After two playtests, Arthur and I took our Battle of Belly River wargame to the Trumpeter's November meeting at Bonsor Community Centre. Brian and Colin joined Arthur and me to play the game again. We adjusted a few things about the game. For rules, we used Wiley Games' Fistful of Lead, specifically Glorious Adventures in the Age of Steam, although as we didn't include any of the VSF elements, it isn't any different from the main FFoL system :). We also simplified the warbands. For the first playtest, each model was a distinct character, each with some special trait or characteristic. This turned out to be too much to keep track of, especially to remember which model gets which bonus, and even to remember which model is which.
Here is the table. The Oldman River (aka the Belly River) cuts through the prairie in the lower left hand side. The Cree raiding party will start on the hill in the centre rear. Jerry Potts and his Kainai (aka Blood) warriors will start on the hilltop on the upper right. Mounted Blackfoot warriors arrive in the lower left side of the table. A relief force of mounted Cree will arrive sometime later in the game on the lower right side of the table. At the end of turn one, the relief force rolls a d6. On a 6, they come on the table in turn 2. Otherwise they check again at turn end, and can arrive on turn 3 if they roll a 5 or 6. Each turn they fail to arrive the die roll to test improves by 1.
This photo shows the thicket at the foot of the hill, which represents the stand of trees where the Cree attackers made their last stand.
Here come the mounted Blackfoot! The leader is up front with his big headdress and carrying a lance. Most of the other warriors are WYSIWYG (warrior with rifle, warrior with revolver, etc). They have an elder in the rear who has a few special abilities - as a warrior, he is less powerful, but he is a strategist, which gives his warband an extra card on each deal (player must chose one card to discard), and he is encouraging, which allows him to remove shock from a warrior within 12". The Cree warriors, trapped on the hill after their attack on the Kainai camp, and eager to escape! The chap with the buffalo coat is a Métis hunter carrying a powerful buffalo gun. His heavy furs give him an 8+ saving roll against being wounded. This group is led by the warrior in the red and black striped shirt. Note that this warband has several archers and three warriors with hand weapons only - they are outgunned by Jerry Potts and his Kainai brethren, so they ought to avoid getting into a firefight!Jerry Potts and his Kainai. The smoke represents a shock marker from the Cree shooting at them. They are all quite well armed. The model we used for Jerry Potts was not an exact match - I regret that we didn't have one that included more this:The history of the battle that I found notes that Potts and his men located themselves on top of a hill where they fired down onto the Cree in the valley below. Potts would later say of the battle “You could fire eyes shut and kill a Cree that day.” Potts has been given a few traits to make him a better shooter, including sniper which allows him to reroll a missed shot. He also had stealthy, making him harder to shoot but that was one that we forgot to apply to most shooting!
The game got under way with a firefight between the foot Cree warband and Potts' warband, as the Blackfoot started out by crossing the Belly River (move at half speed while fording the river).
The mounted Cree rolled a '6' at the end of turn one, so they were able to arrive in turn 2! They moved from the river valley up to the top of the hill to allow them to attack Potts' warband.Cree warband prove that it's a bad idea to get into a firefight when you are outgunned!
Blackfoot advance through the bushes.
Mounted Cree move up to attack Potts' warband.Mounted Blackfoot tussle with the Cree at the foot of the hill.
Potts' warriors engage in a firefight to hold off the Cree relief warband.
But the warriors they want to rescue are struggling!
Blackfoot punish the Cree at the foot of the hill. I ran out of 'wound' markers so used pennies!
All the warriors at the foot of the hill have been rubbed out, and those on top of the hill are mostly done.
The mounted Cree get the upper hand over Potts' warband, but they are too late. The warband they had hoped to rescue have been wiped out. We called the game after the Cree foot warband was eliminated. Brian's mounted Cree had the upper hand over the Kainai, but their victory was not guaranteed, and Colin's mounted Blackfoot were still almost full strength. On balance this was a Blackfoot victory.
So the game result matched the historic result. Brian decided his mounted Cree needed to take out Potts' warband, so he moved his troops up to the top of the coulee. They were eventually able to neutralise the Kainai, but at the cost of not getting to rescue their friends. Staying in the firefight with the better-armed Kainai was a mistake for the Cree on foot, when they should have focussed on getting away.
