Gallery #1

The following pics show a clash between French marine units and Allied Mohawk Indians vs an American Provisional force made up of the 'Jersey Blues' bolstered by their grenadier company.

Assorted gallery - FIW

This area shows off an eclectic selection of photos of the many troops that form the armies and enemies of France in the New World.

Gallery #1

Gallery #2

Gallery #3

Gallery

This area showcases the forces of Lichtengrein and other nations.

Lichtengrein

French

Anglo - Hanoverian

Austrian

Prussian

Russian

Scenarios (Americas)

Here is a selection of scenarios for various rules sets [shown in brackets] for actions set in the Americas.

1. Battle of Black River settlement (1757) - [Brother vs Brother]

2. Action at Fort Venango (1759) - [Brother vs Brother]

Scenarios

This area is for all manner of scenarios for different rules sets.

1. Crossing the Weser - Crossing the Weser is a fictional assault river crossing by an Anglo-Hanoverian force in early 1759.

2. Battle of Bomporto - the Battle of Bomporto is a fictional action set in Italy during the War of the Austrian Succession, 1743. It pits Spanish and Neapolitans vs an Austro-Sardinian force under the gifted Marshal Traun.

Rules

This area will discuss various rules used and other useful attachments relating to the different 'rules of war'.

Might and Reason

For players wishing to make up army lists for their own Might and Reason army here is template.

Remote frontier outpost -1757

One of our first games, we were experimenting with a few rule systems. In this case we played using our Legends of the West 'French and Indian Wars' supplement we worked up.

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The terrain was thrown down and we pretty much got stuck in.

Scenario – 1757 and Rangers have been raiding up the Mohawk valley, causing no end of havoc. In an effort to inflict damage on an isolated outposts just off the Mohawk River, a known staging area of a Ranger company; a warparty consisting of three Indian Warbands (8 figures) and supported by hastily raised Canadian Militia and a French Marine company (9 figs each) attempt to overrun the position.

It is known that the stockade is lightly defended (12 figs) but the return of another Ranger company (12 figs) is imminent according to French scouts.

The action kicked of with all the French and Indian forces on the edge of the woods in something of a large ‘U' shaped formation, taking advantage of the treeline. The Rangers, well protected in their blockhouse (6+ITW) and behind stone walls (5+ ITW) would be hard to whittle out of such a strong position.

The first few turns of fire did not inflict any losses on the Ranger detachment. However the Rangers were able to hit several enemy companies as the light woods offered a (4+ITW) save and only the Indians derived a further (+1ITW) bonus as they could skirmish (Rangers rated riflemen also re rolled misses..they hit on 3+…ouch!)…Militia and Marines were deployed only in a loose open order formation so got no benefit for being skirmishers.

After a few turns it became apparent that the French and Indian forces would have to storm the blockhouse if they were to have any chance of success…even though they outnumbered the rangers by four to one at this stage, they simply couldn't hit troops defending such a strong location.

Throwing caution to the wind four out of the five French forces assaulted the stockade. One Militia unit was held back as it fightin' value and morale was only 2 and the charge across open ground vs the rangers would probably not be a good idea. Also, another ranger company was expected so they formed the reserve.

In they went!! It took two turns to make it the wall and the ranger rifle fire was deadly. One unit, already reduced in numbers, took further casualties and broke (Indians suffer a ‘Life is Precious and a further -1 if an easy way of escape exists). By the second turn the French Marines and remaining Indian forces stormed over the outer wall to engage the defenders, however another Indian unit had taken too many casualties and headed for the hills as well!!!

By this stage the second ranger company appeared, as it happened, just near the Canadian militia forces held in reserve. The militia, in the presence of their commander, Henri Beauvais, moved to delay the rangers to allow their compatriots to fulfill their attack. These two forces faced off one another in the woods and began a steady firefight.

A fearsome Indian attack resulted in the death of 1/3 of the ranger company with many scalps taken for the Indian braves. The marines overwhelmed the lightly held stone wall. By this stage the victorious but depleted French forces were exhausted at the walls of the blockhouse proper. However, the elevated position of the defenders of the blockhouse enabled a continuous fire as their comrades held the stone wall before they finally fell. To no avail…the defenders were swamped by the attack and the Indians and French were in position for the final push.

It was not to be. The casualties suffered at this stage were to much. The successful Indian unit, happy with it's scalps had taken enough sniping rifle fire to cause a bravery test and they decided enough was enough. The marines persisted on however but by this stage they were the lone attackers of the last blockhouse defenders. Importantly the initiative (pluck) shifted to the rangers in the next turn and they were able to run into the blockhouse with the other defenders, slam the door shut and man the parapets.

Se sauver!!!! With the ranger force ensconced in the blockhouse and another company coming, all the Indian allies gone, Beauvais gave the signal for a withdrawal. The blockhouse survived!!!!

A most enjoyable game using our Legends of the Wilderness rules. The French force lost 3/5 of their force and the rangers were just under half. Riflemen with their re roll and 3+ to hit behind 5+ and 6+ in the way saves proved very tough…but I guess they should be. This was about as good as it gets in the game for any forces. However, a raiding force with a small cannon and a unit of regulars would certainly have changed the equation somewhat….next time!!

Battle reports

This area will detail actions, small and large, that are fought in the new world.


Remote frontier outpost- 1757

French and Indian forces

British Forces

Find within these pages pictures of the British army and their American allies in action.


The following pictures show 28mm Redoubt enterprises British figures. The gunners and mounted officer are Front Rank seven Years War figures.

