Battle of Fort Christopher

On Friday the Rejects gathered for a rare evening game featuring our special guest Christopher (aka Axebreaker) of Bunker Hill. Chris has been in the shed-o-war before but sadly I missed that game so it was good to meet him this time around. After his previous visit he had already joined the hallowed ranks of the 'Honorary Rejects' but the fact he came back for second helpings means we must be doing something right. Postie put on an excellent French Indian Wars skirmish, and equally excellent supper as most of us had to come straight from work in order to fit this rather large game into an evenings play.

Setup
Fort Christopher overlooks a colonial village and farmland, constantly under threat of attack by the French and their Indian allies.  They expect a raid could be imminent but have no idea where it may come from so at the start of the game, in addition to the garrison, there are several patrols of Light infantry and Rangers widely dispersed across the whole area. Meanwhile the French are using the enclosing woods to spring their attack from multiple points. Their mission is simple; burn, kill and plunder as much as possible.

Order of Battle
British/Colonial Forces
C/O General mounted (Christopher)
   44th Foot (24)
   80th Light Infantry (Gages) (16)
   55th Light Infantry (Howes) (16) 
   Indian Character
   Mountain Man/Adventurer + Mule
2ic Captain of Foot (Lee)
   Virginian Provincials (20)
   Rodgers Rangers (12)
3ic Captain  (Judge Hogg) Militia (Richard)
   Militia/Colonials (Civilians) (42)

French/Indian Forces 
   General on Foot (Ray)
   Indian Character
   Indian Torch Carriers (2)
   Guyenu Line (20)
   Indian Warband (12)
2ic Colonel of Foot (Mark)
   Compagnes French de la Marine (12)
   Indian Warband (12)
3ic Major on Foot (Surjit)
   Trois Revienes Militia (12)
   Indian Warband (12)


Action

As always I'll try to start with an overview picture of the initial setup. However as pretty much all of posties table was being used its hard to fit into just one picture. 

View down the table from Fort Christopher (bottom right) through the village
and onto the river and forest beyond. 

Chris had the 44th Foot inside the Fort and quickly decided it would be wise to bring at east some of these guys out to help defend the village. Out of shot toward the top one of his Light Infantry units was on patrol and the second Light Infantry unit was off table to the left beyond the river and would come on in the first turn. 

My troops were the Virginian Provincials (the blue unit on the road) and Rodgers Rangers (in green) ahead on the road approaching the river. Richard controlled the militia inside all the various buildings, although many of these civilians actually turned out to be unarmed! 

The Infantry in the fort quickly organise themselves to leave to help in the defence of the farmsteads. A handful of troops were left inside just in case those tricky French were foolhardy enough to attack the fort. 

One of the Light Infantry patrols. All the units out on patrol had to continue to follow their starting movement until the alarm had been raised or the enemy spotted.

My Rangers spread out when they spot the first Indian warband exit the forest and begin crossing the river. One of my men takes a shot in their direction. Unfortunately my target is just out of range but the gunfire alerts all the other British units that something is happening. 

A large Guyenu Line unit emerges from the forest and starts to cross the river. This is a big unit and will be very difficult to stop. They advance with the Indians ahead.

Meanwhile more French (in this case Marines) and Indians cross at the lower ford. 

With the knowledge that the French and their Indian allies are crossing in force at this end of the settlement I decide to pull back and take up a defensive position in the centre. My Rangers occupy the fenced yard around one building and the Provincials and some of the Militia occupy the ground around a farm in the middle. All my men are now behind hard cover although there are plenty of gaps the Indians could exploit if they decided to charge into melee. 

Meanwhile down the other end of the settlement more Indians have come out of the forest and quickly moved to attack the rear of the 80th Light Infantry who were patrolling the road. 

Christopher quickly moves these troops across the fences giving them some protection in the ensuing firefight. Non the less the first casualties go down with arrows in their backs and it looks like the Infantry may be in a precarious position. 

Fortunately Christopher's other Unit of Light Infantry (the 55th) have come onto the table and begun to pursue the noisy Indians through the forest. The 80th LI now return fire on the Indians and one of the first killed is their war-chief! Meanwhile the 44th Foot have also left the fort and are now marching as fast as they can into the settlement. 

