The size of the battles in most native conflicts were small. Meeting engagements between hunting parties especially lends itself to the use of skirmish rules. We recommend "Glory" since we publish them but any set of man-to-man skirmish rules will work. Even a set of Wild West rules like "Desparado" can be converted for use. Massive battles involving over 200 warriors did occur especially as part of an attack on a town. If an entire battle is to be recreated, then a 0ne-to-five or ten scale set of rules would need to be used. We publish "Fire and Discipline" which is 1 to 10, but other similar sets, such as "Sword and Flame" can be used.

Campaigns

Since most of the significant battles are assaults on villages or ambushes along major transportation routes, the use of a point-to-point map system is recommended. This system will reflect the limited transportation routes into an area. Remember that rivers should be considered as an aid to movement, not a hindrance as with hex map systems. Points should represent villages, resource locations (salt licks, lead mines, hunting areas), and ambush sites (trail junctions, fords, etc.).

Village Battles

The most common battle was a raid or assault on a village. Therefore I would strongly recommend the use of non-combatant, supplies and animal herd castings. Several conflicts were started over the theft of horse, cow and pig herds. Often the objective of a player would be to capture the above items along with burning the buildings and stored crops. Many tribes followed a custom of killing the males of a defeated tribe while adopting the captive women and children. However there are a few cases of adopting male captives into the tribe or genocide for an entire tribe.

Ambushes

Ambushes were set by a tribe expecting an attack on their village. The defender's goal was to disrupt the invader's warparty and force him to abandon the raid. Scenarios need to include the elements of hidden deployment, surprise contacts and other pre-start activities. The use of sketch maps for deployment is always an easy option. Spotting due to distance and action is another key element to a good battle which reflects the nature of the warfare.

Meeting Engagements

Chance encounters with hunting parties or the pursuit of fleeing survivors often resulted in meeting engagements. Survival is the goal in these battles. The village must be warned of the close proximity of hostile forces. Therefore both sides need to move castings off the board edge toward home. This becomes tricky if the home edge for each player is at the opposite end of the table.

Weapons

Prior to 1820, the number of warriors armed with muskets should be limited unless they are defending a village or are part of a force containing Europeans. One to four would be considered on the high side with one to ten being a very low ratio. We recommend a one-to- five/six ratio. The most castings should be armed with a warclub/hatchet. A few could have spears but they would be more common among specific tribes. As stated earlier the main distance weapon would be the bow.

After 1850, the western tribes were armed with surplus rifles. They continued to rely on close combat weapons but began to use rifles as distance weapons. The ratio of rifles to other weapons should never put the rifle in the majority. A one-to-two/three ratio would be reflective of most western tribes. By this time the hatchet had replaced the warclub as the primary melee weapon.

Clothing

While Native Nations did not wear uniforms in the European style, each Nation naintained a dress style designed for warfare based on their own distinct culture. The style consisted of a combination of specific clothing, accouterments (feathers, beads, protection items, etc.), and body paint. Unfortunately there are not many miniature castings available to represent most of the native nation warriors in their combat dress. Several generic castings are available for some Plains nations and RAFM produces several nice 25mm castings for tribes involved in the French and Indian Wars. A few Seminoles are produced by Frontier Miniatures. Additional nations can be produced by modifying some of these castings. For example, the Seminoles can also be used to represent some of the Creek and Cherokee tribes.

Colonist Notes

The comments on stockades are based on observations about the numerous ones described during the Creek War of 1813-14. Many of the minor stockades/forts consisted simply of wood walls built around a settler's farm. The farm would normally consist of several buildings, such as a loom house, storage building and other vital buildings. Any many cases the logs used for the walls were not flush resulting in many 'loop holes' which could used to fire into or out of the stockade.