Indian fighting at Fort Meigs

    Friday night's crowd was full for Ohio Frontier Aflame and saw a massive French victory

I'd decided that I would be changing the four scenarios I run as part of "The Ohio Frontier Aflame" game that I run at conventions. So, the trip up to Fort Meigs for Drums at the Rapids 2015 would be the last running of these games. The four battles seem well balanced, with a wide variety of French-allied victories and British-allied wins. I use the games to showcase my French & Indian War rules, Song of Drums and Tomahawks (which you can see for sale on the table in the picture above!). As always, I receive compliments on the look of the table, and once again players had fun and enjoyed themselves. We sold 11 copies of the rules that weekend, though three were to the Fort Meigs gift shop. That is something I'd like to do this summer -- contact the gift shops of historical sites and see if they'd be interested in carrying our rules.

    The Huron rescue party takes a two-pronged approach to their attempt to recover their captives from Stockbridge Indian raiders

Commercialism aside, it was nice to have a full eight players for both Friday evening and Saturday morning's games. We were put in the meeting room of the visitor center due to my 12' long table. The players were happy to use the rolling, comfy office chairs, though once the game gets going, most end up standing a significant percentage of the time! Even better, by opening the Venetian blinds in the meeting room, we had a nice view of the reconstructed War of 1812-era Fort Meigs. There is nothing like playing a game set in the contested frontier while looking out at a battle site that played a part in the struggle. Even better, after I'd packed up Saturday afternoon, I went for a one hour stroll through the fort grounds (which are included in the convention admission). Fort Meigs is an excellent, atmospheric site, and I always make it a point to take one of the gaming sessions off and take my time to explore the fort. Many of the blockhouses have displays and exhibits, so it is easy for a history buff to eat up an hour or more immersing yourself in the past.

    A wagon load of women and children are so close to reaching the safety of the blockhouses, but Indian raiders close in to try to cut off their escape

Friday night's game was a hoot, as I knew a good number of the players. There was lots of bantering back and forth (I know...surprise, surprise!), and the players frequently found humor in the events of the game. There is a truism in miniature gaming that you should never seek to roll dice against kids and women. However, the French-allied side disproved that one by trouncing Heidi and three Toledo-area high school students fairly handily. Everyone enjoyed their games, though. There was an especially dramatic moment when the sole surviving Stockbridge Indian held off a half dozen Hurons, killing several in turn. Had he killed one more he would have forced a morale check on the Hurons (who were teetering close to the "Below 50%" mark). If the rolls went bad, that hero could have won the day. Numbers eventually told, though, and the Hurons recovered their women and children captives from the Stockbridge allies of Rogers Rangers.

    Ojibwe Indians use trickery to gain access to a British fort and attack the garrison

Saturday's game was much, much closer. It also saw one of the rare occurrences of reinforcements from one game turn the tide in the other. The Ojibwe Indians were driving the British soldiers out of the fort and were close to winning the game, when suddenly a force of a half dozen frontiersmen showed up at the front gate. They had driven off the Indians who were rampaging around their blockhouse (sadly, not before the Indians had scalped a wagonload of women and children trying to reach the safety). The frontiersmen were in a vengeful mood, and their arrival turned the tide and rescued the British regulars. That incident alone may have been what made the French-allied side eke out a narrow victory in the second game. As always, the players seemed to enjoy themselves, with a number purchasing the rules after playing.

    Atmospheric Fort Meigs -- strolling its reconstructed War of 1812 grounds is a bonus to your convention admission!

In the evening, four of us tested out my friend's scenario he will be running this weekend at Nashcon. Keith is one of my co-authors, and he will be running a three-scenario array chronicling stages of the Raid on Fort Amanda. We played the Boat Builder scenario, which features an Indian warparty attacking a lightly-armed working party building boats along the river. After one turn, the Indians had wreaked so much slaughter, Keith did a "reset" and changed some parameters of the scenario. This resulted in a much closer game. To my surprise, our boat builders -- most of whom do not have muskets -- were able to win the game. Particularly satisfying was defeating my other coauthor Mike on our half of the battlefield...!

All in all, it was a good weekend of gaming at Fort Meigs. I highly recommend people check out one of the events HMGS Great Lakes holds there: Drums at the Rapids in May, and World at War Miniature Wargaming Day in November. They are intimate, friendly events that you are bound to enjoy.

Making Scalp Markers for Song of Drums and Tomahawks

 

    Scalp markers for my Song of Drums and Tomahawks games

One of the rules in Song of Drums and Tomahawks that give a nice flavor for the period is "Scalping." When a figure has this Trait in the game, it will sometimes go out of control, so to speak. Whenever one of these figures puts an enemy out of action ("kills"), it must make an immediate Quality check. If it fails, then all subsequent movement must be to rush to the position of the downed enemy and take an action to scalp it. This may be foolhardy indeed. Even if the player may think it is foolish to have his Indian leave the cover of a patch of woods and run out into the open to scalp the enemy they just shot, the figure must do it if it failed its check.

