Category: 1758 Fort Carillon

The night of July 7th was quite peaceful; both sides were regrouping after a day of heavy fighting. The French filled the gaps in their defensive line but remained steadfast, determined to stand and fight. They believed they were strong enough to wear the British down and eventually force them to admit defeat and retreat down the lake to the ruins of Fort William Henry.

Maintenance Segment

A new day begins with the Maintenance Segment, where replacements and other recovery actions are resolved. During this phase, one out of every four losses is returned to the fight.

In the image above, the British regulars have suffered a total of 7 SP of initial losses. Losses are always reduced in groups of four: three SP are transferred to Permanent Losses, and one SP is returned as a replacement.

The irregulars have suffered 9 Strength Points (SP) of losses. These are reduced in two groups of four: 6 SP are moved to Permanent Losses, and 2 SP are returned to the battlefield as replacements. Both replacement SP are allocated to the NJ Regiment. The last 1 SP remains on the track.

Note that these are Strength Points, and a single replacement step may require either 1 or 2 SP, depending on the unit’s size.

French irregulars regain 1 SP.

Due to insufficient supplies landing, the British lose 2 Morale points. However, 1 Morale point is recovered through the “Improve Morale” action, which increases morale by one step each day.

The British decide to commit to one assault, deducting 1 additional Morale point.

Morning Action Segment

The main French force consolidates its line and prepares to continue fighting. During the quiet night, some French units built or improved breastworks (an easy detail to forget in solo play).

A small French Indian unit, which had previously failed to achieve success against shaken British forces, was able to regroup. Instead of withdrawing off the map (which would not incur a penalty), it force-marched through the morning mist across the hills toward the British landing area, hoping to surprise lightly protected artillery and supply units. However, on their own turn, Provincial troops moved into position and secured the area before the French could reach their target.

Artillery fire

Before infantry combat, artillery fire is resolved for both sides.

I started with the French artillery facing Lord Howe’s troops (“Fiedmont” above). Rolled a zero for the French – an immediate and total failure.

Then rolled for the heavy cannons three hexes way – TWO zeros for the French in a row! A complete artillery disaster!

The British artillery takes its turn next. Captured French 18-pounders blast away against their previous owners – the same French artillery battery that just fired. Vassal is playing Jedi mind tricks – I rolled a 9 twice in a row for the British reducing the fortification.

As the fighting resumed, a British Artillery Castle advanced. On its first attempt, the French artillery missed at short range, but a second battery scored a hit and forced the vessel to withdraw.

I also brought in the second British Artillery Castle, which managed to push forward against the French position. By accident, it had mortars onboard—I had been using the old counter image, and after updating it, I realized I had intended to equip it with howitzers instead. Nevertheless, the mortars performed well, successfully targeting the heavier French guns further away (mortars cannot fire into adjacent hexes).

The third die roll, required to randomly determine which unit in the hex was hit by indirect fire, resulted in an eight. This inflicted a step loss on the 18-pounders, reducing them from four to two pieces. The Artillery Castle then withdrew behind the British lines.

Incursion

The British then made use of captured French bateaux left on the shore of Lake Champlain. The 55th Regiment, led by Putnam’s Rangers, quickly boarded the boats and sped toward the French artillery position guarding the mouth of the river.

Because of their approach vector and the ample availability of supporting guns, the cannons at Lotbinière’s Battery fired at long range, with only a 10% chance to hit. They missed, and the cannonballs splashed harmlessly into the water around the speeding bateaux.

The light infantry continued rowing closer to the artillery position, keeping a safe distance from Fort Carillon and its heavy artillery. Four hexes was the closest range at which the fort’s guns could fire. Two nearby 12-pounders also fired but missed. However, the four 18-pounders from Carillon did not miss, even without the +2 to-hit DRM bonus. A second successful roll scored a hit, aborting the aggressive maneuver.

Main action

After the artillery action and the light infantry’s incursion, “the main action” begins. I’ll start from the top of the map.

Langy’s Canadians lost the engagement but there were no losses on either side – they pulled back and the British did not advance.

Howe’s attack against the 500 Canadians guarding the artillery was successful. After losing one SP, the French had to retreat and leave the remaining cannons behind. Finally, the road is starting to open up towards the portage road.

Assault

I decided to storm the French hill position on Mont Agne (or whatever it was called at the time) with my one committed British assault. I assigned the replacement leader to the mandatory regulars-only stack, but kept Gage in the background to lead the assault.

Let’s do the math:

– Two assaulting stacks: one with 10 SP, another with 8 SP
– Provincials are halved in assaults
– 5 SP defending

This gives 3:1 odds (I aimed for 4:1 but didn’t have enough regulars available). The breastworks reduce this to 2:1. These odds apply to both attacking stacks, which are resolved separately. Essentially, both attacking stack utilize the better odds, but only the one of them (the “main” regular infantry stack) is included in the combat results. The second stack will roll for own casualties only.

The lead assault group (the one with the regular leader) attacks first:
– Uphill: –1 DRM
– Haldimand’s grenadiers: +2 DRM
– Gage: +1 DRM (the assault leader himself has no bonus, but Gage is within range and provides his modifier)

Total modifier: +2 DRM, as the defending stack has no modifiers.

