Compagnies Franches de la Marine

Last of the set I bought several years ago.

That gives me 20, which isn't quite enough for two units for Rebels and Patriots and I'm not paying Warlord prices for them - looks like the AW Models range will fir, though.

Compagnie Franches de la Marine

Just the seven or so years since I painted the other half of this set I finished off five more.

Want to end up with two units of 12 of these, plus the 12 regulars and some Indian allies for a decent sized Rebels and Patriots force.

French and Indian War French Regulars Command

I dug these out of the leadpile to finally finish off the unit of 12 - just the four and a half years it's taken me.

I need to do a flag for them. 

Very nice Crusader Miniatures models that are nice and easy to paint.

Originally intended for M&T they're destined for games of Rebels and Patriots I expect.

Woodland Indians

 Four more First Nations for French and Indian Wars gaming

Nice sculpts, gifted as before by chum Matt. 

Woodland Indians

 The recent games of Rebels and Patriots got me excited about French and Indian wars again. Chum Matt was also having a bit of a clear out and very generously gifted me a few First Nations warriors to add to the small group I painted about seen years ago.

I'm not sure which range they're from, I don't *think* they're Crusader but I could be wrong. Anyway they're a good match for the previous batch.

Muskets and Tomahawks Zoom game

Latest game in James' M&T campaign.

Played over Zoom, so only slightly ropey screengrabs available.

The Compagnie Franche de la Marine sneaked up to the settlement to set light to the haystack

While their native allies laid about the settlers

With the first stack ablaze they moved on to light another before burning a field and vanishing back to the woods.

A minor victory to the French - the fields afire but no damage to the settlement. Though they did manage to scalp one of the redcoat officers.

The game works well over Zoom now we have Mike on hand to sort out the cards for us all.

French for Muskets and Tommahawks

I finally painted the French Regulars I bought a few years ago when the Sherwood Hucknall and Ilkeston Team were going to do French Indian wars.
They're the very nice Crusader Miniatures from Northstar.

Finishing them also gave me the excuse to base the other elements of the force.

Some Crusader Woodland Indians

And some rather less nice Compagnie Franche de la Marine from Warlord (ex Conquest)

Of course Northstar now has their own versions of these troops. I wish they'd been available when i was buying.

This seems to be close to a reasonable starter force. I need a commander for the regulars but other than that they're good to go once lockdown ends.

Song of Drums and Tomahawks - Return to Tromney's Farm

Steve rejoined us this week and so, enthused by our last game, General B and I decided to introduce him to Song of Drums and Tomahawks.
Tragically Steve accidentally painted some AWI models instead of FIW models.
But we decided to allow him to use them as Britrish regulars and hardly ever mention the fact that they were from the wrong time period and wearing incorrect uniforms if you looked hard enough.
Steve rose above us hardly ever mentioning it.

We settled on a simple scenario in which the time travellers from the AWI were holed up in Widow Tromney's farm with a pair of female captives.
The noble French (me) under the leadership of Capitain L'Aurel and Sergeant Ardie would attempt to rescue the mademoiselles, whilst the ferocious First Nation warriors led by the dastardly Huatahuanka tried to capture them for their own nefarious purposes.
We set up an elaborate pre-game thing whereby General B and I secretly selected missions to either capture the ladies or kill the British leader so no-one quite knew what anyone else was up to.

 Redcoats from the Future patrol the farm

 Capitain L'Aurel directs a sneaky advance

 Time travelling musket fire greets the Indians

 Captain Stefan von der Grun orders his future warriors about

 The crack of muskets rings out from Widow Tromney's farm

 L'Aurel's men in position

 As the British re-load the French break cover

 Smoke billows as the hand to hand begins

 The French have breached the fence

The British General goes down to tomahawk blows

In the end the First Nation troops cut down the British leader (after much too-ing and fro-ing) and claimed the victory, though neither of us had released the captives.

