1759, A Minor Affair

This incident is not recorded in any history book.

This is the only period for which I have  an appropriate card deck.
(Note: the troops in the foreground are my own originals)

It was late summer in 1759 and Brigadier Murray had landed with a party of troops on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence, up river of Quebec. He learned  that French troops were approaching from the south and decided to await them at Petite Ile. His force consisted of detachments from the 27th and 58th Foot, Louisburg Grenadiers and Fraser's Highlanders along with two companies of Rangers and a field piece.

 The game began with artillery and skirmisher fire against the British positions, answered by the British gun but soon the French infantry began their advance. In the far distance Indian scouts can be seen hunting for a ford.

The French force, commanded by de Bougainville, had orders to  protect the inhabitants but above all, to protect the string of supply depots. Knowing that there was a major cache just downriver, he decided to force his way past the British.

None of the troops with him were local but he knew that many of the tributaries were fordable in places so he sent some of his Algonquin and Huron allies  to scout for crossing points. To keep the enemy occupied, he decided to deploy and attack the bridges on the main road. His force was comprised of 5 detachments of infantry, mostly Troupes de la Marine, 2 parties of skirmishers, 2 bands of Indians and 2 guns.

The French pinning attack on the Western bridge closes up and a long distance fire fight ensues.

The scenario was again an adaptation of "Holding Action (2)" from CS Grant's Scenarios for Wargames.

The British hold the Western bridge, repulsing 2 charges and winning the firefight.

Those who have been paying too much attention may have noted that the preview showed 30mm European armies on the full 4'x6' table but that here we have a 30mm French & Indian War game on a 4'x4' board. All will be revealed next year.

General Murray, alerted to the Indians fording the river and dispersing a company of Rangers, and noting the French movement to their right, begins to shift half of his infantry to block the ford.

The game was played using our Seven Year's War Portable Wargame based on the Ancient version. Line infantry count as "Heavy Infantry" in melee and have a range of 2. Light infantry have a range of 3 and do not suffer the -1 for fighting in woods.

The Highlanders  hold the Compagnies Franches after a protracted fight. 

The game lasted 9 out of a possible 15 turns and ended when the British became exhausted after heavy casualties. They were not in a position to block the ford and were no longer allowed to attack. There was really nothing they could do to prevent the French marching off.  It was one of those games where the British units decided that they would rather die than retreat while the French were very sensible and fell back quite often. This was of course, part of Bouganville's cunning plan, to wear the British down so they couldn't counter attack any troops slipping across the ford. 

The British are still holding but casualties have been heavy and Murray is forced to drop his planned counter attack on the ford. Instead, he will have to let the French pass and reembark when the fleet returns.

So that is it for 2017!

Thank you to all who have stopped by over the year and an extra thank you for those who took the time to leave a comment. Not only do comments help reassure me that someone besides bots are looking in but I confess that the comments even more than the viewing stats sometimes influence which games and periods get played or painted when I'm undecided.

Last, but not least, an even bigger THANK YOU to those whose comments occasionally contain suggestions, observations, opinions, questions etc. Not only are they often valuable in their own right but the two sided conversation aspect helps me feel connected from my old farmhouse on the far fringe of wargaming civilization.

May you all be blessed and enjoy life in 2018.

Setting the Last Game of 2017

Its time to think about my last game of the year. This is a new ritual since 2009 when I did my last Game of the Week on Dec 30th. (See Playing through Scenarios for All Ages). In some years there was a Gathering of Hosts last game of the year in other years it was a Battle Game of the Month last game and some years I seem to have squeezed in one of each! I seem to have gotten particularly wild and crazy as I "mature". Well, crazy maybe.

Anyway, since the table wasn't fully cleared after the last game, I decided to replay it in a different period and scale. Then I tried to figure out what my "least played with recently" collection was. I came up with just one "didn't get out this year" candidate! My old 30mm SYW troops!

30mm figures. I purchased these figures from Figurines Historique in 1973 after I got my copy of Charge!. They were leftovers from a bespoke range which were designed for a diorama of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham which used to be on display in a museum in Quebec back in the 70's. They were my first metal wargaming figures.

I had based these armies in 2013 for a  go at the Portable Wargame with Ron. Since they were least used and Bob had published the rules this year, it just seemed an ideal combination for my last game of the year.

Battle of Boxindeh Island

Well, Christmas goodies and some extreme Wintery weather have induced a state of lethargy so this'll be a bit briefer than intended. (Thank goodness that the high winds that knocked out power for 12 hours did not correspond with the -20C temperatures.)

The game set up as per the scenario instructions with Red's cavalry scouting ahead in small troops.

Last week I had this powerful urge to play a more "conventional" wargame with my 54mm Toy Soldiers, and no I don't know exactly what that meant either except that I wanted something larger and more complex than a One Hour Wargame. So, I turned to CS Grant's Scenarios for Wargames and picked Scenario 4, Holding Action (2), and I decided to go off the grid using Hearts of Tin, and quickly reorganized the troops into suitable units, and laid out the armies.

The Highlanders seize the Northern Bridge, briefly...

Feeling lazy, I had decided to just lay the game out on the painted table top. This was lucky since once the troops were laid out, I realized that this was still not where I wanted to go again with my 54's. So I went back on grid, rearranged the troops into their usual Tin Army units and started to play a Red vs Blue game without so much as coming up with a backstory or setting.

Red's cavalry crosses the ford. Behind them the assault has stalled with Red initially losing the firefight against inferior numbers of Blue infantry and artillery.

Blue was tasked with preventing Red from crossing the supposedly unfordable river. With this in mind his entire force was deployed on an island connected by bridges to both banks.

Red's job was to get troops across the river and off the northern table edge. As per scenario instructions, some of his cavalry was scouting ahead to look for hidden fords. Having played the scenario several times over the last thirty something years, this called for some role playing for both sides and a die roll for Red's decision once the ford was reported.

Blue redeploys his cavalry to the West bank despite a pinning attack by Red's adhoc Naval and Rifles Brigade against the Southern bridge. 

I had spent some time writing up some clever, only slightly convoluted improvements to the Tin Army Command Control rules, improvements which I forgot to use and didn't miss. Instead, habit led me to just dice for units to move if they started beyond  command radius of their Brigadier or of the General. Simple and providing sufficient hindrance, especially when paired with the usual Initiative and Chance Card deck and a turn limit. OK, habit wins again.

The Highland Brigade is redirected to move to their right to cross the ford and continue the march North.

Red's plan was not terribly brilliant, unlike Blue's luck with the dice and the Initiative deck, but numbers eventually won out by a nose. To be honest though, the fighting was so intense that both sides initially forgot their victory conditions and for something like 10 turns it was a battle for control of the bridges. Then the players were reminded that the goal was for Red to move North by any path and for Blue to prevent him. This led to some last minute hurrying.

A late game charge up the Western shore by Blue's two cavalry squadrons beat the three Red ones, routing one and nearly routing the shiny new Bodyguard but their own losses were heavy. Alas for Blue, his Army Morale cracked at the start of the last turn when three broken units failed to Rally, This  left Red an open road for several battered companies of Highlanders to march off the Northern edge, fulfilling their victory conditions.

<<<<Please imagine the accidentally deleted final picture from turn 15 showing how close Blue's cavalry came to sweeping the North Shore clear.>>>>