French Foreign Legion - An Adventure In The Desert!

Somewhere in the vast Egyptian desert, professor Von Dorf and his daughter, Cora Von Dorf, along with their valuable archaeological finds, have been taken prisoner by a local band of Arabs who a displeased with the infidels intrusion into their territory.  A detachment of French Foreign Legion who are operating in the area have been sent to provide security for their return journey, arriving just in time to intervene ...

Today, Matt Hilzendrager brought over his awesome colonial French Foreign Legion game that he runs at the local conventions.  Thomas Foss (of Skull & Crown) and Matt ran the Arabs and three units of FFL were run by John Lantz, Dan Kerrick and myself.

You can see the table setup below.  In the central ruins a small force of Arabs have the good professor, his daughter, associated assistants and baggage hands held captive.  The adobe building in the corner houses an ammunition supply from the expedition.

The FFL must take the central ruins, rescue the professor and his daughter, secure as much of the baggage as possible, and make a orderly retreat using the vehicles that are onsite.  As ammunition is also low, it is important to secure additional ammunition from the expeditions ammo dump.

The three FFL units converged on the three closest edges of the ruins while peeling off a few men to get additional ammunition from the ammo dump.  You can see pictures below of the FFL in the "first phase" of the game, taking the ruins, rescuing the captives and consolidating their position before the local tribes counter attack.

The first Arab reinforcements arrive ...

Additional Arab units arrive, mounted and surrounding the FFL position.

The FFL position is becoming desperate ...

After suffering heavy casualties on both sides, the FFL consolidate towards the middle of the ruins ... their constant fire takes a heavy toll on the Arab units ...

The local tribes decide the price is to high and withdraw back towards the adobe building allowing the FFL to move to the vehicles and mount their escape.

A victory for the FFL, the mount up and make their escape ...

And that's it folks!  A great game all around.  This is also a great beer and pretzels kind of game - easy to play and many beers were indeed consumed during the action!

The rules used are a "home brew" set that Matt uses.  We may try to publish them in some way as they really should be written down at some point.  The "short" version is:

• Each model can take two actions (move/move, move/shoot, shoot/move or shoot/shoot).
• d10s are used to resolve fire a melee.
• Movement sticks are used - marked in "half" for each movement action you can take.  Short stick is used for foot movement, longer stick for cavalry.
• A yard stick is used for rifle fire (a shorter one for pistols) - marked from 9 down to 1.  You put the "9" end at your model and see the number that your target is at --- that is the roll (or lower) you need to hit.  Modifiers (moving, cover) push this number out (below 1 is an impossible shot).
• If you take casualties, you take a morale test at the beginning of your next turn.
• Each player/group rolls for initiative at the start of the turn ... roll a d10 and activate units from highest rolling player to lowest.

That is the cliff notes version ... but should give you a quick idea about the rules.