King (George) of the Hill - Rebels & Patriots AAR

Two years after meeting Dan, we finally got around to getting to the table (the first year was due to scheduling, and then Covid happened...). When we first met we somehow got to talking about tabletop wargaming. Dan was already an experienced role-player, but wanted to get into the wargaming hobby. It's certainly taken a while, but we could finally play that game I owe him. 

We met up at the local game store last weekend. After thinking about what game to play, I settled on Rebels & Patriots. I had already put together a box of terrain for it, which I planned to use at Cape Con. Unfortunately, that was canceled due to the pandemic, so the box went up to the attic.

We used the "Lament Ridge" scenario from the book, with the tree at the center of the table denoting the objective. The goal was to be the only side with units within 3" of the objective at the end of the battle, which could randomly end starting on turn 8. Otherwise, you could remove 75% of the enemy and force them to rout. 

The Americans had four units of Timid Line Infantry, which meant that they fought with 6 dice instead of the 12 that most units start with. They were accompanied by two units of Sharpshooter Skirmishers. The Sharpshooter upgrade meant that they had a 24" range instead of 12" and hit on rolls of 4" instead of 5". 

For this game, we tested a house rule to Skirmishers that I had seen discussed online. Normally Skirmishers can either use a Fire action and shoot with 12 dice, or use a Skirmish action and fire with 6 dice. However, with that 24" range and increased chance to hit, Firing Skirmishers are more like machine-guns then, well, skirmishers. So we changed the Skirmishers unit to have the same restriction as the Native unit and only have the ability to Skirmish, removing the Fire Action. 

The British had a more regular force, with three units of Line Infantry, a unit of Shock Infantry (Grenadiers), and a unit of Light Infantry. 

I think I should paint up some Native American allies for the British to act as Skirmishers for the sake of unit variety. I will also need to add some cavalry to both sides. 

Neither of us rolled anything interesting on the Officer Traits chart, and I was the attacker for the scenario. 

The game started with both sides advancing. With their long range, the American Skirmishers managed to hit the unit of British infantry behind the fence and made them Disordered. 

On the other side of the ridge, the two forces lined up, with my skirmishers and Dan's infantry taking cover in the fields. 

Unfortunately, Dan's officer couldn't seem to get his own unit moving. He rolled a blunder (double 1's) on their first activation, earning the unit a point of Disorder. 

Fire from the skirmishers continued the harry the British infantry, and the unit by the farmstead briefly retreated before Dan rallied them back into action. 

Meanwhile, the infantry in the fields exchanged fire with each other. The long range and cover meant that only minimal damage was dealt. 

With the opposition momentarily stalled, the Americans moved into the farmstead, hoping to potentially flank the British with the support of the riflemen. 

On the American's right flank, a unit of the Continental Army was the first to break, fleeing after being hammered by the two British unit. 

Dan's officer had finally gotten his men into the action and had formed his units into a battle line. Since his officer's unit was still Disorded from the earlier blunder, they could only fire with half their dice. Still, that was enough to knock out a stand from the Skirmishers. 

Meanwhile, the British Line Infantry had settled back at the fence and fired upon the Continental unit in the farmstead, causing casualties and a point of Disorder. 

While it was Turn 5 of a potential 8, neither Dan nor I had decided to move onto the hill yet, as any unit that crested the ridge would like be the target of the troops waiting below...

I managed to rally my unit of Line Infantry, even if it was severely diminished. 

While I was getting the men back into battle, Dan sent his infantry in a charge against the Skirmishers in the field. A lucky Evade action let my Skirmishers fall back out of the range of the British baronets. 

And during this Turn, Dan rolled a double six to activate a unit, and rolled another six to get a 4 point unit's worth of reinforcements! He decided to bring on a light artillery piece to support his attack on the hill. 

On Turn Six I decided that it was time to act, and my officer ordered two units of Line Infantry up onto the hill in Close Order. 

In response, Dan charged in his Grenadiers. Luckily, my Timid infantry were able to survive the charge and only ended up falling back a short distance - well within range to fire at the Grenadiers in the next turn. And since they had caused a point of Disorder on the Shock Infantry during the melee, the Grenadiers didn't get a chance to follow up their attack. 

Desultory fire from my units on the right flank gave Dan the opportunity to rush his line infantry from the field to the hill, hoping to catch my Close Oinfantry in the flank. 

Meanwhile, the smoke coming from the farmstead seemed to block the view of both sides, with little damage done to any of the units. 

Another poor round of American shooting from the fields allowed Dan's infantry to reach the American unit by the hill (after they had fired on the Grenadiers). The British infantry saw the colonists off, but the rebels managed to keep their cool in the face of cold steel and kept their lines for the moment. 

However, it was a this point that Dan's right flank crumbled from the weight of fire and mounting Disorder tokens. In short order both his Officer's unit and the infantry unit behind the fence were routed, leaving his force bereft of the Officer's +1 bonus to Discipline (which was crucial for activations, morale checks, and rallying). 

We did correct a slight mistake at this point when I realized that Dan's melees would have forced my units out of Close Order. That actually ended up helping me when we realized that my units could then fire at Dan's units without the 45° angle of fire restriction that Close Order imposed. This Turn ended with two more of Dan's units Broken and retreating away from the battle.

However, Dan could still pull out a draw if he managed to keep a single unit within 3" of the objective when the game randomly ended. 

Unfortunately, Dan wouldn't have that chance. A poor roll to Rally saw the Grenadiers rout, which then forced the rest of the British to make morale checks. Without his officer's command bonus, the last unit of Line Infantry fled the table, leaving only the Light Infantry and the Light Artillery. 

We decided to call the game there as I technically miscalculated the points total needs to force Dan's British to rout (I didn't incorporate the extra points from the cannon) but by that point it wasn't going to last much longer. The Americans had secured the ridge and likely would have seen the rest of the British off before long. 

