The Pennsylvania frontier 1757

Some Rebels and patriots inspiration struck me this week in the form of the movie Northwest Passage.  ("What I watch on Youtube when I`m drunk" would be a great blog title)  
Filmed in 1940 while the rest of the world was embroiled in a real war this is a "nostalgic" look back to Rogers'  Rangers and the savage French Indian War.  
Really the movie is a boy's own adventure, perhaps looking back to a time when the Americans and British worked together to combat an aggressive enemy, or perhaps just Hollywood reinventing history.

They don`t really need to.  Rogers was a real hero in every sense of that word.  Instead we get a snapshot into the war, and a great performance as Spencer Tracy portrays a character with real depth.

Incidentally it has almost nothing to do with the "Northwest Passage."  We are told that Robert Rogers wants to find the Northwest passage.  I`m not being obtuse to say he would be needing a ship for that and not a battalion of Rangers tramping through the woods.

In terms of it's treatment of Native Americans the movie has all of the usual criminal denial of the Hollywood of the time.  Natives are savage, villainous and comedic.  The fact that the Rangers mission is to go out to the frontier and massacre a native settlement never seems to be an issue. 

There is however a lot in that movie I can use for a French Indian War campaign game, but I fully intend to treat the Native Americans better than Hollywood did.

Rebels and Patriots is a game that I have really enjoyed having a go at for the French Indian War.  It has reinvigorated my 10mm 18th Century collection.  It would cover the War of Independence well too.

My original games followed a linear style campaign, a straightforward march to Fort Cumberland, encountering enemy forces en route.   I took this from the map of Braddock's advance to the disaster at the Monongahela.

Extending this game I worked on the map, stitching in and adding elements.  Between Pennsylvania and Ohio we have a wild expanse of territory.

My original game map for Pennsylvania.  

The Rebels and Patriots campaign game follows the career of your Company Officer, as he advances from 2nd Lieutenant to Major, through the scenarios.  It's a simple system where increasing reputation brings higher rank and additional traits and skills.  I'll stick with this. 
Moving on the map will generate encounters and scenarios.  Forces will be given a mission, and move on the map to try to complete it.

An Audit of my forces for this campaign:

Winchester
The British

2nd Lt the Hon, Richard "Wheezer" Barfe-Chunks.
Trait: Wheezy 11 Hon Points
Ensign Vivian Swift-Cummings (Cad)
Ensign Roger Ewes (the favourite nephew)
1 Group Shock, Grenadiers 20th Foot
3 groups of Regular Line 20th Foot
1 group Light Infantry 20th Foot
2 groups Engineers
1 Group Blue Mingo guides. 

Fort Cumberland and Chester

The Pennsylvania Militia
2nd Lt Quincy Adams Wagstaff @3 points each
Ensign Roger Young- Boyes  (the favourite nephew)
3 groups Line Infantry 20th Foot @ 4 points each
2 groups light Infantry
1 Light Gun

Ramjet's Fort

Ramjet's Rangers

Captain Roger Ramjet, 

(Resourceful and handsome)

"Lootenant" Bucky Barnes

Sergeant Chawplug

3 groups Light Infantry

1 group of scouting Iroqoius, under  Chief Chinyougeek

The French
Regt de Lorraine

Capitaine Etienne de Grande-Boules, The Fighting Peacock
Trait. Peacock, Nomme de Guerre
Honour 45 points
Sous Lieutenant Alain Chapelier-Brun, (Nice loud voice) 10 Honour Points
1 Group Shock, Grenadiers Regt de Lorraine
3 groups of Regular Line Regt de Lorraine
1 group Light Infantry Regt de Lorraine
1 Large Aggressive group Native Americans

Coureurs de Bois
2 groups Coureurs de Bois (lead by the traitor Enoch Petain) 
2 Large Aggressive groups Mohawk Native Americans

The Delaware

1 Group Huron
1 Group Abenaki
1 Group Odawa

The new campaign map using the area of Braddock's advance to the Monongahela

And the map with my solo mechanism entry points on it.  Just where are those tricky French?

FR1 to FR6 selected with a simple D6 dice roll.
French Forces are:

1. Regt de Lorraine
2. Canadian Coureurs de Bois
3. Western Canadian Coureurs de Bois
4. Huron
5. Abenaki
6. Odawa

Civilians 
Landscape Artist Langdon Town
Woodsman Hunk Marriner 
Reverend Brown, Alcoholic Missionary
Charlie Mason and Geordie Dixon, surveyors.

Wiseman Claggit trading guns to the Mohawks

Logan,  the Algonquin Mingwe
Cayuga of the Six Nations and his two sons.