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...

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.

The great skedaddle: Rebels and Patriots AAR

We played a variation of Scenario F from the Rebels and Patriots rules on Saturday set in the ACW. The scenario called for a force defending a line at one side of the table to skedaddle away to defend another line consisting of a stone wall and sunken road at the other side, all while being chased by a slightly superior attacker (a 5:4 advantage in points).

For a multiplayer game, I expanded the forces to 48 points defending and 60 points attacking. We had six players that made for three on each side. The Hated Yankees™ were the defenders played by Eric Donaldson, Bill Stewart, and John Stafford. The 'Secesh' were the attackers played by Mike Lombardi, Chris Craft, and me.

All the Yankees lined up along a rail fence on the north side of a road that ran the 8' width of the table. Just south of the road, the Rebs were massed in woods that also ran the full width of the table.

Johnnies in the woods!

The object of the game was control of the sunken road on the north side of the table. The choice for the blue-bellies was whether to try to hold the rail fence for a bit or get back ASAP to the hard cover of the stone wall and sunken road.

Jubal Tardee readies the boys for the attack

On the advice of Wm. Tecumseh Stewart, they chose to emulate the militia at Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse and sting the advancing boys in gray and butternut and then retire manfully to the sunken road.

One our right, John was stinging Chris pretty well in the initial turns—ably aided by Chris' wretched dice rolling. John decided to stay and fight it out on the rail fence, which seemed—at the time—to be a winning option.

Holding the line

Chris failed several morale tests and lost his commander, Lt. Beauregard Lemieux. Had he fallen in battle, Lemieux would be feasting in Confederate Valhalla with Stonewall, A.S. Johnston, et al. However, fate had a crueler destiny. In the confusion of battle, the good lieutenant was captured—along with his cat—while hiding in a dung heap wearing women's clothes.

Lt. Lemieux in more heroic times

He could not adequately explain to his captors how he came to be wearing women's clothes in a dung heap. Nevertheless, he was hauled off in ignominy. A prisoner exchange is likely, but his reputation is tarnished forever. Even now around the campfire the men are referring to him as 'Loretta.' Chris also lost a unit of line infantry at this point. The situation was starting to look dire at the start.

The initial sting left me with only one man hors de combat. With the rest, I moved semiboldly towards the rail fence—as much as my poor activation die rolls allowed. I also used my cannon to make noise at the backs of  Bill's fleeing Lincolnites. Apart from the noise, they were not aware of being fired upon.

The center advances

On our left, Mike advanced aggressively against Eric's dismounted cavalry. He kept pushing and trying to get into mêlée, but the mounted skirmishers could skirmish back as fast as Mike could move. Skirmishers, too, are hard to kill. For a while, the best Mike could do was to push Eric back while getting peppered by skirmishing fire. Nevertheless, he was making way.

Mike advances / Eric retreats

With my early flubbed activation rolls, it took me a couple turns to get up to the now-abandoned rail fence. Only my skirmishers got over and beyond. I needed to keep Bill from getting behind the stone wall. I didn't want to be advancing in the open against a lot of blue-bellies in a sunken road.

Barely getting started

On our right, Chris' die rolls improved and John was withdrawing to a second rail fence line rather than be outflanked by my advancing center.                                     

The rail fence is ours!

Chris followed up and over the rail fence with his skirmishers who kept engaged with John's troops as they withdrew. The skirmishers also screened Chris' surviving line infantry unit and the light cavalry.

Skirmishers forward

While Mike kept pressing Eric on our left, I was making headway in the center. Bill was making a beeline for the stone wall and sunken road, but stopped occasionally to throw out a few shots to keep me at bay. I was, however, in good shape. Up to this point I had lost only two figures.

Jubal Tardee going right up the center

As I advanced in the center, my right was getting past John's line of bluecoats manning the second line of rail fence in front of Chris.

The Yankee's eye view of the Confederate advance

At this point, I made a fateful decision. John's rightmost unit was just begging to be attacked. I got my activation and sufficient move to contact him. I won the fight and pushed him back. On his turn, John sent in another unit, lead by his officer—a Dan Sickles looking character, but still with two legs—and bounced back. I took some losses and became disordered.

After the fisticuffs

John fared worse. Both his units were now under half strength and therefore permanently disordered. Still, they had to be dealt with and I spent a few more turns exchanging fire before they were eliminated.

Chris was mounting greater pressure against John's other line unit and his light gun. He'd lost one of his skirmisher units and his slow-moving medium gun (also a bit shot-up from earlier) took a while moving up. His remaining skirmisher was still absorbing fire from John's units. Thus screened, Chris moved up his aggressive light cavalry and prepared to charge the gun.

The final skirmisher unit went poof, but Chris managed to charge home with his cavalry. He won the fight and pushed the gun back, but we flubbed the follow up, forgetting that aggressive units could do a follow up move. Following up would have allowed another charge home on the gun. In any case, Chris charged the next turn winning again, but the gun was still hanging on and Chris' cavalry was now disordered.