This is the decisive roll for the entire assault.

The die roll was 3, modified to 5 — a narrow success.

The second stack rolls only for its own losses; the defender’s result is ignored. The roll was 1, modified to 3, resulting in one step loss, which I allocated to the provincial regiment.

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The final action occurred by the lake. Regulars and provincials attacked a reinforced French stack at 3:2 odds with a –1 DRM. This did not go well for the British. They suffered one step loss — again assigned to the provincials. The stack retreated and became disrupted.

This concludes the combat phase. No adjacent hostile units remain..

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Of course, I realized afterward that I had forgotten to use my British Light Artillery. In an effort to streamline play, I replaced on-map artillery counters with off-map markers that provide a +1 DRM in offense (–1 in defense). I simply forgot to apply the modifier.

Finally, I conducted end-of-segment cleanup: removing disruption markers (for both sides), clearing Used and Assaulted counters, and resetting the board for the next phase.

Going into the afternoon phase, I don’t feel the British are in a particularly strong position. Their troops are spread thin, although the breakthrough in the line is exploitable. There was no French counter-attack, as only a few powerful units were in the vicinity and the French chose not to risk losing them in a potentially failed assault. British success here might force the French to act—perhaps even pulling completely out of the fortified line. That would be total chaos.

As a brief refresher on the artillery mechanism: during the defensive artillery fire segment, four French 12-pounders bombarded the British on the opposite side of the lake. The initial roll was a 6 (+1), resulting in a “hit,” but the subsequent impact roll was a 0, causing no effect.

The French 12-pounders were three hexes away, placing them at medium range.

With four guns firing at medium range and an artillery leader providing a bonus, scoring a hit was fairly comfortable. However, the impact roll failed. A few men were wounded and some horses bolted, but in game terms it simply wasn’t enough to matter.

The few British units stranded on the “wrong” (western) side of the lake, facing the main French line, maintained a strong presence to deter the French from shifting troops to the eastern shore. Meanwhile, all available British units continued pouring through the gap in the line.

Starting combat from the bottom of the screen, the 3rd Connecticut brushed aside the demoralized Indian units, killing 100 of them. The next French group pulled back in a skirmish retreat. After a “small rearrangement” of British and Provincial units, I attacked the 300 men holding the line behind the fortifications. They were forced back, and no additional casualties were suffered by either side.

A risky uphill attack against troops holding Mont Agné went poorly. After losing 100 Massachusetts troops, the demoralized survivors were forced to pull back.

An Artillery Castle attempted to push forward along the lakeshore to provide support, but French 12-pounders interdicted the move and forced it back. Though rattled by cannon fire, the wooden armor prevented any serious damage. On land, Lord Howe arrived to lead the 44th in an attack against the 2nd Battalion of the Berry Regiment, inflicting a 1 SP loss and forcing the French to retreat in disruption. This marked the first loss suffered by the French continental regulars.

The only attack on the western side went disastrously. Despite the leadership of John Stark, British troops lost 300 men without inflicting any losses in return – Langy / de Langis held his line. The British casualties are becoming unbearable.

Continuing the initial breakthrough—very ahistorically—Colonel Gage personally led the grenadiers and went on a remarkable run, clearing French units from their positions. Emboldened by this success, his troops pressed on, sweeping away both a strong 6 SP stack and a weaker force guarding the end of the defensive line.

The French line is completely shattered.

(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.

Next comes the assault. Two stacks go against a combined 3 SP strong Grenadier & Canadian defense behind a level two redoubt. The British have artillery which will fire first (technically artillery fire is resolved after all movement has been completed, but it makes no difference in this case). Six heavy guns had been brought up to bombard the French along with a single heavy 13-inch mortar. This is the main firepower of the British army in the whole area of operation. One small mistake I made was to use both of my artillery leaders with the Artillery Castles and only leave the naval commander to support unloading the artillery. This deprived me of +1 DRM bonus here…

I need to roll 3 or higher to hit the fortification with some effect. And I rolled a 3! Phew! Next roll for the impact – with the heavies only, it’s a guaranteed “hit” due to a column shift right (meaning has an effect on the target). The result is a 7 destroying the redoubt completely – big guns can be very effective! No other damage is inflicted.

Next, the massive mortar goes into action. It fires shells weighing 200 pounds, or 90 kilos!

Firing from two hexes away, it gets a -1 to hit and ends up just missing the target.

17 SP are going against 3 SP – that is a 5:1 odds. Even the redoubt would only have taken it down to 3:1. I need to resolve each stack separately using the same odds. As all assaulting troops are now regular infantry, none of them are halved. Before commencing, I have to pass the leader roll and it might be close because Gage is my leader and he isn’t that good. And he fails! There goes the better odds, but it might still work out with the two good stacks going in.

I’ll do the larger attack first. The Black Watch (9SP and +1 DRM) attack across a stream (-1 DRM) led by Gage (+1). The roll is 6 and net DRMs are +1, making it a 7. Result is a step loss, disruption and retreat for the defenders. Canadians take the loss and both units pull back three hexes. The 42nd Highlanders advance in to the hex in the middle of the enemy line and things are about to get messy here. The other stack stays put. As an assault target is captured, if they can hold on to it till the end of the phase, Morale goes up by 2.

