No other period of history lends itself more to skirmish
war gaming than the small unit battles between American
Indians, white settlers, and the U.S. Army in the last half
of the 19th Century. These actions ranged from short and
intense ambushes to running battles lasting days or
weeks. The small numbers on both sides easily lend
themselves to skirmish simulations with the sides
relatively balanced. The number of possible actions or
situations is infinite. In this article we will recreate a short
action that took place one afternoon in Pennslyvania; so
come with me to those golden days of yesteryear.
The Situation
Apaches have raided into a settled area of southern New Mexico. The local Army commander has dispatched two patrols to round up the settlers and, if possible, to locate the hostiles. One detachment of 15 troopers has been attacked by the Indians, lost all of its horses and has had 5 men killed. The lieutenant in charge has decided to continue to the known rendezvous and await relief. The second detachment finds that the settlers in its area of search have been wiped out and all ten troopers and the scout move to make contact with the first patrol. The Apaches have 3 groups of braves: one group of ten braves on foot and two parties of 5 warriors, each mounted. The chief is mounted and can be with any party. Any brave can act as a scout. All forces on both sides leave trails and can be tracked. Additionally there are two groups of white settlers, each of two men. One, located at the mine, is dismounted. The other at the ranch consists of two mounted cowboys.
Missions
a. the Army player must locate and destroy the hostiles and round up the civilians; b. the Indians must inflict a two to one margin of killed or massacre one of the Army detachments. A deck of cards is used to designate movement. The 10 troopers on foot start on the playing surface; the arrival of the second detachment will occur if the Army player rolls a one, two, or three when his movement card is drawn (six sided die). The Apaches get three movement phases prior to the start of the game and may place up to five scouts anywhere on the table. Play starts at dawn with all civilians unaware of the pending doom.
The Apache chief, Red Cloud, decides to concentrate all but four of his braves against the dismounted troopers that were such easy prey the day before. He moves his 10 dismounted braves to the rocks southwest of the troopers' camp site (Point Z) and his mounted braves to the northeastern edge of the hill north of the troopers, just out of sight. Four of the 10 dismounted men are used as scouts. His scouts are placed one on the hill in the northwestern corner of the map and two in the rocks near the miner's camp (Point X). The last scout is placed on the hill overlooking the ranch.
At dawn, the first movement phase starts. The Army player gets to move one of his units first and rolls a six . . . the mounted troops, therefore, don't show. The next two moves belong to the Apaches; the six braves on foot (10 men less 4 scouts) move out of sight to an ambush position in the rocks. The two mounted groups of 5 men each move up to a concealed charge position and wait. (The chief is with this party.) Last to move, the foot troopers roll a "2" and a "4" and head six inches southeast. The Army commander places two troopers 4 inches to the front, and oneon each flank.
The fire phase follows that of movement and is also governed by a card draw. The Army player gets the f i rst four opportunities but has no targets so he can not fire this phase. The Apaches have more luck and elect to engage the two Army troopers at the front of the formation. They have six opportunities to hit: three rifles at 40%, two bows at 10%, and one pistol at 10%. The bows and pistol miss but the rifles score two hits, wounding both troopers. There is no return fire, all opportunities having been expended earlier. Additionally, the Apache player decides to take a shot at the unsuspecting miners while they make breakfast: two shots at 20%, and one hit on a miner, wounding him.
The next movement phase; the patrol moves first and deploys on line moving to the wounded troopers. The Indian player draws next and charges his 10 mounted braves into the rear of the patrol from around the hill. His next move sends three dismounted braves into the left side of the patrol's line. The rules allow the troopers to adjust to the situation and they do. The NCO and one trooper face the braves on foot while the lieutenant and five troopers face the mounted attack. The troopers elect to fire and to take the resultant negative melee modifier in the hope of weeding out the Indians.
The five troopers and the lieutenant get the first shot on the draw and with five 30% chances and one 40% chance, they get four hits; two horses go down and they kill one and wound one brave. The sergeant and one trooper fire and wound one brave. The Apaches draw the next two fires. The braves in the rocks with rifles score one kill and the mounted braves with bows have five chances and wound one trooper.
