2009/01/15

Red Hawk's second raid

Following the success of the raid on the mining camp, Chief Red Hawk decides to push his luck. Using the new weapons acquired during the raid, he and six of his best braves conceived of an ambush. Added to their force was a new element, a sasquatch armed with a great club!
Their goal was the capture of the payroll on the supply wagon destined for the Golden Banks mine. They set their trap along a narrow stretch of road with a sheer drop into the river on one side, and jagged walls of rock on the other. They blocked the way with a fallen tree, and hid themselves among the trees and bushes right where the valley narrowed at a curve in the road.
Using Two Hour Wargames rules, so wonderful for the solo player, I equipped the wagon with 4 cavalry outriders, all Reputation 4 (R4). On the wagon itself was a young driver (R3) and Lt. Kipple (R5). Red Hawk (R5) and his men were placed at random as follows: I made one card for each of them, setting aside the two cards that represented the sasquatch and the chief. To the remaining six cards for the braves, I added 4 blank cards. I shuffled them, discarded three. I then added the two main character cards and shuffled again. I felt that it was important to retain the Chief and the Sasquatch on the table, but wanted some unknown number of braves, in this case between 3 and six.
I put the cards, face down, in likely places. They would be turned over and figures put onto the table once the trap was sprung.

The trap was sprung right on schedule, with the indians scattered rather more thinly than, in retrospect, was ideal.
The first casualty was the young trooper driving the wagon. He was killed by a musket ball in the first round. (Initiative was with Red Hawk).
Next round, a draw, allowed the troopers to dismount.
The Sasquatch eventually made his (low) roll and charged into melee with two troopers; battle pushed back and forth for a couple of cycles.
Two more troopers are hit, put Out Of Fight (OOF). Two indians go down, two more break away and run when Red Hawk is hit. (Loss of leader morale check)
The two troopers in hand-to-hand with the sasquatch at last get great rolls and leave it Obviously Dead (OD).
The Lieutenant and two troopers survive, and have Red Hawk in custody.
Will he be rescued by his band of followers? Will the mysterious sasquatch force return? And who is behind this sudden greedy uprising?
Only time will tell.