American Indian units

Richard's playtest group has been experimenting with skirmish versions of Tricorne for French and Indian War scenarios. Personally, I'm liking it a lot.

The current version: Indian War Bands are (2), 2, 1; Ignore 1 Flag in Forest, Retreat 2 hexes, May retire and rally, and forest hexes do not stop unit or leader movement. We've gone back and forth on hitting on sabres in melee. Five x Six player scenario's were on the table at the Recon convention last weekend. A big hit with most.

I've searched the site, but can't find the special rules described for "Indian War Cry" or "Indian Deception" for the Tricorne F&IW scenarios. Is there a post or scenario somewhere that I'm missing?
**UPDATE**: I found it! On the Geek.

- Charlie

Probably worth putting the link here for the sake of completeness
boardgamegeek.com/filepage/220520/consol...ezrans-fim-scenarios

Personally I'm reluctant to give Indians any melee advantages, since that doesn't seem to reflect the historical accounts which emphasis the skirmish and ranged fire from cover of the Indian fighting. Similarly, the Command Cards sometimes don't really reflect the Indian way. Line Command and Line Volley being two that leap to mind.

Agreed. We've played no saber hits for more historical accuracy and with saber hits for more cinematic action.

The FIW activity has been part of a cardless, dice activation system tailored for skirmish scenarios that a few members of Richard's group have been working on. Probably unlikely that the dice activation system will ever be published, but, to be fair, I never thought Red Alert would be published either.

Heckmac wrote:

The FIW activity has been part of a cardless, dice activation system tailored for skirmish scenarios that a few members of Richard's group have been working on. Probably unlikely that the dice activation system will ever be published, but, to be fair, I never thought Red Alert would be published either.

If I recall correctly, Abaddon had a cardless activation system.
Each Activation die has six blank indented sides requiring stickers. Each die should have the following stickers placed on its indented faces: one Heavy Link, one Medium Link, one Recon Link, one Infantry
Squad, one Weapon System, and one Command sticker.

Weapon Sytem face drew a Weapons System card
Command face had numerous options

Always a bit difficult I found, because I could plan my play around the cards, since I knew what they were, but orders from a die roll were particularly chaotic, lap of the gods stuff. 

Battles of Westeros had a hybrid card and dice system I think (really stretching my recollection here). There was an " Order Pool" where you could retain previous rolled orders.



 

This system is more elegant than either of those and provides the player with more options, though of course much more limited options compared to an IGOUGO system.

It averages just under 2 activations per die rolled. Players get 1 die, plus 1 per leader. (and lose 1 per leader casualty).

The dice can also trigger unit specific abilities.

"Personally I'm reluctant to give Indians any melee advantages, since that doesn't seem to reflect the historical accounts which emphasis the skirmish and ranged fire from cover of the Indian fighting. Similarly, the Command Cards sometimes don't really reflect the Indian way. Line Command and Line Volley being two that leap to mind."

Agreed and agreed!  I don't think that combat advantage (sabre hits) reflects the skirmish & shoot & retire nature of the Indian way of fighting.  

The Command & Combat Cards are not designed for Indians (obviously) so would need some modification. We tried using the Line Command and Volley cards as 1/1/1, 2/2/2 or 2/0/2 movement cards for Indians and all had their merits and demerits.  We preferred the 1/1/1 replacement but only because we could not come up with a better idea! And we felt that these were only applicable in an all-Indian army rather than a mixed army where the Regulars/Militia could use Line and Volley Command cards that would not be applicable to Indians.