A Lonely Walk in the Woods - Muskets & Tomahawks AAR

With the SJGA and other local opportunities for gaming shut down, I decided to run myself a small game of the new edition of Muskets & Tomahawks. 

Since my gaming space at home is limited, I decided to play a simple 300 point game on a 3'x3' table.

The French attackers had a Canadian Officer, two units of Canadian Militia upgraded to Coureur des Bois, an Indian Sachem, and a unit of Indian Warriors.

The British Defenders had a British Officer, two units of British Regulars, a Ranger Officer, and a unit of Rangers.

Since this was a solo game, I decided to add a little uncertainty to the unit activations. Normally, each player in M&T draws three cards. For this solo game, each side had three cards placed face down. I rolled a d3 to determine which card would be used. I could, however, supersede this with Command Points if it would be beneficial to a combatant.

Both sides were using the Battle scenario, which meant that had to reduce their opponent's model count by half to win. The British had 26 models, and the French had 24.

The game started with the Canadians and Rangers creeping through cover, hoping to spot the enemy first.

Thanks to the random draw, it was the Rangers that managed to fire first. They caused three casualties, and the Canadians were forced to take a Reaction test.

I ended up rolling a 0, and thanks to the relevant modifiers, the Canadians immediately routed! This already placed them at 2/3 of the way to losing the game.

It wasn't going much better for the allied Indians on the other side of the settlement, as a blistering hail of lead from the Regulars (and another bad die roll!) saw them flee back into the woods.

Luckily, their Sachem managed to turn the fleeing warriors back around before they could go any further.

The Canadians had their chance to finally answer the Ranger's fire with a volley of their own. Two rangers were killed, but a result of a 0 on the reaction test (I will never use these dice against an actual person!) saw the rangers take flight further in the trees. Like the Sachem, the Ranger Officer put a stop to that.

Speaking of the Natives, a lucky couple draws and some Command Points placed the natives directly in front of one of the British Regular units, after having shot one down. With a lucky flip of the cards, the tomahawk-wielding Indians would be able to splash a little red on the nearby building.

However, a couple card flips saw all three of the clock cards finally drawn, ending the first turn.

And the first flip of the new turn was a British Regulars card! This gave me the oppurtunity to try out the new Volley Fire rules, which uses a designated area directly in front of a unit in Close Order to see who's hit. On a roll of 0 (or 0s and 1s if the firing unit is in two ranks) any model hit immediately becomes a casualty!

Two Indians fell under the volley, which was enough to hit the 50% mark and end the game with a solid British victory. 

Here's three of my major takeaways from this solo game:

1. Overall, this still feels like Muskets & Tomahawks. The flow of the game and the base mechanics haven't changed so radically that it will mess with players of the original version. The first few games may go slow to get some of the detailed changes down, but it should pick up from there. 
2. Command points are great. In this game I only used them to activate units, but this still made for some critical turning points, letting me fire, move, or reload the guns of a certain unit. It will be interesting to see them expanded upon in larger games against actual opponents. 
3. Volley Fire is one of those changes that does need reconsideration. In the previous version, it just meant a bonus to shooting and a negative modifier to a unit being shot at. In the new version of M&T, it's essentially a template than can be anywhere from about 3"x16" to 8"x16" with a 1/5 chance of killing a model, and a guaranteed Reaction test against any units in the line of fire. That's huge! While larger units of Regulars in Close Order will be more resilient against the shock of a volley, units of Irregulars, Militia and Indians will need to be mindful of just how big that template can be.
   There are, however, two drawbacks to Volley Fire. First, any models under the template are hit, so make sure there's no friendly unit just beyond the enemy if you're going to use it! And units using Volley Fire will receive two Fire tokens, meaning they'll have to reload twice before being able to fire again. 

I'm sure I'm missing nuances, and like most games not directly supported with solo rules, the experience did ring a little hollow, but I still enjoyed the experience and I look forward to when I game with other people again.

Redcoats & Tomahawks - Rules Review

Last week, I reviewed Muskets & Tomahawks II, the new edition of Studio Tomahawks black powder skirmish rules. 

This week, I'll provide an overview of the first of the supplemental booklets that focus on specific periods: Redcoats & Tomahawks. 

First, the physical aspects. R&T is a full-color, 43 page softcover booklet. While I understand that, at half the size, it wouldn't make sense to make this a hardcover product, I'm a little confused as to why the covers feel so much flimsier than their Saga counterparts, or even the first edition of M&T which was also softcover. I can see this booklet getting pretty beat up over time.

