Matchlocks and Witchcraft - A game of witch hunting in Colonial America

 

I stumbled across this little game Matchlocks & Witchcraft by Samuel S. Drucker purely by chance on a Facebook post. It immediately caught my attention as I'm always on the look out for small games that I can put together quickly while I'm painting up a bigger project. It's available as a PDF from Wargames Vault for the princely sum of $5. This little project gives me another use for my French and Indian Wars terrain, and some of the figures I purchased from the Flint and Feather Contact Kickstarter by Crucible Crush. These are also available from Northstar Miniatures.

In order to play the game I needed to source suitable witches, rabbits (yes, rabbits, they represent the witches familiars), and a goat to represent the Devil. I wanted these figures to reflect my view of the Seventeenth Century Colonial American mindset.

Following an internet search one illustration in particular leapt out at me, this shows a witch in a pointy hat and the image of the Devil as a black horned creature. The images in the rule set already show a black goat representing the Devil, so that was an easy choice. The next step was to find suitable figures of the rest of the game. 

I first turned my attention to figures for witches and rabbits. I recalled that Bad Squid Games has a selection of witches in their horror section, and chose these Angry Witches in pointy hats. 

I also found the rabbits that I was looking for at Bad Squidoo Games. I always marvel at the wonderful figures they produce, but all too often wonder how I would use them. Little did I know that I needed these little bunnies all along! (I do have the amazing Bad Squidoo Games War Peegs and Chums, more of them in a later project for Xenos Rampant). After finding the figures I panicked a bit because they were Out of Stock! Then I remembered Northstar Miniatures are a stockist and the day was saved.

Next, my attention turned to the Devil and a suitable goat figure. Fortunately, the pictures in the rules has an excellent goat model and credit has been given to StoneAxe Miniatures. These are lovely resin models, and I ordered them from Iron Gate Scenery (who do an array of useful models). The castings were crisp and clean, the Devil is in the detail as they say!

I already own some lovely Ristuls sculpts now sold under the Bad Squidoo Games banner that will add atmosphere to table. I'll have a dig through my boxes to see what else I have that might be suitable, but I've currently got a Scarecrow on the painting table. Next, I'm looking for some pumpkins to make a pumpkin patch, will update with progress.

So, after a long absence from the blog, I've bombarded everyone with a big post for a little project. Posts will unfortunately continue to be sparse for a while, as work is extremely busy and I'm in the process of buying a house (one that needs considerable work, another project!). However, rest assured the blog is here to stay and I'll post as often as I can.