Battle of Yasger's Farm

Having been very industrious over the past few weeks I finally managed to arrange a game with my FIW new figures using "Muskets and Tomahawks"

The game in question pitted a motley force of British troops consisting of 2 units of Rangers 6 Mohawk allies and a unit of Regulars from the Black Watch against a French raiding party of Hurons and Canadian Militia. The British regulars were held off board as reinforcements leaving the Irregulars and Indians to bear the brunt of the French attack.  My son Micheal and myself took the Brits while my mate Colin and his son Josh took the Frenchies.

Yasger's Farm. General shot of the battlefield

 I changed the scenario details slightly from the book by splitting the built up area in to two parts to make the French job just that little bit more difficult (we needn't have bothered as it turned out).

The Brits deployed one unit of Rangers in the buildings at Yasger's Farm while the Indians and 2nd Ranger unit did their best to protect Old man Yasger's neighbours.

We diced for side plots and the French commander was accompanied by his good lady while the Ranger officer swore an oath to protect the lives of one of his units.

The game began reasonably well fort he Brits with unit of Rangers at Yasger's farm taking up a decent defensive position and waiting for the Canadian Militia to appear on the scene. On the opposite flank the Mohawks and Rangers advanced to put a stop to any Huron activity in front of them. Unfortunately for the Brits. The regular reinforcements failed to arrive until the 4th move and played little part in the battle.

Yasger's farm (left) and his neighbours property (right)

 The French began the game reasonably tentatively but always seemed to be in a better defensive position than the Brits so consequently suffered less casualties. . On the British right, the Mohawks held off the Hurons for a few moves until numbers began to tell and they started falling back through the corn field. At the same time the second Ranger unit disturbed a grizzly bear in one of the woods and promptly fled (a random event) leaving two of there men behind. A similar story unfolded at Yasger's farm where the British defenders were coming off second best to the Canadian Militia and eventually fled, leaving old man Yasger to fend for himself!

Huron Indians cross Yasger's Creek to engage the British defenders

By this time the Black Watch had arrived and despite charging on as quickly as they could, failed to  stop the French from burning old man Yasger's place to the ground and routing both units of Rangers.So ultimately an easy win for the French. The French succeeded in defending the Officers good lady while the Brits failed miserably as the unit our leader had pledged to defend were either decimated by Indians or eaten by a bear!

The Mohawks advance to engage the Huron

Canadian Militia move in to torch Old Man Yasger's farm while their officer and his good lady look on.

 I love the rules, especially the random events and sub-plots. The only thing I have any doubt over is the casualties that retreating or fleeing units take after failing a morale test. In the 3 or 4 games I've played since buying the rules there have been quite a few times where a unit has broken after losing  1 or 2 casualties and been decimated by casualties suffered as they fell back. I've tried leaving this out of my latest game and find it plays a lot better.

Toodle Pip

Muskets and Tomahawks

First of all. Apologies for the fact that this is the first post I've made in ages.  . Anyway, on with the report!

Indians by Conquest

The French Indian Wars has always been one of those periods I was planning to get round to, ever since I saw Daniel Day-Lewis in "Last of the Mohicans". I finally galvanized myself to do something about it when Muskets and Tomahawks came out and I stumbled across the Conquest figures for this period.

These are the first figures I've bought from Conquest but I can thoroughly recommend them. The detail is superb, the poses are perfectly suited for skirmish games. I particularly like the Indians they produce. I was, frankly dreading painting them but I have to say that I haven't had so much fun painting figures for many years.  I also procured some of the Perry AWI figures which sit side by side with the Conquest stuff perfectly.

Magua by "Conquest"

I'm now at the stage where I've painted almost all of the figures I have (which is a first for me by the way) and I'm keen to get some more. The other range for this period that's on my radar are the figure produced by Galloping Major. They do some very nice looking American provincials that I'm keen to purchase !

42nd Black Watch by Perry

I've also been gathering together some terrain for the period and after ferreting around on the net I bought a couple of the Pegasus Miniatures 1/72nd Russian houses. They work perfectly as log Cabins and don't look out of scale against the Perry and Conquest figures.

Anyway.we had our first game with the rules a week or so ago so I'll post some pics of that and a report on how it all panned out soon.

Ta Ta