Flint and Feather Playtest

We would like to issue a formal update about the Kickstarter for Flint and Feather. As you all know we have been working on getting the Kickstarter ready to go to present to our supporters. We had the preview posted last week and we have since taken it down. Thank you for all who provided feedback on the Kickstarter. However, two things came up over and over again from those who provided feedback for the Kickstarter. First, people were looking for the rules. The Flint and Feather rules are in playtesting right now. Some of you have played them at conventions. This is great and we will continue to run games such as at Little Wars on the upcoming weekend. We are scheduled to run a playtest game on Saturday night. If you are available please join us. The second thing that came up was the fact that some people only wanted one set of miniatures rather than both box sets that we were offering in the basic pledge. So we had to reconsider the Kickstarter given these two requests. After...

My Companion and Shaman hide in the trees. Our playtest started with each of us choosing twelve figures to play. I had the brown based Mohawk while my opponent had the green based Huron. Both players separated their Warband into two groups. I had my Great Warrior with the Veteran Warrior and some Warbearers in one group with my two Companions and Shaman along with the Stripling and a Warbearer in a second group. My opponent had a similar setup. But he had a Companion with the Veteran Warrior with the Companion with the Great Warrior. This is the first time we had used Veteran Warriors so they were a neat addition to our force pool. It was also the first game with Shamans and Orenda involved (see the previous entry). Moving towards a Furs Marker. I won the initiative and took the first movement. I rolled a two and the Huron player rolled a five and in these rules the low roll is good, so I won the initiative. I immediately moved my Great Warrior at a walk forward to attempt to...

Orenda is a word that means "spiritual energy" in the Huron (Wyandot) language, and has often been used to refer to gods and spirits in the Iroquois tribes as well. Although any divine spirit could correctly be referred to as Orenda, the name is most commonly used to refer to the Creator or Great Spirit, or, among Christian Iroquois people, to God. Stone Coat represented by a WOTC figure. Stone Coat is the name of a mythological rock giant of the Iroquois-speaking tribes. In some tribal traditions there is only one Stone Coat, while in others, there is a whole race of them. Stone Coats are described as being about twice as tall as humans, with their bodies covered in rock-hard scales that repel all normal weapons. They are associated with winter and ice, and they hunt and eat humans. In some legends Stone Coats were once human, and became cannibal monsters as a curse punishing them for evil deeds, like the Windigos of Chippewa mythology. In othe...

The Thames river which meets the Avon River in Stratford Ontario is called Askunessippi (Anishinaabe language: Eshkani-ziibi , "the antlered river") by the Odawa and Ojibwa inhabitants, who together with the Neutrals have lived in the area since before Europeans arrived. We were in Stratford at the HotLead Convention last weekend and got a chance to run some new players through the Flint and Feather rules. We set up three games side by side on a 5' x 12' table space. The players were very interested in playing, most having a genuine interest in the period we are depicting with the rules. Many others stopped by the table or watched the game with peeked interest. With my trusty comrade Kurt we set about to teach the rules and give them a real test as to play ability and speed. Each player was given eight warriors and the two sides were lined up opposite each other and told to dispatch their enemies. I believe the games were a success. The players were able to quickly ...

Turn Two advancing through the woods  Here is the after action report from our most recent Flint and Feather playtest. I will try to go through the rules so those following along at home can learn with us. We set up a pretty basic eight figure skirmish. Each side was given a Great Warrior, Companion, four Warbearers and two striplings each. The striplings were bow armed and one warbearer was bow armed on each side. The Great Warrior and Companion on both sides were chosen as the figures with the spears. No skills were given out yet. We find we can play a game in this manner without filling out Warband Record Sheets, its even for both sides, and it is a fun little basic game. Just what we need at this point. A small copse of trees was placed in the middle of the table and some small hills around the edges. The copse of trees was the only terrain feature that played any effect in the game. Turn One an injured Companion already! Both war bands were placed about 24 inches a...

We were in the area of Nassagaweya Township is a geographic township and former municipality in Halton Region, Ontario, Canada for our most recent playtest of the Flint and Feather rules. 066002 Several of the figures from the Iroquouis Warrior #1 Pack The township was created in 1819, its name derived from the Mississauga word nazhesahgewayyong , meaning 'river with two outlets.' This refers to the fact that watercourses in the township drain to both Lake Ontario and the Grand River system. This area of Ontario is rich in the history of the Native American Northeastern Indians. We got together to playtest the new revisions to the close combat rules that Howard had worked up for us. We rather enjoyed the system and it took less than two hours for us to run an eight versus eight figure fight. We would have finished much sooner because the Great Warrior of the Mohawk Warband was dropped and his compatriots fled the scene on a bad Nerve Test. The Great Warrior was then tru...

This article about the Flint and Feather game and miniatures line will appear in the online magazine  Forging A Nation. We present the first part of the article here to provide some background to the Flint and Feather project. You can find the magazine on facebook at ACW Gamer: The Ezine or on the web at http://www.acwgamer.com/ Issue 3 Winter 2016 By Alexander Mitchell Wargaming the Legendary Pre-Contact Era in North America Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, warfare was an integral part of Iroquoian culture. Conflict was a regular occurrence between the tribes of the Wendat, Mahican, Cofitachequi, Susquehannock, Petun, Oneida, Micma and Algonquin . The five Iroquois nations, identifying themselves as “The People of the Longhouse,” were the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca, later to be joined by the Tuscarora. Conflict among these peoples is characterized as primitive warfare due to any lack of desire for territorial gain or econo...