Don't Go Down to the Woods Today !

This French Indian Wars game was set up by Allan and he supplied the French, French Canadians & Indian allies, tents, trees, cloth and the fort  - or half a fort because he forgot the newly finished tower to go in the middle !

I brought some British, Colonials and Indians supporting the British side.

Rules - Sharp Practice.

Here's the layout with French tents inside the half finished fort

Milice Canadien edge forwards through the woods

The British deployment point is just visible on the table edge at left centre

Next, Allan's Indians surge through the woods far right of their side of the table

and fan out

British Canadian light troops carefully make their way through the trees, opposite the Milice Canadien

Now, Captain Stewart sends his two units of British regulars towards the fort.

French regulars muster inside.

The British Indian Allies move up to support the Light Troops

Seems the fort is well garrisoned !

The French Canadians advance towards the British 

Shots are exchanged

Now the French Indians angle towards the centre having heard gunfire.

Doubt the British have heard them yet !

The British Indian Allies move up to aid the British Light Troops

First blood to the British !  Two Milice Canadien are killed outright.

Because of the dense trees, fire is up close and personal. We limited range to 12 inches at all times.

After further exchanges of fire, the Canadians have been wiped out but the British have also lost a lot of men.

Only the Canadian Big Man survives and he heads back to the fort.

An Indian war cry invites a volley from the British regulars

One man down and some shock too.

The British Indians dash through the undergrowth to join in

Stuart has organised his two units to close in on the enemy Indians - because of the terrain, we decided formations would be impossible, so groups had to be ordered individually to add to the hazards of fighting in woods.

Allan decides to bring his French regulars out of the fort

They do have a gun poking through the palisade

The British get off two more volleys against the enemy Indians

Here come the French regulars

The Indians fire back and get a kill even though they are supposed to be poor shots !

The British Indians try to close with them and leap past the Regulars

Allan decides to withdraw them away from danger

But the British Indians charge home - and promptly lose the melee heavily !

Their leader is down and out unconscious

The British look on with disbelief.

To add insult to injury, the French Indians get another kill.

The Indian leader recovers in time but by then the French regulars are heading towards the in strength.

The British volleys have created a layer of black smoke obscuring vision

The French Indians are relieved to hear their French regulars arrive !

They now move towards the British Regulars as the Indians have retreated

They get sight of them through the trees

The British Indians move up to assist the Regulars again, even though their numbers are depleted

The French close in - three full units plus determined Indians against only one full British unit - the Blue Bonnets and Indians have suffered quite a few casualties. 

The only intact British unit moves through the black haze in a final attempt to close with the enemy Indians. 

The net result is more British casualties ! 

By this point, British morale had plummeted and heavily outnumbered, they gave up - victory to the French !

Stuart has some explaining to do when he gets back to Headquarters with hardly any men behind him. Can't see him making Major any time soon !

We were fully engrossed with this game for some five hours and continue to enjoy the new Sharp Practice rules.