Shakos and Bayonets-The Final Hour

For our last club games night, I put on a game of Shakos and Bayonets, a Napoleonic variant of Muskets and Tomahawks. I have had the rules since they came out but this is the first chance I have had to play them. When I sold my 28mm Napoleonics, I kept back several figures to play skirmish Napoleonics. I initially planned to play Sharpe Practice, but I have to say I enjoy Muskets & Tomahawks a bit more. My figure collections in respect to manufacturer is quite varied and includes Front Rank, Perry, Victrix and Alban's well as some from Westfalia Miniatures, a Montreal based figure manufacturer. 

Contained within these figures, are some French ligne, léger as well as dismounted Dragoons. On the allied side, there are British line, both the 95th and 60th Rifles, as well as Hanoverian and Brunswick Jagers. Quite a mix, I have also added a few personality figures from the Brigade Games Napoleonic line, some of which I have yet to paint including Major Ducos and Major Hogan. I have already painted Sharpe, Harper, Major Dunnett, Captain Frederickson as well as Obadiah Hakeswill and Colonel Simmerson. 

Here is the OB with the traits of  the specific units spelled out. With this and the QRS, you really need little else to play the game.

In the rulebook, there were some great looking scenarios but where this was our first game I went with scenario 2: The Final Hour. I acted as games master while David and Julian were the players, while Graham also showed up to keep us all in line. He is probably most familiar with the ruleset having just put on 2 Musket and Tomahawk games at Historicon. 

This was a very interesting scenario with the game being set around the end of a large battle where one side has lost, with the remnants of their troops trying to flee the battle to relative safety. The victorious side has ordered some of their troops to go in pursuit and cut them off. If you look at the table above the French (the pursued) are fleeing from the top of the photo to the safety of the bottom of the table. They are exiting a small Spanish village with many stone walls, as well as an olive grove and some rocky ground. The scenario is set up with the defenders all on the table and the Allied forces appearing at a random deployment point either behind, or to the sides of the French. I thought this was quite a clever mechanic. David played the French while Julian played the Brits.

Some Action Photos

This looked like quite a fun game and I cannot wait to play it myself. Some of the action now escapes me, but there was a lot of back and forth and both players did a nice job, we did reach a conclusion on the second deck with the pursuers being judged the victors. Well played all around.

Muskets & Tomahawks-King Philip's War

Last Wednesday week, myself and Graham got together at the Abyss to have a game of Musket's and Tomahawks. Graham is putting on this game at Historicon in July and he wants to test run the scenario. Most of his gaming with M&T had been with V1 of the ruleset so he wants to get up to speed with V2. 

I believe we had around 600 point armies and played the Battle scenario on both sides. I have to admit that I have not played a lot of M&T recently so I was a little rusty. The book is quite nice but sometimes it is difficult to find answers to questions we had. This is characterised by no clear set up rules in the main text, but they actually exist in the scenario section. I suppose this is reasonable but we were quite confused about something as basic as do the units start on the table on come on when there card is played. We eventually had most of our questions answered post game with the help of some of our club members on our Discord, so I suppose we are now ok. 

Anyway, we did have a fun game with frequent utilisation of the Command Abilities and dramatic card play. We played the scenario out, and I believe it is pretty balanced. The scenario is going to get another test run at the Club Games Day next Saturday, so I suspect it will be well polished before the troops take off to Pennsylvania. Anyway here are a few photos of Graham's terrain and figures.

Muskets & Tomahawks-Battle in the Wilderness

Last Thursday week, myself and Luis got together for a game of Muskets and Tomahawks. It is always good to get in a game with Luis as he is a spirited player. It was also important to get in this game as I was doing a demonstration game with 2 new players three days hence and I had not played for a while. It was good that we did this as I had really forgotten some of the mechanisms but after a couple of turns we were good to go.

We decided on a 500 point game with the following warbands.

We diced up for the type of game, it was going to be in the Wilderness, and we both ended up getting Battle as our victory condition and deployment criteria. Luis was the attacker.  I will let the photos do the talking.

Terrain

The British Assault

Compagnies Franches de la Marine

The Coureurs Devi Bois and Canadien aligned Indians advance

I was able to sneak up a unit of Rangers which gave the Canadians some trouble

The battle line, the river made it difficult.

It was a fun game, with a marginal British victory but we did make an error in set up as I initially gave myself a Sachem with only 6 Indians giving me a bit of an advantage with the Avant Garde card, so it was ultimately a draw. Certainly this outing confirmed what a good rules this is.

 

Historical Gaming at the Abyss-July 2, 2023

 

Last Sunday we had a gathering of 6 of our Club members at the Abyss for demo games of Congo and Muskets & Tomahawks. Graham was testing out his Congo scenario with Korrigan and Iannick which is being played at Historicon next week and I was demo-ing M&T for Gabriel and Camille to introduce them to a French Indian War ruleset. Both games went well, here are a few photos.

Muskets & Tomahawks

British vs Canadiens

500 points

Wilderness Setting

Battle Set up both sides 

Canadien Victory 

Lesson learned: maybe not a good idea to use a river on the long axis of the table as it prevented a good demo of the spotting rules.

Congo

3 columns

3 player game

Hopefully we will have another get together at the Abyss in the latter part of July. 

Pennsylvania Regiment

After many months, I finally got this unit painted. I must of started just before last Xmas but they were in Montreal while I have spent most of the time in Salem. They are lovely figures from one of the Brigade Games kickstarter but I do not feel I did them justice. I found the details a little difficult to pick out. These were painted in the traditional fashion, it might be that I am getting used to using speed/contrast paints and I am losing my touch although I am not really sure if I ever had it!

This Provincial Regiment are to join my British forces for Muskets and Tomahawks. I decided to go with the Pennsylvania Regiment, as they had somewhat of an unusual colour scheme. I think I might be done now for the French Indian War. I really have more then enough forces, although I may be temped to paint a few more Native Americans. I have no regular French forces but have no plans to add them yet.

I am a completist, and I was missing a French Militia man so I added him into the pile.

Well, where to next aside from adding the occasional unit to my present forces. I really do not have a laid pile just some bits and pieces lying around. 

I do have a box of Rubicon Marines for Vietnam as well as some Perry Samurai, I am tempted to move them on to the table next.

Some Puritans

I have been looking for some figures that I could use as Witch Hunter aligned militia for Devil in The Wilderness. I found these figures in the Brigade Games: King Philip's War line. As is usual with Brigade Games miniatures, these were quite impressive. I am trying to use up my Citadel acrylics (excellent paints but sick of their pots), I am down to about 20 pots now and most of them are muted colours so excellent for the late 17th century. I am not sure where I could use them playing Muskets and Tomahawks, but if pressed I am sure I could work it out. I believe, I could have done a bit more prep work on them but I am quite happy how they came out.

These are extreme close-ups, so they look a little rough, but for the table top I am quite pleased. I usually do not take close-up but I was intent on showing what great miniatures they are, rather than to demonstrate my painting ability.