Rocky Comfort Creek - March 22, 1779

Yesterday, I had a most enjoyable game of Sharp Practice. It was from the This Land Divided supplement that I am upgrading to version 2 of Sharp Practice. We made a few tweaks to it but they were minor. It was a three player game that was umpired by Mark Luther who provided the terrain and the figures. They were beautiful as always.

Following the disaster at Kettle Creek, the British attempted to raise the Creek nation to come to their aid. Taitt, the British Indian agent managed to raise a large force of six hundred Creek Warriors supported by a few Loyalist militia. As the force descended on Wilkes County, Georgia, the Rebel militia was again raised to counter this threat. In order to reach August, Georgia, the Indians separated into three separate bands. One of these bands, Headed by Alexander McGullivary, was checked near Rocky Comfort Creek. Historically, the Rebels stopped the Indians and sent them back to their homes. The Rebels had raised a large force of militia and destroyed each of the three bands in detail. Capturing several key leaders. Taitt would reach Augusta but with just 70 Creek warriors of the original six hundred he had raised.

Rocky Creek takes place after several other bands have been checked. The goals of the Indians are just to survive on the field for seven turns of the blank card then melt away into the woods.

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Lieutenant Daniel Egan took another pull from the whiskey bottle before the surgeon dug into his arm to extract the musket ball. It was one of two wounds he had taken on the day. The clerk was taking his statement on the recent action to send out to Taitt, the indian agent to the Creek.

"We proceeded toward Augusta. We had a large party of Muskogee, Creeks under the command of Alexander McGullivary. One of the bands was commanded by one of Emistiguo's sons, Big Fellow. There were two other minor leaders as well. I accompanied them with a party of loyalists. Yesterday we had learned of the defeat of the other bands being sent down to Augusta and that the militia had been raised in Wilkes County.

"We advanced down toward Rocky Comfort Creek. Our scouts reached a hill in the forest that overlooked the river. It was here that we saw a large party of militia that we observed crossing the river. We were significantly outnumbered. They had cut off our path to Augusta and wouldn't be able to move around them.

"McGullivary issued orders to hold up their advance until we could get away by dark. Cloud and Moon moved forward to hold the hill top."

"The Rebel Militia were moving faster than we thought they could be. They pushed forward a body of skirmishers that came close to our position in the woods. Big Fellow lead his men down the hill to push back the skirmishers. I went forward with my Loyalists near the small dirt track. I observed a party of horsemen coming up the road and took my men further into the woods for cover.

"Big Fellow rushed his men forward and engaged the skirmishers. His large band of followers outnumbered the skirmishers. With thrown tomahawks they hacked their way into the Rebels who broke and fled. This was alarming for our force as Big Fellow had taken a wound and was knocked out. I was uncertain if our allies would remain in the field. They have broken when one of their leaders had been wounded or killed before. The skirmishers left their four dead behind and fled past their lines. I would later learn that they killed the skirmisher officer, a Captain Hatcher."

"From the cover of the trees, the mounted militia proceeded into the scrub across from my position. I had my men fire a volley into the horsemen which stymied their movement. We were to learn that their leader, Major Ross of the Rebel Fair Forest Militia was wounded and had his horse shot out from underneath him. Several other horses were hit as well. The militia then dismounted and attempted to form into a line.

"We exchanged fire with the militia line for a time but other rebel militia advanced through the forest. Our position was nearly in line with Big Fellows and Cloud and Moon's Creeks. My men began to take casualties. Over the course of the engagement, I was wounded twice. Eight of my men were killed and left in the field. My men would have to drag my unconcious form from the line of fire.

From what I learned, Big Fellow recovered from his wounds and started to pull his forced back from the Rebels. Cloud and Moon also pulled back and were able to slip away. I was the last to quit the field. I learned that our Indian Allies suffered only the injury to Big Fellow. Besides the four skirmishers that Big Fellow's men killed, I believe that my troops killed no more than a handful of the enemy but we still held them at bay."

"More Rebel militia continued to cross the river and arrive. The militia line that we were fighting remounted to prepare for pursuit. On the whole, our Allies performed well and my men fought bravely to the end. But I regret to inform you that Big Fellow and his Muskogee will be unable to reach Augusta."

Your Obedient Servant,
Lieutenant Daniel Egan

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The game was fun. I enjoyed playing the Indian forced. The rebels moved up their deployment point and prevented my movable deployment point from going forward. I could only move it sideways. The Rebels had tons of militia and they had a very good force morale. With the destruction of the skirmishers, the loss of their leader and the wound of Major Ross, I was unable to move their force morale below 8. My force morale began at 11 and it dropped to 4 before I got away. The lone group of Loyalist Militia were badly beaten up. We had rated them as skirmishers for the game but should not have. They should have been just average militia but armed with rifles. The rifles made them much more deadly than they would have been otherwise.

