The Fracas in the Forests, 1758. A French and Indian War game.

Report from David, 11th January 2025

Think Daniel Day Lewis in Last of the Mohicans. Think the attacks on the British columns. Think "Where are they coming from.". Think "Hidden movement, without an umpire or paperwork". That sent me down a rabbit hole to come up with a suitable mechanism.

Game using Sharp Practice 2. 

Players
French : Jeremy Dowd , Chris Caves.
British : Jeremy Nixon, David Smylie, David Maltman.

The British are moving North with a slow wagon train. The French want to stop them and if possible capture the wagon train. The French deploy at any of the locations marked D.

Scenario map.

French order of battle.

• 1 unit 32 Compagnies Franches de la Marine, with 2 leaders.

• 2 units of 6 Compagnies Franches skirmishers each with a leader.

• 1 unit 6 Milice Canadienne skirmishers with a leader.

• 3 units of 12 tribal Indians each with leader.

• 3 units of 12 tribal Indian skirmishers, each with leaders.

• Sapper.

British order of battle.

• 1 unit 24 highlanders, 1 leader.

• 2 units of 24 British regular infantry, 1 leader each.

• 1 unit 30 Militia, 1 leader.

• 4 units 6 frontier skirmishers each with leader.

• 1 units of 12 tribal Indians with leader.

• 1 units of 12 tribal Indian skirmishers with leader.

The British are about 15% higher on points than the French, but that was more than offset by the use of hidden movement. The hidden movement uses 2 cards instead of the unit placed on the table, in different areas. They both move as if they are real and only when one becomes visible are they replaced by the real unit, or removed from play.

The bridge was always going to be the focus of the action. The French had a sapper who could blow it up, forcing the wagon train off road to use the Ford. It was slow on the dirt track, half as fast off it. So it could massively increase the number of moves to get over the river.

The games started with the French getting a unit of Canadian skirmishers and the sapper to the bridge. The British were also closing on the bridge with a unit of Highlanders and 2 accompanying skirmish units of hunters.

The British skirmishers open up with their rifles and make the sapper duck down and so was unable to setup the gun powder. You can also see cards for the hidden movement as the units were still hidden by the trees. The Highlanders are slowly making their way to get their 24 muskets into play.

Both the forests to the East and West were full of cards. David Smylies Indians where drawn into the Western forest to find it completely empty. Jeremy was not so lucky on the Eastern side. It was full of the Indian hordes. 

Up front the skirmishers where joined by the Highlanders and swift work was made of the Canadians, causing the sapper to scarper back to the next unit, which was the big French unit, the Compagnies Franche. 

Under Construction.