Flint and Feather Playtest

The Iroquois (Haudenosaunee or "People of the Longhouses") and the aboriginal Huron built and inhabited longhouses. These were sometimes more than 100 m (330 ft) in length and generally around 5 to 7 m (16 to 23 ft) wide. The walls were made of hundred of saplings, sharpened and fire hardened, and driven into the ground close together. Bark, with a staple being birch bark, was then woven horizontally through the lines of saplings to shield the families from the weather. Horizontal poles were then used to brace the walls up. The roof was placed on top of these walls by bending saplings, resulting in an arc-shaped roof. Leaves and grasses covered this frame providing a roof structure. This structure was then covered by bark that was sewn in place and layered as shingles, and reinforced by light swag. The Longhouse had doors at each end of the structure which were covered with an animal hide to keep out the cold and the weather. Doors could also be inserted...

A playtest report sent to us by Howard Whitehouse, the writer of the rules. Enjoy...   My regular gaming partner and opponent Dan Foley agreed that we'd try out a couple of changes to the rules. Both Roderick and Lee had suggested that, instead of the existing 'I hit you/you hit me' system, we let the defender also hit when he scored more successes than the attacker.   This involved a minor change to let the defender redeploy his figures before combat, but this was straightforward enough. Since we wanted to focus on close combat,  both Dan's Mohawks and my Huron's split into a larger group on the valley floor, while putting a smaller group of archers across the creek to provide 'arrow support'. Dan outfoxed me in getting his men into a higher position, and my attempts to rush my archers up the  'natural staircase' to the top of the cliff were accompanied by a collection of light wounds - and a kill - from Dan's laughing bowmen.  Dan...

The first Flint and Feather figures will be available for sale at Historicon. We will have four packs available. Howard Whitehouse will also be around to run demo games of the rules. Come visit us and say hello. Let us know you follow this blog and get a free miniature.

The first step in the process of playing Flint and Feather is to create your very own War Band. You are represented by a Great Warrior figure. You can then choose other figures to round out your War Band from Veteran Warriors, Companions (your sub-leaders), to War-bearers, Striplings and even a Healer or Shaman. Players agree on a number of furs that will be used for the campaign and then you spend your furs convincing the other warriors from your tribe to join you in your campaign. In actuality a tribe would decide on a course of action by agreement among elders and families of a tribe and authorize a Great Warrior to lead a campaign to achieve the objectives of the tribe. Some examples of these goals might be raiding the enemy, trading up the river or hunting. Each type of warrior has a minimum and maximum number of models allowed in your War Band. Each type then costs a certain amount of "Furs" to convince to accompany you on the expedition. Each type is given a Combat V...

Flint and Feather is a skirmish level set of tabletop rules for use with the official Flint and Feather Miniatures. The figures are 28mm scale and have been sculpted by Bob Murch. Bob himself put this project in motion when he read the book the Orenda by Joseph Boyden, Oneworld Publications: 2013. This story follows Bird an elder and one of the Huron Nation’s great warriors and statesmen. The story outlines his trips to meet the French in Quebec City and his interaction with the members of his tribe, a Jesuit missionary named Christophe and culminates in the sacking of the village by Iroquois warriors. This book inspired Bob to begin sculpting. Soon Howard Whitehouse was contacted and contracted to create a set of rules to play tabletop games that represent this era. So far Howard and his cohort Roderick Robertson have developed a Beta play test set of rules which have been farmed out to a few individuals. Some sample figures have also been presented including a give away at Council Fi...