Canadian Militia for the French and Indian War

In addition to a group of marauding Huron warriors, I recently finished off these stalwart defenders of New France, the milice canadienne. I don't have much in the way of a history lesson on these guys. Based on the reading I've done and the uniforms I see, they seem like a mix of quickly raised militia and experienced woodsmen. They seem better than their British colonial counterparts, especially the later minutemen. At least, in the Sharp Practice ruleset we have been using.

With the exception of the leader in the back, these figures are by Brigade Games. They're great sculpts, with a lot of detail and character. They don't paint up quite as fast as some of the Warlord figures, but they're still excellent. They're a little slender compared to Warlord sculpts, but no big issue. My only real complaint is that the musket barrels, though realistically proportioned, are incredibly thin, and give me the impression that they're be very easy to damage.

They're also dressed for quite cold weather, compared to some of my other figures. But that's no great problem either, I suppose.

As I don't have a militia leader figure, one of the leader figures from my French marines is standing in. This is Sergeant Hector Vidal, a hard-drinking, gruff, and long-serving soldier of the New French military. However, around these parts, few know his Christian name, and less use it, particularly among the Huron and Iroquois. During King George's War, 10 years before the present conflict, the sergeant was a part of a raid on a British settlement that went all wrong. In the ensuing flight, Vidal tangled with a big Mohawk warrior and was nearly brained with a tomahawk. Shocking everyone, he survived the grievous head wound and made it back to Quebec. Since then, the hard-headed NCO has earned the nom-de-guerre of Le Crane de Fer or The Ironskull. He still prefers to keep his hat on.

This is another figure from the Warlord/Conquest metal box set. I think the figure is great, although the way the sword blade, the musket barrel, and those big feathers come together over his right shoulder becomes crowded, and I think it takes away from the silhouette of the figure. He's certainly well-armed, anyway.

Thus far, these men have been reliable on the tabletop. Not quite as good as the experienced marine light infantry, but still a good woods-fighting unit with a flexible set of skills. They're not going to win the battle single-handedly, I don't think, but they're solid and good at harassing an enemy on their flanks. Up next, I have at least one more group of French marines to get painted, then we may move onto some figures that are a little more flashy.