Thunderbox Ridge: Rebels and Patriots AAR

Ralph Holloway and I played a game of Rebels and Patriots Thursday afternoon at The Panzer Depot in Kirkland, WA. I packed up my car and headed down after work. We played Scenario A from the rules book, which is a fight over an objective—in our game the local thunderbox—between equal-sized forces.

My 24-point company of British consisted of the following:

1 x Line Infantry, Large unit, Good Shooters @7pts
1 x Line Infantry, Large unit, Aggressive @6pts
1 x Light Infantry, Large unit @7pts
2 x Skirmishers @2pts ea.

Ralphs 24-point company of rebellious colonials consisted if the following:

3 x Line Infantry @4pts ea.
1 x Line Infantry, Timid, Good Shooters @5pts
1 x Skirmishers @2pts.
1 x Light Cavalry, Aggressive @5pts

I deployed my Skirmishers on my right with the light infantry opposite the objective and the Line Infantry (good shooters + officer) in reserve. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to put my grenadiers (Line Infantry, Aggressive) way out to my left in the fences. It wasn't really a good idea, although it ended up tying up a lot of Ralph's attention.

Making all my units large and expensive (except for the Skirmishers) was a gamble. The size makes them pretty resilient, but there's a lot of points in a single large unit lost—or wasted in a large unit that does nothing all game (see below).

I was unlucky in other activations. My officer's unit, the large, good-shooting line infantry, never fired a shot all game. My cunning plan was to move them up to the top of the hill, form close order, and then send shivering blasts of volley fire at the rebels. I think I managed to get four activations in the 10 turns that we played. At one point, they failed the morale test they had to make when one of my skirmisher units routed away within 12". It took several failed attempts to get them to rally. It was only on the last turn of the game that they got into position (though not formed in close order) and ready to fire—only to have their only target rout away after losing a figure to my half-strength Skirmishers.

Dithering below the insurmountable hill

Just barely cresting the insurmountable hill, where they stayed for most of the game

That Skirmisher unit is the hero of the day, with secondary honors to the Light Infantry. I got him into position controlling the objective by turn 2 and he held for the rest of the game.

The light-bobs advance!

Holding the left side of the hill

My other Skirmisher unit failed a morale test after taking one casualty and never recovered. He kept failing and retreating, failing and retreating, failing and retreating until he failed so bad he just went home.

Fusiliers doing nothing, skirmishers failing away

The grenadiers of in the fenced-in fields, traded shots with several of Ralph's units, but eventually got forced back and routed after a failed morale test. Although they didn't contribute much to Ralph's losses, they tied up 3-4 of his units most of the game. That was a fairly heroic in itself.

Grenadiers bravely contesting the bean fields

One fear with having so few (and large) units was in being outgunned. I had five units on the table to start with. Ralph had six and got the blesséd 6-6-6 activation role, which allowed him to bring another unit of Line Infantry on the table for a ratio of 7:5. However, one of his units was Light Cavalry, which galloped about a bit and skirmished once or twice, which is not effective fire. Nevertheless, only three of my five units ever fired in the game and mostly just two.

Surprisingly, however, I won the firefight. Ralph was plagued by bad morale rolls and I was blessed by some pretty good shooting with the few units that actually shot. I managed 2-3 casualties each time I fired. Many of Ralph's shooting rolls fizzled. Part of the disparity of results was due to my frontline units being Light Infantry and Skirmishers, who take three hits before losing a casualty, while Ralphs units were all Line Infantry and took a casualty for every two hits. If he rolled five hits, I lost one figure; if I rolled five hits, he lost two.

The end nearing for the rebels

Ralph also consequently lost 4 points of units on the curséd 1-1-1 activation roll. The Line Infantry unit he pulled out was shot up and broken, but still above half strength and could have been rallied. As an aside, I was in mortal fear of getting the curséd 1-1-1 activation. With so few units I would have had to pull out both of my Skirmishers—one of which was the sole unit holding the objective—or one of my big units (6-7 points), which I couldn't spare (even the fusiliers who did nothing all game except move onto the hill on the very last turn).

The dunny is ours! Hurrah boys!

Ralph's choices for many turns was a) attempt to rally from disorder/broken or b) fire disordered with half dice. His best shooters spent most of the game firing—or attempting to fire—while disordered, thus diminishing the harm he might inflict on me. Even while rolling all 12 dice, Ralph's firing was less than stellar. Only one of my units went to half strength (the heroic Skirmishers of the the Dunny) and there were only a few times that I took off more than one figure casualty from shooting at a time.

The game went to 10 turns. In the last couple turns, things went badly for Ralph. The Line Infantry unit his leader was attached to finally went away after 50% casualties and a bad morale roll. He was left with 10 points of units, one unit was at half-strength and broken. I still had 16 points on the table, with one unit at half strength, the heroic Skirmishers. My Light Infantry had been in the thick of it and dealt out a lot of punishment, taking in turn only three casualties. The 23rd Fusiliers were just observers, although my officer who was with the unit provided an essential +1 to morale and activation more than a few times—just not to his own unit.

Bold defenders of the hill—and that other unit...