Monday 12 March 2018

French Indian War Campaign Game 4

Game 4 of the French Indian War campaign relay has Fort William-Henry being fought over again. Except this time with slightly larger forces. The campaign background and lead up to this battle can be found at Jonathan's blog - Palouse Wargaming Journal.

The Order of Battle (OB) for this game was larger than previous games which means a reduction in the unit representation of regiments. Past games had one regiment was represented by three units on the tabletop. For this game the two units would represent a regiment. This adjustment was required to fit in with my tabletop size and available units.

French prepare to advance upon Fort William-Henry
Here is the OB with regiments shown in brackets. Both forces were allowed to have one grenadier unit in their regulars, and the French because of the larger OB were allowed an artillery piece.

British

Commander Monckton (A2D1)
6 units (3) regulars
2 units (1) militia
2 units (1) rangers
1 artillery unit in fort
Army resolve = 11 (1 for each regiment plus 1 for commanders defence quality)

French

Commander Dieskau (A2D2)
6 units (3) regulars
2 units (1) militia
2 units (1) Huron war-band. A particularly fierce war-band which will get +1 in combat at half range.
1 artillery unit
Army resolve = 12 (1 for each regiment/warband plus 2 for commanders defence quality)
Will the fort change hands again in this 3rd Battle over the fort.
Game setup

The Plans

The British plan having heard the French force has supporting artillery, is to harass any advance using their rangers from the hills and form a defensive line from their regulars to make any French advance as costly as possible.

The French aim to try and tackle the British forces outside the fort before turning their attention to the fort itself. 

Even having dragged an artillery piece along on their march. This will not be an easy battle for the French to win. They are hoping to reduce the British army resolve by eliminating the forces outside the fort and avoid any costly assault on the fort.

Plans



7 comments:

  1. This will be an exciting match-up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Also note the French, knowing that a loss and retreat means a potentially harsh attrition roll from not being on a supply source, may choose to suffer greater casualties in battle in an attempt to take the fort and supply rather than waste away from attrition.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is turning out to be a critical game.

      Delete
  3. The scene is set, onlookers await with great anticipation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. I too am looking forward to playing the game which will have quite an influence on the campaign.

      Delete
  4. Peter- You certainly do get a lot onto your 6'x 4' Games Table- it all looks superb. Looking forward to the next installment. Cheers. KEV.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks KEV. There are quite a few units onto tabletop, and playing longways down the table gives little room to manoeuvre.

      Delete