Harpers Ferry tested

On Saturday I hosted Gus, Ron and Mark to play a first game of the Harpers Ferry scenario. I'd spent the previous two weeks getting the terrain to a finished-enough state.

We played out Act One of the game, representing the attack by the Martinsburg militia from the northwestern end of the rifle works. This was historically rather poorly co-ordinated with advances by the citizens of Harpers Ferry from the southeast. Gus commanded the militia in the role of Captain Alburtis while Mark played three of the locals.

Ron looked after the insurgents. On this occasion he had John Brown, Edwin Coppock, Emperor Shields Green, Aaron Stephens, and Dangerfield Newby (all lovely castings from Old Glory). His aims were to keep Brown alive and to move some hostages from the paymasters office to the engine house.

Shields Green moving hostages

Ron managed to successfully move the hostages but lost Coppock and Newby in the process.

I was generally pleased with the performance of my scenario-specific house rules. These were "Loopholes" and "Other characters".

We needed to capture the fortress-like character of the engine house with its brick walls and lack of ground-level windows. I declared that the insurrectionists would begin the game with 1D3+3 (revised to 1D3+2 in future games) loopholes in the walls or doors. These would be placed whenever an insurrectionist wished to fire from within the engine house. I made little markers to represent their locations and the 60 degree arc of fire through the loophole (in either direction). Shooting into the engine house through the loopholes required an extra Spot dice.

Two loophole markers

There were many more people involved in the events than we could realistically represent in a What A Cowboy game (20 insurgents and about 3000 townsfolk). To represent their influence I included "Other Insurrectionists" and "Other Citizens" cards in the game deck. When these came up the relevant side could:

• Snipe - lay down an area that required an extra Move dice to cross and an extra Spot dice to see through,
• Counter-snipe - remove the enemy's sniping marker by keeping their heads down,
• Attempt a task - battering down a door perhaps, and for the insurrectionists...
• Advance the Uprising Count.

Aaron Stephens finds his way blocked by 
sniper fire, perhaps from the Wager House

The Uprising Count is a measure of the extent to which slaves in the counties around Harpers Ferry are taking up arms in rebellion. I'll not reveal the effects of this until the game has had its first outings at Steel Lard in Sheffield and Posh Lard in Peterborough.

The What A Cowboy rules were well-received. I can see us using them again in other settings. As a lover of obscure history, I'm half-considering the 1839 Chartist Riots in Newport, South Wales.

Finally the terrain. I had got it to the basic minimum standard I was happy presenting to my Saturday Afternoon gaming group. 

Fontaine Beckham near the main gate of 
the rifle works

Since then I've started making improvements. I'm picking out individual paving stones in slightly differing colours and I'll be adding a flagpole and a couple of additional trees.

The retaining wall above the Potomac has been given a dark wash and will get some more weathering while the bridge over the boat ramp will get some rust marks and a coat of varnish.

The next playtest session will hopefully get on to Act Two - the US Marines' assault on the engine house. I've also designed a post-game phase to explore the effects of the insurrection on public opinion North and South. 

More later!