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Little Crow's Skirmishes - AAR
This game was a set of small skirmish scenarios designed to recreate
(to some extent) the battles in the
Little Crow's War.
The scenarios used our free
Quick Intermediate Level Skirmish
rules. There were different dice for the Dakota Sioux, Settlers, Army, and
Militiamen. In general, the die designs had the Dakota strong in close combat
and consistent, but not powerful in ranged combat (they had rifles, but not a
lot of bullets). The settlers had weak dice (lots of white pips), but had
a devestating ranged attack (shotgun) ... when it hit. The Army were very strong
in ranged attack (reflecting Fort Ridgely being the sharpshooter school and
the later battle hardened troops from the front in the Civil War). Lastly,
the militiamen were more of an all-around balanced figure.
The scenarios were designed to represent the asymmetric nature of the conflict,
both in forces and objectives. For example, the first scenario, a raid on a farm,
didn't award any points to the warparty for killing settlers ... only for
stealing livestock. The goal was to balance the wargame urge of "if I kill
everything, I will win, right?" with some give and take motivations. In the same
scenario, the Sioux also got a bonus for not killing any settlers. As the scenario
progresses, however, it becomes more difficult to do that and still have some
people left to get away with livestock.
Notice the lovely square, six-sided sheep behind the barn because somebody forgot to bring the 28mm livestock.
All in all, the QILS rules worked fairly well. They are pretty simple, and were easy to pick up. The bonus for me as a game designer was that the conversation in the game centered around things like "should I flank toward or away from the main body of militia?", "is it better to run past and go for the corner of the building or to charge in and start slashing?", "should I just run away now or try to get to the other building?" and "is it worth risking leaving a guy in the open to put that fire out?" instead of references and counter-references of lists of tables and charts.
Each scenario took an hour or so, and they were scaled to fit two on a 5'x6' table. The outcomes were:
- A Raid on a Farm - Both times, the Sioux won by capturing some livestock, then bugging out without pressing to capture all the livestock. Once it was a decisive victory, but the second time the point margin was close. Also, in both runs, the Sioux player killed the "granny with a shotgun" settler figure.
- River Crossing - This skirmish represented the Soiux attacks on river crossings and stagecoach stations that logistically isolated the settlers. This one also ran twice. The settlers and militia were able to hold off the raiders and protect the building (which did get set on fire, but not completely destroyed).
- Eureka Company - This was a hunt and evade scenario for the militia and a large party of Sioux. One time the militia were able to win by a large margin, but while taking heavy casualties. The second time, the Sioux got enough warriors past the militia to win by a slight margin (they took signficant casualties this time).
- The Battle of Fort Ridgely - This was the most popular scenario; it was requested and played three times. Overally, the Sioux did pretty well. While they only destroyed the entire fort once, the heavily outnumbered Army consistently had to fall back and sacrifice a few buildings to get enough shots off. Only once was an Army figure able to save a building, and he did perish in close combat quickly thereafter.
- The Battle of Lake Wood - There wasn't much interest in this decisive battle for the Army. Nobody requested it, so we didn't play it.