Why the French & Indian War? A few years back, I was starting to have an interest in doing the FIW. I really don't know why I had this interest, as I really don't know anything about this war, except from the 1992, Daniel Day Lewis' movie, "The Last of the Mohicans" and having an American public school education on it. In other words, nil...I probably learn more from the movie!
Spoiler Alert!!! The following YouTube clip is the end of the 1992, Daniel Day Lewis movie, "The Last of the Mohicans". The music, the scenery, and the tempo makes this one of Hollywood's best action sequences in my opinion. Don't watch if you don't want to know how the movie ends. But this action scene gives you one of the probable reasons why I am interested in the FIW.
I think the real interest came from seeing painted 28mm & 40mm FIW miniatures on the web. But I knew that realistically I would never paint those figures as good or get enough done to do a good size game, so I never really made any effort to do a FIW project. But now that I am willing to use a painting service, I am more willing to doing gaming projects that I would not have done before.
About a month ago or so, someone was selling off their 18mm Blue Moon FIW collection on The Miniatures Page (TMP). I have always been impressed with Blue Moon's 18mm quality, so I give a look at the ad. When I saw that 70 figures were already painted nicely, I decided to go ahead and buy the collection as that was enough to get games going right away. (See the pictures below of the collection). The unpainted miniatures will be farmed out to a painting service after I gather more uniform information to send along to the painting service. Basically, I don't plan to buy much more than what came with the collection (see below at the end for the list of the collection) except some animals, (deers, bear, farm livestock, etc), wagons, canoes, Indian villagers, and huts for an Indian village.
I plan to stick to skirmishes with each figure representing a man or a small group of men. Basically, I don't want more then 50 figures per side in a game, but my ideal size would be about 30 or so figures per side. Also, this means that each pack of figures will give me enough figures to do two units of 10-12 figures, plus three or four Big Men / Leaders for each type of units.
So that leads into what rules will I be using. Currently, my rules set of choice will be the TooFatLardies' "Sharpe's Practice" FIW supplement, "La Longue Carabine", which is in their 2011 Summer Seasonal Special. I am a fan of the TFL systems, so it is only natural that would be my first choice. But, I am also going to try out a few others as well. I picked up both of Two Hour Wargames' FIW rules, "Long Rifle" (individual combat) and "Muskets & Mohawks" (group combat). Both of these THW rules have an interesting campaign system which I will probably steal and use with the TFL system. But I do think that I will game with "Long Rifle" for really small skirmishes, like having only 10-20 figures totally on the board. Finally, I also just bought Studio Tomahawk's, "Muskets & Tomahawks". I have not had a chance to review this book yet, but it has some strong similarities with TFL's "Sharpe's Practice". Instead of cards for Big Men, it has cards for types of units (Regulars, Militia, & Indians) and leaders have different talents that can help their units. So I am willing to give it a crack.
I am hoping to run a quick game with colonists fighting Indian war bands this next month. When I do, I am hoping to have enough time to run the game a couple of times, each with a different rule set. I will get an AAR up some time after it on this blog.
Finally, I am also going to post a few links below to some sources that I found interesting about the FIW.
Be seeing you
Joe
French & Indian War Links
- Blue Moon 18mm FIW range
- Wiki link to the French & Indian War
- Seven Years War site with FIW units histories, key leaders, and uniform information
- Blog on the history and gaming the FIW
- A Seven Years War Project site with FIW information
10 painted Civilians
30 painted Native Americans
30 painted Frontiersmen
2 painted cabins and a lean-to
Unpainted packs of French
Generals
Irregular militia
Companie de franche de la marine
Line infantry command
Line infantry skirmishing
Unpainted packs of British
Generals
Line infanty command
Line infantry skirmishing
Provincial infantry
Rangers
Light infantry
Civilians, 20 unpainted
Native Americans, a pack of unpainted figures
4 comments:
hmmm...'Long rifle' and 40mm figs!
me likey!!!!
A great post, I love that clip from LotM, I always find myself holding my breath for some reason??
Ray,
Thanks! It is one of my favorite movies. I always find that scene and music unbelievablely moving.
Joe
Nice Painting and scenery. Might have to try 18mm, cheaper than 28mm, I suspect,
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