Stuck in a Rut - Fistful of Lead: Horse & Musket AAR

With the recent announcement of a new edition of Muskets & Tomahawks, I decided to re-base my FIW miniatures from their old, boring square bases to round bases with a little more visual flair (stones, tufts, non-monotone flock). 

This coincided with some local wargamers wanting to meet up weekly for games at various locations. I offered to run a game set during the French & Indian War using the Horse & Musket version of Fistful of Lead. 

Sam and Keith showed up, so they would control the French and Indians, while I lead the British. 

The scenario was set in late 1755. Braddock's disastrous failed attack on Fort Duquesne has sent the British colonies reeling while encouraging the petite guerre fighters of the French colonies.

A wagon of vital supplies is being transported with a guard of British Regulars and Colonial Rangers. The British goal is to get the wagon off the opposite table edge, hopefully with minimal casualties.

Lurking in the woods to either wide of the road is a small warband of French-allied Indians and Coureur des Bois, the infamous French-Canadian woodsmen. Their goal is to capture the wagons and stop the supplies from reaching their destination.

The first casualty of the game was the British officer, who made himself a target by waving his sword around and yelling out orders. The rest of the British troops pressed on.

The attacking Canadians and Indians quickly revealed themselves as smoke drifted from the woods. Most of it missed, including the British return fire.

The second British casualty of the game occurred when the Ranger leading the horses lost his nerve and fled the oncoming slaughter. The Canadians and natives whooped and hollered as the remaining British regrouped behind the wagon.

The two sides then came to blows. While some of the British charged off into the woods, the French officer led an attack on the only Regular defending the wagon.

After a brief skirmish, the French secured the wagon with no losses. The British infantrymen on the road were both shoot and killed.

The two remaining British soldiers fought on as the Indians and Coureur des Bois moved in.

And soon the woods were quiet after the last echoes of gunshots faded away. The French had secured the wagon and slaughtered its guards while only losing two of the their own numbers. It was a absolute victory for the French!

Sam and Keith had a blast taking my British to pieces, and enjoyed the game. Fistful of Lead works well for fast playing skirmish games (the whole game took a little over an hour, and that was with Keith and Sam learning the rules). I think this would work well for a club game, and hopefully I can play out the full campaign from the "Red Hatchets & Black Powder" supplement.

Painting Update - AWI

It's another painting update!

I'm continuing to work on my 15mm AWI project, and have finished the bulk of the Continental infantry units for Rebels & Patriots. 

The first unit of line infantry is dressed in the brown coats with red facing that was initially the uniform of the Continental army, but thankfully most of the soldiers realized that brown wasn't exactly an inspiring color and they quickly moved to blue.

The second unit is based on the short lived 3rd New York Regiment, which wore grey coats with green facings. I found a picture of the 3rd New York while looking for uniform inspiration, and the grey and green combination stuck with me.

Battle of Gloucester - Domari Nolo AAR

This past weekend, I travelled back to Pennsylvania to play in one of Bob's big community games. 

The last time I had done so was Bob's recreation of the Battle of Clontarf, which had reversed history with the Irish defeated but Brian Boru surviving to fight another day. Now were refighting the Battle of Gloucester with Bob's Domari Nolo ruleset.

(As an aside, I looked up where Bob had gotten the title for his rules. "Domari Nolo" was the motto on the flag of the 1st Continental Regiment during the American War of Independence, and means "I will not be subjugated." A well chosen title!)

The scenario finds the British army wrapping up a successful foraging campaign in late November, 1777 as the British occupy Philadelphia. Cornwallis is loading his troops to leave New Jersey for the British winter quarters when the sounds of battle reach him. A number of American riflemen and militia, led by the Marquis de Lafayette, has turned a reconnaissance into an attack, and the unprepared British and Hessian troops are routing towards the barges that will take them to safety. Cornwallis needs to rally his troops, ready the defenses, and repulse the Americans.   