There are three more French hexes with adjacent British units who only have troops on two hexes. The British have to either split one of their stacks to engage all three or accept the fact that one of the enemy stacks is reinforced by the adjacent French troops not involved in combat (albeit adjacent to the British/Provincials units). The latter might be a better option.

I am cautious with Bradstreet. By leaving him behind, there is a smaller possibility of losing him in combat should one of the stacks actually breach into the line. It can get bloody, especially if a weak unit breaks into a mass of enemy troops. They’ll fight till nobody is adjacent and there can be many chances of getting him killed. I don’t want to lose all my key leaders on this one day as the replacement leaders are weaker.

“First” attack goes in with 10 SP Provincials halved to 5 SP (due to the redoubt) against the entrenched 3 SP La Marines and Regulars. 3:2 odds drops two columns down to 2:3. There is -1 DRM for the Provincials (they both are “-1” but these are not added up, but the modifiers just remains at -1), -1 DRM for crossing the stream and +1 for Bradstreet in the background.

Roll is 6, modified down to 5. Result is -1D, actually not too bad 🙂

The last attack here has 10 SP of irregular infantry with -1 DRM attacking the dug in 5 SP La Marines supported by 3 SP from the adjacent hex (half of the SPs on that hex). Irregulars are halved against entrenchments, so ultimately we have 5 SP vs. 8 SP and one more column shift against the attacker. DRMs cancel each other out. This doesn’t look good at all.

The roll is 2 and results in a hefty -2DM*: two step losses, an Army Morale point loss and a leader loss check for Bradstreet. That roll goes bad – it’s a 2 and Bradstreet goes down! With him also goes an additional Morale point and 2 SP of Bateaumen who decide to take off and leave the battlefield (from any Bateaumen unit). It’s a hard choice to have a leader to lead an attack – their DRMs are often crucial for the outcome, but it can come with a heavy price. I removed the 2 Bateaumen (battoemen, … whatever) from those on the other side of the lake.

The Second Wave

After the first round of combat, I can move my reserves, i.e., the 2nd wave units. I will take some risks and attack Sénezergues and his merry band of Berry-men once more. Although there is rule for max. two attacks against a single hex, that does not include any combat that will be required once a unit has either advanced or retreated into a position where combat is required (being adjacent to the enemy).

Two regiments of regulars move into position to protect the artillery in forward positions. Although they are protected by friendly ZoC, an advance – which would be foolish – by the French could lead to losing some of the heavy guns.

Round #2

In the first round the British achieved two incursions into the French line. The one by the lake is quite interesting and the other one achieved by the Highlanders still hangs in the air – it will be a slugfest for sure. Fighting isn’t over yet and soldiers don’t just sit down once they are inside the enemy positions and start brewing tea. The British are surrounded by hundreds of French and Canadian whose only goal is to kill them all.

First those Grenadiers and Bateaumen on the shore turn their eyes on Sénezergues and his Berry Regiment. The fortification only protects from three sides – not all around. This was a design decision to balance between x lines of rules (x is not a small number) and the common historical design, as seen below. I actually had this in an early version of the rules and it got messy. You need tons of extra counters to cover various situations which might arise.

10 SP will attack uphill (-1 DRM) comprising of 6 SP of 42nd Regiment (+2) and 4 SP of Bateaumen. 4 SP defend with their leader providing a -1 to the attack. So, odds are 2:1 and no modifiers. Let’s roll the die!

Boom! A Zero!

Result is thus -1DM* – but there is no leader attacking, so we can ignore that. One step loss for the Grenadiers and a retreat plus yet another morale hit… A disappointing result, indeed.

And then I find bugs in my Vassal, again 🙁

Before shutting down to rectify my counter rules in the module, I’ll finish off some combat. Campbell’s Highlanders with then-Colonel Thomas Gage (of Revolution fame) in the lead charge against the Berry: 9 SP (+1 DRM), Gage (+1) vs. 4 SP Berry and Sénezergues (-1). There are no other modifiers and the Scots are coming behind the earthworks.

The result forces the French to retreat, but no casualties are suffered by either side. They are lucky, as the backup unit behind them spares the retreating French from suffering losses from the EZoC – they are able to slip away unharmed.

I decided to not move the Highlanders into the vacated hex as I want them to now switch their attention to the other side of the French line and try to roll it up.

Before they can attack again, the 60th Regiment (4th Bn.) must go first. 8 SP vs. 3 SP, two levels of fortifications (-2 columns), +1 DRM from adjacent Gage and -1 for the stream. Final odds are 1:1 and no modifiers. I should have brought in a small unit to support them…

Roll is 2, so one step loss and disruption. The British losses keep mounting with little progress.

Now the Highlanders can go again. I removed the Assault mode marker, it plays no role anymore. 9 SP against 3 SP is 3:1. As there is a contiguous defensive line, there is no column shifts involved – this action is behind the French lines. It is also the usual +2 DRM for the British (Highlanders and Gage).

And the roll is a 1. Maybe the British should just pull back and drink their tea, and try again tomorrow. Well, they do win this one, although suffer one step loss of 2 SP (being a large unit).

