Musket Action: French & Indian Wars at Good Games

Chris' Brits v. Jim's French.
1,250 pts, BA Double Envelopment Scenario.

The French are on the near side. In this scenario both sides start with half their units on the table & the rest in reserve coming on subject to command test from turn 2.  The Brits mainly put their support troops on first & brought on their regulars from reserve.  The French mostly put their regulars on first & then brought on the support troops.  The French advanced their line infantry hoping to blow away the Inexperienced Colonial line infantry quickly.  But with the cover of the hedge & poor French dice the Colonials survived & the British Regulars, coming on promptly from reserve, overlapped the French left & hammered it with converging fire. 

I think not many troops look better than red coats & tricorn hats, even with my basic paint job.

On the far flank, the French hussars tried to drive the Indians away.  The Indians evaded & the British cavalry counterattacked & broke the hussars.  They went on to charge the French line, but were repulsed by defensive fire then finished off by artillery fire.  With the cavalry out of the way the far flank turned into a skirmish fight between the Indians & the Canadian militia.

On the near flank, the French Indians charged & broke the lead British Indian unit then turned right to overlap the right of the French line.  The remaining French Indian unit pressed on down the flank to gain VPs by exiting the far edge of the table.

At the end of 6 turns, the French had 3 VPs for position, 2 for breaking enemy units so 5.  The Brits had 4 points for broken French units so when the dice decreed no 7th turn, the result was a draw.  But the British were in by far the stronger position & when we played a 7th turn (for curiosity, because we had time), more French units broke & they couldn't stop a unit getting into their deployment zone & the Brits hit the lead.

There are a couple of issues with the rules still being debated, but we are very happy with them in general.  We think they fill the niche for a game for small armies in the musket era very well.  Muskets & Tomahawks & Sharp Practice fit in the same niche, but Musket Action has the great advantage for Bolt Action players that if you can play BA you can play MA with a minimal learning curve - there's only 3 pages of rules to learn.