The scenario went OK, though we should probably have set a time limit.

General Ballroom and I really enjoyed this.

Steve I think has realised he''s not a fan of the period (either AWI or FIW). Or possibly that he just doesn't want to play another skirmish game.

But that's OK, work will take him away for most of March and April, so the good General and I can play whatever we like then.

Fight at Tromney's Farm - Song of Drums and Tomahawks AAR

Tromney's Farm has been hurriedly abandoned by settlers fearful of reports of Indians in the neighbourhood. And with good reason, Huatahuanka the ferocious warchief is leading his band of warriors intent on pillage. Meanwhile Capitaine L'Aurel and Sergent Ardie lead a small force of  marines to try to retrieve the family valuables (and possibly even return some of them to the settlers).

Some months ago the Sherwood, Hucknall and Ilkeston Team decided to "do" the French Indian War. Specifically collect some models and play Muskets and Tomahawks.
Of course Steve and I subsequently decided to paint 1500 point armies for WAB - which rather slowed progress.
Hwever we've steadily grown nearer to our goal, and with Steve indisposed (he's currently trying to get jobs with more companies in a single year than I've managed in my entire life) General Ballroom and I decided to replace Muskets for Song of Drums and play a quick FIW skirmish.

When I arrived General B had set up the table in a pleasing fashion. I'd roughed out a couple of armies of around the 300 point mark each.
All that was missing was a scenario. So we placed some counters in the buildings and said whoever had the most at the end would be the winner.

I had an officer, an NCO and four Marines. All straight from the book (so depite the presence of a pistol on my NCO he didn't take one for the game).
Huatahuanka's Native Americans had a leader and seven warriors.
This kept things nice and simple and ensured we only had a small number of profiles and traits to remember in the first game.

I took the first move and advanced toward the farmstead...

 Capitaine L'Aurel leads the men forward

 Sergent Ardie is more circumspect

 The peaceful Tromney farmstead.

 Musket toting warriors break cover

 Huatahuanka leads from behind

 L'Aurel is brave to the point of foolhardiness

The warriors take aim.

 A marine heads for the tree

 Ardie reaches then fence - but L'Aurel is exposed!

At this point the inevitable happened and one of the First Nation warriors shot the brave Capitaine stone dead. Then, filled with bloodlust, decided to scalp him! One of my men immediately turned tail and fled the field, whilst everyone else retreated.

 The Chief supervises the encroachment

 Braves in cover

 Sacre bleu! he's by the porch!

 The warriors contuinue to lurk about the place.

At about this point it all kicked off on the porch. Huatahuanka sneaked into the building and Ardie rushed toward the door and into combat with the warrior intent on scalping L'Aurel.

Ardie, despite being strong and having a primitive weapon (a dirty great sword) was cast to the ground by the vengeful savage. And despite repeated attempts at shots from the Marines was eventually able to reach down and scalp the valiant Capitaine

 Ow!

 Bang

 It's a photogenic wall corner.

 Ardie leapt to his feet and knocked a warrior to the ground.

At this point Huatahuanka emerged from the cabin, clutching some shiny geegaws. So Ardie attacked him.

 'Ave at you, Huatahuanka.

 The Indians were struggling to reload.

Finally the porch is ours!

After a back and forth struggle over on the porch Ardie emerged victorious. However his moment of triumph was short-lived. A warrior who had been rasacking the other dwelling emrged clutching two treasures. One of the marines tried to stop him but was cut down and with that the Frenchmens courage failed them and they melted back into the woods leaving the warriors to root through widow Tromney's drawers.

This was cracking fun. I do like the Song of.. engine.

The action swung back and forth with both of us cursing the dice from time to time. My men seemed incapable of reloading and Ardie incapable of killing anything for long periods of the game.

However the death of Huatahuanka nearly swung things back in my favour before superior numbers finally told.

Looking forward to trying M&T but I hope we'll play more SoD&T too.