R&T starts with a small overview of what the supplement contains, and also provides a few extra rules or rules changes specific to the period, like boats and a random event table.

Next are three, two-page summaries of the conflicts the supplement covers: the French & Indian War, the American War of Independence, and the War of 1812, which is new (and also concurrent to the Napoleonic Wars, which is planned as the next supplement).

The majority of the supplement holds the forces of these three conflicts: the British, the French, the American, and the Indian tribes. New to the rules are icons that mark which units in a force are allowed in a particular conflict. For example, a British force can only field Provincial Cavalry or Germans during the American War of Independence. Territorial changes can also affect the makeup of a force; Canadians can be fielded with the French during the French & Indian War and the American War of Independence (which actually seems to be a printing error) but they move over to the British force during the War of 1812.

There is a major change to the way points values are calculated that I am not a fan of at all. A lot of upgrades have been moved from "x points per model" to "x points per unit." This change has made it so that these upgrades are best applied when units have been taken at their maximum size. For example, in the first version, a unit of French Line Infantry (8-12) models could take the Elite trait a 2 points per model. In the second version, a unit of French Line Infantry can only take the Elite trait during the AWI period, and it's 13 points for the whole unit. Some upgrades, like the "Valley Forge" upgrade, doubles the points cost of a unit of Continental Infantry, before purchasing any additional figures. I would have much preferred the original version of upgrades, and cannot see the advantage of adding a price per unit instead of price per figure.

The scenarios have also been changed from the original version. Instead of an each side having an objective randomly rolled depending on their force makeup (a force of mostly Regulars, for example, had different objectives than a force of Indians), players will need to determine if they're the attacker or defender in a scenario, and if they're playing in "Inhabited" or "Savage" territory (a rather questionable distinction, in my mind). The force makeup still affects what the objective of a scenario will be. I'm also a little iffy on this change, since it means that there's always one side on the defensive, while previously there was a chance that both sides might be attacking or defending.

The last section of the book is the random events table.

Overall, I'm a little on the fence about this supplement. It highlights the oddity of keeping the original title for the new rules, when "Muskets & Tomahawks" was meant to highlight the first editions focus on the French & Indian War. I think it may be a bit jarring to use that title to cover a massive range of conflicts over various continents and all the way up to the mid 19th century, or even beyond. I'm also not a fan of the changes to the way the forces work, or the way scenario objectives are determined.

However, I won't be able to give a concrete answer to how these changes affect the game until I've had a chance to play. Maybe it will all turn out for the better.

Muskets & Tomahawks II - Rules Review

For a relatively long time, Tomahawk Studio's (the company behind the successful Saga rule and supplements) set of rules for the French & Indian War, Muskets & Tomahawks, were out of print. They were a great set of rules that captured the sense of le petite guerre in North American during the mid to late 18th century.

With card activations and plenty of period flavor, they were a favorite set of rules to play FIW games with and the question of a reprint could be found pretty frequently online.

In late 2019, it was announced that a new version of the rules was going to be "Nickstarted" (basically a crowdfunding pre-order service through North Star Military Figures) and was going to be expanded beyond the original French & Indian War and American War of Independence focus. The pre-order went up at the very end of January 2020, and was a rousing success.

Three months later, backers have the books in hand. And that includes me!

To start, the main rules are wonderfully produced, full color, 80-page hardcover book. The rules are nicely laid out, but there's a few full or double page images that feel like padding to make the book a little big larger.

While there's no index, the contents pages are detailed enough that navigating the rules during play shouldn't be that much of a problem.

For the most part, the basics of the rules haven't changed. Players use cards to activate certain troop types (Regulars, Militia, Indians, etc), move, spot, shoot, and fight in hand-to-hand combat much like they did in the first edition. However, there have been some very important fundamental changes to these basics.

For example, instead of a single card being drawn from the deck, each player has a hand of three cards, made up of cards from both sides, or the neutral Clock cards that determine the end of the turn. A player can choose to play a card from their own side, or play a card that activates an opponent's troops. In compensation, a player that does so gains a Command Point, one of the new features of this edition. Command Points can be spent on a few special actions, like putting a unit on Vigilance (18th century Overwatch) or putting a card in your hand in reserve for latter, effectively giving you a four card hand.