Up to this point, I've been using red craft store pom-poms to mark the position of the downed figure (which is itself removed) and to place upon the base of the figure who failed their Scalping check. Late in a game, this may get a bit confusing remembering which marker applies to which figure. My solution? Scalp markers. Or more accurately, pairs of scalp markers. One of the pair is placed at the spot of the downed figure. The other is placed on the actual base of the miniature who must move to that spot and scalp that figure.

I am a big fan at keeping unnecessary and unattractive clutter off of the miniature gaming tabletop. So, though I could put a simple numbered marker on the table, I wanted "scenic" markers that would blend in with the tabletop. All of my miniatures are on 1" (25mm) square wooden bases. So, I looked through my supply of metal washers and found a box labeled "SAE" -- which measured about 3/8th inch diameter (1 cm). These are small enough to fit on my figures' bases, yet large enough to be visible and easily handled on the tabletop. My idea was to create flocked, scenic pieces in matching pairs, such as different colored bushes, rocks, etc. I decided that each player should have a half dozen pairs of these markers. My "Ohio Frontier Aflame" game features five matched pairs of players fighting linked, but essentially one-on-one games. So, that cut down on the variety I needed, as they could be duplicated from battle to battle.

    Step 1: Taking the tiny washers and affixing a piece of cardboard to cover the hole. Step 2, flipping them over and adding a tiny ball of blue tack (some times called poster putty).

I started with ordinary cardboard and cut out a long strip the width that would cover the washer's hole. I then cut each individual square out equal to the number of washers I would be creating. The cardboard squares were then epoxied onto the washers. If you have a piece of styrofoam, this is a good place to let these dry, so that any epoxy that drips off of the washer or through the hole will not be too firmly attached to the cardboard or wherever you are drying them. After the epoxy had set, I turned the washers upside down and took a tiny ball of blue tack and placed it onto the washer. In the picture above, you can see the top two steps illustrated.

    Step 3: Take a long screw and press it into the blue tack. This makes a nice, easy way handle for the tiny washer. Press the bottoms of these screws into a piece of styrofoam as a holder.

Next, I took a long screw and pressed it into the blue tack. The bottoms of the screws were then pressed into a styrofoam holder I'd created. I did my scalp markers in two batches because that was how many long screws I had sitting around. Once you have all of your screws with washers blue tacked to them sitting in your styrofoam holder, you are ready to move on to the next step.

    Step 4: Dip each washer into a 50/50 mix of white glue and brown paint. Let the glue lap up to the sides but not over it onto the bottom of the washer.

I mix up a batch of about 50/50 white glue and earth red paint -- the color I use for my bases on my figures. Actually, I premix it by taking a bottle of Elmers white glue that is about half empty and pouring in the paint. That way, all I have to do is shake it up and I can unscrew the cap and apply it. In this case, I squirted it into the depression in a plastic palette tray. I grabbed a screw and washer from the tray, inverted it, and pressed it into the glue/paint mixture. Don't let the bottom get covered up. Just dip it in deep enough so that the top and sides are covered in paint.

    Step 5: Press the wet washer into a tub of sand -- I simply buy craft sand from the local hobby store as it is a nice, even texture. Set the screw upright back in the styrofoam tray to dry.

Immediately take the washer and press it lightly into a tub of sand. The sand will adhere to the glue/water mix. What's more, the paint will color the yellowish sand a nice shade of dirt brown. It only takes a second or two for the sand to soak up the glue and attach itself to the washer. Invert it and place it back in the styrofoam tray. This step goes real quickly, and you can do dozens in a couple minutes.

    A row of washers attached to their screws and set out to let the sand/glue mixture dry overnight.

I let the sand and glue dry overnight. That way it forms a nice hard surface. At this point, you have to decide what type of scenic terrain you're going to put on the flocked washer base. Simple and easy ideas include Woodland Scenics "clump" flocking in various, easy to distinguish colors. I had a light green, dark green, and a reddish brown piece. Had I not been cheap, I would have bought a yellowish piece, as well. These will make good tiny bushes. You can get fancy and take green clumps and paint dots of bright color on them to make flowering bushes, too, like I did. You can also use various colors of rocks, such as aquarium gravel, railroad tallus, and so on. And finally, for piles of tiny stones, you can use Woodland Scenics ballast in different shades (tan, gray, etc.). Other ideas that I did not use could be discarded equipment like tomahawks, packs, hats, and so on. I did not use those ideas because I did not have any spares of these lying around, and I wanted to my first batch of scalp markers quickly without taking the time to make them out of Sculpy or whatever. Remember, keep the washers blue tacked to the screws until they are completely finished. This makes the tiny washer easy to handle.

    Yes, I know it is a repeat picture! But here's another shot of the completed, flocked scalp markers. Let the game begin!

I recommend flocking the bases with whatever you use for grass -- I use fine Woodland Scenics blended turf. I flocked my bases by simply painting 100% white glue onto the earth mixture and then sprinkling the flocking onto it. I usually spray them with Dullcoate the seal it in before I go on to the next step. This is simply gluing on your bush, rock, pebbles -- whatever you've decided to decorate that pair of bases with. Try to make the pairs match up, choosing similar size and shapes of rocks or clumps of foliage.

