Got a doubles game of M&T in at the club the other night, 200 points of my British Rangers and 200 points of British Regulars versus 200 points of French Regulars and 200 points of assorted French Compagnie Franche de la Marine and some Native Allies. We decided to have a subplot for each officer rather than one per side, so that each player would have one. The main scenarios for the game were Kill the Bastards for the Brits and Setting Fire to Shit for the French. Can’t remember off hand what the actual scenarios were, but that about sums them up.
This is the initial disposition of the table and forces. My Rangers are huddled in the woods, the regulars are next to them in the open ready to head for the village. Markus’ Indians were on each flank, his irregulars in the middle, alongside the two French regular units captained by Thorsteinn.
First few cards were used for movement – one of my units headed for the right flank, the other stayed in the woods on the left, while the regulars headed to protect the town and set up a firing line there. I could have fired, but my subplot was to wait till the enemy fired first – which happily they did.
This one’s a little into the game, the regulars are in position ready to repel arsonists.
In position in the woods on the right flank, facing some Indians with rifles hiding in the fields and behind hedges.
Here come the Belg…er…French! Three units, a large irregular one and two regulars, head for the bridge to pour across and start setting some fires.
The French and British trade fire. If this had continued, a war of attrition would have developed which would have helped our cause immeasurably. However, the dastardly French refused to stand and fight, instead choosing to skulk around.
Having devastated one of the regular units, the French started to make a concerted effort to charge across the bridge, so I brought up my left flanking Rangers to catch them in a crossfire.
At the half way point, things were looking pretty good for us – my left flank Rangers were heading for the wall to shoot from cover at anyone coming across the river, my right flank rangers were in the woods stopping an advance in the open that way. All we needed were for the British regulars to hold their position and deny the French entrance to the village, and we’d be laughing!
Unfortunately that’s not what happened. Markus sent his sneaky savage Indians (they get really good combat odds for melee) running across the bridge, picking up something like 3 cards in a row for them. In a Brit regular card had come up, they’d have been hit by a salvo of volley fire and probably destroyed, but luck was on their side, and they ploughed into the firing line, destroying it entirely.
This allowed them and one of the now much reduced French regular units access to two of the houses, which they promptly set ablaze.
By now, both sides were close to their goals. With two houses alight, the French needed one more, and having killed the regular British officer and rescued a French captive they had fulfilled both of their subplots. The British regular officer had failed his, however, when due to casualties taken, the British morale card came into play (as did the French card). A spirited charge by the large French irregulars on the right flank led to the demise of my rangers there, but at a much greater cost for the French, leaving them with only 2-3 men left of a large unit.
At this stage of the game, it came down to either my remaining ranger unit (all others had fled or been killed) being able to pick off two enemy figures, or my unit disappearing. They were in a good position to take out a few figures of anyone that approached the remaining house, and the small unit of Marines that were left were in position to be shot; all I’d need to do would be to cause one casualty, and the remnants were likely to flee, giving us the game. As it was, the card before my activation was a French one, and a lucky shot meant I had to make a reaction roll…which led to my last remaining unit fleeing the field. The French, astonishingly, had managed to win.
This was another fun game, though we played with the event rule more properly than usual, which wasn’t as comedic (or fun, really) as they way Thorsteinn and I had played them in the previous game. Still, yet another game with twists and turns that could have gone either way on a final die roll, and a great deal of fun. Now if only the others would get their figures painted…
