Game of the French and Indian war, West Virginia, America 1756.
Using Sharp practice in 28mm.
Organized, using terrain and models and umpired by Jeremy Dowd.
AAR by David Maltman.
Players
British : Chris Caves, Jeremy Nixon and Billy McClenaghan.
French : David Smylie, Stephen casement and David Maltman.
The brief.
In the year of our Lord 1756, Captain John Denver of the Virginia Regiment has been granted leave to travel home to the mountains of West Virginia to check up on the wellbeing of his elderly mother, known to family and friends as the Mountain Mama.
Arriving at the family homestead, Capt. Denver hears of raiding Huron tribesmen in the area.
Rounding up all the local musket-owning settlers, he organises them to defend their farms. He also sends off his young brother as a messenger to find and alert the British regular patrol known to be scouting in the forest.
However, the raid is a bigger affair than Denver’s informants realised, as the Huron warband is operating alongside French militia and marine infantry.
To save their scalps, and indeed their lives, all Denver and his settlers can do is try to hold out until British forces can relieve him.
The Battlefield.
The battlefield is the farmhouse and the accompanying fields with low walls around them. A couple of roads meet near the farm and the rest is heavy forest. The circles are the French and British deployment points, after the 2 movable ones have been positioned. Only the Indians, the rangers and the Milice Canadienne of the respective side can deploy from their movable deployment points.
The combatants.
Brackets show the leader status of each of the leaders.
The sides are evenly matched, with the French having more skirmish units and the British more regular infantry. With the large amount of woodland skirmishers and Indians should be advantageous.
British :
12 settlers under Captain John Denver (II).
12 Mohawk Indians under Chief Steyawe (II).
6 Rangers under Lieutenant Roger Roberts (II).
24 Regular Infantry under Captain William McClenaghan (II) and Sergeant Justin Case (I).
16 Regular Infantry under Lieutenant Jeremy Nixon (II).
French :
12 Huron Indians under Chief Tamagotchee (II).
6 Milice Canadienne under Enseigne David des Mauvaisdès (II).
16 Companies Franches de la Marine Regulars under Capitain Étienne de Casement (II).
6 Companies Franches de la Marine skirmishers under Enseigne Toulaine Contrefleau (I).
16 Companies Franches de la Marine Regulars under Capitain David l’Homme de Malt (II).
6 Companies Franches de la Marine skirmishers under Enseigne Pierre Lapin (I).
Note, both Indian units are subject to the "They Make No Sense" trait, which JD got from a Lard Magazine article. It states - "Woodland Indian units may not be activated by regular European officers. However, they may be activated by officers of the Milice Canadienne or the Colonial Rangers." It came into play during the game.
How it played out.
The peaceful countryside before the protagonists arrive.
This is written from the French perspective as that was the side I was playing. However, the first series of moves showed that we both had the same basic plan. Send the Regular infantry up the road to get to the settlers as soon as possible. The British had the advantage of 2 roads from which to deploy so they did not get into as bad a jam as the French had on the single road.
Meanwhile the Indians and skirmish units from both sides deployed into the woods. The French intention was to get as far through the wood and harass the British columns from the edge of the woods. The British seem to have anticipated this and deployed their Indians and Rangers in to counter this.
The Hurons choose to move their deployment point further into the wood as their first move. However the Mohawks moved close to it so closed it down forcing the Hurons to use the main French deployment point.
The French Companies Franches de la Marine are deployed. Bit of a road block for the line infantry, the skirmishers moving through the woods.
The 2 British line infantry units moving up the roads, with the Mohawks moving out to cover their flank.
The French Milice Canadienne have joined the skirmishers. They were attacked by one group of the Mohawks which they managed to drive off killing 5 of them. But they did not come out unscathed, losing half their contingent, but their officer up and ordering and shock was OK, so no morale check required. The British rangers have finally deployed and are moving in to join the firefight. At the bottom of the picture you can see the Hurons are massing but seem reluctant to join the fight. The 2 British regular infantry units are heading for a traffic jam at the top right.
All 3 French units give the Mohawks a good going over with musketry. 1 dead and wounding the officer, leaving the Mohawks without a commander.
