Father & Son game

 My clubs voted on playing Paleo Diet Eat or be Eaten for our September game. Unfortunately the only members who could make it were my son Thomas and myself. We ended up just having a good father and son game together. 

I set up the terrain and then let Thomas pick what animals, their numbers, and distribution we'd be facing. 

He put a small pack of wolves in a thicket of trees.

A small flock of Terror Birds with a nest (I ended up changing it to 1 instead of 3).

A Cave Bear prowling the hill top.

A young Mastodon drinking from the marsh and a small heard of Antelope in the central clearing.

Prepping the game aids.

I selected a hunting party of 8, 4 with clubs and 4 with spears. I then let Thomas pick 2 from the spear group and 2 from the club group to make up his party. I took the remaining 4. 

Thomas's hunters started in the center of his side, between the hill and the woods with wolves. This put him in close proximity to all 3 of the predator groups on the table.

I split my part in half and spread them out. This way I could coral the Antelopes if they started to flee. 

Thomas cautiously snuck up behind the Mastodon while I approached the small herd of Antelope from 2 sides.

The Antelope got spooked by one of my groups and began wandering off.

Thomas tried to stab the Mastodon in the rear but it just got annoyed and maid a loud trumpeting causing his hunters to slink back in fear.

However his huntress was not deterred and made another attempt. This time the large beast took a wound. It tried to flee but got bogged down in the...bog. 

He was quite happy to get first blood.

I continued to pursue the Antelope but just drove them towards Thomas's hunters.

Thomas made another attempt on the Mastadon but this time he just pissed it off and it turned on his huntress. Luckily she nimbly dodge the swinging tusks and trunk. A follow up attack by one of the club armed hunters resulted in a wound for the hunter.

Thomas then got a bit of luck by slaying one of the Antelope I had driven his way. This gave us our first to bulk of meat (needed 8 for a successful hunt).

I followed up his success by downing a second Antelope, but not before it managed to gore one of my hunters.

A few turns later I had managed to get a second hunter wounded while supporting Thomas going after the Mastodon. Then the beast panicked and tried to flee from the hunters on hemming it in. In its flight it ran into my huntress and gave her a nasty wound.

Shortly after I was able to put a second wound on the Mastodon and then Thomas's huntress brought it down with 2 more successful attacks. She was able to do it by resisting the fear inducing trumpeting and dodging any attacks back her way. We managed to get our 8 bulk food quota to feed the tribe but half of our party was wounded. Fortunately none of our hunters were killed.

Thomas was gushing about how much braver his huntress was then the other hunters, even though she does not look as tough. He insisted I take a solo shot of her up on the cliffs to honor her accomplishment.

FIW Club Game

Game Narrative: Saturday, September 28th, 1758
A large force of French Soldiers, Canadian Frontiers Men, and their Indian Allies have been raiding deep into the Pennsylvania Frontier. They have already sacked and burned several homesteads and are believed to be heading for the small farming community of West Vernon. The call for help has been sent out but so far only a small force of local provincials with a unit of British Regulars arrived on Friday and set up camp. They assured the residents that the rest of the regional force would arrive sometime today. The question is, will they arrive in time?

French Forces:
-Indian Chief
- 3 units of 6 Indians
- Canadian Officer
- 3 units of 6 Frontiersmen
- French Officer
- 2 units of 9 marines

British Forces:
- British Officer
- 1 unit of 12 British Regulars
- 2 Provincials Officer
- 4 units of 12 Provincial Infantry

The British Regulars deployed in the center of the settlement with 1 unit of Provincials on their left.

The French line had the Frontiersmen deployed on the left with Marines in the center and Indians on the Right. 

 Sensing their right flank being exposed the Regulars shifted to their right to protect that flank. They took up a firing line position behind a fence.

The French and their allies advanced through the cover of the forest

When they drew too close, a unit of Marines fell to a withering volley of fire from the Regulars.

On the other flank the Indians got shots with their hunting rifles into the Provincials who took some casualties and where forced to fallback.

The Indians then took advantage of this and advanced quickly on the nearest house and set it alight. The surviving unit of Marines also tried to press the advantage and rush the next house down the line.

 However the Provincials found their aim and started picking off the Marines and slowing their progress.

 Eventually the Marines reached the building and got to work setting it alight.

However, with one final volley, the Provincials slew the last of the Marines. Only their officer was left. He bravely rushed the building and managed to finish setting it alight. Meanwhile the Indians had taken advantage of their distraction and charged into the few remaining Provincials. After a fierce and bloody melee the Indians where left standing

Furious with the loss of his men. the Provincial officer charged around the burning house and slew the Marine officer with his saber. Meanwhile his other unit of Provincials had finally arrived and their massed volley fire drove the Indians back.

At the other end, the Frontiersmen could barely step foot from the woods without falling to a hail of bullets from both the Regulars and a unit of Provincials that had arrived.

 With most of their force destroyed or fleeing the remaining French and their Allies decided to retreat.

Once in the safety of the woods, the remaining French force was able to get away. Both units of Marines had be killed or routed, including 1 unit of Frontiersmen and 1 unit of Indians. The remaining Indians and Frontiersmen had all suffered casualties. They also lost 1 officer.

One unit of Provincials had been slain to a man. Their only other casualty was a Provincial officer who had tried to pursue the Frontiersmen into the forest. Unfortunately for him, the prey turned and shot him from his horse.

In the end, half the settlement had been burned. Though they only managed to save half, the British force had taken relatively light casualties and in turn devastated the French raiding party. A minor victory for the English Crown.