Gus Murchie Memorial Christmas Game 2023 - French Indian War (Rebels & Patriots)

 

Another year is fast reaching its conclusion and another wargaming year in the Devon Wargames Group finished last weekend with our annual Gus Murchie Memorial Christmas Game, when we come together as a club to celebrate our hobby with one big final end of year game in which all members are invited to come along and get involved and enjoy a day of great gaming, chat, banter and some seasonal snacks to keep body and soul together, followed by a final beverage in a local hostelry for responsible members of the club.

I missed last year's big Xmas Game for the first time, being on my travels down under, with the club indulging a big ACW recreation of the Battle of Stones River or Second Battle of Murfreesboro, 31st December 1862 - 2nd January 1863.
Devon Wargames Group - Gus Murchie Memorial Christmas Game 2022, Battle of Stones River

This year has been a golden year in the forty-two years of club history with the membership matching the club's longevity, topping forty and stretching it to provide games for everyone that wants to play, with a regular attendance of around twenty to twenty five folks at any meeting, and normally with four games running at each.

In our efforts to meet that demand, the club now hosts two meetings a month from January to April instead of the more normal once a month meeting during the rest of the year, and the club membership is not so grey as the hobby press would suggest the wider hobby might be becoming, in that we have a good core of younger members who are the future players of the club.

Our team of players for this year's Gus Murchie Memorial Christmas Game

The menu of games and rulesets has blossomed this year and games have ranged from ancients to modern, historical to classic, and not so classic fantasy, on land sea and air, and a scan through our year's posts will amply illustrate the variety of games and rulesets the club is able to offer together with some great looking tables, figure and model collections to play with, in a club that continues to welcome new members and looks to make sure everyone can get involved.

The theme for this year's game was a French Indian one, in glorious 28mm, using the tried and trusted Rebels & Patriots rules from Osprey Wargames a very suitable set of rules for a large group of players, many not too familiar with the set.

Mike C and Steve M. were given the task this year to herd the cats, pull together the required figure and terrain collections, plus a suitable table arrangement and scenario structure, so that everyone could sign up for the game and turn up on the day ready to play with an assigned command.

The tables all set up and running 

We are blessed in the club with folks who can step up when required to make events like these happen and with members bringing along a fine selection of festive fodder we were very well catered for during our day's play.

Back in the day, we could usually get everyone turning up for a game like this around one big table, but those days are long gone, and with more folks wanting to play we usually have to create more table space, but are always keen to have everyone involved in one game, even if it is a bit spread out, rather than the often four different themed games that are our normal arrangement during the rest of the year.

Of course with a large one off game like this it is important to Keep It Simple Stupid and the KISS principle paid dividends in heaps, as players were quickly getting the hang of Rebels and Patriots as we cycled through the turns, with our Game Miesters, Mike and Steve, keeping the two factions in step with their respective movement and combat phases of play and with a simple attack and defence scenario rewarding the French players for capturing livestock and burning down anything with a roof on it, whilst the British tried their hardest to stop that from happening.

Whilst the musketry and cannonades gathered apace, I was able to step out of the game and hand over my command to a Xmas Game Newbie, Uzo, one of four first time DWG Xmas Game players, which allowed me to circulate, camera in hand to record the days fun and try and capture the magic of the pleasure of enjoying a game like this played in the right festive spirit.

As well as enjoying the ambience in the room and the banter flying back and forth, which is the normal state of affairs when old friends in the club gather around a table full of figures or a few drinks, it was a pleasure seeing the great figure and terrain collections brought together only adding to the day.

As to the game, we had the normal cut and thrust affair with one end of a table seeing French success and the odd farmstead going up in smoke or the odd pig being led away to Montreal and beyond, whilst in other areas the British firing was still as good as history recalls and French and Indian units were recycling quicker than a new unit could be brought to the table, amid cries of,

 'Well I wouldn't have fired at you if I thought you were in cover!' 

after finding out that the men stood on the porch front were in fact actually inside the house! All part of the fun of a big Xmas Game.

This annual game is played in memory of great DWG Club man, Mr Gus Murchie who passed away far too early, and is much missed by those who knew him.

Dear old Gus, much missed, a good friend and a total wargamer

Gus was a committed wargamer and loved nothing better than getting around a table and rolling bones, combined with a keen interest in history and a commitment to bringing that history alive on a table, and these annual games honour the man and his love for the hobby, carried on by his friends with a similar commitment and happy to pass it on to new players. 

Horse and Musket games are always a great spectacle on the table, and the French Indian Wars is up there with the best in terms of colour and variety of units, perhaps only lacking in the equestrian or 'horse' aspect, but more than making up for that in demonstrating the importance of the Queen of the Battlefield, the Poor Bloody Infantry who have to take the ground from the enemy, face to face, and hold it.

Seeing Rebels & Patriots being played by this many people was very encouraging for me having started to build a collection for the AWI theatre on the Niagara/Mohawk frontier, a perfect setting for these kind of large skirmish settings which were a feature of the actions fought there, with several of my own figures from that collection seeing action in their first tabletop encounter.

My AWI militia from my Mohawk collection getting their first outing on the table

Some of my Mohawks were also added for the occasion, spot the penny bases and skirmish sabots. 

As part of my own project build I have been cogitating on the preferred rule set to use, with the latest incarnation of Muskets & Tomahawks and Sharp Practice II competing for attention with pros and cons commending both alongside Rebels and Patriots.

There are aspects with the latter that I have thought of changing principally having commanding officers separate from units unless they choose to attach, with the usual penalties on command for doing so and, I paint figures to be on the table not put back in the box every time a unit takes casualties, and so I would probably use hit dice to record casualties instead.

 

However the game was impressive as a demonstration of the intuitive play that quickly developed among players, some not so conversant with the rules, and how quickly we were able to cycle through the turns with so many players, something the other sets might struggle to match, that and still finishing up having played a satisfying game that seemed to capture the spirit of the theme and era.

By mid afternoon the writing looked well on the wall for the French and their Indian allies, who were struggling on both tables to make serious inroads into the British defences, despite the odd homestead satisfyingly smoking and this frontier offensive looked like it had reached its high water mark.

With the Indian war cries fading back into the woods, and the cheering of British redcoats and American militiamen, we called the day in favour of King George on both tables and concluded our game in good time to allow for tidying up and assembling for our post game wash-up session.

If you are interested in seeing the game in play, I grabbed a few minutes of video during the day that perhaps captures a bit more than pictures and words can do, and you can see some of the play in action, in the video below:

Another year over and a great last game to end on to mark it, with much anticipation for a new year of wargaming fun at the club to look forward to.

Thanks to Steve M. and Mike C. for putting together a great day and to all the members who came along and made the fun come alive, and to all those who supplied the figures and terrain, and not forgetting our seasonal grub that completed the day.

On behalf of the Devon Wargames Group, we wish you all a very Happy and Peaceful Xmas and look forward to posting more post game reports in 2024.

JJ