A few Indian chiefs

A small return to the French Indian War this week. I always enjoy this era for skirmishes and we had two fun games this summer with John  and Rusti (from Crossover Miniatures)

I painted a few Indian Chiefs for the Sharpe's practice game. I had all the Indians needed but no "Big Men" so I went to work on 3 Conquest Miniatures figures. I especially like the "Last of the Mohican" Magua figure (middle figure), although I did not paint it as Magua but rather as a generic Indian Chief. Before anyone comment, no, the war paints are not historical per se, I just went with what I though would look good on the battlefield and what would be easily identifiable as big men. 

I quite like my blue war paint, even though it's not very historical!

I juggled with the idea of using differently sized based to identify the Big Men, but in the end figured it might be a problem in other rulesets, so went with my traditional 25mm slim round bases from Litko, which I use for all my skirmish historicals.  

These pics were taken just last week with my new Foldio lightbox, so its still very much a work in progress. I need more light and probably another background. I'll discuss this further in a future post.

Anyways, hope you like them! 

Blood in the forest, a FIW AAR

A little over a week ago I had a great wargaming week-end. It started off with a gentlemen's dinner at Moishes (one of the best steakhouse in Montreal) with John, Nicolas and Kawe (from Westfalia Miniatures). Kawe is back in Montreal, where we met a few years ago, for a little while on business. It was a very nice evening, the wine was fabulous, the coleslaw famous as usual and the steak perfectly cooked. Kawe was nice enough to bring along some examples of his Westfalia Miniatures, including some artillery equipment and a battalion of his new Saxons. Great figures. John got the Saxons as I'm already drowning in Poles! We of course talked wargaming and we plan on having a game in late June.

Then the next day we got to play a FIW game with John, Nico and newcomer Rusti, from Crossover Miniatures, who made the trip from Vermont. Blogs and Forums really are a fantastic resource for meeting new gamers and fellow enthusiasts!

It was a baptism of fire for Rusti's FIW figures, all Galloping Major's and nicely painted. Surprisingly, while they are notoriously bigger than Conquest, it is really not that apparent on the table. We had a fun game, Nico and I taking charge of the British against the French & Indians of John and Rusti. The game was played using This Very Ground and was meant to represent a standard skirmish of the time.

 It started really well for me and Nico, as we assumed a defensive position and repulsed the first few Indian attacks with ease, but it all crumbled towards the end as a desperate charge by the Indians combined with some awful melee dices from poor Nico meant doom for a complete British Regulars company. In the end of the game we basically had the same amount of casualties on each side and we called it a draw, although I think a few more turns would not have been good for the Brits!

A few pictures of the game. Not many. As usual I find it difficult to host, play and take pictures during a game. Another advantage of having a GM...

The original set-up

1st turn

Dastardly Indians advancing through the woods

 

Provincials advance to stop the Indians from flanking the regulars

The British put their defensive position into place; it almost worked perfectly!

A mix of my Conquest and Rusti's Galloping Major Indians