French and Indian Raids along New York’s Oswego River 1756 - Rebels & Patriots

Introduction:

My inspiration for the game came from Osprey’s Raid publication “Montcalm’s Crushing Blow. French and Indian Raids along New York’s Oswego River 1756”.

In essence Major-General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm enjoyed a great deal of success attacking and taking key strategic fortifications in the Oswego River area using his French Light Infantry and large numbers of allied native Americans. His forces made excellent use of Bateaux (singular Bateau) to navigate waterways through what would otherwise have been very challenging or even impassable terrain, to take them within striking distance of their objectives. The Bateaux were considerably larger than a canoe, 30 feet four inches (9.2m) long, six and a half feet (1.9m) wide and two feet ten inches (0.8m) deep. The British Regulars garrisoning the forts struggled to deal with the light infantry tactics employed by the French and their allies.

Game One

Scenario

The British have started the construction of a fortified position beside a tributary of the Oswego River. They have erected a block house, two gun emplacements and an ammunition store. The objective for the French is to take and destroy the fort and guns.

At the start of the attack the garrison comprises a unit of Regulars, a unit of Grenadiers (shock infantry) with an officer, a unit of Rangers (light infantry) with an officer, a unit of Mohawk skirmishers (upgraded to sharp shooters) and two units of Artillery men who having finished polishing and attending to the maintenance of their guns are reposing in the block house. Reinforcements are available from a camp approximately a mile from the fort. The sound of gunfire will alert them.

Initially the French force is much larger, but the defenders do have two cannon and the protection of hard cover. This means that when targeted by the enemy, the French will require four hits to remove one figure and this will increase to five hits if the target is over 12” away. Most units hit on fives and sixes, although the sharpshooter upgrade increases the shooter’s range to 24” hitting on four pluses. 

The French force comprised four large units of native Americans (18 figures per unit instead of 12) this meant that each unit could lose nine figures before becoming permanently disordered, rather than the usual six. These units, being classed as natives do not have the fire action which means they only throw six dice when firing (yes, even with an 18 figure unit). However in hand to hand they hit on fours rather than the usual six, or five for shock infantry. 

In addition to the Indians, the French had a unit of Regulars with an officer, two units of marines and a unit of Coureurs Des Bois skirmishers upgraded to sharp shooters.

I felt that with such large forces on both sides (don’t forget the British get reinforcements)that the game should have lasted several hours. How wrong was I!

The French had first activation as they were the attackers. As a light infantry force, they made speedy progress across the table. Two groups of natives on each flank were the first to reach the defenders as they were not slowed by the river or wooded areas. One unit of them took some casualties, but all four units reached the British position with well over half their strength or at full strength. 

The British musketry had little real effect. One unit of artillery men, just didn’t seem all that interested in leaving the creature comforts of the block house and were content to wave their comrades off as they ran to man one of the canon.

On the British right flank, the rangers were charged by a group of Indians, but failed to get the roll they needed to perform a skirmish action (i.e. shoot and scoot). They did get the bonus for defending an obstacle, but the ferocity of the Indians who when charging get a plus one on their already impressive four plus fighting, meant they were hitting on threes and the Rangers needed sixes. 

Needless to say the Rangers were driven back. The Indians leapt the defensive wall and were able to follow up because they had won the melee and had no disorder marker. The Rangers took more casualties, became disordered and retreated further.

In the British centre, the Grenadiers couldn’t quite make up their mind whether to support the left or right flanks. In the end they settled for their left flank. As they made their way over to the left, a large unit of Indians overran the left flank gun emplacement, more or less wiped out the artillery unit manning it and then turned their attention onto the Grenadiers who had just arrived. 

While all this was going on, the French marines and skirmishers contented themselves with hanging back and taking the occasional pot shot while their native American allies worked their hand to hand magic. 

Although the British reserves arrived promptly, they were simply no match for the Indians in hand to hand. Even a fresh unit of Grenadiers and two more units of regular and a unit of Rangers, were unable to repel the attackers. The Rangers were unlucky with their dice rolls and just didn’t behave the way they should with shoot and evade.

The battle was decided in about one hour thirty minutes with the British side conceding.

Game Two

Scenario

The French and their allies have taken possession of the fortified position, but can they hold it? Now the British are attacking. The French sensibly deploy their native American allies outside of the fort and near or in woods on both of their flanks. The marines, Regulars and sharpshooters take positions behind hard cover to the rear of the blockhouse and await the British.

This battle was far more intense than the first and there was a lot more manoeuvring and substantial losses on both sides. The British Regulars acted as more of a deterrent to pin the Indians on their right flank. The Grenadiers definitely held their own in the centre driving off a unit of Indians and causing casualties amongst the French marines before their own losses forced them to pull back or risk losing their officer. 

Over on the British left flank, two units of Rangers had finally found their Mojo and their was intensive fighting in the woods. The Rangers consistently skirmished and put fire into the attacking Indians before retreating a half move. This time the Indians definitely didn’t get it all their own way; they took losses and became disordered, but were really good at rallying and getting back into the fray.

Just as it appeared the British might be getting the upper hand, the Rangers on their left flank could no longer keep out of charge distance of their Indian foes and they took heavy losses in the ensuing hand to hand fighting. Both sides were now close to reaching half of their original force strength and had lost the stomach to continue with the fight. 

The French would spike the guns as they retreated back to their Bateaux and set fires where they could, but the British who would retake possession of the fort had learned a salutary lesson. Don’t underestimate the power of a fast moving light infantry force. You’re not safe even in a fortified position. The second game was a draw.

Post game reflection:

As an umpire clearly an important goal is to ensure that each side at least has a chance of winning and achieving their objectives. I feel that in some ways I may have over-egged things in favour of the French. 

Firstly I gave all their units the first fight/fire bonus in order to represent the surprise nature of the attack. Perhaps this was a little too much over compensation. The native American units were like steam rollers in the first game. With hind sight I would have just one large group of 18 and three normal sized groups of 12. This would make their discipline a little more brittle and once down to half strength or less they would receive a permanent disorder marker.

I thought it interesting how the first game played out and was pretty accurate historically, however once the British Rangers got their act together in game two, they were at least a match for their French and Indian enemies.

I would like to thank all of the players who were consummate gentlemen and were magnanimous throughout the games even when the action got really intense.

Many thanks

Mike