A Great Day of Gaming at the St. Charles County Heritage Museum for May Game Day West featuring some of our local history involving The American War of Independence Battle of St. Louis.
In the event space we saw Ray Gluck host The Attack on Fort San Carlos which was the key point of the main defensive line of entrenchments built to protect St. Louis from the approaching Native Americans.
The superb terrain build by Steve Lowry is fully on display here as the British Native American Allies (Burt C and Agnes B) push forward against the defenses under the able command of (Geoff B and Steve T).
Prior to start up the Spanish and French defenders consult.
One fun and creative feature from Ray’s game kit was his “Chicken” markers to denote shocks absorbed by the units. The Native forces were required on more than one occasion to have units retire as they had exceeded their “Chicken” allotment and were over “Chickened”.
In the end despite pressing hard against the defenders left the mixed forces of the community of St. Louis held their ground against the spirited attack, with the Native Tribes retiring towards Detroit to take up the issue of “this was supposed to be an easy attack” with their British employers. Things just were not as advertised.
In the exhibit hall we found Dave Schaffner presenting his Battle of Fort LePetit which was part of Hamelin’s Raid into Northern Indiana as part of the retribution for the attacks on St. Louis and Cahokia.
Dave explains the history of the raid and the details of the battle to the players.
Using Muskets & Tomahawks rules for his game combined with his exquisite miniatures and terrain builds Dave’s presentation fit right into the exhibit setting.
After some hard fighting by the players of both sides the battle came out with an historical result as Jean-Baptiste Hamelin and his raiding party were overcome by the British lead Potawatomi under Chief Anaquiba.
Overall a great result for our May Game Day West with the opportunity to play in such a superb historical environment and meet some new folks interested in both our local history and our hobby. We extend our sincere appreciation to the Game Masters for their wonderful displays and scenario design, the Players who challenged each other throughout the table top action and Kristine Madras, Curator of the St. Charles County Heritage Museum for her continued support of our efforts to bring table top historical gaming to the public in such a superb space.
Kevin, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed the privilege of hosting games at the Heritage Museum, and will miss the most-excellent AWI-West display that Steven Kling and the St. Charles County government provided for viewing, and which has made such a spectacular backdrop for my Le Petit Fort scenario!
I understand that the exhibit at the end of May will be travelling to its new venue in New Orleans.
Dave, It was a great series of events and your contributions for all of them have been greatly appreciated by the group.
Thank you, BIG MUDDY, for carrying the standard of miniature gaming to the museum!
Rich, Thanks for the kind words. We have had some good luck of late in our collaboration with the St. Charles County Heritage Museum and look forward to building upon that in the future.