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.