Battle of Cherry Tree Hill or Gaming in the Great Outdoors Pt 1

This little action was worthy of an article in the Newport Noodle, and their reporter was present but, he was too fatigued by the hot sun and exercise to file a report. Instead I will make a series of short posts with a few captioned photos and a few comments and notes about the game. 

Rebel sharphooters, "The Hunters", man their rifle pits overlooking where the road dips down into a large gully.
(directly under a branch of the cherry tree...)

The area I prepared is a rather gentle but uneven slope, bounded to the north by some berry bushes and a gully with a stream in the bottom, to the east by our veggie garden, to the south by a bit of largely unused yard leading up to our house and to the West by a Cherry tree. I had mowed and raked an area ranging from 6-8 feet across and about 16 feet long and then started to get delusions of grandeur (sic) and picturing going LIttle Wars or at least doubling or tripling ranges, making the rules more Old School and so on but it didn't take long to realize  that a playing area that big with double ranges was going to call for at least double the figures and be a lot of work playing solo. So I cut it down to a 6 foot by 10 foot (or so) area, the size of my old table in the late 90's. 

   

North West Mounted Rifles scout ahead of the column. So far so good, but who's that lurking in the tall grass?

After a couple of turns experimenting with a simple set of rules more "in the spirit", I gave up and just played the latest version of my rules for this collection and they were just what I wanted. (Who knew?) 

The column presses forward in the hot sun. Suddenly, as the Mounted Rifles reach the edge of a gully, rifles crack. Ambush!  

The game was set during the NorthWest Rebellion in my fictional land of Atlantica. Colonel Ross is leading a column to try to suppress Yellow Bonnet's Kree by attacking their village. The village was represented by a tepee at the far edge of the cleared area, about 12 feet from where I initially deployed the troops.
 

The Redcoats are moving along a winding, grass free, path with 1 Troop of mounted rifles, 1 gun and 4 companies of infantry totalling 24 infantry, 4 cavalry and 1 gun.

The Kree and a few Hunters are deployed across the road with a mission of delaying the Redcoats long enough to evacuate the village. They have 5 companies of irregulars including 1 of sharpshooters, totalling 20 irregulars.

The lead companies have deployed and engaged the enemy who appear to be present in force. The guns are ordered forward in support. 

To be continued!