Fix Bayonet '23: The Tribaling

Another Fix Bayonet! game day at Historic Fort Steilacoom has come and gone. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and I was on the road just after 7:00 am to get down to make it for our 9:00 am start time. The event is run by Lawrence Bateman, who started it it maybe a dozen years ago based on his association with the fort's historical society and restoration projects. It's always been a highlight of the gaming year for me and I've run/played many enjoyable games at past events. It doesn't draw a huge crowd (less with each passing year, I fear) and the playing area is limited, but the quality of the games has always been high. There's always a morning and afternoon session with a lunch break in between. 

This year, I ran two games: Xenos Rampant in the morning and Tribal in the afternoon. Kevin Smyth and I were going to run a single Xenos Rampant game together in the morning, but a paucity of other games being hosted and the loss of one game host due to COVID (he's fine, just quarantined) caused us to divide our forces and take on two periods each. Kevin ran a  Rebels and Patriots game in the morning using his long-neglected Wayne's Legion minis and an Irish Civil War skirmish game in the afternoon. There was also a Stalingrad game hosted by George Kettler and Will Depusoy using Chain of Command (this was their Best of Show winning game from Enfilade! in May). In the library room, Lawrence and Damond Crump ran a game of the Battle of Antietam using the Altar of Freedom rules.

First period: Xenos Rampant - Dance of the Drones

My Xenos rampant game was a reduced version of one of the games I hosted at Enfilade! in May (not a show winner, but it got best of period). John Werle and I played the Green Meanies against Pete Dixon and The Man Named Ford, who were the Red Menace. The object of the game was to capture and carry of the board two errant drones that were moving about randomly. There were two 24-point detachments on each side.

There was a lot of extreme range shooting, especially from the weapons drones that Pete and I commanded. I had one unit that lost two figures and then ran away after rolling snake-eyes for morale. (However, in retrospect, I forgot to add the +1 for my nearby detachment commander, which would have just caused them to be suppressed. C'est la guerre.)

The random movement of drones favored John and me. Except for a single turn when Ford grabbed one of the drones—before being shot up, suppressed, and abandoning it—we snagged them and got them off board. despite a lot of losses on both sides, it was a Green Meanie win.

Interbellum: Lunch 

As often as we can, we spend our lunch break at the Steilacoom Pub & Grill. Kevin, Scott Abbott, and I went. The food is great (and plentiful).

A huge number of bikers were just pulling out when we arrived, so we got there just at the right time. I had a delicious reuben sandwich and fries. They have really good fries.

Second period: Tribal - Hills of Contention

My Tribal game again used my beloved 40mm Bronze Age Europe minis. I'm really happy to be getting a lot of mileage out of these guys. Currently, they're the only minis I have to play Tribal with. I set up a four-player game that included the aforementioned Ford (honestly, I never got his last name) and me on one side against Gene Anderson and Scott on the other.

Tribal has a system of randomizing the game objectives where each player draws 1-3 cards from a separate deck (we drew two each) that indicate what their objective is. My cards were duplicates, so I had just one objective, which was to control my side of the board by having more of my units on it at the end of the game than my opponent (Scott). Other player's objectives varied. One of Scott's was to kill my warlord (didn't happen). The double-edged sword of the objectives is that you gain honor points by achieving them and lose the same number by not achieving them.

Ford and Gene (longtime friends/opponents) played a cautious game. There were a few sharp fights—and Gene's slingers dominated the central area—but as often as they massed against each other, they withdrew rather than clash. Ford got one unit up onto the hill that stood between them, but Gene kept pummeling them with rocks and arrows, which kept them at bay. Neither of them fought over the hill, but stuck to the swampy periphery. I have to confess, though, that I put Ford in a bad spot. His warlord was in a chariot that couldn't move across any of the terrain features.

Scott and I were at hammer and tongs almost right off. He seemed to show particular interest in the hill that sat bewteen us at the edge of the table. He'd placed his 'person' objective marker (Mr. Tambourine Man) on it and I assumed he was going after it. I meant to deny him. It started out rough for me, but in the end I prevailed.

We counted our objectives at the end of the game, Scott didn't get either. It turns out the hill didn't really figure into any objective and he had no interest in Mr. Tambourine Man. Scot was -6 honor points for objectives. Ford was one and one for his objectives and wound up with a net -1 for objectives. Gene also split his objectives and was maybe a net 1 for them. I, as I mentioned, had duplicate objectives, so I scored only for one of them at 3 points. However, I gained other honor points for combats won and enemy units destroyed. I came out on top with 14 honor points, nine more than I started with (we all started with a pool of five).

Other games

As I mentioned above, Geroge and Will played their Stalingrad game. It's quite an attractive set up. I understand that the Russians got a marginal victory for controlling certain spaces in the factory.

The scenario for Kevin's first game was a Legion of the United States attempt to recover the cannon abandoned by Gen.Arthur St. Claire after the Battle of the Wabash (a.k.a., St. Claire's Defeat). I believe that the result was another victory on the Wabash for Little Turtle, Blue Jacket, et al. I assume that "Mad Anthony" Wayne survived, but his eventually big win a Fallen Timbers was in doubt.

I didn't get pics of Kevin's second game, but I believe it was a win for the IRA over the Royal Irish Constabulary.

Lawrence and Damond's Antietam game seemed to go well also. I only poked my head in the door a couple times, but it seemed like the union was rolling over the Rebs. They got across Burnside's Bridge on the first turn—something Ambrose might have done himself if he hadn't dithered so.

The future

There seems to be a growing number of game days sprouting up. COVID shut down some game venues and events that never got restarted. Once a staple of mid-winter gaming, Drumbeat (begun by Dick Larsen) is gone and likely not to return. The venue we'd held it in for several years, Lake City Community Center, had a fire in April and is permanently closed. 

When Fix Bayonet! started, it was a late summer option that would tide us through until Drumbeat. Now we have Summer Offensive (a.k.a., GaryCon) run by Gary Griess and the VetMu event in Chehalis that Gene runs, we have less pent-up gaming urges to satisfy.

We're also getting older and many people who thought nothing of driving 50 miles to game for a day, aren't inclined to even go 10 anymore. Coming down from Lynnwood, I'm likely the farthest-travelling attendee. While not young, I'm still up for a road trip.

I hope Fix Bayonet! continues for years to come. This year saw a smaller crowd than it's pre-Covid high, but it may be that it's just getting back to a regular part of the NHMGS game day rotation and once established, it will draw the same interest as before.

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.