Absent friends

Its been a while since I did a Seven Years War in America game using 40mm figures and With MacDuff to the Frontier. Actually, it appears that the last one was before I moved from my webpage to blogging (really?)  and it was actually a Pontiac Rebellion game that Rob Dean and I staged in 2008. (click here). However some of the  AWI games have been very similar, like this wagon train game from June 2010.

Anyway, the point is that an e-conversation with a friend about the latest version of MacDuff, which appeared as a Quick Reference sheet last June, reminded me that I had meant to give it a more thorough testing in hopes of writing a  final, 20th Anniversary edition. Before the turmoil of last year took my mind off it I had been thinking of either the War of 1812 or the early 19thC Atlantican Colonial wars.  The only other suitable figures were my Prince August NQSYW troops but I had promised myself to only use them with Charge!.

En avant!
(I should probably remove the sword from Father Le Loutre.)

Last year I was all excited with the new PA infantry in waistcoats and started painting some up as Cie Franches de la marine only to switch them to the NQSYW project in hopes of focussing on fewer periods. That was just before circumstances led me to reduce my table size again. I can still play a small 1/2 scale NQSYW game using up to 1/2 of existing figures but that is hardly incentive to paint more. After thinking about MacDuff, about wanting a reason to paint more of the waistcoated figures, not to mention some of the imminent PA French infantry,  and about what I could use the remaining handful of tall Indians and canadiens left after the great diaspora of the last 6 months, I decided it was time for a rethink. The first appearance of MacDuff in the Courier was the French & Indian War version after all.

Having grown  up in Montreal I have tended to associate the period with Wolfe and Quebec or with Lake Champlain and the Great Lakes. Here I am though, living in Nova Scotia since 1980. Nova Scotia where the 1740's and 1750's saw more skirmishes, raids, sieges and battles than  any other part of the country did even if most were small actions. So, I spent the day casting and painting and have set the table for a traditional style MacDuff game set in Acadia using Rosmark rebels to fill in for British and Provincial troops.

Look for a report on Tuesday if all goes well.