More Sharp Practice with Tomahawks

Chris Flowers had missed the last two games of Sharp Practice using Steves AWI collection (and latterly the Indians Steve is painting for Chris, Shhhh dont tell him) mainly because he was on one of his many exotic holidays. As he will be on a different holiday next week in a hospital bed having his knee done we decided another game to let him get a feel for it was in order.

This time I would command some Natives and fight alongside Chris against Mark. Steve was Umpiring again to make sure we had the rules right.

A fairly open table again 6 feet deep and 4 feet wide.

Chris commanded a group of 24 Militia and 12 Indians, I had the other 12 Indians and 8 Jaegers.

Meanwhile those damned rebels under Mark had a formation of 24 Militia and another of 16 Militia along with a 6 man militia skirmish unit and another of riflemen.

52 Yankees vs 56 Tories and Indians.

The Rebel skirmishers deployed already on table behind the fences everything else would be activated through the deployment points. Our objective was the supplies in the barn.

Move one and the Tory Militia, Jaegers and the first group of Indians got forward really quickly, the Yankee militia advancing a little more slowly towards the fenced orchard in the middle of the table.

Shots are exchanged and first blood goes to the Jaegers, however with three flag cards on the bounce coming out the Jaegers are then forced to charge the rifle armed skirmishers, they only get half way and take a battering.

Chris's militia are hanging back behind the crest of the hill waiting for their Indian allies to arrive. Four turns of the Tiffin card and they are still nowhere t0 be seen, along with the smaller rebel militia group.

After much moaning Steve checks the deck and realises he has forgotten to put the number 5 cards in for these two units. Much grumbling but perhaps they might join the game now.

My native warriors are pushing down the left flank against the militia skirmisher with some ineffective long range musketry going on. My Jeagers are having the worst of a firefight with the Yankee riflemen and everyone else is steadily plodding forward.

At this point Marks firing suddenly takes a turn for the better and 3 of my Indians are cut down with three points of shock added, a level one leader my Indian chief is unable to remove the shock.

Meanwhile the other group are still off table working themselves up to join in the action.

Marks main firing line is now in position and his smaller militia force is on table and moving up. His rifles slip to the flank to support the militia skirmishers and the first devastating volley from the Militia knocks absolute lumps from my Jaegers.

Next move and Chris's Indians are finally on, however another volley into my Jaegers sees them reduced to two men, my Indians are blasted again by the militia and put me down to six men with 9 points of shock and a wounded leader. I cant activate them now until I roll a 5 or 6 to put him back in the game. The best I can do is push over the commander in chief to remove shock from these guys and the Jaegers.

Chris's Indians bypass mine and get stuck into the Militia whilst his Tory militia marches over the hill and angles itself to volley the rebel militia where it cant return fire. With two almost destroyed units though its all feeling a bit too little too late.

However Chris's Indians start to do good service and badly maul the militia skirmishers who are forced to withdraw, he is now also putting casualties onto the American riflemen.

Before the firefight between the militia can turn our way, Marks second unit moves up and engages Chris, his larger unit wheels to face the Tory militia and we now suddenly have 40 muskets against 24.  This is unlikely to end well. The first volley smashing the Tories and they are already beginning to look shaky before e a second volley from the larger unit hits them

Its been 4 attempts to get my Indian Leader to stand up with no joy, the Commander in Chief has however recovered nearly all of their shock and Chris's Indians are causing mayhem with the Yankee rifles. The Militia on the other side though are not doing well at all and things looks grim as 40 muskets continue to reap casualties from the Tory militia with little in response.

As casualties mount the Loyalist militia start to disintegrate with the first unit breaking out of formation and retreating and the others badly mauled. At last my Indian leader recovers and leads his half band of warriors forward. With a another half hour we might just snatch victory from the jaws of defeat as two units of Indians gangingg up on the damaged rifle skirmishers, however its too late in the day and we accept defeat.

Another really fun game and for the second week a very different second half of the game. Both weeks saw the Loyalists do very badly for the first half or more of the game and the Indians look out of it for them only to rally towards the end and start to turn the game back in their favour.

All in all a lot fun. Perhaps we will try something different next time.  Thanks for reading.