I wrapped up my “Montcalm’s plan” testing at the end of the second day – this was a good run. I filled in a lot of the missing pieces such as ambushes and special rules for the Indians (I use mostly the terms found in historical [British] documents). As always, a game session lead to making updates to the counters as well… for the 2000th time.
The badly beaten Connecticut regiment was stuck in the tight land corridor between Lake Champlain and the Rattlesnake Mountain. Although supported by the New Hampshire regiment in its over one year old appearance (probably the oldest counter I still have – and it was supposed to be “brown”), the already disrupted provincials panicked once enemy Indians were seen lurking in the forest. This was a long-missing piece in the rules and I hope its now done. Disrupted infantry is easy prey for those brutal natives who seek scalps and plunder – the weaker the enemy, the better!
By just moving close to the disrupted unit and with a fine die roll, the Granite Staters were annihilated… First by panicking them and forcing to flee – straight into the ZoC of the other French-Canadian troops on the other side.
As Major William Eyre, the leader of the 44th Regiment, commented after the chaotic first evening (July 6th) and the skirmish with the French-Canadian troops returning from their scout : “Two or three hundred Indians surrounding us that night” would have routed the British army. Btw, he would have been the most senior engineer in the campaign, but had chosen to remain with the regiment possibly due to either being in bad terms with General Abercromby or simply planning for a better pension should something bad happen to him, or both. Alas, he was the chief engineer of the infamous Fort William Henry…
