1758 Fort Carillon – Vassal Tutorial – Afternoon of July 7th

(After a four-month break from the project, I am now resuming work on it.!)

As the morning action waned, it became clear that the situation was still undecided. Half of the French line on the eastern side of the lake had been cleared, but the British could not really exploit the breakthrough. A French counter-attack was in preparation.

The British gained two Morale points from the assault objective and this brought them back to “Good”. They had already been down to “Satisfactory” which would further limit their actions in the future. This is a combined measure for both the supreme leader’s and the troops’ morale. Once it remains at “Satisfactory” or “Low”, Provincials and Indians start deserting. Also, all disruption (friend and foe) is reduced by 1 at the end of each Phase. The Vassal module has button to do this automatically, so there is no need to go through stacks looking for the markers. Just don’t click it twice in a row 🙂

Injuns!

Having been strengthened by friendly Indians earlier, the French send out a patrol to harass the enemy. Behind the British lines, rattled Provincial units were recovering from the failed attacks, but there was a “hole” in the line that was exploited by 200 Indians. They used the Forced March mode to gain the required extra movement points to put two stacks of disrupted Provincials in their ZoC. This triggers the “Panic disrupted enemy” rule that can devastate its subjects. A total of four separate units have to now make a panic check!

The Indians had to go around the British Skirmish ZoC to reach their targets.

I had to roll a die for each unit separately, and the results were massively disappointing! Three attempts failed and only one resulted in a step loss and a retreat. One Bateaumen unit suffered 1 SP and pulled back three hexes. The others remain in place. This is devastating as the Indians must now engage the remaining units with their strength halved, in normal combat. I am going to go with this for now although I have considered allowing the Indians to move 16 MP by default – and suffer halving the strength. It is a change I will likely make soon, but now I just follow the current rules and data.

There is no defensive support as all British units are Disrupted and all participants are halved. With low odds, it is likely the Indians have to retreat and they will first go against the weaker stack with 5 SP New Jersey Regiment. The unit bonuses give +2 DRM for the Indians, so this could be interesting after all.

The roll is a 1 and with the DRMs 3. Odds being 2:3 the result -1D*. They lose 1 SP, retreat and become disrupted. This was a dismal failure – I expected a devastating strike against the battle-worn units. Indian losses are not recorded, so they just flip over.

I only brought some French back to the lines, because they would have to engage still-strong British troops, except where the Highlanders had breached the line. 2nd Berry stays two hexes away from the enemy and does not try to take the artillery back from the British – the chances are are quite slim.

Led by Sénezergues, the Canadians made a counter-attack with the hope of pushing the Black Watch regiment back.

With 10 SP against 7 SP, the odds are 1:1, and the British have one more bonus than the French. This proves decisive. Both sides take a one-step loss, but the Canadians have to retreat. The system is designed so that when two evenly matched forces meet, the defender has the upper hand. These are not field battles, where other factors like leadership, morale, or fatigue would weigh heavily (they do matter, but the starting point is not even).

In the next post we will see, if the British can continue their push towards the French, as they have taken significant casualties so far.