Battle of the Little Bighorn

The Battle of the Little Bighorn

This battle for some reason has always been a passion of mine, ever since 1976 when I was eight and due to the 100 years anniversary of the battle, our class at school did a topic on it. The library was delivered a big box of books about the battle and my mother brought me a Ladybird book (which I have still have now) which at the time was very well written and researched for a kids book. When I was a kid I wargamed the last stand a thousand times with my 54 mm toy soldiers. Every year or two something triggers off the urge and I read and watch everything I have on the subject again. Ten years ago I swapped a load of unwanted games and figures for quite a large collection of 15mm Cavalry and Indians, but the problem was I couldn´t find a satisfactory way to play the game, now knowing alot more about the battle then when I was a kid (ignorance can really be bliss).

A chance conversation a few weeks back whilst playing Lasalle with Miguel and Kiefer lit the spark again, and so I decided for the Easter holidays I would organise a wargaming day. The Battle of the Little Bighorn in the morning and then after dinner, The Battle of Sacile 1809.

I set out the table to represent the Little Bighorn valley , this was on the biggest table I had ever built it was almost 2 metres wide by 3 and half metres long. I played a "play test" the Friday before to check the rules were okay and to fine tune them if necessary. In the play test it seemed the cavalry were not moving fast enough , so I upped the movement rates slightly, also I wasn't to happy how the random Indian dustclouds were or were not moving so I changed this back to an idea I had used before with the Zulu wars rules.

The day arrived and including myself there was 4 players, I split the 7th cavalry into 3 equal Battalions, Jose was in charge of Custers battalion of 4 companies on the right entering the table on the hilly part. Javi was in charge of Reno's Battalion entering in the middle of the table and Miguel was in charge of Benteen`s Battalion entering on the left hand side of the table. The aim of the game was each Cavalry Battalion was competing with the others to gain the most glory. This was gained by killing Indian warriors, burning villages and capturing Indian non combatants.

Cavalry Battalions, Dustclouds and Warriors were moved in random sequence when their playing card was turned over. Dustclouds were placed along the side of the river initially. When their card was turned over a D6 was thrown to see if they were activated a 5 or 6 meant they were. An activated dustcloud then threw a D8 to see which direction they moved. SW or SE meant that it was a Indian War party going to meet the cavalry. NE or NW meant that the Indian Tribe had decided to Skedaddle out of there and were running in the opposite direction. If a cavalry unit spotted an inactive dustcloud then this was a Indian village that was caught by surprise.

Benteens column arrived on the board first and immediatly spotted a dustcloud moving to their front. Miguel then had to randomly pick a card to see what the dust cloud was, the options were

Hunkpapa Sioux 80 warriors
Oglala Sioux 60 warriors
Crazy Horse 30 warriors
Black feet 10 warriors
Two kettle 10 warriors
Brule sioux 20 warriors
Minicojou Sioux 50 warriors
Sans Arc circle 40 warriors
Northen Cheyene 40 warriors

and three cards with False alarm

Miguel picked a card with Brule Sioux so he had spotted a war party of 20 figures attacking him.

Just as his troops and Benteens began to form line to meet this threat, they spotted an even larger Indian War party behind the first.

This was the 40 warriors of the San Arcs whose horses overtook the Brules and smashed into the front of Benteen's skirmish lines. The Brules changed direction and attacked Reno's column.

In the Background Custers column had split into two seperate forces, one force under the command of Yates on the bottom of the bluffs following the Little Bighorn river, and Custer on the top of the bluffs

When Custer came around the side of the bluffs he had a clear view of the great Indian camp in the valley.

Just below him was a ford with an inactive dustcloud on the west side of the river. Custer spotted it and it turned out to be the small Black feet tribe who had decided to have a lie in.

Meanwhile in the valley, Benteens troops were being pushing the Indians slowly back. If an Indian was wounded it would not stay but run back to his village to defend it to his death.

Reno's command was also gaining the upperhand although Reno was wounded in close combat.

Custer and his men charged down from the hills to cross the ford. However first he needed to dice to see if he could actually cross due to some of the fords having quicksand on the banks. Custer's luck held out, he threw a 4 (he needed a 1 - 4 on a D6) and he led the charge across the ford into the sleepy Indian village.

A dust cloud had crept through the woods and turned out to be Two kettles small tribe, because they were outnumbered, they dismounted and fired at Yate's column across the river from the cover of the woods. Reno also dismounted his right flank company and started to fire at the Indians in the woods.

Custer´s troops smashed into the village blasting away with their revolvers killing a number of dismounted Indians who were unable to get to their pony herd in time.

But all was not well for Custer, now that he was in the actual valley he could see more dust clouds

One of them that was moving North west to join the battle turned out to be Crazy Horse and his 30 warriors. The other was an inactive village of the Northern Cheyene.

