Muskets and Tomahawks: Bataille Sainte-Foy

Last night, I finally got a game in with my friend Luis in Montreal. It was almost 2 years since I had seen Luis, and that meeting had the distinction of being the last in-person game I had before the start of the pandemic. We had planned to play at L'abyss but we found out at the last minute they close early some nights, so we played at Luis's apartment. I can easily say we were surrounded by a lot of wargaming paraphernalia. On the table next to us was a beautiful table for a battle set in central America with some Aztec warriors. As you can see below, the table set up for the Battle of Sainte-Foy was no slouch. Since we were playing a skirmish game, Luis had selected a small part of the battle along the chemin Sainte-Foy. 

Battle fought within the blue rectangle

French Forces

Infantry Officer

2 units of French Infantry

Grandier Infantry

Milice Officer

2 units of Milice Canadien

British Forces

Infantry Officer

British Infantry

Highland Infantry

Ranger Officer

2 units of Rangers

The initial British advance

The French were allowed to occupy the stone windmill and the British were allowed to occupy the house just east of the windmill. Luis (who of course played the French) did choose to put a unit of infantry in the stone mill, I elected to remain outside the house just to the east in cover. We then alternately deployed each of our units within 12 paces of our table edge. You might not notice it as the figures are so well painted that these are actually 15mm Blue Moon figures, really very nice. Because these were not 28mm figures, Luis has invented this notional unit of paces (around 19mm) and rather then use inches we substituted paces. Luis has made some great measuring sticks which made this all very easy!

Victory Conditions

To occupy both buildings

I was able to advance my main force up my left flank, and drove back the Milice Canadien , eventually routing both units off the table.

Luis was quite tricky though and while I was battering his troops in the centre and the left flank, he had advanced an unit of infantry towards the western house on my right unprotected flank.

Time to run a unit into the building before the French got in!

By now the battle was quite heated, I had brought the French force down to within a whisker of morale failure (26 men on, 25 men off). My dice were generally better than Luis's. But he decided to make a typical French sang froid charge into the building, he was repulsed twice, I believe, but on his third charge with 5 men against my 7 men, he forced me out.....Une victoire française!

So I believe we both had a great deal of fun and it was great to see Luis again. I am sure we will meet up again soon.

Saipan- Sugar Rush (6)

Thursday night, we had our 6th turn on the campaign clock in the Saipan campaign turn. This was again "The Probe" scenario from the main rulebook and the Marines second attempt to take the table.

I felt that P-Y got the better of me in the Patrol Phase, he got far up the terrain with his JOP's, but I have to say again he got 4 free moves before the Patrol Phase actually started. I was able, however, to get a good spread on my JOP's and but them all up against the hedge a major obstacle. 

USMC (FM 10) (+4 on FM roll)

6th Marine Regiment

Type F USMC Platoon #1 (2 men missing)

2SL

3 Infantry Squads with Sup JL and 12 men

Supports (13)

M4A2 Sherman (7)

Pregame Barrage (5)

? (1)

Japanese (FM 11) (+3 on FM roll)

136th Infantry Regiment

Type B Infantry Platoon #1 (12 men missing)

2 SL

3 Infantry Sections with Jl and 12 men

Grenadier Section with JL and 12 men and 3 50mm Mortars

extra fortification due to consolidation.

Supports (7)

Type 97 Khi Shinhoto Chi-Ha Tank (6)

Fortification 1)

So on to the game:

Again, I was confident that P-Y would take a tank, but was not sure how many. I decided to change things up to see how one of my supports that I had yet to take in the campaign would function so I went with my most expensive support a Kai Shinhoto Chi- Ha tank.

I thought I would post this photo that Eero took that is actually a screenshot from Discord.  The quality is really quite good on Discord with the Boost, over 6000km distance!

So the game started. I was fortunate as I got an 11 on my FM roll, while P-Y ended up with 10, rolling a 1! The Marines got a double phase on their first roll and soon after got another double phase, so before I had placed any troops they had the Sherman down and advanced towards the hedge as well as a squad behind the rock as well as one in the field on their right flank. I wanted to hold off my deployment until I could see the Marine path of advance. Soon it was obvious that on their left flank they were going to advance the tank supported by a squad of marines while on their right flank they placed another squad to cover the advance in the field in light cover. I decided it was time to play my cards so I brought on 2 squads both entrenched, one off my northern JOP and one off the southern one. I had a double phase so they both came down on overwatch. P-Y plopped down a FO with the covering squad, which I had not really expected. Before I knew it Mortars were falling down on my positions with extreme accuracy. I should note that we use the TT modifications for mortars and this was really the first time they got a good test. They work quite well, but they caused a fairly spirited discussion on the CoC FB site!