Again I decide to not advance the Highlanders into the hex. After suffering those casualties, it is better to go against the last remaining French unit in the vicinity, 3 SP La Sarre. It was Lt. Col. Étienne-Guillaume de Sénezergues’ own regiment, thus he is listed as the regimental commander on the counter. Those are for historical interest only and play no part in the game.

The odds are 2:1 with a final +1 DRM. Let’s see if the bad luck continues!

I rolled 7 with +1 it becomes 8! Not too bad! However, no casualties are taken by either side but the French have to pull back three hexes. Now this are has been cleared. The question is, will they counter-attack or start pulling back? I think we’re gonna fight, so I shall place the Highlanders accordingly. This means: stay put and don’t get cut off.

The end result of the British assault is above. Although the line was breached and the French were pushed back, I have to say this can still go either way.

To be continued!

As the sun rises for the big day (in this scenario), the French leaders discuss if their defenses are strong enough. They are confident the combined army of New France is able to stop and push back the red coats along with the provincial regiments crowding in front of them.

The French prepare for battle

A batch of 500 Canadian militia lands in the morning and they are sent forward to beef up the French left. They arrive just in time to see a huge number of enemy troops approaching.

Other French troops are shifted to better positions to eliminate weak spots. If the British break through, they’ll have to fight their way in to defenders’ rear. And that will not be easy and requires bringing the heavy artillery forward.

De Langis with his blocking force sneaks back through a gap left by the enemy vanguard and is able to get back to friendly forces. 12 movement points is just enough even in this tough terrain. No need to use Forced March which would lower their fighting ability. Crossing a steep slope takes time, but the rest of the journey was mostly along the side of the mountain. The distance is not great, but this is difficult terrain and I have slowed down the game over time – there was too much mobility in earlier versions.

This concludes the French Movement Action Segment and we get to the British movement next as they prepare the troops for the big day.

First, two Artillery Castles move into action one by one. As the first one nears the narrows where the French positions are located, some heavy 18-pounder cannons start blasting at this “armored” vessel. This time they miss completely by rolling a zero. Even the available modifier does not help – a zero is a zero. The British vessel continues advancing into the nook – the other French artillery remains silent as they are waiting the first vessel to continue their journey even deeper. The British artillery captain Ord decides not to push his luck and opens fire against the French fortification at point blank range.

With four howitzers and two guns onboard, they succeed gaining a hit. We still have to test for potential damage, so another roll is required. They do not miss and inflict massive damage on the earthworks destroying them completely. A shift right with the short range helped to achieve this. The artillery also takes a step loss reducing the 18-pounders to two pieces. This was a significant achievement, especially as the British ground troops hadn’t started their advance yet. A hole is opened in the French lines!

Artillery losses are not counted in the game – they just lessen the capabilities of the side suffering the loss. The second Artillery Castle also moves forward and in turn is interdicted by the two remaining heavy cannons, but without causing any damage. This time the two other batteries do not wait for a deep excursion and open fire at three hexes range even if it is beyond optimal (which for them is either one or two hexes). They score a hit forcing the vessel to retreat – no other damage was suffered.

Besides moving a lot of British troops and artillery for the assault, I also try to sneak a small Provincial unit through the artillery gauntlet. It’s unlikely they’ll make it, but let’s try!

Cannons anchoring the French left take a shot and hit the bateaux. This Connecticut regiment ends up taking a step loss becoming disrupted and falls back to the departure area.

I decided to not only try to breach the hex where fortification was destroyed, but also another one in the middle of the French line – this is where the assault is now planned. I put two of the strongest British regular units into Assault Mode and moved forward pretty much half the Brutish army.

There were mostly provincials close to the shoreline, so they would have to attack separately. My regular infantry was too far away to be prepared for an assault there – after all, I hadn’t expected to be able to attempt a breakthrough there.

The British troops had been split and this complicates the planning. I had some of my best commanders on the wrong side of the lake, but I take that as they are now in reserve in case I do need to renew my attacks later. There will be heavy casualties, just like in the real battle, when going against a fortified position. I was able to move some units across the lake to enforce the British assault troops. Additionally, some heavy artillery took too long to drag over to the front to support my attacks this turn. They might be available in the afternoon if we still need them.

The overall battlefield with a skirmish line on the west side of Lake George (top) and a concentration of the British main army on the eastern side (bottom).

The Battle

Combat consists of one or more “rounds”. The first round is simply all combat after movement is completed – being adjacent to the enemy typically means you must attack. This is the first round. If, after all battles between the forces have been resolved, there are adjacent opposing units resulting from a) advancing or retreating after combat and/or b) reserves, i.e., the 2nd wave units, are brought into action. In this case, adjacent units must now resolve combat. Exceptions to this rule are, for instance, water between the two units (except streams, at least for now) or both sides are entrenched.

I will now start with the British left wing attacking the hex where French entrenchments were destroyed. As I am unable to use the Assault, which actually could have been useful here, I have to make two separate attacks. As most of the units there used water movement, they cannot participate in an assault.

The provincials attack first – DRMs are against them, but never know! -1 for the 1st Mass, -1 for crossing a stream, -1 for Sénezergues leading the French. They get +1 for Haldimand on the adjacent hex. The French decide to save their artillery for the other stack that has the British Grenadier battalion.

