Slaughter at Fort McKerrow

Last night I held an impromtu game in the shed with copiuous amounts of redwine and Pizza.. read on

Order of Battle:

Attention of Sir Alan Worbury

Dawn is approaching, sleep has been hard to find as you mull over of desperate position. Here you are, you and your small force of regulars, rangers and local militia defending the strategic site known as Fort McKerrow. Your thoughts turn back to yesterday afternoon when your pickets alerted the garrison to the approach of the large Huron war party. As the afternoon wore on these marauders grew in number and encamped just outside the range of your best marksmen.  

Runners with requests for relief have been sent to General Taylor at Fort Catherine no more than 10 miles away, but still no response has been received.  You are not even sure if the runners were able to slip past the native cordon. Hopefully relief will arrive before the end of the day.

Fortunately the attacks from the Huron have been sporadic with little or no coordination. A few native braves tried to force the gate in the dark hours but were driven back by determined musketry.  Maybe the attack will come soon, you are sure however that the next will have more purpose as your sentries heard French voices singing in the enemy camp as dusk fell. Please god let us hope they brought no cannon.

With a stiff upper lip there is only one thing you can do, hold out, either until relief arrives or make your King, Country and Family proud.

If things could get no worse, earlier this morning your quartermaster brought you some dire news, the powder stored in the armoury is damp and your men are down to their last few horns of powder. Whether there is sufficient to hold out against the next attack you don’t know, you must trust in god for your salvation.

 The forces at your disposal

	Move	Shoot	Aggression	Defence	Weapons
Sir Alan Worbury	4	4	4	4	Pistol & Sword
Captain James Martin	4	5	4	4	Pistol & Sword
Regulars Infantry 2 units (each 8 men)	4	5	4	4	Muskets
Lieutenant Frederick Westhalen	6	4	4	4	Rifles
Rangers (two units 6 men)	6	4	4	4	Rifles
Militia (2 units each six men)	4	5	5	5	Muskets

Total number of men: 43inc officers

Map of Battlefield

Morale:

Units inside the fort have realised the desperate position they are in, they recognise that there is no- where to retreat and as such rolls will have to be managed accordingly.

All units will get +2 to their die rolls whilst they have powder, they lose this benefit when they can no longer shoot.

Units in recoil/flight will move towards the centre of the fort. Units routed are assumed to have either faced the music, died or hidden . They will no longer fight in the battle.

The British Morale card will still be acted on if forces suffer 50% casualties.

Powder Issues:

For the first three card decks every British unit has sufficient ammunition so blaze away. From the fourth card deck each time you fire if the number of ones rolled exceeds the number of sixes rolled then that unit is out of ammunition. Units may not forage from the enemy/friendly casualties.

Defence:

The Fort walls afford hard cover, units scaling the walls take two actions to get over the top. The second action would be counted as the assault. Tomahawks may be used in this assault.  Defending the walls will give the defenders +1 on their defence roll, attackers will be at -1.

Units may not form firing lines along the ramparts

Relief Force

You are not aware of any relief force approaching the fort. You must keep your fingers crossed that a runner reached General Taylor. If the runners reached Fort Catherine late last night then a force must surely arrive this morning, any reinforcements would come from the south either by river or road.

Victory: Hold the Fort until the besiegers retire or you are relieved

Attention of Colonel Didier

Last night you and your Canadian Coureurs arrived at the encampment of chief Broken Wolf. Following a heated exchange in which you demanded to understand why Fort McKerrow was not in their hands you have now taken overall command of the siege.

Your superiors saw fit not to send any ordnance to destroy the fort however you are in the possession of sufficient powder that your Coureurs have now used to create two mines. These will in your humble opinion be more than sufficient to force the gates open or to create a breach in the walls. Getting mines to the gate, under fire will be fraught with danger. This is not a job you can trust to your native allies.

You have learned from Broken Wolf that he has captured several runners trying to escape from the fort. These men were obviously trying to reach the British garrison at Fort Catherine. It is your belief that no relief is on its way but to be sure you have placed some of Broken Wolfs men along the road south.

Despite this positive news Broken Wolf appears to have little control over his renegade band. When you joined his encampment last night there was a sizeable presence, this morning this appears to have shrunk. Your ally assures you that his braves will return once battle is joined.

The forces at your disposal

	Move	Shoot	Aggression	Defence	Weapons
Colonel Didier	6	4	4	4	Musket
Coureurs (3 units x 6 men)	6	4	4	4	Musket
Broken Wolf (officer)	6	4	3	4	Muskets
Warbands (6 strong) 4 units on table at start (min 2 on road south)	6	4	3	4	Muskets
Warbands 6 units off table – each deck of cards roll d6 this is the number of warbands that return – maximum of 8 in total

Total Number of Men: 80

  

Placement:

The Coureurs Units start 18 inches away from the Main gates of the fort.

Two units of Indians lie waiting on the southern road ready to ambush any relief column. These units are placed out of site one either side of the road. They may join the assault on the fort.

The remaining six on table warbands will start 18 inches away from the walls. Each unit is rolled randomly to see which wall he is facing. No Indians  may face the wall next to the river.

Reinforcement Indians arrive from the North/East. – Random spawn point 24inches from fort walls.

Defence:

The Fort walls afford hard cover, units scaling the walls take two actions to get over the top. The second action would be counted as the assault. Tomahawks may be used in this assault.  Defending the walls will give the defenders +1 on their defence roll, attackers will be at -1

The Mines

Only your Coureurs can set the mines. A mine is placed next to a wall or gate in one action, priming and lighting is another action. Roll d3 this is when mine goes off. The unit must retreat a minimum of 6”. The mine explodes on a gate is destroyed on a 3+ (two mines auto destroy), a wall section is destroyed on a 5+. Any unit within 6” of mine when explodes takes a hit with lethality of 4+ (if inside walls or gate lethality 5+). Units may attempt to put out fuse – success on a 3+

Victory: Capture the Fort

So what happened ?

Well it was a bloody slaughter. The game started under the cover of darkness, with dawn about to break.

Under the M&T rules darkness creates a -3 to hit, this certainly worked in the Indians favour.

The Sentries on the Southern wall peered into the darkness to see the advancing savages

The southern attack, driven off by volleys of musket fire. Sir Alan was confidfent his troops could hold

Rangers on the North wall wait patiently as....

breaking cover from the woods advance several Indian Warbands...whooping and hollering.

The defenders muskets failing to hit their targets in the dawning light...

Pumped up by their advance the Native Indians ran for the walls...

Recognising the unguarded Western stretch one band circled round and scaled the timber stockade

A fierce melle ensued on the parapets. With their blood up the Indians tore apart the defending Rangers giving no mercy

With the Northern wall cleared of rifled greencoats the Indians swept over the barricades

Meanwhile The Gate house styrongly fortified with Rangers and Redcoats watched the Canadians advance carrying large barrels. A desultory volley inflicted one casualty.

This was not good !Sir Alans drilled men were missing every shot !

Colonel Didiers men advanced a nd placed their barrels of powder, the charges were set and they reterearted a safe distance. Only then did they iopen fire dropping three redvoats behind the stockade wall.

Boom - the mine exploded sending shattering splinters across the defenders ranks. More red and green jackets hit the dirt. With the gate now open the Canadians let rip and charged the breach.

Indians poured over the Northern wall slaughtering and maining the militia defenders

Further warbands joined the fray

Sir Alan's position was untenable and as the last man to die he cried for King, for God please forrgive my sins...

So in two card decks the Indians and Coureurs wiped out the defenders. The Indian luck held, so few of the British muskets found their mark in the early morning darkness.

A great game. albeit short was had by all