Planning a French and Indian War tree campaign with a map

I have recently been playing a few French and Indian War games and made a scratch-built a ship with landing boats so I can incorporate some amphibious operations into my games. While I enjoyed playing the one-off games, I wanted to play a few games that were linked as part of a campaign. 

The question is what campaign approach to use? Any approach should:

• Keep the game count manageable, about 3 games sounds just fine.
• Provide a supporting narrative to keep the games engaging and with an objective.
• Have a map, as I like maps and the making of them.

This short campaign is designed to allow for one or two amphibious landings.

Step 1 - Find a suitable campaign approach.

I found an example of a simple tree campaign consisting of 3 battles in an old Warhammer set of rules I have.  

A simple tree campaign found in a Warhammer rule book.

Step 2 - Select suitable OHW scenarios.

For my tree campaign, I selected One-Hour Wargaming (OHW) scenarios for each battle, while attempting to create a cohesive narrative between the scenarios. This process took longer than expected because each scenario had to fit logically with potential outcomes, wins and losses from previous battles. I found myself looping through various options until I found the ones which fitted the narrative I had in my head.

Some of the initial planning for the campaign with OHW scenarios identified.

Step 3 - Making the map

Next, I needed to incorporate the scenarios into a map to add more context to the campaign. The map helps establish a connection between each battle, their terrain, and the broader campaign.

I sketched out each selected OHW scenarios on its own 2-inch by 2-inch pieces of paper which was cut out. With a rough idea of how I wanted the map to look, I arranged the cut out pieces of paper on a larger sheet to establish the flow between scenarios based on which side wins or losses. In some cases, I had to flip a scenario map to create a mirror image. Once satisfied with their placement, I began sketching the map to incorporating the scenario maps.

Not the best photo of the cut out scenarios as they were position on a blank A3 sized page.

Having sketched out the map it was a simple process of colouring in the map.

Final map showing each of the scenarios.

Step 4 - Double checking the flow with the tree campaign.

A final step was double checking the flow of the tree campaign with the scenarios.

The scenario maps in a tree structure

Campaign narrative using the map as a guide.

With reinforcements and support from the Royal Navy, the British plan to advance up the coast and capture Fort Orleans, leveraging their naval support to undertake amphibious landings. However, Fort Robert has onshore guns that prevent any naval operations. Capturing Fort Orleans would be considered a major British victory, requiring three tabletop wins within the campaign.

The map showing the planned attack approach of the British.

Minor victory is achieved by crossing the river further downstream to set up a bridgehead for future operations or the capture of Fort Robert. These can be achieved with 2 tabletop wins and 1 loss.

The circled areas would be considered a minor campaign victory if held.

Looking at the narrative for the first tabletop game.

An initial victory is crucial for the British forces at the start of their campaign. A loss would give the French time to reinforce Fort Robert’s defences, forcing the British to move inland towards Henry’s fram in search of a river crossing upstream of Fort Orleans. This inland route would expose them to counterattacks from the French and their Native Indian allies. While, a victory would allow the British to advance swiftly along the coastal road, isolating Fort Robert and cutting off any French reinforcements.

The British launch their first attack across the river from King’s Town and also land forces further down the coat. 

The scene is set for the first game.

The tabletop is setup for the first game, OHW scenario 19 - Blow from the rear. The British will be using their Naval support to land troops behind the French left flank. A slight modification to the scenario.

The tabletop is setup and the campaign begins!

New game, models, and book purchases

This week, a few purchases arrived. Some were planned, while others were more spontaneous and others opportune. One of the planned purchases came about from a call with my son, who suggested we should both start collecting the Star Wars Legion game and play some wargames. Since he’s not interested in historical gaming, I figured, why not give it a try? The game is new to me, but after watching some YouTube tutorial videos, it seemed like an interesting game. I decided on the original core starter set, as it has miniatures from the Star Wars films the I remember, while my son opted for a Clone Wars starter set.

A planned purchase.

So far, I have painted a couple of test figures. I’m aiming for a clean and crisp look without using washes or dry brushing. A final gloss finish helps to conceal any of my painting mistakes.

A few test miniatures painted.

My impulse purchase was from the local hobby shop. A M7 Priest to add to my WWII collection. The kit includes two models with the option to build one as a Kangaroo. I’ve already assembled and painted one as Priest and hope to get them on the tabletop soon.  