And they roll a zero… that is a “challenging” result. They take two step losses + disruption, a morale loss for the whole army, and also a leader hit check.

The British morale drops to Good. It’s not that bad really, but going down on the scale is not good news. It’s a race to the bottom and the “winner” loses.

Boom! Haldimand does not pass the leader hit check and is dead. There goes a bonus I was planning to use in the next attack.

Now the French fire their guns against the stronger British stack. Target is of course Grenadiers. Fiedmont – the French artillery officer provides +1 DRM. It’s an 8, modified to 9 – a definite hit. But they only roll a 2 and basically do not hit enough enemies to make a difference.

Another attack follows by the British Grenadiers supported by Bateaumen. No leader support is available as we lost Haldimand, but adding up the DRMs they all cancel each other out. +2 for Grenadiers against -1 for stream and -1 for busybody Sénezergues.

The odds are 2:1 and the roll was an 8 (not too bad, really!). No casualties on either side, but the French have to retreat and their cannons are captured by the British.

My sacrificial lamb is the 4th Mass who has to attack the well-entrenched Berry Regiment’s 2nd Battalion so they cannot support any of the surrounding engagements. The Mass troops have to attack across the stream, uphill, against a redoubt led by one of the best commanders in the French army. The raw odds are 2:1 but there will be three column shifts against… final odds are 2:3 and DRMs are -3. Looking bad!

Rolled a 3. With -3 it becomes a zero and we get yet another -2DM* result. Two step losses, a morale loss and a leader loss check. The brave Massachusetts regiment loses half of its strength (both of their step losses were actually 2 SPs),

I will have to continue this in the next post – soon!

Writing this post was delayed as I got involved in another game project and did some OOB research for it. Also, some of the Vassal module updates wiped out many counters from the save file. I lost e.g., all casualties, so had to rebuild the losses table based on the previous posts. It should be close enough to continue.

In the Maintenance Segment of the Morning Action Phase, during the “council of war”, the player(s) may commit to one of more assaults. These are coordinated attacks from two hexes against one. Committing to one immediately costs one Morale point which you’ll gain back double if the assaulted hex is captured by the end of the phase. There is no need to decide which hexes will be assaulted at this time. Because today is a big day, my British will commit to two assaults and thus it costs two points of Morale. Before that I rolled for improving the morale – now only for the British, because the French morale was at max. Later in the game, this could have some significance as the number of available assaults also depends on the level of morale.

The British supreme commander, Abercromby, has a leader rating of 4 (scale 1-9). I have to roll this or lower to improve the morale. This way, leaders with a high rating have a good probability to increase army morale. I rolled a 7, so no change. Abercromby really wasn’t the heart of the army, was he?

Any replacements are also received during the Maintenance Segment. These are previously taken casualties that trickle back to the units. For every 4 SPs lost of either regular or irregular type, one of that type comes back. I’ll just add 1 SP to one of the provincials. The remaining three SP go into the permanent losses area, where they will lower the morale by one for every 6 SP lost.

Other things I have to are to remove the Interdict markers and land some British supply. The latter does not play a significant part in the game and might feel redundant, but it did play a major role in any military campaign. In my speed play, I’ll ignore this part – it’s mainly there to tie up some troops to land the barrels of food and munition. There are some other small bonuses, but that is not relevant right now.

This concludes my Maintenance Segment and I move to the Morning next.

At the end of the British afternoon phase, I reduce *all* units’ – both friendly and foe – disruption by one step. It’s a simple way to ensure disrupted units are at the disrupted state once during the opponent’s action segment. There is no rolling for leaders to bring them back – in this game they will self-heal.

At night, all movement is halved. Although it was tempting to create some sort of “getting lost” mechanism, I decided against it. There are enough rules already.

The British regulars and provincials’ combat factors are also halved. What I haven’t still implemented is a first day French combat bonus – it’s a rare missing feature. Mostly I concentrate on removing and streamlining the features. So, the night might provide an opportunity for the French to attack a stack or two.

As the French army is still outnumbered 3:1, they stay quietly in their breastworks and try to beef them up as much as possible. The line will be bypassed, so it might not even face a determined British attack. That we will see in the morning. Only small adjustments are made by moving some more men to both ends of the line.

A bigger boost was gained by the reinforcements arriving during the night, numbering a staggering 1700 men (half of the historical French army at Carillon). It is quite apparent this scenario is very different from what actually happened there in 1758. Who knows what kind of battle would have taken place, had Vaudreuil approved Montcalm’s request to concentrate the army in one place.

The French blocked the British from exploiting a gap on their left by landing some of the reinforcements at the foot of the Montagne de Serpents de Sonettes (Rattlesnake Mountain).

1000 of the reinforcements were taken as far as they could travel at night. Arriving by boat, they could first move up to the waterfalls on La Chute River from where they continued along the rudimentary Portage road. This is a significant force and might ultimately prevent the British from making any significant gains in the area. These units now protect the tip of Lake George, where some French artillery and the pontoon bridge are located.

1000 Canadian reinforcements arrived at night to become the main reserve for the French. From their location, they can move to intercept any incursions into the French rear.

