Doug invited Arthur and me over to try out his 1885 Northwest Rebellion recreation of the first day of the Battle of Batoche. Doug used a variation of The Men Who Would Be Kings. He noted that the casualties in the campaign were quite low, but the amateurish Canadians had a hard time achieving their goals despite an overwhelming advantage in men and materiel.
What Doug did was count 'hits' as 'pins'. Using the standard TMWWBK process for requiring a certain number of successes depending on circumstances like range and cover, each standard 'hit' is actually a 'pin'. The unit must then pass a morale test modified by the number of pins. Only after the morale test is made is there a test for actual casualties, by rolling dice equal to the number of pins, with only '1's counting as a casualty. So there were many morale checks but only a few casualties.
Here is the table layout, typical aspen parkland. The famous St-Antoine de Padoue church and rectory on the left, and the wagon representing the Canadian militia's 'zareba' or fortified campsite.
90th Winnipeg Rifles advance, but take a pin from the Metis firing from the gunpit on the left.
The Winnipeg Rifles flee, with the log markers representing the pins that they've accumulated. The puffs in front of the rifle pits are markers to show how often the Metis have fired - important to track as they are subject to limited ammunition!
The second squad of Rifles takes three casualties from some deadly Metis firing.
And now the Gatling gun opens on the Metis defenders!
The Bolton's Scouts patrol to locate the Metis rifle pits. Rifle pits are hidden unless their occupants fire, or unless Canadian forces come within 6".
Metis defenders. Note the Metis sash on the figure on the left.
Canadian artillery has fled the table, but the Rifles have rallied and resumed their advance. 10th Royal Grenadiers are visible to the right of the Gatling.
Metis riflemen keep up their fire.
2nd Lt Howard's Gatling keeps up fire.
10th Royal Grenadiers
Boulton's Scouts continue their ride, revealing the rifle pits, but getting a bit shot up in the process.
Out of ammo, Metis abandon one of their rifle pits.
Their morale weakened, but having revealed the Metis rifle pits, Boulton's Scouts fall back to their own lines.
Metis fall back from their rifle pits.
Winnipeg Rifles charge the withdrawing Metis. Ironically, the Winnipeggers lost the skirmish, but both sides failed their morale checks and both fell back!
At this point, we had to wrap things up for the night. The result was more or less similar to the first day of the real battle, with much inconclusive skirmishing, and the Canadian militia being easily spooked by relatively little or ineffective fire from the Metis rifle pits.I enjoyed Doug's amendments to the rules - the Canadian militia spooking at each little bit of rifle fire from the Metis seemed very apt! I feel that Doug has a winner here. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this project.
Here are a few photos from our 'special correspondent' (aka Arthur playing with the camera settings!)
Glad you enjoyed the game with those amendments. It does rather well to portray the historical effects during that battle. The Canadians will inevitably win but it might take many more turns on the table as it did during the actual encounter on the Prairie.
ReplyDeleteGood write up.
….Doug.
Looks like a fun game.
ReplyDeleteI have a bunch of the old Rafm Northwest Rebellion miniatures (most still need to be painted!) and have often thought about playing out some of the skirmishes of the campaign.
The Men Who Would Be Kings seems like the perfect set of rules to play with - should I ever get around to it!
I find casualties in wargames are often much higher than would be in most historical battles. I think the key is to not think of "kills" or "casualties" removed as deaths or even injuries, but rather think of it as an abstract reduction in combat efficiency - or think of models removed as "no longer participating in battle" whether it is because death or injury, or individuals that have just left either dragging away injured comrades or have just had enough - or even shot off all of their ammunition!?
Thanks for the comments, Doug and Tim. It was a fun game, great modifications to TMWWBK. I appreciate Tim's comment that not all wargame 'casualties' are actually kills, but Doug's approach allows for someone to come forward and knock some sense into soldiers who've had their sensibilities offended!
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