Last night's club game pitted a French raiding party consisting of native American Indians and French Marines (Chris, Jonathan, Phil) against a larger British force (Doug, Rob, Patrick), set in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Philip was umpiring using Sharp Practice rules and his nicely painted 28mm figures.
On a table largely filled with woods, the French and Indians arrived at their back edge by canoe, and had to capture supplies held at the barn near the other end of the table and return with them to their boats. The British came on at the other end, tasked with intercepting them.
In this card-driven game, the various units were associated with leaders who were drawn from the deck to activate at random. The Indians, for instance, were led by Sub-Chief Tobacco and Chief Hahwendhagera.
The French marines were the first to land, followed by two Indian parties. Meanwhile the British arrived and concentrated at one corner of their table edge.
After three turns, the French and Indians were approaching the barn. Doug's Scottish infantry were the first to fire at a nearby Indian unit. The Indians under Hahwendhagera returned skirmish fire, inflicting one British casualty.
The British infantry advancing behind their lights now formed lines in preparation for fire combat.
Nevertheless, a unit of French marine skirmishers, which had made a dash for the supplies entered the barn.
The Scots continued to pepper the Indians nearby with musketry, and Sub-Chief Tobacco was temporarily knocked down, his unit suffering a morale penalty.
The French marine raiders used a command card to pick up their loot and quickly dashed out of the barn.
Doug's infantry attacked the flank of a Huron Indian unit near the barn, which suffered additional 'shock'.
Jonathan's two Indian units were taking the brunt of the damage as they screened the flank of the escaping French raiders. Both units were steadily eroded however, particularly when British Rangers charged Tobacco's unit, which lost all its men except their leader.
As more British infantry moved up to chase the French and Indians, the British Rangers began a move against the French raiders with the loot.
Chris moved the sluggish French infantry near the canoes up to act as a rearguard to allow the raiders to escape.
The French marines with the loot made a dash for the waterline, initiating a desperate pursuit by the British forces through the woods on the left hand side of the table.
Chris's body of marines, covering the inner flank of the escaping raiders, inflicted damage on Doug's British light infantry as it crossed the stream.
However Doug's Rangers crossed the river and fired on the fleeing raiders, who briefly had their leader knocked down. Even so, Phil managed to roll well enough to get him on his feet and continued rolling sufficiently well to ensure the unit was making good progress to the canoes.
Nevertheless, British progress was halted by Jonathan's second unit of Hurons led by Chief Hahwendhagera who rolled 8 dice (despite being reduced to three men) and inflicted damage on Doug's lights crossing the stream. The latter were finally forced to retire.
The Indians pursued across the stream but were bloodily checked by Doug's line infantry.
But Doug now rolled a 20-inch move for his Rangers, who ended up only two inches behind the fleeing French supply raiders. The latter were almost caught, but Phil then rolled 15 inches for movement and took two shock points in order to move that bit further away.
The raiders took some further damage from the Rangers, but made it safely back to their boats after two further bounds of movement - thus winning the game.
All in all a simple but effective scenario and our second trial of Sharp Practice rules following a recent Napoleonic skirmish game at the War Room. This was the second French and Indian wars game hosted by Philip on a Friday night albeit using these rules for the first time. A good night's play and a unique take on the Seven Years' War.