While Chris fights off the Indians at one end of the town me and Richard are trying to defend the other end from the larger group of invaders. Richard has mustered a handful of Militia to take a few shots at the advancing Indian's and French Line regiment. They kill a couple but are soon peppered with arrows. There is little to stop the Indians plundering and burning the town. On my side of the table Mark moves his Indians and Marines wide of my position. I expected him to use the woods to advance into my weakly defended centre along the yellow lines indicated, but instead he hugs the edge of he table and swings around following the blue line of march. I'm not entirely sure what his plan is, but I'm grateful whatever it is. I've lost a few men but nothing my large Provincial Regiment can't handle.  

At this point its worth explaining some basic concepts for how Posties rules work. Turns start with initiative and then each individual soldier has two actions per turn. Moving, shooting and reloading cost one action each and can be used in any order. Running uses two actions. Crossing barriers or opening doors uses one action and troops that do this cannot use their second action to reload. Troops that fire must spend a whole turn reloading so in effect can only fire every other turn. The Indians are best in forests and suffer a penalty in the open, but they are still deadly in melee as most carry two weapons. Bow wielding Indians are nasty because they are accurate and don't have to spend a turn reloading. Troops in forests can move up to the edge and still retain a cover bonus unless they give their position away by firing. So I expected Mark to make full use of this by getting his troops right to the edge of the woods then waiting to win initiative to charge my soldiers while they reloaded.

Mark's Indians and Marines finally appear and in two turns have killed the small cohort of defenders I had put behind hard cover next to the fish house. The Indians then hide in close formation behind the wall (?!) ignoring the rear door to the building. Two Indian's then cross the wall and charge at my three Provincials taking cover behind a log across the road. The remaining Indians swing around the yard but are at least a turn away from being able to charge into melee. Meanwhile Mark uses his Marines to take pot shots at my men and my Rangers take a few shots back. Casualties mount on both sides. 

While all this is happening Chris has managed to bring his 55th Light Infantry through the woods and appear behind the French Indians attacking the 80th LI. The resulting crossfire was eye watering as Chris rolled 20 after 20 decimating the war-band. 

The Indians and Militia that remain are forced towards the centre of town. Despite being in this choice position they fail to steal a single cow or burn a single building!

Chris had been bringing up his 44th Foot (from the Fort) to support his Light infantry but now with the Indians effectively a spent force he decided to change their direction. A turn to reorganise and the 44th begin to run down the road towards my position.  

There is a lot going on in this picture. Chris's 44th Foot are running up the road to support me. Marks Indians have swung around the smokehouse yard while two have charged my Provincials across the road. I move up five men and fire at point blank range killing just one Indian! Meanwhile Mark moves his Marines along the forest edge presumably to launch a charge next turn. My remaining Provincial troops and Rangers are firing in all directions (denoted by the Red lines). I have moist success against Ray's Line unit advancing (around the top in this picture) killing most of his front rank of troops. 

Darkness is quickly forcing an end to this raid and with a final flurry of shots the game comes to an end. My Provincials and Rangers have been defending that triangle of land around the farmhouse the whole game, moving from one side to the other as the threat demanded. However in the final volley my Provincials drop to below 50% forcing a Morale check (my second of the game) and I fail miserably. Had the game continued they would have been forced to retreat for two turns but as this is the end of the game the failed check as little impact on the end result. 

So have the French/Indians done enough damage to win this game on points?


Analysis
The short answer to that last question is; No. The British ended the game on 108 points, mostly from killing Indians who are worth more points. The French forces did a lot of damage but they end the game on just 60 points so this was a decisive victory for the British! Tactics aside the reason this didn't work for the French is that this was a raid and they would have score points for stolen booty, destroyed crops and burned buildings. They failed to loot a single item and didn't so much as set fire to a haystack let along any buildings. They may have dealt a lot of casualties to the British/Provincial troops but they only did so by completely ignoring their mission objectives!

That was an excellent game and great fun for all involved I think. Once again Posties FIW rules proved simple and easy to understand and resulted in relatively fast play and decisive action.