Now it was getting tricky, I was getting a fair number of shots off at the Marines but was not that successful with shocking and killing them, the Mortars were also giving me a lot of trouble. The game really turned into a cat and mouse affaire at this point with me moving my troops back and forth off the hedge to keep them out of LOS while I was trying to jockey the Kai ShinHoTo in a good position to take on the approaching Sherman. The Marines continued their advance with the Sherman and P-Y was able to get a shot off first at the Japanese tank, 1 net hit but I threw a 6 so 2 shock and I ended up reversing almost off the table. At this point I could not get a 3 to save my life but I was getting a lot of 5's so had almost 3 CoC dice in hand.

Finally I was able to advance my tank and remove a shock, the Sherman had now burst through the hedge. The Sherman fired but my armour held up. I was then able to fire back, the Sherman's armour failed, 3 net hits, the tank was knocked out. The Marines withdrew to try another day.

It was a long game, maybe around 3 hours. I felt that P-Y should of won, he was quite unlucky with his dice throws especially the last one.

Butcher's Bill

USMC

Final FM 7

6 figures killed

3 dead+ 2 missing (2 previously dead)

7 down for next game (platoon 1)

CO +1

MO +5 (+1 on FM roll)

Platoon Leaders Outlook Thoughtful

IJA

Final FM 9

4 figures killed + JL 

2 dead+1 missing (12 previously dead)

0 dead for next game (platoon 2)

15 dead for next game (platoon 1) + 1CI JL

CO +2

MO +2

Platoon Leaders Outlook Gregarious (+1 FM)

On to some terrific photos from the camera of P-Y....

Marines covering the left flank advance

The Sherman advances

Infantry supporting the Sherman

The Sherman moves out

The IJA defensive line

The Mortars rain down

Staying out of LOS

The Kai Shinhoto moves into position

Tank Battle

Kaboom!, the Marines withdraw

Devil in the Wilderness

I finally got in a real game of DiW yesterday with an actual opponent. Also got introduced to a new gaming store which was about an hour away in New Hampshire. Midgard Hobbies and Games is quite a nice place, with an excellent and large gaming area and a good stock of gaming accessories, such as mats paints, terrain etc. Maybe a little less in respect to rulesets than the Hobby Bunker in Wakefield, MA. 

Myself and Adam met up there with Dave Valentine the rules writer to have an instructional game. I was pretty familiar with the rules but Adam had not played with the final version before. Notwithstanding, Adam picks up ruleset extremely quickly and this did not slow the game. I had several questions about the game, mostly in respect to the card play as the mechanics are quite straight forward.

I played the Witches with Adam playing the Witch Hunters. The game has an excellent narrative and each player gets 3 main characters with the ability to add several extra characters to your posse or to add unnatural characters to the game which essentially act as automatons, they are best avoided. Dave has a beautiful set up as you will see below. 

We got in several turns in 3 hours, and although there was no clear winner, I did get what would reasonably called a marginal victory and I had pushed the game clock towards Evil rather than Good! There are several different objectives that can be set up in any one game, Dave had set up a trap/treasure scenario for this scenario. At the beginning of the game we were more focused on building up our rosters as well as engaging in several melees. We also were able to place several unnatural creatures on the table which we both spent quite a bit of time dodging. As the game progressed, we started to focus on finding the treasure. I was able to find 2 of the 3 treasures, while we both killed one of the other's main characters. Finding treasures and killing main characters are the path to victory.

Here are some photos from the game, I had a great time and many thanks to Dave for putting on the game. I will really look forward to playing more games as it clearly has a lot of replay-ability. I also understand that there is a Victorian Horror variation coming out in the new year. I may finally get to field my Empire of the Dead figures.

Dave explain the rules, you can see the excellent character cards in the left foreground. 

The game set up, there 7 named locations on the table.

A gallows which I suspect Dave constructed from scratch

Treasure or Trap, six of these well crafted markers were placed on the table.

My early set up with my 3 characters, as well as an Indian Zombie and 3 French Milice, unfortunately the malice immediatedly betrayed me by going over to the Witch Hunters.

Some of the Witch Hunters posse, town folk and a militia sergeant.

I was able to trigger 2 treasure traps in my last turn.

Saipan-Sugar Rush (5)

Last night, we had our 6th turn in the Saipan campaign, but only the 5th turn on the campaign clock. This was "The Probe" scenario from the main rulebook. This I felt would be the toughest game in the campaign for the Marines to win so I had to be on my toes. We made a slight error in our last game as I believe I was supposed to bring on my 2nd platoon, so for this game I had a complete platoon.

P-Y got the jump on me in the Patrol Phase as he got 4 free moves. He got quite far up the table with 2 of his JOP's. I was happy enough with 2 of my JOP's but I would have liked to have the southern JOP a little closer to the hedge.