Another big change is the move from d6s to d10s, which gives a wider variance in unit stat lines and table results like Morale and Random Events. It's important to note that the values of the die go from 0-9, not 1-10!

There's a section for additional rules like Hidden Movement and Weather that don't fit in elsewhere, and so have been collected. These are generic rules that may be modified in the various period specific supplements that will be released later.

Since the forces have moved to the supplements, it's a very small section of the main rules. Introduced, however, are the idea of Format Variables, which are values that change depending on the size of the game being played.

Scenarios have also been cut down to just three, as the bulk will come from the supplements. There's Morning Meeting, Ambush, and Breakthrough.

Side Plots have been renamed as Intrigues, which act as secondary objectives that must be completed to win a scenario. To offset this, any Commander taking an Intrigue also receives a free, randomly determined Gift that can be used once during the game.

The book is rounded off by a comprehensive reference sheet and a page of tokens.

While I haven't had a chance to play the rules yet, I do like what I see. There are no drastic departures from the first version of the game that old players will have to adjust for, and the additions, like the expanded hand of cards and command points, makes the game more interactive for both sides. Players will have to look at the battlefield and ask if it's worth allowing the enemy to make a move first, if it means getting the resources to make a crushing blow later in the turn - if the clock cards don't end it first!

My only real concern is that expanding the rules away from the original FIW and AWI periods to cover Napoleonics or the American Civil War, will either make flatten the flavor of the original periods, or make playing the expanded periods feel strange.

Keep an eye on the blog, as I expect to play more M&T II in the future.

I'll also be reviewing the first supplement, Redcoats & Tomahawks, soon. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below.

An Untimely Arrival - Muskets & Tomahawks AAR

Since I was back up in my hometown area for Thanksgiving weekend, I reached out to my old group and asked if anyone was up for a game. Carl was interested, and had purchased a couple boxes of Native Americans from Warlord Games at Fall In. So we decided to play Muskets & Tomahawks. 

We set the table up as a colonial settlement surrounded by areas of dense woods. A road cut diagonally through the area.

Carl's Indians got the Raid objective (so he needed to burn the buildings of the settlement before the game ended), while my British had the Defense objective (they needed to keep the Natives away from the buildings before the game's randomly decided end).

Carl had a horde style army, with forty-eight Warriors led by three Sachems. Thanks to the scenario requirements, I started with two units of Rangers and British Indians, along with a Ranger Officer in the settlement. My two units of British Regulars and their Officer started off the table and would come on later according to the dice.

We also decided to use the Subplots. The are supposed to be secret, but since we're pretty unfamiliar with the rules, we just rolled them out in the open. Carl's Officer got "Truce," and so his force had to be fired upon or attacked first. My officer got "Disdained," so not only did my Regular Officer not count as an Officer for all the Morale bonuses and extra actions, but he had to kill d3+2 enemies before his troops started listening to him again (melee kills counted as double)!

So that basically made the game a draw in Carl's favor from the start. With that (and a few muttered words of disdain for my dice), we began.

Since my defenders had to start out in the open (they could have been in the houses, but with so few places to shoot from, they'd just be sitting targets), the lead was flying early in the game. The Natives came on like a tidal wave, hollering and whooping as they fired their muskets. A good volley rocked one of my Ranger units, sending them running from the fight.

The Ranger Officer had his hands full, being outnumbered two-to-one. With only a single unit of Rangers effective, he could only watch as two buildings were quickly set ablaze.

Unfortunately, the reluctant allied Natives weren't all that eager to face off against the enemy tribesmen, and stuck to the fields outside of the settlement.

The British defenders suffered multiple casualties, but gave as good as they got. Forced out of the settlement, they set up in the fields, firing at the Natives as they flitted from building to building.

Carl quickly reached his break point, which saw the Indian Morale card entered into the discard pile. Another building went up in flames, however, and the Regulars were nowhere to be seen!

Braving the colonists' fire, Carl's Natives made it to the safety of the last remaining building while other warriors kept up the pressure on the enemy.

The Regulars finally appeared at the beginning of turn 3, marching up the road in column (their officer, of course, was delayed. No wonder the troops didn't respect him).

And the reinforcements arrived just in time to see the last building catch fire.

Since Carl had completed his objective, along with his side-plot, it was a major victory for the Native Americans. The colonist settlement had been destroyed, and so the invading British would have to fall back to the nearest point of civilization to regroup.

