Skirmish Game: French Indian Wars

One facet of Neil's rules that I haven't gamed so far, but have been wanting to
for some time, are his skirmish rules in Introduction.

I used to play a lot of skirmish level games back in the 1980's, the majority
were sci-fi and based on RPGs or FGU Space Marines. I also played some
historical and fantasy skirmish games. Since then not much so it was a return to
the olden days for this type of gaming experience. I wasn't disappointed.

My chosen period was the French Indian Wars in Canada. I have always been
intrigued by an article in Wargames Newsletter which descibed a game using Don
Featherstone's Close War rules. It has captured my imgagination and finally I
decided to go for it and set something comparable up but use the Thomas Skirmish
rules with the inevitable tweaks and amendments I've already overlaid on the
original.

The British raiding party was to penetrate dense woods in order to reach the
St.Lawrence and cut loose three floating batteries, protected by a camp occupied
by French regulars and Canadian Militia. Things started well with rapid progress
through clearings and paths. My New England Rangers were deemed to be unaffected
by woods so speeded round the French flank. Some well placed pickets of French
Regulars supported by a couple of patrols of Huron Indians and Militia soon
slowed down the British advance and stalled progress while they were being dealt
with.

Meanwhile the alarm had been raised at the French camp and the French Colonel
was able to deploy his men to guard the batteries and advance on the British
thrust down the river bank. Some British light infantry had succeeded to cut one
of the moorings but were forced back by heavy musketry from the French.

Casualties started to mount and with a 50% morale check eliminating further
stands I decided the British were not going to progress any further and they
melted back the way they came.

Overall a great little game. The rules performed really well and my in-game
experiments with my house rules proved very useful. I toyed with impetus,
ambushes, concealment, flank and rear attacks, the effect of wounds on combat to
name some of them.

I liked the loading delay in musket fire. I made the rifles more musket like
than the rules which I think are based on early breechloaders. I think the rules
could be used for virtually any period. I've focused my amendments more on
Modern and Sci-fi but I don't see a problem going further back to A&M and P&S.

I do remember playing Paddy Griffith's skirmish rules in Napoleonic Wargaming
For Fun. These were great but I did feel like I was loading my musket for half
the game. The actions in these rules are limited, the gameplay is fast and the
action pretty decisive. The game took about an hour and a half to two hours but
I was typing away on my amendments during the action so this probably slowed
things down a bit.

Look forward to another skirmish game.