Custer's Last Stand?

Today Mat and I played our final Indian Wars game. I made the soldiers, when mounted, very formidable in mounted combat. and this impacted the result of the game as, unlike the real Custer battle most melees were mounted clashes.

The game was VERY loosely based on the battle of the Little Big Horn but it did keep to the idea of three cavalry columns.

I also did something I hadn't done for a while and that was to use two tables, one in my garage and one in the connected rumpus room. 

Custer's column  started off on the board and got a head start when I won the initiative. Benteen's column appeared slightly to the side on the same garage table (the one with green grass). Reno's column (the smallest in our game) would appear (unknown, at first to Mat) in the rumpus room desert terrain table). 

The only reason one table was desert was because i ran out of time to re-surface it. In fact I spent about five hours or so just clearing it of assorted STUFF, difficult because it had to be sorted (which I partially did) and then I had to find nooks and crannies to stack it. (under the tables was already chock a block with boxes of soldiers and other items). I did find some interesting things in the process.

Apart from Custer's column the two reserve columns had to be activated to appear on the board. All Indians had to also be activated, including two villages (just represented by a few tepees) and war band some to arrive on each table. The Indians outnumbered the cavalry by around two to one.

The game was set to run for 15 moves plus a roll to determine any extra so it went for eighteen moves.

The garage table. The Indians here started off outnumbered by approaching Custer and Benteen columns as a warband rushes out to block the advance.

           Some Indians were scattered on foot around the village. They took a while to wake up.

        Indian squaw, Morning Swallow with her baby, Little Dove, Both were killed by stray bullets Morning Swallow has very Groucho Marxian eyebrows.

                                                      Custer's column races forward.

       I couldn't find my Custer figure in buckskins so I used the Timpo figure. Here the cavalry stall as the Indians out up a strong defensive line.

                              A strong resistance is encountered and Custer is nearly killed until reinforcements rescue him.

   I was pleased to see my recently repainted and repaired hollowcast Indians in the defence. You can have some fun picking the various plastic brands.

               The Indians in the other village were last to wake up but eventually discovered Reno's column approaching the village.

        You can just make out the cavalry on the other side of the river. (The gap is counted as a wide part of the river).

                                       Reno realises he is vastly outnumbered and retreats!

                                    Back in the garage the Indians are being slaughtered.

                                  A lone Indian, Sceaming Eagle, tries to rescue his wife (but as previously mentioned) she dies along with him. Ironically the carbine volley directed at him also ploughs into the tepee. The two big prcelain dice are used to record game moves.

                                 Another squaw and baby are taken hostage and a war party surrenders for fear for their loved ones safety.

         The group in the foreground surrender their weapons but a small group fights on, almost to theirextermination.

  Previously Indian reinforcements had crossed boards from the desert table but now the cavalry moved from green table to desert table. Custer narrowly escapes death again.

   Meanwhile Reno has holed up in some rocks. His men take pot shots and kill a few braves at long range but the Indians don't close in. (Although normally we say one cavalryman horse holder for each horse we allow all men to fire if in cover where horses can be tied to natural objects.)

            These two mounted Indians had fled from the other tables but now face a new onslaught.

   Reno's men cautiously move forward on foot to close the range on the second Indian village. they out range the Indian bows.

                             Four guards are left with the surrendered Indians as the rest move to join Custer on the other table.

                                              In the foreground a brave chief lies dead.

                                     A stiff resitsance is prepared for the unoccupied village.

       Luckily for the villagers night approaches so they can slip away to fight another day.

CONCLUSION

I had a rule that Custer be impetuous and Reno cautious. No doubt Reno will get a court martial for not lining up with Custer and Benteen. A leadership est at six out of a twelve side dice was made and he called off the attack but it was the sensible thing to do anyway. He could have held off a big attack in those rocks had it happened. Custer had to do leadership tests at a low level to NOT attack. In addition each unit had to d its own test to go into a charge. it was made more difficult for Indians to pass this against mounted cavalry but still managed to have some devastating charges, especially as some of their units were larger than the cavalry units.

I liked the random arrival of units which made things more interesting and challenging.

Although the Indians had got the worst of it we called it a draw as one village and still not been conquered. The idea of holding women and children hostage came to me from reading of someone else's game and apparently it was one tactic attempted historically, My rule was that if women were captured any war band within 80 cm had to do a leadership test and it it failed it surrendered,