Crazy Horze charged into Custer´s Battalion and now Custer knew he had a fight on his hands.

The rifle fire from two directions was too much for Two Kettles warriors and they disappeared back to their village. Reno's flank company mounted up and started to enter the woods-

The Northern Cheyene had recovered their Pony herd and got ready charge their most immediate threat, Custer.

Custer was now more on the defensive with more and more indians coming out to meet him, His horse "Victory" was killed and he had to fight on foot.

Benteen and Reno's troops now had finally cleared the path of Indians and started to advance around the woods into the valley

Another moving dustcloud was spotted this was the 50 strong Minicojou Sioux.

Before Reno could react Benteen went for glory and attempted to charge into the North Cheyene village. Another Dustcloud was spotted on the far bank of the Little Bighorn right behind Custer. There were three cards left, two cards were the largest war parties of the Oglala Sioux 60 warriors and the Hunkpapa Sioux of 80 warriors, the other card was a false alarm. Jose (Custer) picked a card at random, and again Custer's luck held out, he picked the false alarm.This meant the two remaining Dustclouds that had been activated but were running away, were the two large tribes. The Northern Cheyene having been attacked in the rear by Benteen would now turn about to save their village. Due to time constraints we had to end the game there.

Jose (Custer) won due to killing the most Indians 18

Miguel (Benteen) killed 13 Indians

Javi (Reno) killed 10 Indians

Although strategically they all lost because they were unable to capture any non combatants and the two main tribes got away untouched.

This turned out to be an enjoyable game, with the dustclouds working perfectly and with the randomness, could be played again and again. The only problem on the day was the combat rules were a little labourious, this wouldn't have been a problem playing solo or with just two players but with four players meant that there was too much waiting around time for the players not involved. This was my fault, at the playtest the combat rules were a lot quicker, but I wanted to go for realism and include horses being killed or wounded into the equation, however this made the combat resolution twice as long.

Oh well you live and learn unless your name is General Custer.

Ambush at Lone Pine Creek

Ambush at Lone Pine Creek

This was our first attempt of colonial fighting, using the rules "The sword and the Flame". However due to the fact I had begun rebasing my Indian and Cavalry figures onto single bases to play the solo rules "Pony wars". I thought I would use these figures and a variation of the rules called the "The Tomahawk and the Flame" by Hans Van Stockhausen.
The scenario was that the U.S player had an company of infantry under Lt Fetterman and a scout, that we named Chisum . Their orders were to escort Mrs Carrington, the Colonels wife back to Fort Phil Kearny after she had been to Fort Reno on a shopping trip. The Colonel had also sent out a company of Cavalry to bring them in safely. The cavalry may appear sometime during the game.
On the Indian side, Red Cloud had set up an ambush with 4 war parties of 20 Indians each.



Turn one, the convoy enters the table , Lt Fetterman asks Chisum to check the woods for any pesky indians.


Chisum discovers two war parties, one straight in front and one to his left. He shoots at the charging Indians killing one. This acts as a warning signal for the infantry who quickly form a line.



The Infantry fire a volley and kill two and wound three more. The rest of the Warparty turn around and run back into the woods.


Just as they think they have everything under control, another war party arrives in their rear. Lt Fetterman has to send back half his company to act as the rearguard.


The war party on the left comes sweeping in around the woods, killing Chisum before he could get back to his comrades.

The rear guard fire a volley and halt an Indian charge who then retreat to reorganize.

The rearguard faces another charge, this time the Indians charge home and kill or wound most of the infantry, apart from plucky soldier who kills three Indians before retreating to the rear.



With the rearguard collapsing and the front about to receive another attack. Lt Fetterman urges Mrs Carrington to escape.



Mrs Carrington escapes through the woods and into the clearing. Behind her she can hear the last desperate struggle as the indians close in on the three surviving infantrymen.


Lt Fettermen and his men make a final last stand, just as they hear the bugle call of the cavalry.

The Cavalry arrive at last on the table, but is it too late.

An Indian war party comes out of the woods to meet them.

The Indians manage to capture Mrs Carrington and lead her off the table.

The Cavalry are blocked from rescuing Mrs Carrington by a new war party arriving from their right. They decide to retreat and report to Colonel Carrington of the bad news of his wife.

Conclusions

We enjoyed playing these new rules, although I felt we made a few mistakes. We had kept the measurments the same as 25mm, but found on our smaller table , the units were moving far to fast. Next game we are going to halve all measurments apart from firing.
We also felt the rules for wounded were a bit boring as they could do very little, if anything. Next time we will probably having the wounded be able to move 1D6 on their own and fire or fight with a penalty modifier. The next game in a months time will probably be the sequel with Colonel Carrington sending his troops out to attack the Indian villages and rescue his wife.