The scenario is the “Siege of Fort William Henry”. This is a “What-If” scenario. From the movie, “Last of the Mohicans”, General Webb did send reinforcements to help lift the siege. General Webb’s contingent was a elements from the 60th RA, 44th Foot, 42nd Highlanders and a fictitious dragoon unit with some provincial rangers.
The games started where the French siege mortars (2) were already set-up and started to bombard the fort. General Montcalm maintained the forces from the Troup de la Marine and Royal Roussillon in works located on the Norwest side of the fort. General Levis had the second part of the French forces that were southeast of the fort with a small Indian forces watching the road from Fort Edward.
The French objective was to destroy the fort – that would be calculated by destroying the Gate House and the two Block Houses. The gate house can take 10 hits and the Block Houses can take six hits each to be completely destroyed. The British objective – simply take out the siege guns.
Right off the bat, the Gate House was hit four times as one of the Block Houses had two. General Webb’s reinforcements rolled 1D10 and was determined they can come on in turn 3. Their entry was within four feet from the road from Fort Edward. The main body came up right behind Levis force. The Highlanders came down the road to deal with the Indians. Brutal fight took place in the center..both sides lost most of their forces. Unusual as no help from Lt Col Monroe came out of the fort help Webb…that could have been the turning point. A brutal fight took place between the Indians the mounted dragoons…The War leader Magua had fallen after he personally took out three Dragoons…still a bad -!
Once the forces of Montcalm start to move off the works, Monroe released his forces out of the fort towards the siege guns. Another major fight took place in the center near the siege gun works. Both Levi and Montcalm had fallen as well. The ranking French person in charge was the handful of NCO’s. The luck of the Connecticut Provincial fought their way to the siege guns, and killed off half the crew…the guns were silenced…but at what cost. The French still had a fresh unit of Troup de la Marines and half strength of the LaSarre unit. The British still owned the fort intact with seven hits on their Gate House and four on one Block House. The 42nd Highlanders and part of the Connecticut Provincials were still intact.
This was another great game using “This Very Ground” rules. It took about 10 hours over a two evening period. Both my sons played the French and I finished up playing the British. Other members from our group: John, Steve and Paul played the British on the first night.
A couple of unique units were present for this game; mounted units for the French and British, French foot Grenadiers and of course the two siege guns. Still working on the quirkiness of a combined Indian units with bows and muskets for firing purposes…any insights would be appreciated. I think the amount of hits for the building was good…the French got distracted mid game and stopped bombing the houses and started bombing foot units, which by all means a bloody affair.
Pictures of the game can be found here:
http://s208.photobucket.com/albums/bb13 ... =slideshow
Greg P.