USMC (FM 11) (+3 on FM roll)

6th Marine Regiment

Type F USMC Platoon #1 (2 men missing)

2SL

3 Infantry Squads with Sup JL and 12 men

Supports (12)

M4A2 Sherman (7)

M3A1 Stuart (5)

Japanese (FM 11) (+2 on FM roll)

136th Infantry Regiment

Type B Infantry Platoon #2

2 SL

3 Infantry Sections with Jl and 12 men

Grenadier Section with JL and 12 men and 3 50mm Mortars

Supports (7)

Minefield  (1)

Tank Hunter Team (2)

4.7cm Type 1 ATG (4)

So on to the game:

I had a pretty good idea that P-Y would go with at least one tank but I was a little surprised that he went with two. I was quite happy that I took some good AT support, the Tank Hunters were going to be key here as I had 2 JOP's close to the hedge with both of them less then 6" away allowing the TH team to deploy on the far side of the hedge.

The Marines got the first move and of course P-Y threw a double phase which is a real gift when you are the attacker at the beginning of a game. He put down the Stuart first and then the Sherman in his second phase, while advancing the Stuart quickly up the table. I decided to hold off until I got a better idea where the tanks would attempt to breach the hedge (major obstacle). The Stuart made a right turn and it appeared clear that it would attempt to cross at the southern point. This worked out well for me as I had to reserve the Tank Hunters for the Sherman. I deployed my Type 1 ATG with a strike of 6 AP and it was able to knock out the Stuart (armour 4) in it's first shot. Things were looking good, but in the next phase the marines deployed 2 infantry squads to fire at my ATG on the hedge ( I really should of put them down with an IJA Infantry squad to share hits but I forgot). I believe the 2 squads got a total of 16 hits, my saves were pretty good with a shock and a kill but I rolled a 1 for the leader hit and the JL was taken out for the rest of the turn.

IJA phase, I rolled a 4 and deployed a SL off the hedge and pulled the ATG off the hedge. Time to reorganise as I knew the Sherman was about to crash through the hedge on my right flank. I turned my gun to the north and deployed an infantry squad with it. Marine phase....P-Y rolled up a 3 and made a fast diagonal move towards the hedge and out of LOS of my gun. He crashed into the hedge. One more move and he would be very close to my table edge thus winning the game. My throw, finally the dice gods had favoured me....I threw a double phase. The ATG was wheeled about into LOS. I threw my second phase, a 4 with a 1, it was looking good. I got 2 net hits, driver killed, 2 phases to change, 2 shock. Time for the Tank Hunters, deployed on a 1. Went to the flank of the Sherman, staying out of the overwatch of the marine infantry, set the satchel charge. Three net hits, P-Y threw a 5, the tank blows up the Tank Hunters are killed....a true Bonzai charge! The Marine FM falls to 7, they withdraw. Finally a Japanese victory.

It was a short game, maybe around 90 minutes. I was happy to win finally.

Butcher's Bill

The post game calculations were quite easy as no men in the core platoons were lost on either side.

USMC

Final FM 7

2 down for next game (platoon 1)

CO +2

MO +6 (+2 on FM roll, Platoon Leader 12" CR)

Platoon Leaders Outlook Content

IJA

Final FM 9

0 dead for next game (platoon 2)

12 dead for next game (platoon 1)

CO +1

MO +1

Platoon Leaders Outlook Assured (+1 FM)

On to some terrific photos from the camera of P-Y....

Japanese Edge

Marine Edge

Stuart

Time to pull out a gun

The Sherman

Need to wheel the gun

So much for the Stuart

Time to get back into action

The Sherman goes up in smoke.

Little Wars TV-Tombstone Tinderbox

 

Some months ago I bought this starter set from Little Wars TV, I had been playing some Old West games with my friend P-Y in a playtest of a soon hoped to be published new TFL ruleset. P-Y has a complete set up in 28mm with beautiful figures and some great terrain. We played quite a few games and we are just waiting now for the playtest to be complete and see the final version of the rules. I really have no intention of duplicating P-Y's efforts, I just have no more room here to expand into a different era especially in 28mm. Remember, I sold over three thousand 28mm Napoleonics to get a 15mm Napoleonic army which took up a lot less space.

But I have to say I was intrigued by everything being in one small box and I really believe Little Wars TV has done an enormous amount for wargaming in the US. I wanted to support their efforts. It was quite impressive what is in the box.

Set up for the shootout at the OK Corral

The Clantons

The Earps

Also included is a set of rules, dice, playing cards and a Tombstone campaign. The campaign is 3 tables and tracks the events of shootout between the Earps and the Clantons at the OK Coral and the subsequent chase through the Wild West. It looks like fun.

The 15mm figures are from Old Glory and I believe they represent various historical and fictional characters from Old West. I am not sure who is who, but I do recognise the "Man with No Name". The figures are nice enough and the cardboard buildings are sort of interesting. Would it be the path I would take, probably not......but I have to say it was a lot of fun putting it together and if I ever wanted to play a small game of "What a Cowboy", I could!