storehouse

Hugh had revised the terrain reducing the amount of river and adding some more settlements and replaced the log fort with a Vauban fort.  The figures came from the collections of Angus Konstam and Colin Jack neither of whom were present.   Hugh supplied all the terrain except for the indian village and the Vauban fort which Colin Jack and I supplied.  The table is 15ft long and 6ft wide.

View from the east cliff

Bart Zynda, Tim Watson, and Ray Neal commanded the French forces – 2 regular units, 3 irregular units, 7 allied Indians and 6 savage Indians.  Campbell Hardie, Dave O’Brien and Hugh Wilson commanded the British forces - 3 regular units, 3 ranger units, 6 militia units, 3 savage Indians, 3 allied Indians plus 5 civilians in each settlement.  All the players had changed sides since our previous game.  I umpired and commanded some of the civilians.

The fortress and it's militia garrison - protecting the vital rum rations

The French objective was to destroy the settlements, fortress, and once again generally instil terror into their enemy.  The British were all deployed on the table and the French entered from the north side.  The British players concentrated the rangers on their right flank, with 3 companies of militia holding the fort.   Their Indians, regulars and the other militia were scattered along their front.

Highlanders defending a settlement - sadly later suffered heavy casualties fording the river

On their left the French regulars under Ray and the Irregulars under Tim both supported by 3 bands of Indians engaged the Rangers under Dave and  some of Campbell’s Indians supported  eventually by a firing line of Elite British Grenadiers under Hugh who formed up on the open ground in front of the fortress.  In the British centre it seemed mainly to be a battle of indian versus indian in svage close combats between Bart,  Hugh and Campbell.  Bart and Hugh both had an Indian chief killed in hand to hand combat.  Whenever Campbell’s militia got into action they were quickly swept away by Bart’s indian warriors.

Rangers engage the French from their cliff top eyrie

By the end of the game the French had lost 1 less unit than the British and also destroyed 4 settlements so we declared the game a French victory again.  As before it proved to be a very enjoyable game. 

For more photos see flickr at

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bill26048/sets/72157644640692558/

Next objective is to come up with a game in which we can make use of all the Vauban fortifications that we have.