After they have dried, I take a 50/50 white glue and water mix (premixed in a bottle, like above) and fill up the depression in the palette again. I grab each screw from the styrofoam holder, invert it and dip it into the watery glue mixture. I tap off the excess and then set it back in the holder to dry. This "seals in" the flocking effectively. After the glue has dried, give them a final spray of Dullcoate. Once dry, you have to peel off each washer from its screw. Tiny bits of the blue tack may stick to the bottom, or it may come off easily. No biggie either way as this is on the bottom of the scenic washer. The blue tack is reusable, of course. And now, your first batch of scalp markers are done!

    Scalp markers on a figure. It's matching twin is at the spot of the fallen warrior he must scalp

Storming the Breach at Badajoz

    Keith, right, set up a Napoleonic era skirmish for us featuring his newly-painted walls and buildings. Allen joined him to command his right and try to hold off the English assault on the fortress.

My buddy Keith wanted to host a game to celebrate finishing his Alamo walls and buildings. Since his cowboys weren't completely finished, though, he reconfigured it to be a the besieged fortress at Badajoz during the Napoleonic Wars. He dug out a bunch of individually mounted 28mm skirmish troops and set up a scenario where the British are storming a couple breaches made by artillery. We use Ganesha Games' Song of Drums & Shakos for blackpowder era skirmishes. With six of us in attendance this Sunday evening, Keith, Allen, and Joel were the defending French and allied troops, while Steve, Mike S, and myself were the assaulting British (and allies).

    My British light infantry head towards the breach carrying a ladder (which they won't need), while Steve's Brunswick troops are almost at the wall

Steve opted to play the Brunswick troops, and Mike S snatched up the 95th Rifles, leaving me with two commands -- a squad of British light infantry and another of line infantry. Each of our squads had a ladder we could use to climb the walls, or we could go up one of the two breaches on either side of the table that our artillery had made. Half of the French troops start in the guard room, while the other half are deployed on the walls when our assault begins.

    Keith watches as Mike's 95th Rifles storm towards Joel's troops on his left

I advanced steadily, with the lights heading towards the breach and the line aiming their ladder towards the battlements. On my left, Steve raced towards the walls ahead of me, drawing the attention of Allen's troops away from my lights. On my right, Mike S stormed forward, and with a well-placed bullet, pegged Joel's officer. His troops broke in momentary panic, abandoning the walls and allowing him to seize them.

    "Up the ramp, lads!" My Light Infantry ditch their ladder and race up the rubble breach. Note my ensign in the rear of the formation -- a caution or French opponents did NOT employ to their dismay

This was a harbinger of our success all across the line. Steve slowly battled his way up his ladder and faced down Allen. My lights surged up the rubble ramp and surrounded his meager guards. My line sheltered beneath the walls for a breather, while they set up their ladder. The French were having trouble getting their troops out of the guard room, and were outnumbered at the point of attack. My lights soon overwhelmed the French facing them, and my line were able to storm up the ladder and chase off the Bavarians guarding the battlements. Meanwhile, the 95th Rifles were making short work of Joel's command.

    Our ladder set against the walls, my line infantry prepares to climb to assault the Bavarian troops above them. Note: I am *NOT* a fan of old-school knitting rings for markers to show unloaded muskets (and let Keith know that...haha!)

The scenario gives the French 60% of our force strength, but nowhere was the point total at a greater disparity than the Rifles against Joel's command. His Nassau allied troops were the worst on the board and he was outpointed by several times. My line troops actually fought their way to the top of the ladder against a superior force, albeit one that had half its strength still straggling from the guard room. Allen was facing both Mike and myself, so was also outnumbered.

    The 95th Rifles, led by Sharpe and Harper, mow down the Nassau allied troops opposing them

At least for the English, it was an enjoyable game as we wore down the French and soon achieved our victory conditions. We made some suggestions on how we would balance things better the next time it is played. A big advantage of ours was tactical, though. We were able to kill the leaders of all three forces shortly after contact (or before, in the Rifles' case). This caused panic and confusion among the troops and allowed us to seize our objectives relatively unopposed.

    The bitter end for the French: My lights have taken the breach and are advancing down into the courtyard. Their opponents panic and run back towards the guard room.

Song of Drums & Shakos is a good set of rules, and provides enjoyable games. We did make a few tweaks, though. One of which is to drop the weapon differential rules for hand-to-hand. The other is to reconfigure group moves to include the leader as part of the rolled-for movement. Keith's walls and buildings looked great on the tabletop, I thought. It was good to finally get all those troops he'd been collecting out on the tabletop, too.

    The bitter end for the French: My lights have taken the breach and are advancing down into the courtyard. Their opponents panic and run back towards the guard room.

Next week we have a Halloween-themed game that Mike S has dreamed (nightmared?) up. So, that should be exciting. And the following week will be the debut of my pulp-era games using the rules Pulp Alley. So, stay tuned for lots more gaming fun...!

    Final shot of the game - we had fun playing Song of Drums and Shakos