La Milice Canadienne

 These are intended for the French and Indian Wars. There are 29 figures in all. First three groups of eight.

And now some leaders and musicians.

Now, the sharp-eyed amongst you will note that they aren't really very accurate for the period, and that is because they are really Warlord Games plastic American Militia for the War of Independence and their clothing isn't really right at all, assuming that they should be wearing the items that French regulations mandated. My only defence here is that they are a bunch of rapidly-raised militiamen who are just wearing whatever was available.

These are going to be used for FIW Sharp Practice games at BIG this coming weekend, using David Hunter's Saindoux Campaign troop rosters, which allows for Milice Canadienne in line groups of eight figures.

These took me ages to get finished, mainly because I fell out of love with the figures while I was painting them. They were all from the free sprues that Wargames Illustrated gave away ages ago and I really didn't much like the poses of some of them, nor the fact that too many are equipped with Pennsylvania "long rifles" rather than standard muskets. I think that they have turned out OK, but at some point I think I'll replace them with some more appropriately-equipped metal versions.

Where The Leaf Falls - A BIG Sharp Practice weekend

Last weekend was the latest instalment of David Hunter's ongoing Saindoux Campaign, set in the British and French colonies in 18th century North America and using the Sharp Practice rules by TooFatLardies. (It is probably worth pointing out here that Saindoux is the French translation of the word Lard.)

Anyway, all the usual suspects gathered once more at BIG in sunny (not so sunny, actually) South Bristol for two days of French and Indian Wars gaming.

I'm not going to say too much here, except that the tables were, once again beautiful to look at and the scenarios gave all of us much thought, and more than a small amount of grief. I took a lot of pictures, but the low light levels meant that the ISO level on my DSLR ( a Pentax K70, in case anyone is interested) was pushed out to 128000 and therefore shooting without flash ended up producing grainy pictures, so apologies for that.

Anyway, the first few pictures are from my first game. My co-player had a force of Huron Indians and their behaviour was decidedly odd. First, they spurned an obvious opportunity to advance on the far bank of the river to outflank the British via a ford, instead deploying close to a pair of deserted Mohawk lodges. Then, after a couple of rounds of musketry, they entered the lodges and looted them. I was somewhat nonplussed, but what could I do? They were immune to reason. Things only got worse when the Huron warriors then set fire to the lodges and proceeded to escape with their loot, leaving my French to face the combined British forces alone. Luckily, I managed to kill an escaping British commander, so the French objective was achieved without actually defeating the British. It was only afterwards that I discovered that plunder and destruction was the Huron objective.

So, after Day 1, the French had a strong advantage, but the British hoped to come back strongly on Sunday.

 

This was another WHAT???? moment. The French had to destroy the fort that they had captured from the British the previous day. After accumulating 50 task points, the fuse would be lit and the fort would explode at the next Chapter end, ideally giving the occupants of the fort time to get away. Unhappily, the Tiffin chip came out too early to see any Command chips emerge from the bag. OK, never mind, we'll have another try in the next phase. Inevitably, the very first chip of the new phase was Tiffin. End of Chapter. Ka-Boom! the fort went up, killing everyone inside the building and causing many casualties and monumental levels of shock on those inside the pallisade. The game limped on for one more phase after that, but having achieved the objective, the French withdrew, somewhat shell-shocked and battered.

 

In gaming terms, my high-spot was the way my fusiliers from the Régiment de Guyenne performed. With the close terrain, getting a formation into action was a slow process, but when they arrived, the dice pixies were generally kind to me, and firing Controlled Volleys paid off handsomely, giving Les Rosbifs a series of bloody noses.

In the end, the two days ended with a French victory,  so Hurrah! Mon Dieu! Vive le Roi! etc.

It was another terrific weekend of gaming and I enjoyed every minute of it. Ultimately, though, it isn't about winning or losing, it is about enjoying some excellent gaming with a bunch of friendly and like-minded gamers. 

A Most Despicable Place - Sharp Practice in the North American colonies

Over the weekend, I took part in a massive series of linked games of Sharp Practice set in the French and Indian Wars (part of the Seven Years' War), fought out between the French and their Huron allies and the British on the border between the French possessions and those of the British.

The basic premise was that the British had been repelled in an attack of Fort Frontenac and were seeking to find ways of striking back against the French. One story thread involved British forces trying to make their way back to safety following their failure in front of Fort Frontenac. Another was all about British forces trying to land troops from boats after crossing a lake and advance through French territory to carry out reprisal raids. The other main story line was all about French raiding forces trying to push out British settlers and destroy their farms and villages.

The weekend was played out at Bristol Independent Gaming and the whole jamboree was orchestrated by David Hunter, whose efforts have to be applauded, not only for the huge amount of work he put into the event, but also for his energy and good humour deployed in keeping the whole event moving along as a plausible narrative. 

Although the whole thing went down to the wire, the small advantage gained by the French on the first day was maintained until the end, in part by the victories gained by the Huron forces, which denied the British victories even though these wins didn't count towards the French tally.

On the British side, we saw a lot of line troops, including Grenadiers, supported by a few units of Light Bobs and colonial Rangers, while the French fielded a lot of Compagnies Franches de la Marine Light Infantry, Milice canadienne, some Huron allies and regular French line Fusiliers and a few Grenadiers. The French also had the use of a light cannon.

All the tables, which covered a wide range of terrain, looked absolutely fantastic and gave everyone a lot of challenges in how to best deploy and control their troops. I think that the most difficult table for the British was the beach landing one, which led to them struggling to get moving, which they eventually achieved after the third game of the four sessions played over the two days. The best thing about that particular scenario was that it allows both sides to actually fight an 18th century linear battle, although even here the skirmishers and light infantry had a big role to play.

It was good to catch up with some old faces and new ones too, especially those I knew from the Sharp Practice Facebook page, as well as Rickard Clarke and Nick Skinner (the actual TooFatLardies) who dropped in on Sunday morning on their way home from Crusade in Penarth on Saturday. I will surely treasure the photo of Sidney Roundwood that Rich gave me before he left.

Anyway, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.