Muskets & Tomahawks Battle Report

Got to play a special game today in the man cave with *the* Andrew (Andy) Thompson - a longtime friend who is visiting sunny California from far away Scotland with his lovely wife Christine.  Adam Clark and Roy Scaife joined us for a great game of Muskets & Tomahawks.

I used a 6' by 6' setup for this game that you can see below.

 
Most importantly, we used a modified version of the M&T rules aimed at speeding up our games.  Since we mostly play large games we found that our games would regularly run 5-6 hours.  By modifying the rules a bit we successfully played out this large game in around 3-4 hours.  Below is a brief summary of the modifications.

Modified M&T Summary

• Movement for regulars and others troop types that move 4" increased to 6" per action.
• Movement for irregulars/Indians that move 6" increased to 9" per action.
• Formed (firing line/regulars) troops moving completely on a road get +2" per movement action.
• Officer only - new action "command" - may pass their actions to a friendly unit within 6" - no single unit can receive more than 1 action this way per activation.
• Officer only - new action "rally" - may spend an action to attempt to rally a "flighted" unit within 6" - the unit takes a reaction test and immediately applies the new result.
• Spotting only is done against hidden units.  Completely new simplified spotting table/roll.
• 360 degree LOS for all skirmishing units.
• Weapon ranges increased slightly (e.g. musket from 24" to 30").

I adjusted the unit entries for the British and French army lists and I created a QRS to track the new changes.  Pictures of all of these are below (I did them in MS PowerPoint).  I have to say that the modifications worked very well ... the game still essentially works the same but plays through much faster and is just as deadly.

The Game

So, with these new rules updates in hand we set off to play our game.  Both Adam and Andy had not played M&T before so Roy/Adam took on the British forces and Andy/I took on the French forces.

British objective:  Raid the settlement.  Kill civilians and burn buildings if possible.

British sub plot:  A group of Indian allies and two important daughters of a colonel at Fort William Henry are being pursued by the French, intercept them and escort them to safety.  For this, the unit of Uncas, Hawkeye, Chingachgook, Cora and Alice Munro start "hidden" with two additional dummy markers.  They also have a 4+ "fate" save when kills are inflicted and do not take reaction tests.

French objective:  Protect the settlement and evacuate the civilians.

French sub plot:  Magua is closing in on white hair's daughters.  He must find them and put them under the knife, along with anyone trying to protect them.  Spot the hidden markers to locate which one is the fleeing daughters.

British Forces:

• 12 x Regulars (42nd)
• 12 x Grenadiers (42nd)
• 12 x Regulars (48th)
• 12 x Grenadiers (48th)
• 8 x Rangers
• 8 x Rangers
• 10 x Light Infantry
• 6 x Indian Allies
• 6 x Indian Allies
• VIPs (Uncas, Hawkeye, Chingachgook, Cora and Alice Munro) - 3 x Indian Chiefs, 2 x Civilians

French Forces:

• 12 x Regulars (La Reine)
• 12 x Regulars (La Reine)
• 12 x Regulars (Royal-Roussilon)
• 12 x Regulars (Royal-Roussilon)
• 10 x Compagnes Franches de la Marine
• 10 x Compagnes Frenches de la Marine
• 1 x Couriers de Bois (Canadian Militia) Officer
• 8 x Couriers de Bois (Canadian Militia)
• 8 x Couriers de Bois (Canadian Militia)
• 1 x Indian Chief (Magua)
• 6 x Indians
• 6 x Indians
• 6 x Indians

The French deployed 15" in on 1/2 of the table nearest the settlement.  The British deployed opposite, 15" in across the entire side.  Three hidden markers (one ambush, two dummy) had to be deployed 24" in on the opposite 1/2 of the french deployment area.

The game ended in a French victory with a completed subplot.  It took many Indian units and lots of melee but Magua put the daughters under the knife.  Most, not all but most civilians were evacuated.  Both sides suffered major losses ... around 45 for the French and 56 for the British.

Lots of pictures below show the action!

This crossroads cost the French many regulars but
they held it and eventually pushed the British back.

The VIPs are spotted but are near friendly forces.

The rules modifications work out very well.  I think we'll keep using these moving forward and make any tweaks as necessary but I don't foresee any changes at this point in time.

Regiment de La Reine and Canadian Milita

Finally finished up basing on my new (and last) French regiment - La Reine.  I also now have two units of Canadian Militia and a leader so I took some photos of them as well (even though I think I included them in another post - but I did this just to show small units using my new picture taking knowledge).

The La Reine regiment uses all Conquest Miniatures (Warlord Games).  The Canadian Militia is a mix of Galloping Major Miniatures and North Star Military Figures.

Having learned something useful about my camera over the weekend I set about using this new found knowledge to take these pictures using some different lighting.  I now see why having a "natural" light bulb is critical (vs. the yellowish light of standard bulbs).

Actually, this one little tip has served to change everything for my picture taking ability.  I'm still nowhere near pro, but this one is key.  I have a Nikon D3000 SLR camera.  I'm a meat head when it comes to cameras so I'll attempt to explain this in my own terms.  There are two key things you need to do on the camera itself:

1. Adjust the "picture mode" knob to "A" (means aperture).  To date I had used auto and the flower (called "macro") - with and without the flash - not good for what I was attempting to accomplish (that "depth with clarity" in the pictures).
2. When in the aperture setting, you can adjust the "F" setting.  My default F setting is 5.6 - whole insufficient for shooting pictures of miniatures.  The F setting adjusts how much light (exposure) will be taken when the picture clicks.  Now, the more light you let in (the higher the F setting number), the more light, and generally as a result, the longer the exposure time. For standard 4x6 foot tables it was recommended to start with an F setting of 22 (a far cry from 5.6!).  To adjust the F setting on my camera I need to rotate my wheel located at the top-right side of the back of my camera (it is used to adjust other settings as well - like the flash setting for example).

Now, since the exposure is going to be longer than the quick click that most of us are used to it is critical to keep the camera dead still.  This will require a tripod of some sort and the usage of the picture delay (my delay is 10 seconds).  The reason for using the delay is to give yourself time to click the picture button (causing the camera to move) and allow the camera to settle and be dead steady for the exposure.  Note that exposures can take many seconds ... so be patient and make sure the camera doesn't move until you hear the second shudder snap.

Regiment de La Reine
(just using sunlight coming in from the garage door being open)

Another angle - showing depth. Again with the natural
sunlight coming in from the garage door.

The garage door is now closed, this is the light
from the ceiling lights.

Room lights with my painting lamp pointed at the front
of the unit - it uses a natural light bulb.

Another angle using the natural light bulb lamp.

Canadian Militia unit #1.

Canadian Militia unit #2.

Canadian Militia unit leader.

And there you have it.  Clearly I have more I can learn (no doubt about that on any topic) - but a big step forward.  I saw the pictures the Wargames Illustrated lad had taken of my M&T demo games and the depth and clarity of the game pictures was just astounding.

I hope you all find this useful -- I never had the patience to really dig through learning all there is to know about photography - I wish I met this guy many years ago and got this tip!

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.