An impulse buy.

One completed Priest

For now, I need to finish a French and Indian War game that is underway as part of a tree campaign I have started. I plan to write it up once things are less busy on the home front.

Early stages of the FIW game.

I finally get to use the Sloop for a landing in the game.

Finally, I picked up two second-hand books from a retailer here in New Zealand, saving on international shipping which seem to add so much to the cost nowadays. I had been searching for a reasonably priced copy of “Renaissance Armies” by George Gush for a while, so when it popped up, I quickly grabbed it (well clicked and added it to the cart). I saw they also had “Featherstone’s Complete Wargaming” at a good price too and decided to get it after reading a review on the Lone Warrior site (here). The book feels like one big magazine, filled with various articles and perfect for picking up, reading a bit, and putting back down.

Latest books to add to the collection.

English Civil War battle report using activity cards

Over the past few weeks, I have been trying out some different activation mechanics for my English Civil War games. For now, I have settled on a card-based system that activates an army’s various commands. These include commands for the right wing, centre, left wing, reserve, artillery, and dragoons. The activation card deck also includes cards for rallying troops and resupplying units that have exhausted their ammunition. The cards are shuffled at the start of a turn and revealed one at a time and units in the identified command are activated. Action cards, such as rally and resupply, allow for a command to rally, reducing the number of hits accrued on 1-3 units, determined by a D3 dice, or resupply one unit that is out of ammunition.

The following battle report used this card activation approach.

A close up of the game.

Activation cards. These are shuffled at the start of each turn and commands activated as their card is revealed from the pack.

The game is based upon scenario 4, Take the High Ground, from the One-Hour Wargames book.

Background

At dawn, Sir Richard Chesley’s Royalist forces stood ready to defend a strategic hill southwest of Lower Redwich from Parliamentary troops operating in the area They are expecting reinforcements from their main army, which was advancing from the northeast. Unbeknownst to them, Sir William Harding’s Parliamentarian force had marched through the night. As the early morning mist lifted, Chesley’s men saw their enemy arrayed before them ready for Battle! A tense glance over their shoulders brought a some relief as emerging from Lower Redwich, the leading elements of reinforcements could be seen.

The tabletop setup with Parliamentarian forces on the right. Royalists positioned on the hill and around the town of lower Redwich in the background.

Order of Battle

Royalists Positioned on Hill

• 4 units of infantry
• 1 unit of commanded shot
• 1 unit of artillery

Royalist Reinforcements arriving on turn 2

• 4 units of infantry
• 8 units of cavalry split into in two commands each of 4 units

Parliamentarian forces

• 6 units of cavalry, 2 on the left wing and 4 on the right wing
• 8 units of infantry, 5 in the centre and 3 in reserve behind the right wing.
• 2 units of dragoons supporting the right wing.
• 2 units of artillery positioned between the centre and right wing.

Victory Conditions

• Uncontested control of the hill.

Special Rules

• Royalists reinforcements cannot move from their Lower Redwich positions until turn 2.
• Once an force has lost more than half of its units it cannot launch further attacks.

Battle Report

Opening moves...

As the morning fog lifted, Sir Harding ordered his Parliamentarian forces forward, with artillery bombarding the Royalist held hill. 

Artillery begin their bombardment.

On the right, Parliamentarian cavalry advanced just north of the road, while dragoons took up positions behind hedgerows in the hope of delaying the reinforcements arriving from the direction of Lower Redwich. Meanwhile, Parliament's infantry centre pressed up the slope, engaging the defenders head on. Their left wing cavalry were ordered to flank the Royalist position.

Before long,  Sir Harding’s right-wing cavalry and dragoons found themselves engaged in combat with the Royalist cavalry, while a column of Royalist infantry were seen marching swiftly down the road to join the fray.

Parliamentarian forces advance upon the hill top while their right wing attempts to delay Royalist reinforcements.

The Royalist defenders on the hill are hard pressed from all sides.

Mid game...

Sir Chesley’s defenders on the hill were under immense pressure and beginning to waver. They required multiple rallies to hold firm as Parliamentarian forces pressed their attack. Their artillery had already fallen to enemy cavalry, but Chesley’s spirits lifted at the sound of battle on his left. Royalist reinforcements had engaged the Parliamentarian troops.  