Both sets of Indians press home their attacks but the troopers break and run for cover in a gully two inches away except for two wounded and the sergeant. The sergeant kills one brave and wounds another before he and the wounded are killed. Two of the routing troops are killed as well.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the two cowboys are alerted and will move over the hill on the next turn to within sight of the battle. At the mine, the miner scurries to cover with his wounded buddy and both sides exchange ineffective fire.
The troopers rally in the gully. The lieutenant and three troopers set up for the next turn. There are now 8 mounted braves with three wounded and three more in the rocks above them. Things look bad as the lieutenant consults his West Point handbook for the proper response.
The next turn starts with the reshuffling of the regulation 52 playing card deck. Each side can move one unit for each appropriate color card drawn, black for the white guys and red for the Indians. For each card drawn a unit must be designated to move or not move. Cards are drawn until all units have had one opportunity to move. When that occurs we move to the fire phase. in this case, the Indians get the first two chances to move.
Red Cloud decides that things could go badly where the lieutenant is located in the gully. Although the Indians could massacre these troops, the potential exists for the troopers to hold out and even possibly drop a few of his braves in the process. Red Cloud moves both groups of mounted braves back to the initial charge position. The cavalry player gets the next move and elects to check on his second patrol. No luck.
The Indians get the next two moves and move the braves on foot back to the rocks with the wounded, and the scouts toward the hills in the northwest corner of the map. The cavalry player elects to stay in the gully and the cowboys head up over the hill, where one bow-armed brave waits in ambush.
Fire phase is next. The Indian's luck holds out and he gets first shot. A 60% chance with the bow at one of the mounted cowboys. And Tex finds himself looking rather uncomfortably at the arrow in his chest as he falls to the ground seconds from a cruel death. However, Bart, his bunk mate, gets the next shot and the brave, Buffalo Chip, also gets to ponder the meaning of life as the smoke curls upward from Bart's sixshooter which has scored on a 10% chance of a hit. The score is tied.
The next fire opportunity belongs to the lieutenant in the gully with his 4 troopers, one 20% and three 10% chances of hits directed at the Indians in the rocks. The lieutenant manages to wound one of the braves. The Indians return fire and wound the lieutenant. It looks like Red Cloud made a tactical error withdrawing when he had the cavalry by the neck.
The next turn opens with a miracle. This time the cavalry moves first. But alas, the patrol still doesn't show. Bart loads up Tex's body and heads back down to the ranch. The lieutenant decides to stay in the gully. Red Cloud now moves all eight mounted braves into the central canyon at the Indian start point and towards the northwest corner of the map. It appears he read the scenario and is anticipating the arrival of the cavalry. The author takes note; next game the Indians will have the same limited intelligence that the cavalry has as far as the opponent's intentions and plans. Well, the damage is done.
During the fire phase only the gully rats of the cavalry and the braves in the rocks can fire. Both miss and we move to the next turn. No patrol appears, Bart reaches the ranch, and Red Cloud moves down the canyon. His scouts anticipate the cavalry patrol and set up an ambush from the rocks at the north edge of the western hill. Next turn the Indians miss but a 10% chance wounds one Indian.
Now things get nasty. The patrol arrives in a nice formation, two outriders, one on each flank, and two troopers and the scout 10 inches in front of the six man main force. Red Cloud gets a signal from his scouts and moves down the canyon toward the mine and up the spur near the canyon. He forgets about the miner who is now less than 4 inches from the combined war parties. The gully rats stay put and Bart elects to check outthe firing over the hill.
Now the fun. Zeb, the miner, fires his shotgun at the Indians at point blank as the last shot of the phase after the gully rats and rock braves had wasted valuable ammo on each other. Because all other firing had been drawn, the Indians don't get to return fire. The perfect ambush. Zeb wounds one brave. Zeke is revenged!!
Movement. The patrol gets the first shot and the umpire lets them react to the shot from Zeb, which was rather close. Red Cloud moves next and gets the mounted braves out of Zeb's range, out of the canyon as well. They move up to the eastern slope of west hill. The cowboy, Bart, moves up the hill slowly. The gully rats stay put. But the braves in the rocks shift a little. The Indian scouts set for the first fire against the cavalry scout and the two troopers.