The Heavy Going of the woods restricted the movement of the Militia. I had some unusually fortunate die rolls on movement with the Indians which allowed them to get into positions that I wished. I never deployed my last two groups Indians as I wasn't trying to fight it out. I just wanted to survive for seven turns of a blank card then fade away. This we did rather well.

Painting Progress

Last week was weak in terms of painting. I managed to paint... rocks. Yep, two 3d printed rock formations that I bought from the fine folks at Sea Dog Studios. Honestly, they look great. Much better than my simple paint job.

To get ready for my Nov 11th Pirates game, I need to paint some more figures. Among them are a few gun crewmen, four oarsmen and two sets of seated troops. I can't get myself in gear to paint. Have been a little preoccupied with a book launch. I won't bore you with the details but if you are interested, check out my other blog.

Also, I am enamoured with my new 3d printer. I am thinking of making a few items for the game. In particular, I am thinking of making a prize for the game. I bought some appropriate model files online. They have an excellent ship wreck that I am going to make. I think that will be the give away.

Cool Minis or Not - Games Day 5/7/2016

Over the weekend, I was privileged to help Matt put on a fantastic set of Chain of Command games at "Cool Minis or Not." Matt did all the heavy lifting and hard work. He provided the terrain, the miniatures and everything. I got to sit around and talk about one of my favorite game systems and play. What a great day.

We took bins of buildings like this:

And turned it into the table below.

We arrived around 8am at the venue for setup and got right to work. Matt's terrain was beautiful over the course of the day, we played four games. Setup was very straight forward despite the sheer amount of terrain that was there.

Borrowing Mark's banner, we were ready to go.

The first game we played was a patrol scenario from the main rulebook. A platoon of US Infantry with a halftrack and a tank destroyer for supports fought against a platoon of volksgrenadiers that I can't remember the supports for as I was playing the US at the time. The game went well with the Germans occupying the ruined government building and another ruin across the street. The halftrack was amazing. It survived two separate strikes from a panzerfoust and stayed in the fight. It would be responsible for the destruction of two of Matt's volksgrenadier squads. My problem all day was low starting morale. I could not get a game started on a morale higher than 8. The results of the first game were a draw. Neither side could carry on the fight.

The second game of the day was a delaying action. I took command of the Germans and Matt the US troops. We were joined by a young man who was pulled in by the terrain. My volksgrenadiers faced a platoon of US troops and a tank platoon. This game was really interesting. The young man who joined us was supposed to play in a couple of other games but said, "this was way more interesting than his other games" and stuck with us. He moved his platoon down the main road. One tank veered off the road to engage a heavy MG team that I stationed in the government building. They ended up trading shots with Matt's tank destroyer the whole game and were nearly killed to a man.

Besides the MG team, I had selected a STUG III as a support element. The STUG spent most of the game engaging some infantry at distance that were hiding in a building. It did great devastation to the squad in the building but never managed to break it. But it had one shot at the tank that moved to fire on my MG team. I took the shot and rolled well. The sherman was blown to bits. The next highlight was after our visitor had to leave. His tank platoon engaged some infantry in a ruined building. These grenadiers had been wearing down Matt's infantry the whole game. Things were starting to look bleak for the allies. Then all three remaining shermans fired on the building. In the avalanche of 6's that followed, the squad was nearly killed to a man as the building collapsed around them. Its lone survivor routed off the table. This was all it took to break my force morale and ended the game. It was fantastic.

Game 3 was very short lived. I picked up the US infantry again. We attempted a flank attack scenario. My battle plan came unravelled almost immediately. I pressed my troops in quickly and in close combat lost the entire squad. The Germans did as well but my starting morale was an 8 and after the close assault, my morale was 4 to the German 6. The US pulled back immediately. A brief lunch at 4pm had us back on the game table for game 4.

We picked up another new player who was enthusiastic about the game. He played a platoon of US Infantry as did I. Matt again playing the Germans. I deployed along the long edge of the table while the other US player started from the short end. Matt's forces were spread out across the government building and two others. I again tried to push too fast and too hard. This time I nearly succeeded. I brought up the halftrack again as a support option. However, Matt had a grudge against "Old Reliable." Yep, I named that half-track. Well, the anti-tank gun appeared and fired a shot that routed off (not destroyed) my halftrack. And thus began my force morale spiral downwards.

The infantry, now unsupported, charged the gun and drove off the crew and close assaulted the senior leader that was directing it. Matt lost a senior leader and I lost my junior leader. I took a worse morale hit. I brought up a second squad only to have the two squads stuck in a firefight with all three of Matt's. By the end of that, our visiting player had fresh forces and nearly no opponents. We played several more turns of an already decided game to give him a better feel for the rules.

I am definitely planning on doing CMON again next year. I will probably bring a Sharp Practice game as long as Matt or someone runs a Chain of Command game. It was a great day.