Semi Regular Retirees Game 08/01/24 The Attack on Fort Bowman

Steve Lowry presented his Attack on Fort Bowman for a run through/critique session at our Thursday afternoon gaming session in preparation for our upcoming event at the St. Charles County Heritage Museum in October.

Mark J took on the command of the beleaguered fort while Pat L. Burt C and Kevin F lead the British Native American Allies in their attempt to dislodge the inhabitants.

Steve repurposed some 54mm AWI and some Wild West Native Americans for this game along with making some stunning terrain pieces for the scenario. The rules were a modification of the ones found in the board game “The Attack on Cahokia.” With inches replacing hex movement and each 8 man stand replacing a counter in the game.

The scenario postulates that most of the British forces were able to find a means to narrow their attack into an assault on Fort Bowman which was the primary defensive position at Cahokia. Steve also split the artillery into two guns allowing each to fire once as opposed to the game method of it firing twice. In the picture above we see the Native American assault lines formed up as the second turn begins.

Here we see an Illinois Regiment of Virginia unit disordered by some lucky British fire.

Fort Bowman is a tough nut to crack for the British as the defending unit strength combined with the works and no retreat rules mean a unit must be disrupted first (hard enough to do) then disrupted a second time (anyone got a die that just rolls “6s”?) for it to be destroyed. In the mean time the advance is across open ground with clear fields of fire for the Americans.

The British did manage to breach the walls one time on their far left. You can see the assaulting force in the photo above.

Here the Native Americans have passed over a destroyed Illinois unit in the breach.

The breakthrough was short lived as it ran into some well prepared defenders inside the fort and without support failed to get any further.

Overall a fun afternoon with four of our five GMs for the October event present to assist in working through this interesting scenario.

Thanks to Steve Lowry, the players who played and helped with the game, the folks that stopped by to share their insights and of course the fine folks at Miniature Market Cave Springs.