Fire phase: totally uneventful with gully rats and braves missing.
Next movement phase, the patrol moves into open area between the gully and the rocks after closing up on the scout. Red Cloud starts his charge but he is out of reach. Bart reaches the top of the hill, assesses the situation and sets up, dismounted, for a low percentage shot at the rock climbing Indians.
Fire phase. Gully rats first miss, then Bart wounds one Indian because of the ambush of surprise quirk in the rules. The author still feels it is reasonable to give a bonus to a firer who is not under fire and can take an aimed shot, and the disgruntled player is told to take it up with the Garner's Union, Local 442. The Indians miss on their shot. The patrol takes a long shot at Red Cloud with carbines, mounted, and misses. But the three dismounted Indian scouts reveal themselves and take full advantage of the ambush rule and drop two of the troopers from the saddle, killing one. The bows had a base of 30%, plus 10% for the ambush, and -10% for the movement of the target.
The last and final turn begins with the strengths shown in Figure 2 for the units engaged:
| Unit | Start | KIA | WIA | Current |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chief | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Apache Mounted War Party A | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Apache Mounted War Party B | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Apache Foot War Party | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Apache Scouts | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Miners (Zeb and Zeke) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Cowboys (Tex and Bart) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Foot Cavalry Troopers Patrol | 10 | 5 | 1 | 3 |
| Mounted Patrol | 11 | 0 | 2 | 9 |
Both mounted groups elect to charge each other and, luckily, they just reach. The Indians in the rocks overlooking the two wounded cavalry troops move down and provide close haircuts for the two unfortunate troopers. The Indians in the rocks overlooking the gully rats move out. Unfortunately the two excess wounded are left to the tender mercies of the cavalry.
Now the Indians get a lucky break. They get the first fire and elect to have the bow-armed braves fire into the mounted cavalry prior to impact. Although this will weaken the rnelee strength of the six bowmen, Red Cloud says, "Go for it". The arrows fly, and even though there is only a 20% possibility of a kill for each of the five, the patrol leader finds himself down three troopers, with two dead and one wounded. He then returns fire with a mix of small arms including pistols and carbines. His bad luck holds, and although he has a 50% chance of a hit with the 4 pistols and 20% chance with the one carbine, only one brave is wounded. (The effectiveness of the weapons is reduced by modifiers for the range, moving target, moving firer and enemy f ire received.)
Both sides charge home and the ensuing melee is a mixed affair with both sides giving no quarter. The lance- armed braves start with an advantage and the Indians numerical superiority is telling. But the patrol leader has singled out Red Cloud and drives home an attack with the saber that sends the noble warrior to the Happy Hunting Grounds. Although Red Cloud had a one point modifier advantage in the comparison die roll, he rolled a one and Lieutenant Fenwick rolled a six. The rest of the war party did well and at the end of the first phase only Fenwick and the scout remain saddled to face five braves, while two more of Fenwick's troops are wounded.
Fenwick remembers an old TV show called Branded with Chuck Connors and yells, "Come and get me, you filthy red savages!"
The scout, however, bolts for the mine where Zeb is hiding. The Indians elect to finish off the three wounded troopers, and only two braves face Fenwick, now in a frothing rage. The wounded bite the dust but Fenwick turns on the two Apaches with a vengeance. One Apache bolts and one dies. Next Fenwick turns on the blood covered killers of his wounded troopers and the Indians add one more scalp to the pile. So much for Fenwick. There will be no more fighting. The umpire ends it.
The Indians have had 5 killed (including their chief) and 8 wounded, the U.S. Cavalry have had 15 killed and one wounded, and the civilians one killed and one wounded. The Apaches are declared the winners. But to quote an old Indian, "There are only so many human beings but the whites are like the grass on the prairie". The Apacvhes could not afford to win too many of these "victories". What cost the cavalry the battle was luck and a couple of bad decisions. The patrol arrived late which allowed the Indians to shift resources, and the decision to charge the mounted braves was straight out of George Custer's book of Indian fighting.
The basic rules and tables used are not included because of space considerations. These are "house rules" that are under consideration for publication.
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