On April 13th, I went to Trumpeter Salute 2019, which is the biggest miniature war gaming convention in the Vancouver area. They had a good selection of games last year so I was really looking forward to this year's event.
A new feature they had this year was an online game registration where you could pre-register for one game. Very good idea and I hope they continue it next year.
Game 1
This was my pre-registration game. The rules were General D'Armee and the battle was Maxheim, which featured the French battling a combined Prussian-Russian force. One of the quirks of the allied side was that the Prussians had brigades on both flanks with the Russians in the centre.
In an omen on how things were to go, the French won the initiative and immediately occupied the village to my front. I decided I was not going to assault the village and instead opted for a delaying action, especially as we needed command dice to re-position a Prussian cavalry brigade to counter a French cavalry brigade.
Being on the left flank, I'm a little fuzzy on the details on what happened on the right, but a disaster happened early over on the right where the Prussian cavalry and infantry routed. My contribution was to roll 0 aide d'camps out of 6 dice to try and rescue them. I think the Umpire just moved them back to the edge of the board rather than off. 
Meanwhile, on my side, I had lured the French beyond the garrison range and got ready to counterattack. First attempt met with a 12 rolled for casualties and my charge pretty much stopped before it could begin. Second attempt actually led to us rolling for the charge effect, but me rolling a 2 compared to a 10 or something saw another fail.
I love the rules but this was a brutal game to play. All of the key die rolls by the Prussians and Russians were miserable failures.
Game 2
Mongolmania pitted Mongols against Rus in an all cavalry battle using Lion Rampant rules. The Mongols started as a massive horde at one end of the table with three different groups of Rus trying to prevent them from exiting off the other side. Colin modified the rules slightly so that a failure to activate a unit didn't end your turn. Also, he had some special effects for rolling a 2 or a 12 when activating a unit.
I took a group of Rus. There wasn't much strategy in this and it was close. The turning point came quite late in the game. I had a unit of light horse that got the benefit of +1 to hit with archery and +1 to bravery because of a couple of 12s I had rolled. This unit was like a tactical nuke in that it took out 5 Mongolian units and it was untouched, while most of the remaining Mongolian units were pretty worn down (as were the Rus as well). However, a Mongolian player rolled a 12 and got a free shot on my super unit. Worse, he rolled really well and took out 3 figures. I then rolled a 2 for morale and that was it.
With not much Rus left, Colin declared the Mongols the victor in a close and bloody fight. Good fun!
Game 3
In this game, the French were out to burn down a British fort using the Musket and Tomahawk rules. I was commanding the British provincial regulars in the fort and the provincial militia and Indians in the woods. Marching to my relief were two units of Scots regulars and two units of rangers. The French surprised me a bit by starting out on the far right instead of closer.
I decided to get aggressive with my Indians and advanced them into the woods that I expected the French to have been in. After a little hesitation, I advanced my militia down the centre. This turned out to be a minor mistake that lead to bad consequences. Meanwhile, the French slowly moved on the far right, staying largely out of sight in the woods.
My Indians reached the far edge of the woods and got into a musketry duel with 3 units of French irregulars. Despite being outnumbered, over the rest of the game, the British Indians decimated the French irregulars with remarkably accurate musketry. The British Indians suffered 2 total casualties while the French lost 30 of 36. However, the French did achieve their objective of keeping the British Indians away from the rest of the French forces (and even distracted British militia a bit).
Meanwhile, back at the fort, my regulars saw little until the French Indians and more irregulars arrived within 6" of the fort. (Seriously, who the heck builds a fort that close to dense woods?)
A remarkably poor morale roll saw my regular retreat from the walls early in the turn. That really was the game because the French Indians used remarkably effective flaming arrows to set the walls alight and also ran up to the wall and use torches.
I decided to get aggressive with my Indians and advanced them into the woods that I expected the French to have been in. After a little hesitation, I advanced my militia down the centre. This turned out to be a minor mistake that lead to bad consequences. Meanwhile, the French slowly moved on the far right, staying largely out of sight in the woods.
My Indians reached the far edge of the woods and got into a musketry duel with 3 units of French irregulars. Despite being outnumbered, over the rest of the game, the British Indians decimated the French irregulars with remarkably accurate musketry. The British Indians suffered 2 total casualties while the French lost 30 of 36. However, the French did achieve their objective of keeping the British Indians away from the rest of the French forces (and even distracted British militia a bit).
Meanwhile, back at the fort, my regulars saw little until the French Indians and more irregulars arrived within 6" of the fort. (Seriously, who the heck builds a fort that close to dense woods?)
A remarkably poor morale roll saw my regular retreat from the walls early in the turn. That really was the game because the French Indians used remarkably effective flaming arrows to set the walls alight and also ran up to the wall and use torches.
Even getting a unit of regulars into the fort had little effect. The fire arrows were too effective and there were too many Indians and the fort started to burn.Credit to the French for coming up with a good plan and being persistent in executing it, even if they left the French irregulars to get massacred by the British Indians.
(Photos to come)
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