French Indian War Campaign Game 4 Report

The 3rd battle of Fort William-Henry has a British defending force against a similar sized French force.

For a campaign background and lead up to this battle see Jonathan's blog - Palouse Wargaming Journal.  Units on the table are:

British - Commander Monckton

6 regulars
2 militia
2 Rangers
1 artillery piece in fort

French - Commander Dieskau

6 regulars
2 militia
2 Huron war-band
1 artillery unit

On to the game report...

As the French advance the fort gun opens fire. Fairly accurately for an opening shot.

British regulars push forward in a somewhat disorganised fashion.

Huron war bands move quickly forward to engage the rangers in the hills and their to harass the advancing French line.

The British finally manage to organise their line and are soon engaged by a combination of regulars and militia in the French line.

The Huron war band gets support from French regulars. Their combined fire is taking a toll on the ranger unit.

Meanwhile on the other flank French and British lines are exchanging volleys.

With one ranger unit eliminated the war band moves up swiftly to engage the second ranger unit.

Casualties were mounting on both sides.

Both Huron war bands to move on the remaining ranger unit and free up the supporting regulars so they could move on the flank of the British line.

The French lose a militia unit before the British line prudently retire as their casualties mount.

The rangers are taking heavy casualties, but are able to eliminate one war band unit.

The orderly retirement of the British line proves problematic with some units failing to retire in unison. One unit is left exposed to French musket fire. 

On the British right flank militia units move up to support a hard pressed ranger unit.

The British lose another regular unit. Their army resolve was starting to waver.

A second ranger unit is eliminated and the militia are now facing a couple to advancing regulars and the remaining Huron war band.

The British regulars prepare to retire to the fort.

Militia with supporting fire from the fort hold steady.

British regulars retire to the fort.

Militia units retire after successfully eliminating one of the advancing French regular units with the support of fort artillery. French resolve is weakening, but British army resolve is at the brink of failure.

The loss of a militia unit sees a collapse of British moral and negotiate the surrender of fort William-Henry.

A victory to the French force and their commander Dieskau. The plan to eliminate units outside the fort before moving on the fort proved successful. The Huron war band proved particularly effective in clearing out the ranger threat. Allowing more French regulars to move across and attack the British line, eventually forcing it to retire.

Both sides finish the battle with depleted units, but no destroyed units, and they will be available for future activity in the campaign.

In terms of poor dice rolling. The French artillery shooting was spectacularly ineffective, while British army resolve was quickly whittled away with some high dice scores for each unit eliminated.

So back to Jonathan and the campaign operational moves. I wonder if there will be a 4th battle of Fort Willian-Henry?

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

Preparing for a siege - building a star fort part 1

The current French Indian War campaign relay with Jonathan of Palouse Wargaming Journal (for campaign background and concept click HERE) may well include a siege game at some point. With that in mind this weekend I decided it was time to get started on building a star fort, well half a star fort, which will be positioned on the edge of the tabletop.

Given my units are all based on 4x3 inch bases and played on a 6 inch square grid, I had to give some though as to how my units will be position in any fort I build. During the week I had sketched out a fort plan and given some thought as to how to build it.

So here is part 1 of my star fort...

MDF sheet cut out to act as the terrain feature base.

Using the MDF as a template multi-use foam board is cut out. In the case of the main fort a centre 6 inch square removed. 

The foam board is stuck using PVA glue to the MDF base.

Once the base MDF and foam board were firmly attached. Half inch triangular wooden dowel was cut out and attached to the top to act as parapets. I don't need to be too precise with my cutting the joins as later in the build process it all gets covered.

Two guerites were added as an after thought. These sentry boxes add to the look of the fort. A gateway entrance has been cut out in the foam board. This photo shows how my based units will fit into the fort once completed.

The next step is to cover the fort in tissue paper and PVA glue (I tend to use kitchen paper towel for this). Then small details are added.

So that is part 1 of the star fort build. My guide during this process and for creating some supporting war-game rules is the book "Fire and Stone - The Science of Fortress Warfare 1660-1860" by Christopher Duffy. There is even a siege war-game in Appendix 3!

Lots of rereading of chapters going on

While I was out in the garden waiting for the PVA glue to dry. I started on the making of a battle mat which will eventually have a hex grid drawn on it. My starting point was some light green curtain material, too light for my liking, but provided a good base for adding some mid green and brown tones.

Watered down mid green paint (5 parts water to 1 part paint) randomly brushed over. This was repeated with the same mix, but with a touch of brown acrylic paint added.

The battle map on the tabletop 

There is sufficient overhang on my 6x4 foot tabletop to allow my existing hills to be used under the mat. Their outline is still clearly visible, useful to know when a unit is on the hill or moving up a slope.

I may will add some more paint in the future. I am just getting used to this which is a bit duller in colour to my Games Workshop purchased mat which I generally use.