Sir Harding was initially pleased in his right wing’s success in delaying the Royalist advance. However, his confidence wavered as his right wing cavalry were driven back to the base of the hill just as his infantry had routed most of the defenders and were preparing to move onto the hill. Amid this chaos, Sir Richard Chesley lay dead among his fallen defenders. 

Further to the right, Harding’s dragoons withdrew to join his reserve infantry, now the last line of defence against the surging Royalist cavalry and infantry.

The hill's defenders are being hard pressed.

Royalist reinforcements are advancing and forcing back Parliamentarian units.

End Moves...

The Royalist right wing cavalry routed their opponents and occupied the hill as the Parliamentarian infantry advanced. Meanwhile, after regrouping, the Royalist left wing cavalry launched another charge, breaking most of Parliament’s reserve infantry. However, the Parliamentarian infantry in the centre proved too strong for the Royalist horse, driving them from the hill.  

As the relatively unscathed Royalist infantry finally arrived, both armies found themselves with half their forces routed. Neither side was eager to press the attack further, leaving Sir Harding’s troops in control of the hill. That night, Harding penned a letter to his superiors in London, reporting his hard-fought victory.

Royalist forces press forward.

Parliament forces finally gain control of the hill.

Next up some medieval forces may get on to the tabletop.

Busy Painting

Not much to write about this week, mainly photos as I have been busy painting and managed to complete four units. The week began with a unit of Spencer Smith Hussars, which had jumped to the top of my painting queue. These Hussars, gifted by a fellow wargamer (see here), will be used in my Napoleonic wargames. I was eager to get started on them. They are simple models that I paint in a toy soldier style with a glossy finish.

The Hussar miniatures certainly give the impression they are charging forward.

The figures are painted in a simple toy soldier style and glossed.

After finishing the Hussars and settling into my painting groove, I turned my attention to a few English Civil War miniatures that had been prepped many months ago, before our move to New Zealand. The units consist mainly of Hinchliffe miniatures, with a few Minifigs mixed in.

You can never have enough artillery.

Some Hinchliffe cavalry with a dragoon interloper who had lost their flintlock and has been repurposed to carry the standard. 

A Commanded Shot unit with a mix of Minifigs and Hinchliffe.

On the tabletop, I've played a couple of quick English Civil War games to test a couple of different activation mechanisms, one being card-based activation and the other a dice draw approach. Both approaches include steps for resupplying units that run out of ammunition. So far, I'm leaning towards the dice draw approach as it provides more choice for the wargamer as to which command to activate.

A close up shot of a game.

Testing out a dice draw approach in this test game.

French and Indian War ship and landing boats

As part of my preparations for a French and Indian War (FIW) campaign, I have made a two-dimensional ship using leftover MDF sheets from a shelving project. I cut the basic hull shape from two MDF pieces and glued them together. After attaching the masts, I cut out some furled sails from a thin 3mm MDF board, which I typically use for model bases. Finally, I painted the ship.

A landing party.

The ship was intentionally designed in two dimensions (or perhaps 2.5, as it has some depth) to keep to a minimum the tabletop space occupied by a river or the sea in any given scenario. So the model had to fit on a 6-inch strip of blue felt without looking like it had become beached. After completing the ship, I thought it would add to the look by adding a couple of landing boats. The same space constraints applied, the boats were also kept relatively flat and were also scaled down for perspective.

Additional troops are brought ashore.

To create the landing boats, I took a screenshot from a painting titled “The Taking of Quebec” from the National Army Museum's online collection. I focused in on one of the boats unloading troops in the picture. Then imported the image into Google Slides, made a copy and flipped it, before aligning the two halves in a mirror image.

The two halves of the same picture lined up as mirror images.

The image is then folded and sandwiched around some thin card.

After printing, I folded the images and glued them around a piece of cardboard to add strength. Once the glue was dry, I trimmed around the image and attached two 3mm MDF pieces to either side, shaping them to match the boat.

After cutting out the image. Two bits of 3mm MDF were cut and shaped to match the boat. Very fiddly!

It was tempting to leave the boat as just a printed image, but my printer is not that good at printing colour, it all looks a bit faded. So, I decided to brighten up the crew with some paint, almost like colouring by numbers, but in a loose painting style.

A comparison between the painted and printed versions.

