Pocket Panzers

The pleasant early-summer temperatures have drawn the settlers of Stag's Head out of their cabins and into the sunshine. While the men and boys tend to the frontier outpost's crops or scout out the next patch of forest to be harvested for lumber, the womenfolk and children tote chairs and tables out onto the grass and have a meal of fresh bread and meat pies topped with mushroom catsup. Young Miss Charity Scroggins is something of a guest of honor at the get-together outside her cousins' cabin. Her father Ichabod is an uptight schoolteacher who came west from the Puritan settlements in New England and has managed to crowbar his way into a position of influence in the valley. The girl's kin are determined to show her a proper good time during her stay, and by all accounts things are going splendidly. One of the young men has just taken a break from the fields and struck up a lively tune on his fiddle when one of the village boys comes tearing out of the woods. "Indi...

One of the potential benefits of collecting figures to wargame the French and Indian War is that cavalry units are almost nonexistent in the forests of North America and artillery is really limited to large sieges which are mostly outside the scale of skirmish games like Sharp Practice. It makes it easier to collect and paint what feels like a full force. However, that doesn't mean that I didn't have a look at what was out there. Sharp Practice does  have rules for cavalry and artillery, after all. There's metal and even some plastic artillery kits out there, but most predate (War of Spanish Succession) or postdate (American War of Independence) the period I was interested in. As far as I can tell, the only readily available option that wouldn't involve some kitbashing or sculpting (something I wanted to avoid for a piece that will likely see limited use) is this metal set from AW Miniatures. They also carry an equivalent kit for British artillery, I believe. I could te...

In the predawn light, shadowy figures move from tree to tree, cradling their firelocks against their bodies to keep them free of underbrush and vine. Some wear capotes and blue wool forage caps, others are stripped to the waist and adorned with fierce red and black war paint. Marius watches the men under his charge from the rear of the file, while the imposing blanket-draped Huron war chief at his shoulder has his eyes on the French officer. Balancing the hot tempers of the political dissidents that gathered in Parisian cafés kept Marius at his wit's end, but working with the crown's native allies had proved an even worse headache. "We go now." Hardheart growls in French, a language he knows only a little better than Marius knows Wendat. What the sachem lacks in vocabulary he makes up for in tone. The words are a statement of fact, not a question. The young exile nods agreement, adjusting his forage cap and checking the pan of his musket before the two leaders steal t...