In the morning we’ll see how the British try to deal with this formidable army. In any case, forcing it will be an expensive effort and heavy casualties are something that will hit the morale of the army.

The British army decided to move a lot of the troops that had landed on the western shore across the lake to the eastern side. Some guns and mortars were slowly hauled uphill to support the upcoming assault.

The British army prepares its positions during the night. 7th of July will be a big day.

Some small action ended up with light casualties: 2 SP for the British and the French lost a Grenadier company as they didn’t voluntarily yield to the force of 1000 Massachusetts light infantry…

In the next post, I’ll take a brief look at the Maintenance Phase before we get down to business.

Moving to the second phase, afternoon, the French decide to take no aggressive action. The British have split their forces and this could be a golden opportunity to hit them hard. However, looking at the strong enemy forces facing the French, perhaps it is just better to wait behind the earthworks and see what the enemy plan is. The French only strengthen their patrols to delay any British advance and also enforce the two artillery batteries protecting the fort with 2 SP Canadians each.

We move now to the British Action Segment on the afternoon and its going to be a busy one. They can’t make any assaults (i.e., two stacks attacking a single hex), as those need to be preplanned in the Maintenance Segment and there hasn’t been one yet.

So, as the British, what shall we do? We had landed the main army on the bottom part of the map (east), but have quite a few irregular troops and key leaders on the opposite shore. The day is fading fast, so we won’t have a lot of combat coming up – more positioning the troops for a push in the morning. There is no point trying to force the French line before sufficient forces are available. Obviously, this scenario is very different from the historical one.

The first thing to do is to land that artillery as it will take some time to get them off the rafts* and start hauling towards the enemy. Everything is now in place, both the rafts with the artillery and the men required to unload. However, I can only commence the work during the night Action Phase which follows the afternoon.

* The players must commit troops to haul artillery around. Loading or unloading arty requires a lot of manpower. The large cannons and mortars weighted several tons each and they surely don’t just hop ashore by themselves! The “road”, i.e., the portage, was not really a road, but a soft and muddy path after the heavy rains in early summer of 1758.

Next, I put some light infantry into Skirmish mode and engage the French skirmishers. They cannot ambush now as the two opposing skirmishers “cancel each other out” and decide to stand and fight. Covered by a ZoC I am able to move additional units there so I can hit them at least twice (which is the normal maximum of attacks per hex). More attacks can only take place if e.g., a unit must retreat next to it (and is thus mandated to attack).

The remainder of the segment is just moving the British into better positions.

The British engage the French forward patrols

We’ll have a handful of engagements in this segment – namely trying to push the French skirmishers back.

Let’s start with Stark and the 10th Mass. light regiment (10 SP – ~1000 men) on the left engaging 300 Indians and Grenadiers. Ten against three is 3:1 and Stark provides +2 DRM while the opposition has -1 DRM for this skirmish – net +1 DRM. I rolled a “5” and with the DRM, it ends up being a “NE / R” result, i.e., the attacker has no effect and the defender has to retreat (three hexes). The French group simply retreats along the path to continue being a road block.

Next, we have 5 SP (-1) provincials with 5 SP 80th Light Infantry going against 4 SP Canadians, but de Langis (“Langy”) is a great leader and gives, in this situation, -2 DRM for the engagement. And it’s another “5” than turns into a “2” because of -2 DRM from the French leader and -1 from the provincials. The result is a “-1D* / NE” meaning the British units take one step loss. I will allocate this to the provincials, because there is no positive DRM provided by any unit allowing me to choose who takes it. In this case, the step loss is just 1 SP (with larger units, it can also be 2 SP). They will be Disrupted and must retreat three hexes. There was no leader on the attacker’s side, thus the asterisk is ignored (leader hit check). Once I moved the counters back, I reduced the provincial regiment by one step and added that 1 SP to the Initial casualties track (the irregulars’ initial casualties are now 2 SP). In the game, it is important to separate step losses and SPs lost – they do not go hand in hand.

Moving to the third skirmish where we have 9 SP provincials attacking uphill against 2 SP (an Indian and a regular unit). This time Rogers is leading and thus provides a significant boost to the attackers (+2 DRM), going uphill negates part of that (-1) and also the Indian unit has a bonus (+1): the net is no DRMs for either side. These provincials do not have any negative modifiers (a NY and a Mass regiment).

Now I roll a “6” and this makes it a “NE / -1” – defender loses, takes a step loss and must retreat those three hexes. 1 SP Indian unit is destroyed (they provided a positive DRM for the defender and must take the first step loss) and I’d say that is a grave loss for the French. The Indians carry more than their weight in SP – they have some special abilities.

The last battle in this Action Segment is on the eastern side of the lake where I have three British stacks each at 8 SP adjacent to the French stack with 4 SP. I can make up to two attacks against a single hex, so let’s start with the NJ Regiment (-1) to soften up the defenders. Although there is no British leader stacked, Gage is on the adjacent stack and will provide a +1 DRM to negate the -1 of the provincials (leaders have a one hex radius). The French have no modifiers (the grenadiers are from the Berry Regiment which was untried and had little combat experience).