The final steps involved using a grey felt-tip pen to go around the edges so they were not white and tidy up any rough areas of the painting. I then added some round plastic rods for the oars and applied a layer of PVA glue to seal everything and give it a nice glossy finish.

Some final touches and oars were added.

Landing parties being taken ashore.

I might use the ship and boats in a scenario before starting the campaign.

A surprise package and some horse models

Today, I received a package in the mail containing some plastic Spencer Smith Hussars. They were a generous gift from Neil of the aufklarungsabteilung.blogspot, who reached out after I mentioned in a recent post needing to use some 28mm Hussar figures having run out of Spencer Smith Hussars (see here). He had some spare and kindly offered to send them my way, an offer I gladly accepted. These will be soon moving up the painting queue! 

New recruits.

At the moment, my painting table is occupied by a scratch-built two-dimensional ship and a couple of boats for my French and Indian War (FIW) games, where I’m adding an amphibious element. More on them in the next post.

A recent purchase to be used for some more carts, wagons, and limbers.

Additionally, I bought some horse models to build more wagons and artillery limbers, continuing on from my recent scratch-building efforts to add carts to my FIW armies (see here).

Finally, some photos of an English Civil War game…

The tabletop all laid out ready for a game.

A view of the infantry all lined up.

The cavalry stand ready.

French and Indian War Convoy Battle Report

This is a battle report for a French and Indian War scenario where a supply convoy is trying to reach a fort and is expecting an attack by enemy forces. See the previous post for the background, order of battle, and victory conditions. 

The tabletop with the supply convoy arriving.

For the game I am using a variation of the One-Hour Wargames (OHW) horse and musket rules. Some of the changes include:  

Shooting Changes: Subtract 1 from shooting rolls if the unit fired during the previous turn, reflecting the difficulties of visibility following an initial volley. Militia units always subtract an addition 1 when shooting.  

Charge Changes: Only Indian units and regular infantry may charge. If a charge does not eliminate the target unit, the charging unit must retire facing away from the target. Units have to wear down their target first, else risk failure.

Movement Adjustments: Units (excluding carts and artillery) gain an additional 3 inches of movement when traveling on open ground or roads. Carts move 6 inches on roads and open.

Elimination Tests: To determine if a unit is routed, roll a D6 and add the result to the unit's accumulated hits. If the total is 16 or more, the unit is routed and removed from play. Modify the D6 roll as follows: add 2 for Indian units and 1 for militia units.  

Battle Report

As the convoy advanced along the road, gunfire erupted from the northern woods. Reacting swiftly, the British commander ordered three units to engage the ambushers. Meanwhile, the supply carts, flanked by regular infantry units, hurried forward, determined to reach their destination. The intensity of the enemy fire from the north woods increased as additional reinforcements of Indian warriors and French militia emerged along the tree line.

Gunfire erupts from the trees. Additional French reinforcements can be seen moved through the north woods.

Along the road British engage while trying to push the carts to towards the fort.

As the convoy crested the hill and the fort came into view, so too did a line of French regular infantry advancing rapidly from the south. See the danger, a detachment of regular infantry from the fort's garrison sallied forth to intercept the approaching threat and help to bolster the convoy’s defenders and prevent the French from cutting off the carts before they could reach the safety of the fort. 

More French reinforcements arrive from the south.

A unit from the fort marches out to help protect the carts.

As the supply convoy began its descent down the hill, the British units holding the northern flank faltered and routed, leaving the convoy dangerously exposed in its final run to the fort. A unit of French regular infantry moved to cut off the convoy’s path. In response, all remaining British forces formed a protective cordon around the supply carts, relying on the fort’s gun to provide them with covering fire.

The convoy’s northern flank routed.

The French close in.

With their rearguard routed, the remaining British units marched alongside the supply carts, taking relentless French fire. Despite suffering heavy losses, they shielding the carts and ensured their safe passage to the fort's gates. 

Continuing to march along the road the British take heavy casualties.

Finally the supply carts reach the fort.

Wrap up…

The battle was a British victory as both supply carts successfully reached the fort. In hindsight, I should have pushed the French forces from the northern woods closer to the fort in an attempt to cut the road ahead of the convoy, even at the risk of coming under fire from the fort’s gun. If I were to replay the scenario, I would also consider bolstering the French southern reinforcements with another unit of regular infantry to balance the engagement.

The supply carts move into the safety of the fort.