At this point the Hurons threw a wobbly. Their commander Chief Tamagotchee ( aka "The smiling one", aka "The dice Wrangler", sorry typo, "The dice Mangler" ) decided that he was having none of this skulking around in the woods and took of on a long walkabout towards the settlers farmhouse. No amount of my cajoling would get them back as they do not speak French and I do not speak Huron. JD thinks that they had recently seen the last of the Mohicans movie and wanted scalps. Either that or they just wanted to go off piste ( pissed on firewater more like ). So of they went due North blocking the second unit of French infantry from getting involved in the attack on the settlers, the first unit having deployed along the road and about to unleash their first volley. Some of the settlers, for some unknown reason, came out from their walls to unleash a volley, killing one of the French infantry.
The French infantry split from being one formation to 2 groups to give more freedom in selecting targets. The lead group fire at the settlers behind the wall and inflict 3 causalities forcing them to pull back to the farmhouse.
The Rangers and the French skirmishers trade volleys to little effect in the woods.
The British infantry slowly advance along the road.
The Hurons move at a snails pace towards the fields. The dice mangler was up to his usual dice rolling. Memory is unclear, but I think he may have managed 3 ones, or mutant snake eyes as I term it.
At this point we had 3 flag cards in a row, causing a random event. Captain McClenaghan was too busy exhorting the troops and not paying attention to where he was putting his feet. Even though all the troops in the first British infantry unit had managed to avoid the cow pat in the middle of the road the good Captain stepped right in it, reducing his leader status to I, with much smirking amongst the British ranks. The nearest source of water is at the Farmhouse.
The lead British infantry moves up the road and splits into 2 groups, one engaging the French infantry on the road, the other engaging the French skirmishers who where firing at them from the side of the wood. The British charged the French skirmishers who successfully evaded them.
Meanwhile the Milice Canadienne moved across the road behind the infantry to catch up with the Hurons.
The first group of Hurons finally get near the farmhouse and are promptly shot up by the settlers.
The French and British infantry square of against each other straddling the road. One of the British groups gets badly shocked and has to be rotated out to the back of the line to recover, leaving the other 4 to fight on.
You can just see Captain McClenaghan to the left of the British line spotting some water to wash the crap off his shoes.
In the background you can just see the remnants of the Mohawks sneaking round the back of the farmhouse to confront the Hurons. Must have given the settler women and children, sheltering at that end of the farmstead, a bit of a shock until they realised these were friendly injuns.
The second group of Hurons catch up with the first and start to pick away at the settlers behind the wall. With little effect, the Dice Mangler effect striking again .
Meanwhile back in the woods the Rangers and the French skirmishers have continued to trade shots with very little effect. I was amazed how well the Rangers held n as they were down to half strength, but with little shock. The French still at full strength but with a lot of shock
Here we see the very much relieved Captain McClenaghan cleansing himself from the secondary outpouring of Daisy, the settlers best milk producing cow. While around him the settlers are firing at anything which moves and is not Red in colour. The Firefight has been going on for so long you can see the smoke from the black powder starting to accumulate.
The Hurons get up to the wall and are having a Firefight with the remainder of the Mohawks and the settlers, one group of the Hurons are forced to retire.
The position of the forces when time was called.
Indians and settlers fighting at the left of the picture. The lady folk and children have taken themselves of to the orchard for a bit of peace and quiet and some lunch.
The infantry still exchanging volleys with each other, Captain McClenaghan having rejoined his unit and not a snigger to be heard.
In the woods the Rangers have retired to be beside the British infantry, still being pursued and harangued by the French skirmishers.
So time as usual waits for no man. A British victory was called :
- They had possession of the farm.
- Their main Infantry units were in better condition than the French.
So the French Capitain called for a withdrawal. Now to find those crazy Indians and kick several shades of merde out of Chief Tamagotchee, as his not sticking to the plan most surely lost us the day.
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After the battle Captain Denver penned this little ditty to remind posterity off the battle. Many years later his name sake Great great great great great great Grandson would take the song and sanitize it. I think the original is better.
Take me home, cowpat roads. By Captain John Denver, 1756.
Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue ridge mountains, Shenandoah river
Life is old there, older than the trees
But the French and the crazy injuns flow through it like a breeze
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mamma
Take Captain McClenaghan to some water, cowpat covered roads
All my memories gather 'round her
Farmer's lady, no stranger to a musket
Dark and dusty, painted with black powder
Misty taste of moonshine, much rougher than muscat
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mamma
Take Captain McClenaghan, but not by cowpat covered roads
I hear her voice, in the morning hour she calls me
Concerts reminds me of my home far away
Riding down the road I get a feeling
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mamma
Take me home, cowpat covered roads
Take me home, cowpat covered roads
Take me home, cowpat roads
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Photos by the Editor.
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