This time, I roll a “4” and with 2:1 odds it means the attack fails and the provincials lose 1 step and must retreat (and I spotted an error in my table!!!). As the NJ Regiment was a large one with 8 SP, one step loss is actually 2 SP which I will add to the Initial losses. With 4 irregular SPs lost, 1 SP is eligible to return to combat in the next Maintenance Segment.

The second attack against the same hex is by the 55th Regiment of Foot accompanied by two Ranger companies (NH and CT). The whole group is lead by Gage who goes into his 2nd attack of the afternoon. The French have no bonuses and the British get a +1 DRM from Gage. The odds are the same 2:1. Attacking downhill has no effect one way or the other.

I roll a “4” (all rolls within Vassal have been now between 4 and 6!). Add +1 DRM and it is a “5” – although the Rangers do have a bonus, they are not at least 50% of the SPs attacking and thus do not carry enough weight in the battle.

The result forces the French to retreat. The victorious British advance one hex.

One thing I apparently forgot is to bring back the units that had retreated off-map earlier. As I write this in small chunks I overlook a thing or two (I am on vacation!). I’ll fix that now and land those troops along the shores. This basically concludes the daylight segments of the first day and night will follow with the subsequent Maintenance Segment.

I will continue the game in the next post in about a week or so.

In the previous post, I did not complete the first British turn fully – the landing of the main army was only getting started.

One Massachusetts regiment was ambushed after landing and retreated off-map. But the British now follow-up with another regiment landing in the same place – they now know there are French around and cannot be ambushed by the same unit again. If there was another unit in Skirmish mode, that could attempt the ambush, but it’s too far away.

The New Jersey Regiment lands into the ZoC of the French patrol which decides to pull back three hexes. This is the other special ability you have in Skirmish mode.

However, the NJ being aggressive, they start moving inland and follow the retreating French who still feel they don’t want to engage in combat.

The French take their second (and last) retreat option and pull back again, now all they back into the friendly fortifications where they lose the Skirmish mode automatically (due to stopping at a fortification).

I am landing the irregulars before most of the line infantry to ensure my strongest units can land uninterrupted. I want to save them for later engagements and not be delayed on the initial stage of the operation.

Finally, the whole army is on the shores of the lake. It is divided into two parts and really isn’t in any type of optimal situation. My idea is to tie up enough French on the western side (top part of the map) and hit hard on the opposing side.

The two Artillery Castles are still held back outside the effective range of the French cannons. Technically, they could have fired, but I didn’t bother now to speed up the game.

What will likely happen next is a French counter-attack against the weaker British on the western side… but that’s on my next post.

In this series of posts I will walkthrough several turns of the game play step by step using the rudimentary Vassal module I have been working on for the past several months. This will hopefully help players get acquainted with the mechanics of the 1758 Fort Carillon game. The module and art used are very much work in progress and are visibly incorrect in many ways. I will try to highlight those as I go through the game.

There will be inconsistencies in and between various images – this is a living project where many details are still being adjusted.

The starting setup in the “Montcalm’s Plan” scenario. The French are deployed into a defensive line with artillery close to the lake on both shores. Most units are also entrenched.

French setup

The French player has 40 build points that can be used to prepare defenses on the map. I have prepared a version that has a setup for an easy play. It can also be altered, if the players so agree. However, the 40 points are the cap and all constructions must be within that limit. I will not make any changes here and just go ahead with my saved scenario.

Part of the setup is the random French reinforcements. As “Montcalm’s Plan” covers the release of various troops to defend Carillon sooner than historically, let’s see when the remainder of those forces will arrive based on some die rolls.

The table for random French reinforcements.

I rolled five times: 5, 7, 5, 5, and 8. So, the troops will arrive by bateaux as follows:

• 5 SP La Marine starts on the map (SP = Strength Point, approx. 100 men)
• 5 SP La Marine will arrive on July 6 night
• 5 SP Canadians on July 7 morning
• 5 SP Canadians on July 6 night
• 2 SP Indians and 5 SP Canadians on July 6 night

Next, I will find and place those units on the TRT (Turn Record Tracker) or as I still tend to call it, the Date and Time Track. As I received a strong 5 SP La Marine unit directly on the map, I decided to beef up my southern flank to discourage any British incursion there. This freed up some smaller 1 SP units from the entrenchments that I placed forward to support the skirmish line.

500 marines had arrived in time to join the troops on the French left flank. (The arrival of Johnson’s Indians is incorrect here.)

“July 6th night” is still on my version of the map under July 7. That will be corrected in the future – the Night Action Segment will move to the end of the previous day. A Maintenance Phase will also be added – it’s already visible in the squares covering the dates. I have not requested updates to the art for quite some time and try to fix most of them in one go.

The French reinforcements are now placed as per the die rolls earlier. Valterie/Valtrie, La Corne, and Prudhomme are just historical chrome and do not affect the game. These counters are interchangeable.

The remaining French artillery is left in the fort along with some irregulars.

At the north end of Lake George, French artillery protects the pontoon bridge. Not a bad idea, as Bradstreet’s bateaumen actually landed just short of the bridge.

