Sunday, September 20, 2015

Musket & Tomahawks at Barrie's: Refight of Hatchet Creek

After the frogs easily won this scenario last time we fought it, the British players decided the scenario was biased for the attacker.  The French players offered to attack next time, but Barrie instead decided to tweak the scenario to make defence easier.  The afternoon got off to convivial start with a BBQ lunch for the eight participants.
Barrie had set up a magnificent 10'x6' table.  The French objective was to burn at least 5 houses.  The Brit's objective was to stop them.

The Brits started with Mark's coy in the village & James' coy in camp.  They are asleep but will get moving after the alarm is raised & the church bell rung.   JohnW's coy is to come on turn 1 from the left downstream of the waterfall & has to be ferried over the river (that bit is unfordable, the arm to the right is fordable).  Barrie's coy comes on turn 3 from anywhere as nominated secretly before the start.

The frogs have 3 coys which can come on any edge except where the British near the river come on.   Jakes came on the right side just beyond the middle.  JohnM's came on the right side at this end. Jim's came on the near (short) edge.

All went according to plan for the French even though the Brits saw them coming about as soon as was possible.  Jake advanced his Indians on the camp to keep James busy and distract JohnW.  JohnM advanced steadily on the village pausing to fire & reload when targets were presented.  Jim rushed at the left side of the village with fast moving Indians & militia.
At the far end James was not only pinned down by Jake's Indians, but beaten by them.   JohnW's men were moved up towards the village as fast as he could, but they never got into the action.  Mark's defense of the village was disorganised and failed to stop French on-rush.   Barrie's coy came in the French rear (on the right) but was too little too late.  The five houses at this end of the village were over-run and set on fire by giving the Frogs victory by the end of turn 3. 

1 comment:

Truscott Trotter said...

The Brits lack of experience with the period and rules was matched only by their lack of luck with the shooting dice.
The scenario and table distance made it almost impossible for the Brit reinforcements to have any impact on the defence of the town. The French force was more an invasion force than a raid in that it contained 3 full units of Regulars and some heavy artillery.
Finally the plentiful fortifications proved a death trap (as predicted by a certain French commander :)) for the Brits as they tended to stay put in them rather than fight a mobile defence. This allowed the French to gain local superiority, out flank and defeat the Brit defenders piecemeal. Classic tactics for defeating any fixed fortifications that a not a complete circle.