Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Muskets & Tomahawks

Hello everyone.
So a few weeks back I had an AAR from a French & Indian War game using the rules Muskets & Tomahawks by Studio Tomahawks (odd name). I really enjoyed the game and decided I would get a unit to contribute to future club games. At Salute this past weekend I purchased the Muskets & Tomahawks rule book and a unit of 8 Militia.




The rules are card driven where each Unit Type for each nation has one or more cards in the deck that give them one or more actions (actions being move, shoot, reload). While I am not particularly fond of card driven games I found that the system work adequately for the time period as well as led to an entertaining game. You might find you have a unit in a perfect position but not have its card drawn until near the end of the game after the enemy has either moved or driven your unit off. While that could be frustrating, when playing with friends it leads to much humor and adds a level of suspense.
A nice feature throughout the book are optional rules that can change the style of play. I really liked this as it allows for greater variety in your play. One such "optional rule" involved each player drawing 3 cards from the deck and then taking turns playing them. This could allow you to force an opponent to act before you so that you could plan or hold back until your ready. Another "optional rule" let you place Units on Vigilance which would allow them to react once to an enemy unit without your units card being drawn.
 Another feature of the rules that I think every rule book should have (and most do) is a good Quick Reference Sheet that is easy to fallow.
The rules also allow for Characters in the forum of Officers that can add greater depth and entertainment to a game.
Overall I really like the rules set and highly recommend them to anyone who is interested in this time period.

The unit I got for the game consist of 8 Canadian Militia known as Coureuts des Bois which where Canadian fur traders who joined the French to protect their homes and business.
I have another unit in the mail and when they arrive the figure in the front rank with the tri-corner hat will become my officer. I will add photos of each individual figure once I fix my camera.

2 comments:

Obsidian3D said...

Very nice models...and it always makes me happy to see people painting models up as Canadians. :)

racm32 said...

thank you. Only 1 club member I play with has some Canadian militia and we thought we could use some more so I gave it a go. Glad you like them.