The great man himself!

British Hatmen




Gun crew with 6pdr

...and again


Rangers on the move!

Americas

Far away from central Europe, the great empires of France and Britain struggle for control of the Americas.

This section details all manner of activities that are reported to the court of Lichtengrein on the struggle for the new world - an area of particular interest as the prince's great uncle, Prince Rupert of the Rhine was a founding member of the Hudson Bay Company.

As a boy he spent much time hearing the stories his father was told by Rupert himself of his adventures with fur traders and Indians of northern Canada in his own Rupert's land.

British Forces

French Forces

Battle reports

Scenarios

Assorted gallery

Historicals

This area will detail all information relating to the Wars of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War

Basing

How to base your figures?

The question most people wrestle with particularly for the horse and musket era as large numbers of figures are involved and rebasing is something best avoided. Therefore, some considerations; Basing – If going with Seven Years War Old Glory bag purchases, you get 50 figures (usually with a couple of 'extra' character type figures). These come with command figures for making up 16 figure units.

In this pics above you can see a 12 figure unit spread over a 2 x 2" wide base ala Might and Reason basing.

The OG figures are quite animated and large - a true 18mm figure entirely compatible with Eureka miniatures SYW range. The issue is they don’t squeeze into a standard 6/8” (3/4”) frontage for traditional 3/4" per figure frontages ( the standard Koenig Krieg or Empre style basing) – 1” is better. This means 4 figs on a 1” base looks chunky but not cluttered – it seems right.

Figures are Old Glory SYF1 - French infantry no turnbacks

If you base ala Might and Reason you would put all figures on a 2” x 1” base, which is 8 figs – this looks good and means a M&R unit (ie two bases) is made up of 16 figs. The downside of this is the rigid 2” frontage of basing which is much less flexible in other game systems.

However a 1” x 1” system has the advantage of keeping the basing flexible enough to play a single rank game. This would mean that the single rank in this case is represented by two lines of figures on a 1”x1” base. You could still play Koenig Krieg with two bases, you’d just need to mark casualties (which is just like recording SPs in M&R).

The upside;

Unit numbers - You now get 3 M&R units out of one Old Glory Bag. Two cavalry units of 8 figures.

Magnetic basing – if you do this on a magnetic strip of a 1” x 1” metal base the two stands needed lock on to the 2”x1” underbase to give a solid M&R stand. These do not shift around, make for ease of game play and storage as well on a metal sheet. It does mean pre organizing bases is not as easy as the metal bases would slide around in a box – however, grip material can obviate that.

Other consideration – army size. Poorly led armies need many, many units – up to 20+. Therefore multi basing is important to physically moving the figures. It also means you cannot label the underside of a stand easily, which you can do with my metal underbases.

Bases – Perfectly cut 1” x 1” metal bases from a machine metal shop are quite do-able – they are bullet proof and a perfect cut, every time.

Big Armies – M&R is meant to be played with lots of figures in a few hours. Reducing bases to M&R 2”x1” stands is I think very important to getting the game to finish on time – lots of time is wasted moving figures. A typical 7 turn game has an average of 15 pulses in it until game end might happen. Therefore, moving lots of small figures is going to slow the game down. If you save 5 mins on each turn not moving you just saved 45 mins minimum. That’s nearly 1/5 to 1/4 of the expected M&R playtime. So this is an issue in the basing equation. 'Empire style' basing is fine with small armies but not when you need to push around a very large number of separate stands.

Other rules - With a 1" base you are within an 1/8" of being based the same way for the Age of Reason rule set. For Koenig Krieg if you use 3 bases per unit (ie 12 figs) the difference would be an increase from 2 1/4" frontage vs 3" frontage - whilst this is an increase simply adjusting the ground scale by increasing all ranges by a 1/3 should enable the game to be played without too much problem.

For me, all these issues add up to a universal 1"x1" basing for infantry.

Figures are Old Glory SYW Prussian Grenadiers and Musketeers

Cavalry - much less of an issue. Figures from Old Glory fit nicely onto a standard 1" wide by 1-1/2" depth base. Eureka figures are bigger but the additional depth should allow for staggered placement of figures without a problem.

Figures are Old Glory SYW Hussars

Artillery - this is a bit more interesting. The 2" frontage recommend for Might and Reason is quite wide and unwieldy in a smaller scale battalion level game. Probably not too bad for position batteries however, but not always that easy to fit in with limbers, etc because of the wide frontage.

1" wide has a nice commonality with the other base sizes but is a bit squeezy with 3 crew - though not too bad. 1 1/2" is quite alright but is an 'odd size' so equally not as desirable. After much consideration I've opted for a 2" frontage with a depth of 1.5". By placing 3-4 figures on the base this provides a not overly cluttered stand and gives me some spare figures from the Old Glory bag. In concert with the 2"x1.5" base I'll be doing 1" x 1.5" bases as well, using the surplus figures from the 24 figures you get in an old glory bag ie no wastage. This will give me complete flexibility for all game systems.

Figures are Old Glory SYW Artillery

The 2" frontage can infact represent two 1" frontage bases merged together if needed by some game systems. This makes the stands compatible with Might and Reason and any other future games I'm likely to play. As there are often not too many guns for this period (at least at the army level game scale) surplus 1" by 1.5" bases for battalion guns for a battalion based game system (such as Koenig Krieg) will therefore provide maximum flexibility - keeping the guns loose and place them on either base as needed.