Once I am happy with the dappled colour I will mark out a hex grid.

Napoleonic gaming and using D3 dice

With a lull in the French Indian War campaign collaboration, it has provided some time for me to try out using the D3 dice for a couple of Napoleonic games. With these games I have been using a variation of the One Hour Wargames (OHW) Horse and Musket rules.

The different dice mean for the shooting and hand-to-hand combat rules, hits instead of being determined with D6-2, D6 and D6+, are translated to D3-1, D3 and D3+1. For target units in cover rather than halving the number of hits, I subtract 1 from the score. This does mean cover is not quite so effective for defending units.

For convenience of tracking unit hits (using a D6 dice placed behind a unit) they are eliminated on taking more than 6 hits. This is a reduction in a unit's resilience which I try and offset by allowing commanders to rally their troops and remove hits.

(Using a D3 it takes 3 average scores of 2 to have a unit at the verge of elimination, where the OHW rules would take 4 average scores of  3.5.)

To date I have played two games using the D3 variation, and it is so far, so good.

My Napoleonic games are not played on a grid and use free movement instead. I have been trying to figure out why I have a preference for avoiding a grid with my Napoleonic games. One thing I put it down to is my like of the old prints of battles with their lines of troops tightly packed at different angles, looking quite chaotic, and lots of musket smoke.

A Napoleonic game with gunpowder smoke used not just to mark units that have fired, but also to improve the look of a game.

An example of the type of print that captures my imagination when wargaming

A gridded game using squares in this instance has the disadvantages of spreading out the units and does not convey the aesthetic. This is all somewhat strange, the uniformity of a grid does not bother me for my French Indian War games, but does with my Napoleonic games. Anyway, given my like for using a grid I am wondering whether a hex grid many create that look for me and be a better option.

Similar game size using a square grid.

Making a hex grid might be on the cards this weekend. Although, I am also wanting to build a star fort for the French Indian War campaign, as I suspect their may be a siege game at some point.

French Indian War Campaign - Game 3

French Indian War campaign game number 3 was played out over the weekend past. The results of this game will be fed back into the operational campaign moves being played out by on Jonathan of Palouse Wargaming  Journal. (All campaign detail can be found there.)

The British attack plan was to move their regular troops and rangers forward on their left flank. While holding the militia back and only bringing them forward if the French regular units positioned outside the fort tried to advance.

British light troops move forward as planned along the hills.

Militia take position while the regular units are struggling to move forward  through some difficult terrain.

Finally, British forces start to gain some cohesion and move forward.

Fort guns open fire and French regular infantry units move forward. Their grenadiers are held in reserve to support the line or reinforce the fort.

French regular infantry continue to move forward. 

On the opposite flank British forces organise themselves for an assault upon the fort.

The attack on the fort begins 

French regulars come under fire from militia. The militia aim is to keep the French occupied without taking too many casualties.

The militia units keep the French regulars occupied. British regulars and rangers attack on the fort gains momentum.  

The militia line - difficult to see the French line through the smoke

The first militia unit is eliminated and another one moves forward to take its place. Militia shooting at this point was proving to be quite good.

Casualties (hits) were mounting on both sides.

More militia units are eliminated, but one French regular unit is looking a bit fragile.

A British ranger unit is also eliminated. 

The sustained shooting from militia eliminate a French regular. The D3 dice roll came up 3  half the French army resolve of 6. Ouch! 

Meanwhile the assault on the fort continues.

The British lose a regular unit attacking the fort. The British army resolve of 13 was starting to look a bit shaky with this loss. 

Militia units are starting to suffer serious losses and the British army resolve is on the brink of failing. This allowed the reserve grenadier unit to move into the fort.

Finally the fort walls are scaled and a second French unit is eliminated. The British commander (Monckton) had used both his attack bonuses over two moves to achieve this success. Another D3 roll of 3 against the French army resolve of 6 means any more losses and they will surrender the fort.

French forces outside the fort advance hoping to force back their line and cause the attack on the fort to be broken off.  

Another militia unit eliminated. The game is now on a knife edge with both army's resolve about to fail with any more losses.

The French lose a third unit and surrender the fort. A battle depleted force accept their surrender with relief.

In this game the French were unfortunate to roll 2 consecutive 3's against their army resolve. However, I do like the random nature of unit loses against an army'e resolve. Rather than having a set number of units losses, e.g. when an army losses more than half their units. The British resolve would have failed before the French were it not for the additional point their received from the commanders defence quality.

This game was always going to be a close. The difference turned out to be the British commander Monckton (Quality A2D1) with his 2 attack bonuses and increase of 1 to the army resolve.

From a narrative perspective, the lack of a clear leader and two depleted regiments still recovering from their last battle had cost the French the battle. However, neither regiment was destroyed and may yet fight another day.

The British had lost a militia regiment in their victory with their other three units in a depleted state.

Jonathan - back to your campaign moves.