I'm glad that Dan and I were able to get our first game done, and what a game it was! While the Americans came on strong at the start, their dice seemed to cool in the middle, and it could have gone the British's way, especially with the reinforcing cannon. The disastrous loss of his officer and the crumbling flank, however, didn't leave Dan with many options. 

I'll have to add more units to both sides for variety if we're going to be playing Rebels & Patriots more often. I'd definitely like to take the campaign rules for a spin, as they don't seem to take too much effort to implement. 

A Bad Time For Tea - Rebels & Patriots AAR

I've been involved with ongoing efforts to get the SJGA involved in more outreach activities - flyers, displays, dice with our logo on them, etc. So for an upcoming military history day at a local historical site, the club will be demoing a couple games. The ongoing pandemic makes that a little more difficult - wearing masks, social distancing, restricting people from touching dice or interacting with the miniatures - but we're still going to give it a try. 

Our first game will be Osprey's Rebels & Patriots, with a straight-up brawl over a farmstead during the American War of Independence.

The British have three units of line infantry, a unit of light infantry, a unit of shock infantry (Grenadiers), and a light artillery piece. The Americans have four units of line infantry, two units of skirmishers, upgraded to be good shooters, as well as a light artillery piece.

The goal is to control the farmstead at the end of eight turns by having the most bases within the fence-line.

For this scenario we started with all units off the table, and both sides would need to activate a unit to bring it onto the table.

In the first turn, this ended up being a major problem for me, as both my Captain's unit and my light infantry failed to come on the table, while the Americans brought their full force onto the table.

Even in the second turn, the British only managed to bring the Captain's unit into the fight. Meanwhile, the American cannon smashed into the unit of Grenadiers, while the British cannon failed to spark.

Sam used his skirmishers to flank his line infantry units, moving them up through the wooded areas on the extreme flanks of the table.

Those skirmishers, supported by American line infantry, fired volley after volley into the British Grenadiers, who had leapt over the fence to get cover from the colonist's cannon. The withering fire rocked the shock infantry, bringing them down to half their original size and giving them a permanent disorder marker.

While the Grenadiers retreated, the other British units pushed forward, with the light infantry finally joining the fight - only to take a disorder marker from American skirmishers hidden in the woods.

And after joining the fight, the Light Infantry were immediately chased off the table after a poor morale test. 

On the other side of the battlefield, the Americans had established a good defensive line in the farmstead by occupying a small house and a wheat field. The British light cannon had to fall back slightly to continue firing at the oncoming skirmishers, partially hidden by the trees. 

The fight was starting to go against the British. One unit that had managed to get into the farmstead was routed after a concentrated series of American volleys. The flanks were quickly falling to the American skirmishers.

We decided to call the game at the end of turn seven, since the British had to chance to get enough troops over the fence-line to contest the farm, and I wouldn't be able to rout enough Americans to bring their number down to a manageable amount! So the rest of the British troops fled as the Americans cheered and broke out the hard cider for a good victory toast.

This game should be perfect for a demonstration. Relatively simple rules with a great visual aspect. I'm going to mix up the farm layout a little bit, and we'll start the game with all units deployed 3" onto the table so we don't have the problem of units deploying late into the game.

Hopefully it goes over well during the event!

A Stroll Through the Woods - Rebels & Patriots AAR

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you're all recovering from the holiday season.

Each week, Ted (a member of the SJGA) hosts a game night at his home and I finally got a chance to attend recently. It was an opportunity to test out Rebels & Patriots, Osprey Games' new rules for skirmish-y wargaming in North America. So we decided to set the game during the French and Indian War, which Ted and I both have collections for. 

Ted set up the table for the A Long Way From Home scenario. I took command of the British defenders, who needed to get as many units off the opposite corner edge of the table by the randomly determined end of the game. Steve, my opponent for the night, led the French attackers who needed to harass and delay the column.

The British were a 24 point company, with three Line Infantry units, a Light Infantry unit, and a Shock Infantry unit. The French were only 18 points, with two units of Light Infantry and two units of Natives that were Poor Shooters.

The British column started with a unit of Light Infantry (Rangers) in front, followed by the three units of Line Infantry. The Shock Infantry (Grenadiers) brought up the rear.

The French attack started from the farmhouse, with the French Compagnies Franches de la Marine and their Native Allies firing from cover. The Rangers split off from the column to fire back, as the rest of the British continued on.

With more Marines and Natives approaching from the woods, the British Officer's unit moved off the wood to try and force the French back. Unfortunately, the Marines' accurate fire pushed the British back. So another unit of Line Infantry was diverted to try and take the woods, while the Grenadiers chased the Natives off before they could attack.

Rebels & Patriots has a random even table for when players roll either double ones or sixes when trying to activate a unit. One of my random events turned out to be another unit entering the table!

This ended up being a problem, as there was no way the new unit could reach the opposite table corner by the end of the game, and it also increased the threshold I would need to reach to score more victory points.

While one Line Infantry unit stayed in the woods to hold back the Marines, and the Rangers skirmishing to keep up constant (if ineffective) fire, the rest of the British started to move towards the objective area after clearing up the muddle they had fallen into.

The British Line Infantry in the woods were broken by the extremely accurate fire of the French Marines, which meant the Grenadiers had to peel off to hold them back.

Unfortunately, the game ended rather suddenly, and I only managed to get a single unit off the table.

The game would have been 0-0, but I managed to score two victory (Honor) points from the random event table, which meant that the British "won" 2-0.

We had a good time, and there was a surprising amount of depth to the rules that isn't immediately apparent during a read through. I'm currently working on a 15mm AWI project to use with these rules, and I'm looking forward to playing more games next year.