This was a relatively quick playing game, which was probably due to the scenario. It's tough trying to balance line of sight in Muskets & Tomahawks. If a unit can be seen, it can be shot at. And if it can be shot at, it's likely going to lose a model or two (or more, if the dice are hot).

The morale system lends a good feeling of ebb-and-flow to the fight, where models can retreat, collect their heads, and turn back into the fight if they're fresh enough while units that have been beaten down and are out of range of their officers are more likely to flee.

There's more we're likely missing of the rules, but hopefully we can keep getting it to the table. And Carl and I both have our fingers crossed for the release of a second edition that's the same sort of quality as SAGA's version 2.

Backwoods Brawl - Muskets & Tomahawks AAR

This past weekend I was back up in Pennsylvania and met up with Carl for a couple of games at 7th Dimension. I had finally finished painting up two 400 point forces for Muskets & Tomahawks, and Carl was interested in trying out Carnevale. 

So we set up a table for a French-Indian War bash. The scenario was fairly simple - two small scouting forces encounter each others by a local settlement. The goal was to reduce the enemy force to half its original number, which would then cause the enemy to flee. 

The French and British forces were nearly identical: 2 officers, 2 units of regular infantry, 2 units of irregular infantry, and 2 units of Indian allies. The British irregulars were Rangers with the Marksman skill (making them better shots), while the French irregulars were Coureurs De Bois, which gave them the Native skill (making them harder to hit).

The area surrounding the buildings was clear terrain, while most of the rest of the table was light cover. The larger trees denoted areas of dense cover. 

Most of the fighting in the woods was between the British Rangers and the French Coureurs De Bois and Indians. The Rangers got lucky with their card draws, and were able to fire and reload at the right moment to force the enemy to retreat to cover before the tomahawks and knife blades came out.

In the settlement, one of the British-allied native units was harried by French Irregulars, until they were charged in close combat. In some serious dice rolling, the natives were able to slaughters the irregulars, leaving a single man in the unit left to flee the battle.

Meanwhile, the British regulars advanced and exchanged volleys with their French counterparts.

The undergrowth was sticky with blood as the British and French fought in close combat. It seemed like the Rangers might be able to hold out against overwhelming numbers...

But Carl was able to prevail, with only a single Ranger left in the melee.

And then, disaster! It had seemed like the British had a good grasp of victory even with the mounting casualties. But Carl had positioned his French Regulars to fire two volleys into a unit of British regulars, with ghoulish results. While the first round of shots only killed two men, the second round killed two more. This meant the resulting Reaction Test had so many negative modifiers, the remaining British infantry routed!

With that, it only took Carl a couple more casualties to force the British to their breaking point, and the Redcoats turned tail and fled into the woods.

We had a great time. Our only regrets were missing that 400 point games were played on a 6'x4' table, which may have offered a little more maneuvering during the battles, and forgetting to bring cotton swabs to mark which units had fired for visual effect.

Hopefully I can get M&T to the table more often now that I've got painted forces, which will also let Carl and I use more of the advanced rules that we skipped in this game - random scenarios, Officer traits, blinds and dummy markers.

A Charming Field for an Encounter - Muskets & Tomahawks AAR

On Saturday of Fall In, I participated in a game of Muskets & Tomahawks, run by Kimber VanRy and Jameson Proctor of the Metropolitan Wargamers group. 

The game was a recreation of the Battle of Fort Necessity, one of the initial skirmishes of the French and Indian War (and of the wider Seven Years War). 

The American and British defenders had to hold the "fort" (really, just a collection of tree trunks jammed into the ground in the form of a rough circle and a shoddy storehouse for supplies), while the French, Canadians, and their Indians allies wanted to capture the "fort" as well as the defenders' commanding officer - a young Lt. Col George Washington. 

The British force (of which I was commanding half) consisted of a mix of Regular and Provincial troops. While James Mackay - the other British commander - was out with the men in the half-made trenches, Washington would be directing the battle from inside the walls of the fort.

The French force consisted of Indian warriors and Canadian provincials, with a single unit of French Regulars to form a stiff backbone for the attackers.

The huddled British troops, soaked in their shallow trenches, couldn't do much more than stand and watch the mass of bodies gathering at the far treeline.

The game began with limited skirmishing, before the Indians and Canadians to the left of the fort charged en mass against the fort's meagre defenses.

To the fort's front, a single unit of Indians moved out of the woods to get into range, the rest of the French forces decided to stay in the woods and engage at range.

