Burning the English Village Hobby Bunker Game Day

In the afternoon I took command of mixed force of French and Indians to burn a small English village. Dave Valentin ran this scenario based on similar raids during King Philips war.  The rules are from North Star 1672 (I believe) The have lots of special command and (mis)fortune cards that can have a major impact.

Our objective is to burn more than 50% of the house while the enemy wants to make us pay for it.  If we lose 50% or more of our troops we lose. I'm Teamed up with Dave's son Will facing Dan form my morning game and my old fiend Dave Soucy running the English

Will for reasons that escape me play the Bear attack card right off....

With no one in sight he wanders right into my path.

More productively I played a card that kept a unit form shooting (wet Powder) followed by one that caused the same unit to panic and run off.  This was good because the remaining unit hit one of my bands hard with a well aimed volley of musket shots.

I'm forced to kill the bear it pains me to do this but he was protecting the English...

My men get the first house alight... wills men seem to have forgotten how flint and steal work and can't get the building in the distance to burn.

The English run form the burning building

My men pursue and cut them down

A long range fire fight opens up at this point.  Will is still trying to burn the second house and I don't feel I can go for the third with out his men to provide the English with a target rich environment.

Oh Look another bear wandering out of the woods to attack us... Why brother bear do you fight for the English!

Will's men finally get their torches lit and advance!

The exchange of Fire favors our greater numbers (at the point of contact) and all but a few defenders flee.

I saved some cards that helped us kill the defenders in the house and start it burning.  We came close to draw had we lost 7 more soldiers we would have been at 50%.  The English had a large unit of men holding their block house had they come out a turn or two earlier we would have been in trouble.  A very enjoyable game.  Will and I had a lot of luck on our side with good dice rolls at critical times... and exceptionally good luck with cards we drew (and maybe some small skill regarding how and when we played them).

Gunfight on the Arctic Circle Hobby Bunker Game Day

Saturday  I did a reprise of my Naval Game from Huzzah.

I had two excellent players Dan running the Germans and Rich commanding the US forces

It was a little silly but I couldn’t resist putting my gun battery island on the table

A German U-boat made a run at the Washington but quick work by the US destroyers drove it off

Ranging shots are taken by both sides.

As the range closes the Prince Eugan and Tuscaloosa become the focus of fire from several ships 

At first Tuscaloosa takes the brunt bursting into flames. Washington is using the fog to hide from Tirpiz while punishing Prince Eugan . 

After a gun duel of several turns both Prince Eugan and Tuscaloosa are burning and sinking and our time for gaming is running out.  The USN Also lost one Destroyer giving a slight edge to the Germans in this exchange. 

Evelyn's First Reeanctment event

This past weekend I took Evelyn out the Hilsborough History Alive event.  This included camping out for the night in a tent (more on that latter)

She had no issue adjusting to the period clothing (we did modern shoes after a look at the field which was to rough for tender feet). Though it was a challenge to get her to keep her hat on.

Evelyn enjoyed many parts of the event including the French music played by Joanna on Drums and Steven on Fife.

Evelyn watched the Battle on Saturday with me.  At first it was a little distressing to her until I told her "they are playing."  At this point she calmed down and repeated the phrase often.  She also called out Yeah! UNCLE DANA and Yeah! UNCLE Steven at intervals during the action.

After a nap (Evelyn wasn't the only one who napped as you can see) we spent a lot of time walking around looking at people and especially the horses

Getting caught in some rain didn't distress her too much (we got into shelter pretty quick). 

Keeping her under shelter requited the use of the leads built into her clothing! After this the group went out to dinner it wasn't the best experience but it kept us dry. Saturday night was interesting.  I put her to bed after dinner and came back to the tent about 11:00 (having stayed with in hearing distance of it).  At 1:30 AM Evelyn stands bolt upright in bed and as soon as I open my eyes in response announces "ALL DONE NAP DADDY!" It was a full moon night and there was still a lot of activity going on so I think she believe it was morning or even afternoon. I had to do some fast talking and finally got her to lay down with me on my bed roll, eventually she went back to sleep.

 Sunday was more of the same. I picked her up a special cup to use at events

 She ate lunch while I got some sewing projects done (it was a surprisingly productive weekend for projects) a set of gaiters repaired, a par of breaches also repaired, and new seniority chevrons added to my uniform coat.

 Cannon booming during nap time...

didn't trouble her

 She played with Uncle Dana after the battle/nap time..

Her bear pink got her own hat thanks to our friend Jess. 

 Evelyn even pitched in breaking camp Brushing straw off canvas

We also did a couple of comedy shots like this one of Baby soup!  All and all a great weekend.  Camping out may have been a bit too much too soon but Evelyn told mommy she wants to go 'camping' with daddy again so its a win.