Battle of Barlowe's Necessary: Rebels and Patriots AAR

Kevin Smyth and I ran a game of Rebels and Patriots on Saturday at the annual Fix Bayonet! game day held at the Fort Steilacoom museum. We were challenged with trying to maximize participation for 6 players with a rather small table size of 5' x 6'. The scenario we come up with was a variation of a classic 'take and hold' engagement. We had three commands on each side all of roughly equal—and low—points value, between 12 and 13 points per command. This meant that commands had two to three units.

The AWI scenario had advance units from the American and British forces fighting for control of a space that held advantages for position in an imminent fight between the main forces. There were three objectives:

• Farmer Barlowe's farmhouse, which could be used for a command post
• Barlowe's bridge, a small footbridge that would improve communication across the creek
• Barlowe's necessary, a humble outhouse on farmer Barlowe's back forty, the only outhouse around since the one at Barlowe's farmhouse was destroyed by a drunken British gunner taking pot-shots the day before. After weeks of hard campaigning in the wilderness, officers on both sides were eager to perform their bodily evacuations in a civilized manner.

The honor points value for holding these objectives at the end of the game varied and were randomly chosen and secretly assigned before the game. None of us knew the value of the objectives we fought over until the game was over. We also awarded honor points for each enemy force reduced to 33% (counting figures lost from original force) and for honor points gained or lost as a result of double 1s or double 6s activation rolls.

In addition to the usual grumpy old men, we had three younger boys playing: Sean, Chris, and Isaac (if I recall their names correctly). The teams were Mark Serafin, Sean, and Isaac playing the British with Kevin Smyth, Chris, and I playing the Americans.

We rolled for officer traits after we got our commands. Not many surprises there except that I got a an officer that adds +2 to activation rolls and Kevin got added to his force a unit of local militia: Line infantry, green, poor shooters. Given that each American command had similar units of militia, it was not a burden to have more.

Kevin, Mark, and I are old Rebels and Patriots veterans, the boys picked up the rules pretty quickly—a nice testament to the playability and inherent sense of the rules.

One the British side:

• Mark's command was a unit of 12 grenadiers (shock infantry) and a unit of 18 light infantry.
• Isaac's command was a unit of 18 line infantry, a unit of 12 light infantry, and a unit of skirmishers.
• Sean's command was a unit of 18 grenadiers and a unit of 12 grenadiers.

The British deployed

On the American side:

• Opposing Mark, Chris had one unit of 18 line/militia (green), one unit of 12 light infantry, and one unit of skirmishers.
• Opposing Sean in the center, Kevin had one unit of 6 light cavalry (aggressive), one unit of 12 light infantry, and one unit of skirmishers. He also had one unit of 12 line/milita (green, poor shooters) that he got from his officer trait roll.
• Opposing Isaac, I had one unit of 18 line infantry, one unit of 18 line/militia (green, poor shooters), and one light gun (no limber).

American initial moves

Because of the way the objectives were placed, we started in possession of the bridge and the British started in possession of the loo;  the farmhouse sat between Isaac and me and was the only objective actually fought over in the game.

Overview: farmhouse and bridge, Barlowe's necessary is just above the Brits in the upper left

The fight in the center of the table between Kevin and Sean looked like a losing proposition for Kevin from the start. He made one rash charge with his cavalry against Sean's skirmishers uphill in a small wood. The skirmishers failed to evade, but Kevin failed to made any effect on them and got bounced back with loss to then stand in the open getting peppered by British musket balls.

Kevin advances in the center (before the mayhem)

I advanced towards the farmhouse through some pretty rough terrain with my force. I got the line infantry (Continentals) through the brush, across the creek, and up against a fence line opposite the farmhouse at about the same time that Isaac was moving one of his grenadier units into the house. The other one was under steady fire from my Continentals, militia (to almost no effect), and pop-gun. 

The Continental Artillery makes its presence felt

The light gun may not pack the same wallop as a heavier gun, but I was scoring hits from 24", well before his grenadiers could fire back.

Crossing the creek

Mark, with the privy secured, advanced his troops against Chris but was bedeviled by his own poor dice rolling. He failed a few activations, but worse still were failed morale tests. Just after mid-game, his grenadiers buggered off, leaving his with just his light infantry to hold against Chris' relatively unscathed force.

Grenadiers approach the farmhouse

Sean, in the center, was getting quite aggressive against Kevin and me. After repulsing a cavalry charge, his skirmishers kept up a steady fire, his line infantry crested the hill, and his light infantry worked away towards the right flank of my Continentals.

The 23rd advances

In response to this, Kevin moved his light infantry (Lee's Legion foot) against Sean's lights. Lee's Legion took a lot of punishment, but stayed strong. Kevin has always had a knack for passing tough morale tests in Daniel Mersey games.

Looking desperate for the Americans

One good service that Lee's Legion performed was being a bullet sink and keeping the shots from Sean's light infantry from hitting my Continentals. 

At this point, Isaac made the fateful decision to abandon the house he'd been occupying. He was taking shots from all my units and decided to pull back to cover. This gave me the chance to pop my Continentals in the house, which would make me the target of all the British fire—except that Lee's Legion was still hanging on occupying the attention of ean's light infantry.

Kevin decided to go for broke and charged his light cavalry—William Washington's 3rd Continental Dragoons, which he'd just completed for the game—into Sean's light infantry. It was dicey. The dragoons were at half strength, the Light infantry was not. The dragoons were aggressive, so hitting on 5+ with 6 dice, the lights hitting on 6 with 12 dice. Kevin won the first round of fighting forcing the lights back 4" and disordering them. Then he followed up and destroyed the unit.

Smyth's charge: the aftermath

The dragoons later took more fire from the British line and were reduced to one figure (Kevin's officer William Washington). 

On the last turn of the game, Isaac charged the house with his grenadiers—a still formidable force. He was hitting on 5+ and I was defending on 6, but I had a defense bonus for the house. He failed to get a single casualty, while I managed to roll a slug of 6s and took out three attacking grenadiers. With the last charge repulsed, we called the game.

Americans held the house (2 points) and the bridge (1 point). The British held the outhouse (2 points). Americans got 2 honor points for two British commands having 33% losses, British got 1 point for that (Kevin's command had been through the wars). Americans also got 2 honor points that were awarded when Kevin rolled double 6s and got a +1 honor points result. End result: Americans 7 points, British 3 points.