The British Landing Commences (July 6th, Morning)

As I make no French movements on the first turn, I will now begin the British landing. It is divided into three separate waves; the first two take place on the July 6 Morning Action Segment. The third can only take place on the Afternoon Action Segment (or later) – this is when the artillery and supplies start to land. After adjusting the TRT, I will open the British Landing Box window and start with the light troops spearheading the main army. Yes, this screen is messy too, but I’ll get it sorted out.

To support the main army, two floating Artillery Castles are available. They may attempt to suppress some of the French artillery or bombard the earthworks.

The first wave with the Grenadiers, Rangers and other light troops are the vanguard of the vast British army. (While this view requires lots of cleaning up, it is good enough for now.)

The French Artillery Interdicts

Bradstreet and 800 of his bateaumen are the first to attempt landing. They come in medium range of the French heavy artillery on the opposite side of the lake. An interdiction attempt will take place next.

One of the Bateaumen units is targeted (bateaumen, bateauxmen, battoemen… take your pick! Eventually, I’ll settle with a single term).

In the Artillery Chart below, we identify the type(s) of artillery first (here only French 18-pdrs) and check the distance: it is three hexes and thus uses the medium range band (orange) which I specifically highlighted with a blue quadrangle. The French also have an artillery leader giving a positive DRM (die roll modifier) for the to hit roll. Should multiple different types of artillery try to fire together, they all must be – in this case – direct-fire capable and also share the same range band (“effectiveness”). They could have a different range, but must be adjacent to each other and also have an artillery leader in range to fire together.

Die roll is “6”, and +1 for the leader DRM, thus the final roll is “7”. Looking at the medium range band for 3-4 pieces on the second table (Artillery Fire Table), it requires at least a “6” to hit (which we have here).

Good, then we’ll roll another time, for any damage. This can also fail completely with a bad roll, but as we have only heavy 18-pound naval cannons firing, we get a column shift right for impact – which is pretty good, because we cannot get a “No effect” on the target. A “No effect” is when you’d score some hits, but not enough to have a real impact within the scale of the game.

The roll is a “4”, and even with the column shift right modifier, the end result is the same on both columns – a “hit”. On the Allocate hits section, we choose the Soft target column, as only fortifications are a Hard target. A “Hit” states that the target unit is disrupted and must retreat as they were on water.

The whole stack is not forced to retreat, only the affected unit. It will not go back to the British Landing Track, but instead, it will be placed on the TRT, to the next British Phase (afternoon). It would normally be marked with a Disrupted (D-2) marker, but as they would have recovered by the time they can re-enter the map, this is not really needed. Recovery from disruption is automatic and will always be reduced by one step at the end of both player’s Action Segment. This is to ensure the unit remains disrupted through one enemy Action Segment – in this case, the unit will miss this segment anyway.

I also split the 10 SP bateaux into two smaller 5 SP counters.

Finally, I place an Interdict marker on the hex, where the British were hit. For any subsequent British attempts, the chances to hit are increased during this morning phase (+2 to hit on the same hex, +1 on all six surrounding hexes). The gunners have now ranged their guns. These will be removed during the Maintenance Phase, because I wanted not to think about artillery being relocated etc. That would have complicated the rules too much.

The remaining 4 SP Bateaumen and Bradstreet are allowed to continue their landing unaffected (they could also have retreated with the other unit).

The 9-pounders seen below cannot interdict as there is land between the water hexes blocking their Line of Sight.

Once landed, the troops have half of their MPs left (6 MP), but they move only one more hex. I will land the remaining British further away to avoid the powerful artillery.

The Vanguard Lands

As the next unit to land, I chose the 10 SP strong 6th Massachusetts light infantry regiment. Units cannot use any other mode except normal movement after landing, thus I don’t want them to run blindly against the enemy and keep a distance to the lurking French patrols in Skirmish mode. Had the 6th Mass. moved any closer, it either would have been subject to an ambush or allow any Skirmish mode units to retreat to a more favorable position.

I’ll just go ahead and land more troops.

Below is where I landed my vanguard. The second phase troops, which are the main army, must land within one hex of these landing hexes. “No sane commander would blindly land his army without any reconnaissance,” right?

The Main Army lands

This being a game allows me to explore how different decisions could have affected the outcome. Finding a strong line of defense facing the planned landing area changed, I made the decision to go for the opposite, eastern shore of the lake. Let’s see how this plays out!

There was only one small unit that had come to the shore as part of the first wave, but that should be enough. And if it is not, this operation will fall apart!

To expand the landing area and accommodate more troops, I had to land on Skirmish ZoC of the French (red shaded area).

My 4th Connecticut Regiment landed on a hex within the defender’s Skirmish ZoC enabling them to attempt an ambush. Let’s see what happens…

I rolled “8” – the target takes a step loss and has to retreat. As they arrived by boat, they have to retreat by boat into the TRT, the next friendly Phase (afternoon).

Infantry casualties are tracked in two different ways, first they go to either regular or irregular Initial Casualties Track and after four SP losses of the same type, one SP can return as replacements, while the three remaining will go the Permanent Casualties Track. After a certain amount of permanent casualties, Morale takes a hit.

As this post is getting quite long, I have decided to publish whatever I have so far and continue the turn in a future post – hopefully within a week or so. I will also be fixing the language, spelling errors etc. over time.