At game night Peter put on one of his outstanding " Yellow Ribbon" games. Cavalry vs Indians doesn't get better on the table top. Visually the games are beautiful and the rules cover the actions as they were fought and not a Hollywood version. The rules, "Yellow Ribbon" reflex the realities of fighting in the old west. These are one of Greg Novak's best rule sets.
One aspect of Peter's games are his meticulous pre game briefings. Each figure in the game is named and players have orders and objectives for each command. For the U.S. Forces their objective was to move the wagons and mule train through a valley and off the board. Commanders had to maintain a steady stream of ammunition to their men as they used up a lot and fast. There weapons had longer ranges but they had fewer men and were less mobile.
For the various Indian war bands these briefings explain their marksmanship, medicine (morale) and victory points. Yes, they were supposed to stop the wagons. But each band could gain victory points for other things. These included capturing horses, counting coup or collecting scalps. It is very difficult to coordinate bands and once your medicine (morale) is exhausted your band leaves the field. In other words Indians fight like Indians and not Napoleonic light cavalry. One of the most difficult things for the Indians were activating their war bands. To do so you had to roll two six sided dice and equal or better your medicine. Hard to do if your medicine was 12! Thus some bands moved right away while others watched the game unfold and never moved!
The action commenced with the U.S. Forces slowly advancing through the valley. Some war bands advanced against them, others stayed put. The cavalry dismounted to form firing lines while the War bands advanced and skirmishes with them; then fell back when their medicine failed.
My three bands of Oglala Sioux activated right away and I moved them towards the right wing of the U.S. Line. Due to random movement speeds (throw three dice) I could not coordinate the advance and it was more of a one at a time attack. Each band moved forward, exchanged fire with the skirmish line and fell back. On my right Bruce also advanced his bands to skirmish with the cavalry troop to my left. Poor Art and Dave could not get their warriors moving! An interesting part of the game was each bands medicine points. For each casualty you got you lost two points. This caused you to call back and rally. If you lost all points your band was removed from the game.
Byron's cavalry troop managed to put up enough fire to cause my bands to retreat. But I finally caused enough casualties on him that I could close. At this point he ran out of ammunition and I wiped out his troop! Although his horses got away I managed to gather a tremendous amount of victory points so I could go back to my tribe and brag about my great brave victories! Actually I had all but exhausted my medicine points and had to leave the field.
In the other side of the hill the U.S. Gray horse troop tried to charge a war band and got their captain shot out of the saddle! One of Dave's war bands managed to drive off some horse holders and capture a number of horses. And finely, in the last turn he got his last band activated!
All in all a fine game and a great evening. Thank you Peter gives great game.