According to the scenario, the British would score points by sending full barges across the river and by capturing American and French officers. They would lose points by deploying units to fight against the Americans. 

The Americans would score points by capturing British and Hessian troops, officers, and artillery pieces.

At the battle's outset, most of the British troops were gathered along the Delaware River, with pack animals and forage ready to board and head back into Pennsylvania. These troops were not deployed and unable to contribute activations cards to the battle deck, according to Bob's rules.

Hessian grenadiers and jaegers made up the rear of the column, with another group of jaegers deployed as a picket line.

The first Americans to arrive were riflemen. Their long range and accuracy sent the Hessians fleeing towards the column's rear, opening a good amount of space for the rest of the Americans to deploy.

As the Americans came on, the British focused on loading the barges, and managed to get two off into the river.

The Hessian jaegers would face the brunt of the American attack for most of the game. The British were forced to deploy a second company of jaegers to support the picket jaegers, which was still streaming towards the town.

While some troops waited to board, Cornwallis sent his light infantry to occupy the defenses along with a cannon.

At this point, so many British troops had been activated that only a compete rout of the Americans would result in a British victory.

With American militia troops pressing through the woods, the Hessian jaegers finally collected themselves and presented two lines of battle.

They would need to be ready, as more American riflemen were pushing towards the town, and a squadron of Continental cavalry was readying a charge.

The main fight had finally begun on the outskirts of town. The British light infantry and Hessian jaegers, supported by guns from British ships on the Delaware, aimed to hold back the attacking militia and riflemen.

The American cavalry was driven off, but not before they forced a line of jaegers back. A massive group of American militia had marched in from a nearby swamp to support the attack, but the jaegers' rifles ripped through the colonial troops and sent them reeling for a time.

With a gap in their defenses, Cornwallis rallied the jaegers and sent them forward to recover their lost amusette (an oversized rifle used as a light artillery piece). Over on the British left, the jaegers were trying to hold back the American cavalry - a difficult problem, as the Hessian light infantry lacked the necessary bayonets.

Various groups of Americans were streaming towards Gloucester, hoping to spoil the British retreat.

As the fighting continued, the British had moved four of the available six barges off into the river. However, the American cavalry had delivered a thrashing to the jaegers holding the British flank, chasing them to the banks of the Delaware and scattering the German mercenaries. Even the covering fire from the British ships couldn't chase the cavalry out of the town's proximity.

By the the sun had begun to set, the British were still desperately holding on. It was only the loss of light that prevented the American cavalry from sweeping through Gloucester into their rear lines.

Lafayette looked on, happy with the days conclusion. His troops were mostly intact, and the British had been severely delayed and would need to continue into the next day or two to get their supplies and wounded across the river. He would even return with a few prisoners.

The end result of the game was a resounding victory for the Americans. While the British managed to get four of the six barges off the table, they had activated too many units to try and hold back the Americans to break even. Casualties from the enemy's rifle fire and cavalry charges only served to increase the imbalance of points.

It seemed like the players largely enjoyed the game. Bob's rules were fairly easy to learn, with only a couple potential changes or refinements. I especially liked how his morale and casualty recovery rules reflected how battle losses in the 18th century were not from deaths but from men fleeing the line of battle. In Bob's rules, this meant that losses could be recovered once a unit was activated, so it was actually hard to actually reduce the number of soldiers in a unit.

However, units could activate as normal even when they failed their morale test, so even causing a unit to retreat backwards didn't keep them out of fight for very long. The rules also lacked a way of showing fatigue for a unit, which meant that a single unit could be activate multiple times in a turn. This allowed certain units to dominate the battle once they were in the right position, and meant that other units were hardly touched, acting only to provide addition cards in the activation deck. Limiting how many times a unit could be activated, or having it cause negative morale modifiers (thus causing more men to flee the battle when being shot at) could help with this.

Regardless, I'm glad I traveled back to PA for the game, and I look forward to attending more of Bob's scenarios!