Sunday, April 7, 2013

Battle Report 4/7/2013 - Muskets and Tomahawks

I was fortunate to get a game of Muskets and Tomahawks in today at my local game store (Game Kastle).  The ever friendly and helpful Seth played the French and Indians while I took on the role of the British.

FRENCH
1 x Regular Officer
12 x Regulars
8 x Compagnie Franches de la Marine
8 x Compagnie Franches de la Marine
1 x Indian Leader
6 x Indians
6 x Indians
6 x Indians
6 x Indians

BRITISH
1 x Regular Officer
12 x Regulars
12 x Regulars
8 x Grenadiers
8 x Rangers
8 x Rangers
2 x Wagons (being escorted)
20 x Settlers (for the scenario)

We played on a 4'x6' table.  The French objective was to kill all the settlers.  The British objective was to successfully escort their two wagons off the opposite end of the table.  The French sub-plot was to have their officer avoid bloodshed (he couldn't kill anyone during the game).  Ironically, the British rolled one less than the French and their officer had to kill 6 enemy figures in either combat or via shooting by the end of the game.  This was not to be accomplished for the British ... the French however did successfully fulfill their sub-plot.

The settlers all setup in and around the small town/cluster of buildings with their fine Mayor attempting to calm everyone down as a British column was nearby and coming to save them (but not soon enough as they would find out!).  Two of the Indian units lay in ambush in the woods along the road to the town at the start of the game - three markers were deployed, one was a dummy marker.  The French and Indians not in ambush started the game either side of the town (long table edge) and near the table edge.  The British column was already well underway heading towards the town on the main road.

We played four turns before the last of the settlers were killed.  The first unit destroyed was one of the French Marine units ... but in a fit of bad luck the random event for that turn was unexpected reinforcements - so that destroyed unit showed right back up again ... nothing like having to kill that same damn unit twice!  But it was a nice twist that really only sped along the inevitable.

I have to say I very much enjoyed playing with lots of settlers around the town.  The French had their work cut out for them.  One of the random events rolled resulted in the civilians not trusting any soldiers (friend or enemy) - so a pack of them fled away from their protectors - and ultimately into the hands of some unfriendly Indians.  Many scalps were taken during the course of this game.  In fact, the number of tomahawk thrown melee's that occurred was high (Rangers, Indians and French Marines all participated in several of these throughout the game).  Lots of fun when you get to throw tomahawks!

In the end however, all the settlers were killed.  A fatal flaw on my behalf was not deploying one of the regular units out into the wheat fields to provide protection for the fleeing townsfolk - I got all jammed up on the road and ended up fighting over the large house - which I eventually lite on fire.

I very enjoyable game with a great opponent - thus continues my 100% enjoyment of/satisfaction with, the Muskets and Tomahawks rules.  Pictures below.

Forgive the quality of the pictures as I had left my nice camera at home and had to use my mobile phone to take the pictures.

A great day for a game at Game Kastle.

The British column.

Settlers milling about - what to do!

The Mayor attempts to clam people near the t-intersection.

Chaos ensues as the French advance.

Rangers and Indians duk'in it out tomahawk style!

Seth rounds the table reveling in his scalping of innocents! 

The settlers flee towards the fields.

Indians running down settlers in the fields.

The main house is on fire!

The scene of the last settlers stand.
"Game over man, game over!"

Burn baby, burn!

Until next time folks!  Canadian Militia - just finishing up their bases with tuffs so should have pictures of those up soon.

21 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks Eric! Happy to see the shed should be back in business soon :-)

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  2. Stunning AAR Jay !!!

    A couple of questiond from a M&T rookie:

    1. terrain, how do you count the wodded areas? Heavy wood or Light wood and do you count the arreas between the wood bases as light wood or open ground?

    2. Close Combat, as the rules are not clearly writen about this, when do a CC ends? when one side get a retreat/flee result for moral?

    3. If all units would be on blinds, would the officers be on a blind for his own?

    Thanks for your help !

    Best regards Michael

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    Replies
    1. Hi Michael,

      1. I count wooded areas as "dense" cover. The area between the wood bases is "open" ground (essentially, light enough not to get in the way).

      2. CC ends when one side is either destroyed (follow-up movement allowed), or is forced to retreat (flight for example). Until that happens, you keep fighting.

      3. Officer is a separate unit and would indeed get his own blind.

      Thanks for reading! Happy to see you have taken the plunge into M&T :-)

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    2. Thank you jay for answering my Rookie questions;)

      M&T are a realy nice set of rules, easy to learn (even if some rules are a bit un clear...) and it get reale tense with the card activation that work in a completly different way that I´m used to in the TooFatLardies rules.

      As olways I get lots of I deeas to use them in a Swedish setting... but no woodland indians there;)

      Best regards Michael

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  3. Great AAR Jay. I love reading your reports and seeing your terrain. Its inspirational! I was curious, with your regular units, do you count the flag bearer and drummer as functional models, or are they just there for looks?

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    1. Thanks for reading Chad. For now the musicians and standard bearers are just for show ... although there has been some discussion in the forums on what they could do in the game. I'm hoping that there is a supplement or expansion for M&T that adds official rules for them into the system.

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    2. Thanks again. I love the visual appeal of the drummers and flag bearers. That would be neat if some official rules came out to make them a part of the system. I had given thought to putting the unit leader, the drummer, and a flag bearer all on one base. I decided it would be too much, though. Once again, love your stuff!

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    3. I agree - I may give some of the suggestions from the M&T forum a go since I don't think we'll see an update or supplement to M&T for some time (they are off wrapping up their Napoleonic skirmish rules I believe). Thanks again for the kind words! :-)

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  4. Looks like you had lots of fun. I only wish my local dealer had such great terrain.

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    1. Thanks - I had a blast :-) I have to order almost all my terrain (the stuff I don't make myself) ... you can get it as well ... check my posts (label = terrain) ... the buildings are cheap, roads are from Rick's Scenics, most everything else is Architects of War.

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  5. A superb looking set-up.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Pat.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Pat! Loving your Modern stuff - I have some Taliban and U.S. Army to paint up as well for FoF, so seeing your stuff is inspiring me to get some of that done :-)

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  6. Lovely and inspiring scenery setup for the figures to game play.

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  7. Fantastic table!! And fantastic everything there!! I'm starting a FIW project now and I find your blog very useful, thank you.

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    Replies
    1. Excellent, thanks for reading --- always nice to see another wargaming take the FIW plunge :-)

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