The defenders sent out volley after volley of withering fire, which smashed into the approaching attackers with deadly results, forcing several units to flee or rout.

However, the mass of bodies was enough that the attackers could approach while the British were forced to reload their guns.

The French Regulars, seeing that there British counterparts were duly engaged, emerged from the woods in a firing line and because their attack.

The defenders, while able to take cover, were under such heavy fire that the individual losses began to take their toll. The men in the fort waited as a reserve.

The Canadians, using the natives as a shield against the British fire, made it to the trenches and attacked the defenders in close combat.

The British repulsed the attack, but with casualties.

The attackers came again and again, until finally one unit of British Regulars were either killed or unable to continue the fight, and a unit of Marines was past the trenches.

The remaining British in the trenches rallied and sent the Marines off. With so few defenders left, the men in the fort were able to fire on the French.

While the attack on the left had mostly run out of energy and men, the Indians, Provincials and Regulars to the front began their advance on the fort.

Most of the men in the trenches were out of action, and only the Provincials in the fort were left to keep the attacks away.

Unfortunately, the French weight of fire was too much, and even with the protection of the fort, men began to fall. Washington, understanding the futility of his position, decided to surrender.

Kimber and Jameson put on a fantastic game, and it's only encouraged me to get my FIW miniatures on the table for more games of Muskets & Tomahawks.

Irregularities - Muskets & Tomahawks AAR

With both the British and French forces painted for Muskets & Tomahawks, Carl and I finally got together for a game. We were using two forces at a little over 200 points each, which were fairly equal in abilities. 

French Wilderness Force (Carl)

Canadian Officer

Canadian Militia x8

Canadian Militia x8

-Coureur de Bois

French-allied Indians x6

British Wilderness Force (Brian)

Colonial Officer

-Ranger

Rangers x8

-Marksmen

Rangers x8

British-allied Indians x6

We rolled for the buildings, with one going in the center and Carl placing another nearby (it does look like I placed the "center" building a little too close to one side of the table). The rest of the table was covered with scattered woods for dense terrain. For simplicity's sake, we both went for the Engagement objective (so we would need to kill sixteen models from the other side to win), with no events or side plots.

With each unit having the Scout rules, the game began with hidden deployment markers on the table, with both sides having two dummy markers as well.

One of my ranger units was the first to be revealed, hoping that the enemy wouldn't reveal themselves too soon.

That bet didn't pay off, with Carl revealing his militia in the dense cover with a volley of musket fire. Three of my rangers fell, and the unit recoiled.

The French woodsmen moved into one of the abandoned cabins, spotting and revealing my second ranger unit.

The rangers advanced, with one unit approaching the cabin for a point blank shot.

Carl's Indian allies managed to get close enough to spot the British-allied Indians. Another Indian card allowed them to shoot, killing two and recoiling the unit.

Luckily, my rangers were up next, and the one unit fired a point-blank shot into the Coureur de Bois in the cabin, killing three and recoiling the unit.

Both sides were in the fight, with only the Canadian officer still hidden.

My rangers fired a volley at the French Indians, forcing them back with a single casualty.

The Canadian miltia shifted to their left and fired with two cards, sending my rangers into flight.

The rangers managed to rally, turning and firing at the Coureur de Bois who were trying to sneak up the side of the cabins.

At this point, it looked grim for the Canadians. They had one unit of militia still intact, but their Indians had almost fled off the table and the Coureur de Bois were down to two men.

Suddenly, the tables turned on the British. Their Indian allies were routed from the table, and the Canadian militia wheel and turned to face the suddenly outflanked rangers.

Well, things had turned very bloody very quickly. The Canadian militia killed two of the rangers, and further shots from the Coureur de Bois and Indians sent the unit fleeing across the table. Meanwhile, the other rangers managed to land a devastating volley on the Canadian Militia, wiping out half the unit with a little assistance from the ranger officer. A return shot sent the rangers fleeing, however.

At this point, the British had reached their break point, and the morale card was added to the deck.

The two sides managed to rally again, approaching for another round of combat.

More rangers and militia fell on both sides, putting the French and British over the goal for the scenario in the same turn. Counting up casualties, Carl had managed to score eighteen to my sixteen, giving the French a very bloody victory.

We enjoyed the game, and I'm hoping to get it to the table a little more often, hopefully with more of the period-flavor aspects, like canoes, events and side plots.