the-war-party-s-blooding-t1312.html
Chief Rising Moon was unsettled, it was four days since his warriors had suffered many deaths trying to get his blood brother back from the pale skinned settlers. Since then he had had reports that the Red-Coated foreigners had settled into the settlement and even helped rebuild the building they had managed to burn down before being forced back. Maybe it was time to lead a scouting party himself to see the strength of these troops. Forked River (his blood brother) was still captive in the settlement, but surely he didn’t have much time left. He gathered some warriors together and led them into the woods, this time he would show the red-coats why they were likened to ‘ghosts in the wood’.
Captain McManus wasn’t happy, firstly his Father’s so called ‘high up in the army friend’ had failed to stop him being sent overseas (how was he to know that that had been the Colonel’s actual daughter). Not only did he find himself in this God forsaken wilderness, there was not even a muffin shop close by, he was now in being sent out of the fort to be in charge of his moping lot of troops that seemed to have worshipped his predecessor and whom seemed to hate him! The there was the matter of the blood thirsty natives… McManus was convinced they lurked behind every tree and bush, the least they wanted to do was to strip him of his Officer’s coat and hat, the worst was unimaginable, even in his worst nightmares. Well he for one was going to make sure he kept out of the way if they turned up … Well out the way.
The narrative to our second game came from the objectives and sub plots we generated. We used the same table to save time and as it happened this helped with the story. Shaun, the British player rolled a ‘Protect’ objective so it seemed reasonable to surmise that the troops had been left to defend the settlement they had stumbled onto when on patrol the last game. However, having a new Officer it played right into the narrative as the Officer then got a side plot which meant he wanted to keep out of trouble. When the objectives were rolled it I got a scout objective due to rolling a d3 on the list so had to get into all 4 quarters of the board and back, Shaun and his red-coats got a defend objective which meant he had to keep at least 50% of the civilians alive until the end of the game (which is random, can happen end of turn one in theory, very likely by end of turn 4) at which point one can presume reinforcements arrive etc. An interesting twist is at least one third of the force has to be off table (on patrol or whatever) – Shaun decided to leave off the Officer. My subplot was again (very unlikely but I rolled the same number on a d66 again) to get the prisoner back – which followed on well from the narrative in the previous game.
Splitting his warriors into three groups Rising Moon led one group up through the woods and to the rocky cliffs flanking the buildings. Crazy Dog took his group towards the fast flowing waters of the Itree river, hoping to cross and scout the bridge and open farmlard beyond. This left Running Wolf to stealthily move and watch out from the edge of the forest… Meanwhile it seemed that McManus was wandering (even his troops thought this meant ‘hiding’) in the fields at the back of the settlement. The troops were standing around on guard, or generally relaxing outside the buildings, enjoying not having McManus around. Rising Moon had achieved what he came for, the troops were not to great in number and obviously thought that they didn’t have to worry too much about any Indian trouble after the hiding they had just inflicted. It should be, he thought, easy to come back with more warriors. But something was nagging in his head like a mosquito in the tepee at night. Looking over the cliff face he saw his blood brother being thrown to the ground, tied round the ankles and hands he was hopeless. Two of the pale farmers then pissed on him, laughing, two buckets of water thrown on him from the well the Indian was then roughly dragged back into the outhouse. Blood boiling like a winter’s stew Rising Moon decided he was not going to wait…
The game turns shot by, I decided to use the hidden movement markers this game (in the first game the Indians had lit torches so I figured it would be a bit cheesey to use stealthy hidden movement). This meant I could move the markers around without triggering any fire etc, Shaun was happy to not send out patrols. One unit swam across the river and behind one outcrop, a couple of groups and the Chief did the same on the other flank while the rest moved up to just outside spotting range in the middle. I had managed to achieve my objective and could have left the table, but by default this would have meant that that Shaun also managed to achieve… A draw. BUT then it dawned on me that actually this would mean that Shaun also fulfilled his side line plot (of keeping the Officer alive) while I would not have done. This would turn a draw into a minor victory by Shaun which added to his resounding drubbing of me in the first game would have meant much ribbing! So I decided to try and rescue the prisoner and kill a few civilians on the way.
McManus strolled back into camp, flute music came from one of the units and the smell of roast venison filled his nostrils. Maybe this place wasn’t too bad after all… Then his greatest fear filled his vision. Two of his troops dropped as loud musket fire filled the air, then savages rose out the grass and whooping and hollering ran towards the red-coats. Musket men quickly got into line or in the case of one unit, hid behind the log pile. The settlement was thrown into chaos as from the river rose more savages. Meanwhile Rising Moon and six warriors crept through the undergrowth and towards the building they had seen the prisoner thrown into.
A volley of musket fire ineffectively hit the rocky outcrop.
It was all on, my plan was to keep the two units of red-coats busy while the Chief and co would go for the prisoner. This time my musket fire seemed to work far better as redcoats in the open fell like flies.
Barking orders, more in fear than in skill, McManus managed to organise the unit with him into a firing line and a close range volley decimated the Indians running towards them from the river. They turned and fled back into the river. On the other side of the building things were not going to well as the troops tried to reorganise back into a firing line, only to miss and then be hit again. Now they didn’t even have to even form an effective line they split and hid behind whatever cover they could find. Rising Moon led his group to outside of the door of the building and then burst in… Shouts of surprise and screams of fear issued from the settlers as the Indians showed no mercy.
For once my plan worked, the two units of red-coats were distracted enough for me to get into the civilians and the prisoner. By the end of the turn 60% of the civilians were dead (my warriors were ‘savages’ and got to reroll missed in melee which combined with the bad defence of civilians could never end well) and the prisoner reached. Nothing seemed like it could be done to stop me
Whilst blood was splattering the walls Rising Moon slit his blood brother’s ropes and picked him up over his shoulder. Elsewhere his warriors were keeping the heads of the red-coats down, oblivious as to what was happening inside the buildings. Rising Moon signalled his warriors. McManus was surprised as to how it suddenly went quiet, the savages has melted like ghosts back into the forest. That was it he decided, his Father would HAVE to sort it out. The unit he was with turned in self congratulation, they had seen the savages off again. Time to go and tell the civilians they had saved them again. McManus opened the door…And fell vomiting to his knees.
Revenge was sweet. I got both my major objective and the side line plot. Again the game had taken around an hour which considering it was our second ever game and involved some new mechanics from the first game (reinforcements and hidden movement) is a tribute to the rules!
