Pick your battalions. Tap a battalion on the battlefield or its button under the picture. Orders then go to just those men. Tap ALL to command the whole line again. Keys 1 to 6 pick battalions, 0 picks all.
French sharpshooters hide in the bushes and their cannon fire from far away. Lie down while you wait so fewer men get hit.
When the drums beat, the French columns attack. Stand up, then hold your fire. Shooting too far away hardly hits anyone. A clever enemy heads for your weakest battalion.
At about 40 yards press MAKE READY, then FIRE! If every battalion fires at the same moment you get a PERFECT VOLLEY, which smashes the French courage and slows time.
Formations.LINE fires with every musket. COLUMN marches further when you advance and hits harder in a charge, but only the front men can shoot and cannonballs plough through it. Changing formation takes a few seconds.
Each battalion has a discipline bar. Low discipline means ragged volleys, men who fire without orders, or a battalion that runs away. Shout STEADY, LADS! to calm them.
After a volley, tap RELOAD DRILL when the white marker is in the green to reload faster. Your smoke spoils the next shot, so ADVANCE through it.
When a column is wavering, CHARGE! Two battalions charging the same column together are much harder to stop.
Camera. Drag the battlefield to swing the camera round, pinch or use the mouse wheel to zoom, and slide two fingers (or right-drag, or the arrow keys) to move it. The 🎥 button switches between Auto (follows the action and drops low behind the redcoats for each volley), Free and Redcoat (stand in the line yourself). ⟲ puts it back. A tap without dragging still picks a battalion.
Press ⏩ to speed the battle up. After the battle, Watch replay plays the whole fight back, and you can speed it up to 8x or jump to any moment.
Win to earn shillings and buy upgrades. Get all three stars with a perfect volley, no broken battalions and nobody firing without orders.
What really happened
On the night of 12 September 1759, General James Wolfe's British army climbed the steep cliffs at the Anse-au-Foulon and formed up on the Plains of Abraham, just outside the walls of Quebec.
Wolfe stretched his line across the plain only two ranks deep instead of the usual three. While they waited, his men lay down to shelter from Canadian militia and First Nations warriors firing from the bushes and cornfields.
Many soldiers loaded two musket balls for a deadlier first shot at close range.
The Marquis de Montcalm's French army attacked in columns. As they came on, their ranks became jumbled when militia stopped to fire and dropped down to reload.
The British held their fire until the French were about 40 yards away. Their volley went off so close together that it sounded like one huge gun. The historian Sir John Fortescue later called it "the most perfect volley ever fired on battlefield".
The British stepped forward through the smoke, fired again, then charged. The 78th Fraser's Highlanders charged with broadswords. The main fight lasted only about fifteen minutes.
Both generals were mortally wounded: Wolfe on the field, Montcalm the next morning. Quebec surrendered five days later.
Montcalm rode among his men on horseback. He was shot during the retreat and died the next morning.
Plains of Abraham, 1759
Dawn outside Quebec. Your redcoats have climbed the cliffs in the dark and formed a long red line on the plain. Montcalm's French army is coming out to fight. Hold your nerve, hold your fire, and give them the perfect volley.
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Play the Classic version instead. It uses the same save, so your shillings, upgrades and victories are all there.