!5mm Peter Laing U.S. Cavalry vs Indians Battle

   I must admit when is started looking for Peter Laing figures a few years ago I got lucky. Besides some kind people giving me figures they weren't using, there seemed to be a boom on Ebay. There weren't many people bidding and I managed to get quite a good collection in short order.  Among them was a large collection of US Cavalry and Indians, both on horseback and foot. Besides a couple of small Civil War battles, I have never used them. While going through my plastic figure I found an Atlantic plastic frontier fort. I was hoping, like my Airfix castle, it would be the right size for Peter Laing figures. Unfortunately, the ramparts come to the top of the heads and doesn't look right.

   My wife has 2 weeks off, starting the day after Christmas. I wanted to get one more game in before her vacation and decided to use the cavalry and indian figures. What's more, I had ordered several sets of Command and Colors: Napoleonics  dice. They came the day I was setting up the game so decided to use my new dice.

   The scenario is thus; a troop of cavalry went searching for some renegade indians. Alas, they failed to find them and were returning to the fort. The troop closed on a narrow pass which, once cleared would bring them a short ride home.  As they approached the pass, the renegades they had been searching for came charging out of the pass at them. There was only one thing to do. The captain ordered the troop to form line and attack.

US cavalry on the top left; indians in the bottom right. The cavalry must exit on the bottle right of the board. I used Horse & Musket rules from MWAN magazine. In the battle if the crossed sabers came up, the horseman was dismounted and had to fight on foot.  They then acted as infantry.

The cavalry in column; the indians start their charge.

Some of the nicely painted cavalry.

The indians.

A close up of the nicely painted indians.

The cavalry started to fall into line.

The indians close in rapidly.

The indians manage to dismount several of the cavalry and disorder the cavalry's charge.

The cavalry counter attack; they throw the indians back but do not break them.

The cavalry  in their counter attack start separating; the indians turn and slam into the scattered troopers. they suffer heavy losses

The indians concentrate on dismounting the cavalry. The dismounted cavalry is easily scattered.

The captain managed to rally some men and took a defensive position on the hill; the last mounted soldier tries to join them.  Outnumbered 3 to1, the odds are against the soldiers surviving the day.

The last thing the cavalrymen on the hill see.