This was a recreation of the retreat of British forces from Fort William Henry. The British had been granted safe passage to Ford Edward by their French adversaries, but were attacked en route by the Indian allies of the French in a dastardly betrayal of the surrender terms at Fort William Henry!
In this refight, it looked like His Majesty's forces forced their way through, pushing the dishonourable Indians - and any accompanying Frenchmen - aside.
This event, held in the epicentre of the 'Lead Belt' in Nottingham City Centre (Nottingham Trent University), just gets bigger and better! Great competition games and scenery, superb trader stalls, interesting demo games, dedicated 'Perry' and 'Two Fat Lardies' rooms, a bring and buy stall etc etc.....what more could you want?!
We ran a Franco-Prussian demonstration game in which the Prussians eventually managed to eke out the narrowest of victories after suffering horrendous casualties.
Somewhat of a departure form our normal wargames, but here is an initial run through the post apocalyptic skirmish game 'Mutant Zone Wars', that has been based off the popular RPG, 'Mutant: Year Zero'.
In this game you command a small team of mutant scavengers, of various description, that must search for artefacts, kill other scavengers whilst avoid being killed themselves by other mutants or dangers lurking in the Zone.
This was much more fun than expected! The game play is heavily dependent on cards, which actually works very well. The figures come in the box with a degree of a 'dry brush' shaded look from the manufacturing practice, which is interesting. We will, at some point, get round to painting the miniatures, which will add to the feel of the game and setting.
In this scenario an English Army has been harried all the way from Dublin on its way to reach a defended fort 'up country'. The Irish have finally pulled together a big enough force to close on the English.
The English managed to escape across the river ford with the cavalry, a unit of shot and the majority of the baggage.
Of special note was the brave rear guard stand by some Dublin colonists, buying some vital time for the rest of the force to escape; the utterly cowardly actions of the English cavalry, who escaped across the ford as quickly as possible without helping their colleagues; and the ghastly, selfish behaviour of the Galloglaigh who, upon reaching the enemy baggage, spent two turns looting the train whilst ignoring the rest of the battle.
Nottingham Wargame Club will again be supporting this year's 'highly successful 'Britcon'. We will be hosting a Franco Prussian War display game on the Saturday 10th August. Come along and say 'hello'.
The website link for the event:
Britcon - The BHGS' Biggest Event of the Year - British Historical Games Society
