"Plains War Scenarios 1860-1890 ?" Topic

I'm looking in my (limited) library for suitable historical (rather than Hollywood) scenarios for 'Pony Wars' games – any suggestions?

They're for a planned supplement to the "Sharp Practice" set of large scale skirmish rules, intended for c. 40-120 figures for side (though larger 'battles' like LBH can always be played using a 1:5 scale or only part of the battle represented.

I've already plundered several other publications for things such as the Fetterman Massacre, Wagon Box fight, Beechers Island etc

There's a couple of battles during the 1862 Minnesota Uprising that might work well, and the 1865 Colorado War (Julesburg, Mud Springs, Rush Creek, Platte Bridge) looks like it could be the basis for a mini-campaign of linked games as well as individual scenarios.

All suggestions very welcome!

Miniature wargames ran a great series a few years ago "indian fights in texas", Pete Panzeris "Plains Wars" booklet,is worth a look – you want recomendations for reading or actual scenarios?
Pony wars Sharp(s) Practice sounds like a great idea!

Either would be very useful – or even just a reference to a particular skirmish that I can then trawl t'internet for more information, rather than a particular publication but anything is appreciated.

I've managed to pick up a copy of the Panzeri booklet on Ebay and now looking through my hundreds of back issues of MW etc – anyone know if there are any online indexes for MW, WI to make my life easier? I've got an article listing for MW up to issue 250, which is a great help but I think those Apache articles must be later.

The basic mechanisms for SP lend themselves very well to all sorts of 19th century skirmishes and smaller battles – the fun is having unique rules, bonus and random event cards to capture the flavour of the period and the style of warfare – very different from the Napoleonic or even the ACW periods on which the original rules and supplement focus.

Try looking at the mason & johnson county wars for paleface on paleface action,the nez perce campaign, summit springs, elliots last stand at the washita, crow v sioux at fort cf smith, the grattan massacre.
Lot of horse stealing and revenge/recapture raids too. Indian fights quite often seem to involve one side holed up on foot while the other tribe gradually massacres them but a biography of crazy horse or sitting bull might give some ideas. If youre looking to make different tribes feel different might be worth checking out chris peers war on the plains for inspiration.

Red clouds war would make a great campaign.

Is this a personal thing or an official "lard approved" supplement? Sounds good; keep us posted eh?

Some great suggestions there, Latto, many thanks. I was thinking about Red Clouds war as an alternative mini-campaign as well. The challenge is finding balanced one-off scenarios, even when you play a bit fast & loose with the historical accounts – Beecher's Island took place over several days (and there were others like it) which does not translate so well to the tabletop.

Still a lot of work to be done before it is released, but we hope it will become a "Lard Approved" supplement in due course. Started by Myron Shipp, there's a first draft available at the "TFLPlaytest" yahoo group.

Cheers SJ, know what you mean about balance, an awful lot of the accounts seem to involve surprise attack followed by massacre and a spot of hunt the fugitives.
Generic horse/scalp raid scenarios in different variations might be an idea, a la Dux Brit (wagon train!).War parties seem to have met up for a rumble fairly regularly but with very little detail unfortunately – adding an honours system for players/ big men would make that more interesting.

Reckon Ill mosey on over to Yahoo; thanks for this – SP has been sitting on my shelf for ages waiting on that bit of inspiration.