Brink of Battle 400pts French Indian War demo game

Played another game of Brink of Battle this weekend with my buddy with whom I also played Malifaux the same afternoon. He is usually very halfhearted in his interest when I bring something new over to his house. However he has always talked about various time periods like modern warfare and not being able to play them and kept nagging about the existing games out there. So I talked him into giving Brink of Battle a try, pitched him the idea of being able to use the rules for whatever he might want to play on a skirmish level. So he game in, a bit reluctant but I kept his interest with the French Indian War setting.

I had written two "standard" forces, built around Period 2 "Early Modern". Roughly 400points per side. He picked the Mohawk raiding force led by an old soldier, while I ran the colonial regulars and militiamen.

Mohawk raiders (Standard force)
…………………………………..
Commander  110pts
Old Soldier
Sharpshooter
CBT   CMD   CON
   5        5         5
Flintlock Musket+Bayonet
(Longarm)
15/2/4
Sword
(Vicious)
1/C/2
…………………………………..
Mohawk warriors  305pts
CBT   CMD   CON
  4        4         5
Flintlock Musket (no bayonet)
(Longarm)
15/2/4
Sword
1/C/2
(Vicious)

415pts

French Canadian Colonials  (Standard Force)
…………………………………..
Commander  60pts
CBT   CMD   CON
   5        5         4

Flintlock Musket (no bayonet)
(Longarm)
15/2/4
…………………………………..
Veteran (Grenadier) 68pts
CBT   CMD   CON
   6        4         4

Flintlock Musket + bayonet
(Longarm)
15/2/4
Sword
1/C/2
(Vicious)
…………………………………..
Regular soldiers x3  141pts
CBT   CMD   CON
   4       3         4
Flintlock Musket + bayonet
(Longarm)
15/2/4
…………………………………..
Militia x3 129pts
CBT   CMD   CON
   4       3         3
Flintlock Musket (no bayonet)
(Longarm)
15/2/4

398pts


I had also written a condensed version of the rules, fitting all the necessary shooting/close combat/movement/morale rules on one page for quick reference. We did not play any specific scenario as such, it was purely a demo battle where one side had to kill or rout the other. I had bought some cotton balls since last time I played to represent the smoke generated by blackpowder weapons - need to spray them with thinned down PVA or something so they don't attach to terrain and such.

Anyway, battle lasted 5 turns. There was very little in terms of rules that needed to be explained beyond what I had on the quick reference sheet. The rules are after all quite easy to get into after a few minutes as you repeat everything often enough to quickly get the hang of it. We got into a few rules and situation which I had not been covered in my previous battle report. Such as close combat and shooting at enemies at point blank range.

There was decent amounts of cover on the table so models were usually within concealment or cover terrain, or the soldiers created concealment for themselves by firing their guns in the open obscuring their position with smoke. The Mohawk raiders managed to shoot one of the Colonial Regulars using a "Break" action just as he was taking aim at one of the Indians. Another Colonial Regular was slain in close combat by a charging Mohawk warrior, the situation sent one of the Colonial Militiamen running away in panic.

My Grenadier was about to charge the Mohawk in the following turn but was stopped, again by a "Break action", my opponent overall had great luck with the dice. He peeled away my order tokens on miniatures which had not been activated yet by scoring hits and "stunning" them. My lowly Militiamen took aim at the enemy leader, the rogue soldier, and scored a hit by rolling a really good result - but the enemy leader rolled almost equally high and escaped with a flesh wound. One of the Mohawk warriors was caught in the open as killed before reaching cover.

My force morale kicked in and I failed to keep my troops on the table, so the Colonials had to withdraw. Losing 2 men, one being mortally wounded and the other having a shattered arm making him unable to use 2-handed weapons anymore. The enemy Mohawk also suffered from a shattered arm.

It was a fun and fast paced game, the smoke counters added a lot to the visuals of the game. My friend got so caught up in the rules that he proposed we tried the Period 3 rules with some of his old Warhammer 40k miniatures. I think that would be possible using the core rules without waiting for the fantasy/sci fi expansion, so we will give that a try next time we see each other.