French Indian Wars : Sharp Practice

Today was Essex Warriors AGM but gaming comes first so plenty of activity before the Committee called us all to order.

Ian kindly brought along his French Indian Wars stuff for us to play Sharp Practice.

Here's the set up. Ian to act as umpire.

Plenty of trees and a farmstead with plenty of produce growing !

We had a full hall today - here's Les getting his ACW Sharp Practice game ready - well actually, he's stuffing his face !

Martin and Rafael had an AWI game using a board game mechanism

Not sure what this one is !

The fantasy gamers corner

DBM competiton games

Now, back to our nice little farmstead !

This family will surely never go hungry.

The troops - British & Allies (Graham and I)

French & Allies (Steve & Allan)

A deployment point - this one we used for the British

First up, French Indian allies appear

moving silently through the wooded countryside

Our turn - Roger's Rangers arrive

Oh, a big column of French regulars marches along

British and Allies in strength on table

Red Coats supported by Provincial troops

head for the enemy

The French indians make for the woods

as French settlers and Canadian militia move up

They snipe at the approaching Red Coats

 The Canadians are too much in the open

and become a target for the British 

Red blobs indicate shock

The Indians loyal to the British move up

The French militia are pushed back by the force of the British firing 

The Indians have no regard for the farmer's vegetables !

The French settlers and Canadian militia back off with shock effecting them

but the French Indians continue to fire from the woods

The British and Provincials make an imposing sight, controlled volleys from the Regulars.

Our aggressive Indians push on up the road

threatening to outflank the French forces

Steve and Allan get the Regulars into line now to provide some more firepower

Interference by the umpire.  The French commanders look nonplussed !

The British regulars have advanced to the edge of the woods - but they are losing men and getting shock too

Roger's Rangers charge into the gap between the trees to harass the enemy militia

Their shock is high and we may be able to break them with more fire

but now the white coated Frenchmen start to fire back

Steve's Indians charge out from the woods and hit the British provincials, after throwing their tomahawks - ouch !

The British regulars are not close enough to provide support.

Nasty - the Provincials are hit badly and their leader is knocked out - but so is the Indian leader !

Birdseye view at this stage of the fight.

All the fight is centred on the woods now.

Who will prevail ?

The Red Coats are taking a hammering and Roger's Rangers have picked up shock too

A rare shot from the French side - didn't get the chance to get over there much !

It seems the French are getting the better of it as they are in cover whereas the British are out in the open.

The British Indians charge !

but despite their aggression, lose several men and fall back

Not what we expected !

Mind you, the French felt the heat too - gaps appearing in the ranks. 

But, whilst they are vulnerable, the Red Coats are charged by the enemy Indians

A furious fight ensues

The Indians are wiped out but the British NCO is down and the shock now equals the number of men - not good.

The British Indians head back into the woods on another attack

The French unit is broken - just the French leader left in a daze.

With both sides seeing their morale plummeting, the British Indians are hurled into the fray again to try and tip the French over their morale limit before we go !

NO ! The Indians lose and their Chief is killed - the French have won by a whisker.

A really close game which swung one way and then the other but ended in French victory.
Thanks again to Ian for bringing along his lovely figures and terrain.

The AGM went well with Rafael handing over as Chairman to Les, the rest of the Committee stays in place for another year and Allan won a trophy for his sterling work for the club organising games and helping at shows. Graham proposed a new ECW 28mm pairs competition which was approved but the membership voted to NOT hold an Open Day in 2018 to give everyone a break with a view to bringing it back in 2019. 

Our membership has grown and we have 46 subscribing members which is quite healthy for our hobby.