Thursday, 13 August 2026

Blood on the plains

Last night at the club the collection and rules got their first run out. I kept the scenario simple as it was mainly an exercise in testing how the rules work and if the abilities provided to the various troops were realistic to simulate  how they fought. The American forces needed to eliminate the Natives camp and check on a trading outpost, while the Natives needed to defend their camp and destroy the supply wagons. Each side was made up of two commands as follows -

Sean
3 troops of US cavalry with the steady ability to simulate veterans
1 troop of US cavalry
1 troop of Crow scouts with Skirmisher and agile abilities

Robbo
1 troop of US cavalry
1 troop of civilian scouts
3 companies of US infantry
3 supply wagons.

The Native Americans were commanded by Neil and George, they each had 5 bands of mounted warriors, all with the Skirmisher, Agile and slippery abilities. 

The leaders on each side were also given abilities which could be used by any unit that they were attached to. Now to the photos I remembered to take as I don't have a blow by blow account. We did make some amendments to the rules around firing and shock, keeping all changes to the start of a new turn.

Souix warriors approach the trading post

The US column gets on the move, both commands sticking close together

Crow scouts across the creek first

More Souix warriors begin to approach the column

The first sounds of gunfire

Crow scouts engage the Soiux, inflicting plenty of shock on their opponents

The rest of the column struggles across the first creek

More Souix warriors begin taking shots at distance on the column

The fighting intensifies at the head of the column

In the distance more Souix warriors are approaching

The Souix Warchief Little Beaver leads his braves in an unstoppable charge, they dispatch 'C' troop before falling on 'B' troop

'A' company of the 9th infantry deploy to protect the wagons from the approaching Soiux wariors.

So next week the battle will continue, we will also have an additional two players, one for each side, should be easy enough to incorporate them. So far the rules have worked well, it helped with combining the two gaming tables to give us an 8x6 playing area, plenty of room giving a nice fluid battle.

16 comments:

  1. Good start to your project’s Baptism of Fire.

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    1. Cheers Jonathan a good opening exchange so far

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  2. Looks great so far Scotty - go the Sioux!!

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    1. Cheers Keith, the Souix need to consildate as the two warchiefs didn't seem to coordinate their attacks

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  3. Excellent, you need lots of space for cavalry battles 👍

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    1. Cheers Matt, you definitely need a little of space for this period

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  4. Great looking game Neil and nicely set up, both sides could win this. Glad to see the rules seem to be giving a good game too.

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    1. Cheers Donnie, the game is definitely in the balance

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  5. All come together nicely and now you can have cracking games like this. We'll done.

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  6. That was an amazingly short period in going from first unit painted to first game; you must have been particularly pleased. Even better that you found the rules to your liking. It looks great in the photos.
    Best wishes, James

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    1. Cheers Janes, thankfully I had no distractions on this project. The rules are very generic and only require a few tweaks for the period

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