Miniature Wargaming with Spudnick: AAR: Scalping Time: A Muskets And Tomahawks Game.

Friday, January 6, 2017

AAR: Scalping Time: A Muskets And Tomahawks Game.

Whether is was laziness or a subconscious plan, I had left the board up from Kalissa and I's first Muskets and Tomahawks game. This worked out perfectly, since my friend, Bill decided to come over a play. Originally, it was Bill and Hugh's Muskets and Tomahawks game that got us interested a few years back, especially when my wife is allowed to roll for the random event chart. I believe my wife is a lady with a secret love for chaotic events. This is one the main things I suspect why she married. The Jury is still out on that.
Anyway, Bill took the Frenchmen while I took the Indians "Woods Ninjas", I took the Indians to see if I could win again. After all, I have to test whether that was just a fluke win. I had a force of three groups of six Indians with one blood-thirsty leader. Magua was angry at the French, I guess for not being allowed to have all of the Monroe Children! They had traits that made the Indians "Elite" troops which made the "Forward Avante!" card very useful. I could preform an action with all of my units. The French did not have that as an advantage, since their leader only had that ability. This could be potentially wrong, since Bill and I discovered rules and such throughout the game. We tend to take a crash course into the mechanics of games, unlike my wife who will, in fact, read everything and figure it out. "Rules! Who needs stinkin' rules!"
Bill French were divided into two groups. One was an Irregular group that had the trait of Scouts that allowed regular movement through dense cover like the woods. All of the Natives had this! They also had the same number of action per card of one, just the natives. The only thing that was not in their favor was the ability to form a firing line. The Regulars had that trait with the sacrifice of not moving very fast in dense woods. The rules do address this handicap by giving them two actions on their card. Bill did the same thing with the Regulars and placed them in the woods just my wife did in our game. They only normally move five inches, but that is cut in half in the woods.
The game mission was fairly simple. Just to run the mechanics through for Bill, we decided that the French had to make it across the table to the other side, and my Braves were to stop them! It seemed simple enough. We set up 12" in. Both sides had everyone in the woods. I had my leader with one group of Indians facing against his leader and the Regulars. I had the other two Indian groups facing off the Irregulars. Because of the French Regulars' handicap through the woods, it took longer for them to get into action. The same cannot be said for the Irregular French. A long-winded firefight erupted across a road. Both sides in that had to flee to reorganize. The Indians were shooting much better. I think this had a lot to do with Bill's magical box missing. The box I mentioned stealing many times for their uncanny ability to produce "sixes" at will! Of course, if I rolled in it, gave near reverse results.
After multiple shots, the French Irregulars started to runaway in danger of being destroyed. They did their job of tying up my two Indian units in a firefight. However, on the French Regular side, they came under some serious fire from my Natives. The game really reflected well about the disadvantages any formation had against Indians firing from the woods. I lost one man about trading rounds to kill several of the Frenchmen. The only thing that was beyond any tactical sense was that we had an "Event Card" that rolled out that our leaders had to try to confront each other in a melee dual. Somehow, they made it into contact to kill each other at the same time! It was after this, and the final demise of the French Irregulars that the remaining French tried to make a break for it. After some great shooting and an assault with tommahawks and knives, the Indians had stopped them cold and killed them all! Only one fleeing Frenchman survived! Now, this is motivating me to finish the British Regulars I have not painted yet!