Drums along the Monongahela

Played a good game of Muskets & Tomahawks with the old gang recently. It was an intro game as I was the only one to have played the game. The scenario centered on a mixed British force tasked to burn down a French settlement before it was completed. The French had to kill/rout 2/3 of the British force. I really wanted to use the new blockhouse I made but there are no rules for them in the book, so we made what seemed like reasonable rules for defense factors and had at it.

The whole shebang.

The blockhouse. I tried to make it look like the stockade was still under construction. The 'logs' and 'stumps' in the foreground are just sticks from the yard.

I think this is my favorite shot of the day.

The Brits were to enter along the long side on the right and the two short sides. The French started with the garrison (regulars) in or within 4" of the buildings with their reinforcements entering along the road to the left.

Stockade under construction.

A unit of British Rangers (who would be the MVP's for the Brits), flanked by two units of Indians. Sadly, the Indians quickly vaporized from the first few volleys from the French regulars. 

French Indians. The three guys in the foreground are actually running form British fire while the others are advancing through the meadow from off board.

My pink coats enter. (They are actually quite red in real life.) You can see Indians and more Indians advancing in the background.

French chasseurs take aim.

Indians fire.

The other British Rangers use the terrain to their advantage. The French fire from the blockhouse was murderous. In the background you can see Pennsylvania militia wandering through the woods. We played almost three hours and they never got out as they wandered in circles, lost in a  patch of wood the size of my back yard.

Indians from both sides square off as fire from French regulars pours out of the small building in the back. The French Indians are bad news and no mistake. Being 'bloodthirsty', they re-roll all misses in hand to hand combat. Yikes!

The French Indians close but are about to be rebuffed by a volley at Point Blank range. In the background you can see the British regulars and what's that? Looks like Pennsylvania militia lost in the woods.

The pink coats engaged the French regulars all day in the blockhouse to very little effect.

The Rangers light the first building!

The lone French Regular on this side runs from the burning building.

The Rangers set the second building aflame. They've retreated to a safe distance and take aim at the Canadian militia running out of the building.

We carried the ammo, we might as well use it. The Pennsylvanians finally extricate themselves from the woods and go, decidedly, home.

It was a near run thing as some general once said. The Brits got two buildings alight but, once lit, needed to roll a total of 8 pips to actually destroy them before the game ended. They ended up with 7 on one and 6 on the other! The game also uses subplots to help determine a winner. The French achieved theirs, which was to keep a certain officer alive and Brits failed in theirs, which coincidentally, was to kill the very same officer. (There are actually over 40 different random choices of subplots. It was just a wild coincidence that they were related for this game in this way.) The British had wiped out over half the French but they passed their Morale checks. So, it was a Major French victory but very close to being a Minor British. Either way, I think everyone had a good time.