A number of years back, I decided it was time to upgrade my
presentation of my miniatures games. Well-painted figures are only
half the battle, so to speak. To give it the full visual appeal, you
need nice terrain, too. I've felt pretty good about my progress from
felt to flock to scratch-built terrain pieces. Over the last several
years, I regular receive a "thumbs up" from players and bystanders
for how my games look. I had never been a "showpiece" game, though.
The flagship convention of our historical miniatures group, HMGS
Great Lakes, recently provided me with that opportunity. Our
convention is held each September at the Heritage Center of Clark
County in Springfield, OH. The center is a museum that has a few
ballrooms that give us enough space for our games. Each year, the
events coordinator selects one game that will make good "eye candy"
to place in the lobby, as visitors to the museum come in and out
throughout our show. This year, when a' three-day recreation of the
Battle of Gettysburg was scratched, I offered to create a sprawling
French & Indian War game. A big part of that war was fought in
or around our state of Ohio, saw we thought it would be an
appropriate showcase for visitors to see our hobby.
The rules that I use are in the final stages of publication. They
are a variant of the Ganesha Games "Song of Drums & Shakos"
adapted for this period. One problem with the rules set, though, is
that the more players a game has, the slower it can move. I
typically could take only six players per game, and even with that
few, sweated out the down time if players moved or deliberated on
their actions slowly. After my last convention game (a Viking raid
using a similar rules set from Ganesha), I pondered a way to
incorporate more players and yet speed up the game. I finally hit
upon an idea. Why not line up four or more linked 1-on-1 matchups to
create one game tied together by scenario? In other words, there is
one board broken up (in this case by rivers) into 4 quadrants.
Players can send reinforcements to neighboring allies, if they
desire. Additionally, each side of four players would allocate their
troops to the quadrants as they saw fit. Finally, the scenario
victory points each player earns from their skirmish are totaled up
for the side to determine a winner. What would make this game go
much faster than my 6-player scenarios would be that each quadrant
would do their turns completely independently of the other. Once
your opponent's turn is done, you take yours. Back and forth, with
you being constantly involved via the opposed die rolls the system
uses.
So, my idea was to recreate four typical types of skirmishes that
occurred during the French & Indian War. The sides were divided
into a "French allied" side, and a "British allied" one. They
included a settler family rushing to an English fort as Indians are
on the warpath in the woods around them, a French supply wagon being
ambushed by Mohawk Indians, the aftermath of a raid by French
courier de bois on a Seneca village, and a clifftop battle between
Hurons escorting captives from the raided village being intercepted
by Seneca warriors. The last skirmish was inspired by the climactic
scene of the movie "The Last of the Mohicans." It also involved me
scratch-building the cliffs, which took about 3 weeks of steady
work. I was incredibly happy with how the cliffs turned out. They
received compliments all convention long, as did my "showpiece" game
itself. In fact, the game itself was a hit as well. It filled up all
three runnings. All the players said they enjoyed the format and
didn't feel the division by quadrant felt artificial or restricting.
Those who had played my games previously felt it was a better game
done this way. Of course, this means I can keep expanding, if I
wish. I can just as easily make this even larger to accommodate 10,
12, or even more players. The one hitch is I had nearly every figure
I own on the tabletop, and I'd have to paint (and perhaps even
buy...?) more. Darn! A justification to expand my collection...oh
horrors! The (not) worst thing a gamer ever hates to encounter...!!!
Here are some pictures and explanation of the game and scenario,
"Ohio Frontier Aflame!"
The Interrupted Raid
 |
| An aerial view of the cliffs and Seneca village, along with
the woods that covered most of the 12 foot long board |
 |
| French Courier de Bois linger too long after raiding a Seneca
village |
 |
| In the woods outside the village, the Seneca hunting party shows
up, alerted that their village has been raided and eager for
revenge! |
Clifftop Rescue
Huron Indians have raided and taken captives from a Seneca
village. The captives will be valuable adoptees into the tribe.
The Seneca have used secret paths to race to the rescue of their
people. The two forces meet on a ridge and battle for the
captives..
 |
| Huron raiders take a short cut across the shale cliffs,
leading their captives towards their villages to be adopted into
the tribe |
 |
| Behind the Huron, Seneca braves pursue the Huron kidnappers onto
the cliffs... |
Another party of Seneca take secret paths to cut off the Huron
as they descend the cliffs
"Merde! Ambush...!"
French regular and provincial soldiers are escorting a wagon load
of supplies to one of their forts. A scout returns breathless,
having spotted a Mohawk ambush ahead. Orders ring out in French
and eyes nervously scan the trees. Meanwhile, dark forms move
through the woods towards the wagon train...
An out-of-breath Canadian scout hurries to the French supply
wagon, shouting news of a Mohawk ambush he'd spotted "Hurry! To the Fort...!"
Indians are on the warpath and a family of English settlers is
desperately fleeing to the local fort with their belongings. They
have to run a gauntlet of Fox Indians who have drawn a noose
around the fort. The English can spare only so many men to rescue
the family -- the walls must stay manned!
 |
| A party of English settlers hurry towards the safety of a
fort, hearing the noise of Indians on the warpath in the woods
around them |
 |
| The gates of the fort open and a file of English soldiers march
out to meet and escort in the anxious family |
A special thanks to Steve Verdoliva, who provided me with
two 6'x4' game mats to string together for my scenario. More than
half of the trees I used were also borrowed from him, as well as the
river sections that divided the table into quadrants. Keith Finn
provided me with the English blockhouse, palisade walls, and log
cabin. I intend on purchasing my own French & Indian War
stockade soon. So, next time I will have one of my own to put onto
the table. Without the help of these two friends from my regular
Sunday night gaming group, there is no way I could have staged the
game.
 |
| Convention Math: A 12' long table plus 8 gamers having fun =
one happy GM! |
The three runnings of the game all turned out differently. Friday
night's game was an overwhelming French allied victory, while
Saturday afternoon saw the British win huge. The rubber match on
Saturday evening (which I actually got to play in due to someone who
had signed up being a "no-show"), was much closer. Despite the
British allies getting handily defeated in the "Interrupted Raid"
and "Clifftop Rescue," the Mohawk player racked up so many points in
the supply wagon ambush it was a close game. All of the players said
they had fun. Many were eager to purchase the rules, and urged
me to let them know when they were available. The best thing of all
was that the format was a success. Now I can apply it to other games
using the Ganesha Games "Song of Blades" engine.
My first foray as a "showpiece" was a satisfying one. I look forward
to building on this to stage ever bigger and grander games...!
Another party of Seneca take secret paths to cut off the Huron
as they descend the cliffs
An out-of-breath Canadian scout hurries to the French supply
wagon, shouting news of a Mohawk ambush he'd spotted 