The Confederate right surges

Meanwhile, in the center, my attack to the right against John's flank, while achieving good results, left Jubal Tardee's heroic advance unsupported. Bill had by now managed to get his gun and two line units over the wall and was well ensconced in hard cover. He'd lost his other line unit—with his officer—to the withering fire of my troops.

Before the glory

My lone skirmisher unit was at the end of its tether. Absorbing Bill's fire for several turns eventually wiped it out. This left me with little choice but to do or die. Exposed to Bill's fire from his gun and a supporting line unit, Jubal Tardee's unit was soon to die if I didn't act quickly. I managed a '12' on my activation roll to charge and went straight in against Bill's gun.

High water for Jubal Tardee

I won the fight, but failed to destroy the gun. However, it was reduced to half strength and broken. I didn't cross the wall. Now I was in a pickle. Bill failed his rally test for the gun, which went away. However, his supporting line unit was now making trouble for me.

Stormed at by a fusillade of minié balls, I took casualties and fell back. Further losses reduced me to below half strength but I hung on. I was helped by having my officer and I got favorable activation bonuses on double 6s that gave me +2 discipline for the game. I failed, but not catastrophically.

Battered but unbowed, Tardee and cat remain in the fight

By this time, John's gun had gone away leaving our right completely unopposed. On our left, too, Mike had finally sent off the last of Eric's dismounted cavalry and we up against the wall ready to cross. The only remaining Lincolnites on the table were Bill's two line units facing me.

At this point, we called it a Confederate win.

Only Bill made a strong effort to get behind the wall. John did a Dan Sickles and kept his force out front for too long, even though Chris had to recover from near disaster in the opening turns. Chris also managed to recover his lost unit on the blessed 6-6-6 activation roll that brought in reinforcements. His only net loss for the game was his two skirmishers, who perished doing yeoman's duty screening his other troops.

Eric skirmished with Mike, which slowed Mike's advance, but didn't really hurt him. Mike had the probably least losses of any of our commands. Eric eventually got shot up and his units dispersed. If he'd manned the stone wall, it might have been bloodier for Mike.

I kept pressing Bill in the center, but that didn't stop him getting to the stone wall with 3/4 of his force intact. That was a formidable obstacle for me, despite successfully charging the gun. If we hadn't called the game, Bill would have shot Jubal's unit to pieces.

It turned out to be a great game. So far, Rebels and Patriots is proving to be a very enjoyable game to play. More thoughts on that in a following post.

Tardee tarries: Rebels and Patriots AAR

We played our second ACW game for Rebels and Patriots yesterday. We got the situation from fellow local gamer Mitch Berdinka, who designed it for AWI using the Sharp Practice rules. You can see Mitch's blog post about it here.

I got a chance to use my freshly painted Sash and Saber Confederates. I painted 110 minis and two guns in about two months, in addition to working on and competing minis for other projects. For me, this is incredible productivity only made possible through the dip method that I finally adopted a few years ago. To the ur-dipper I offer my profound thanks, whoever you are.

Eric Donaldson, too, got some lead in the fight with his beautiful Union dismounted cavalry with horse-holders. The rest of the Union side was provided by Bill Stewart, who supplied all the minis we used in our first ACW game, Hardtack Hill.

In our game yesterday, Eric and Bill were the Union and Dave Schueler and I were the Confederates.

The terrain was mostly open with some woods, wooden fences, and one enclosed field enclosed by a stone wall.

The field of battle

Detail of the central position

The Union's task was to get a wagon of gunpowder across the ford and off the board. Hindering this was a Confederate blocking force of three line infantry units commanded by Lt. Beauregard LeMieux, run by Dave Schueler. One unit was ensconced behind an ersatz barricade, which counted as hard cover, and the remainder were behind some rail fences, counting as cover.

Post of honor

In hindsight, I should have positioned the barricade with its right refused and/or let the Confederates deploy on either side. As it was, the position had a dangerously exposed flank.

The Hated Yankees™ deployed next in the central position. Eric with his dismounted cavalry, a light gun, and a unit of line infantry on the river side of the central road. The line infantry was within the stonewalled field; the other units were in reserve.

There stands Donaldson like a stone wall

Bill had four line infantry units and the wagon on the other side.

The starting forces

The remaining Confederates, inably commanded by Lt. Jubal Tardee, CSA, were to come up behind the Union on turn 2.

The Union started things off by moving against Dave's blocking position. Bill had three line infantry to Dave's three, but Eric started moving his dismounted cavalry and light gun (with limber) towards Dave's open right flank.

On turn 2 when the Confederate chasing force was supposed to come on, things were not as expected, or desired. Jubal Tardee's unit failed to activate as did the other line infantry unit. However, two light guns, three skirmishers, and some light cavalry came on.

"Hey there! Rebs a-comin'—mebee not."

By turn 3, with Dave hotly engaged to front and flank, Tardee again failed to come on the field, although the other line infantry did. I started peppering the Union infantry with my two guns and skirmishing against Bill, hoping to get my cavalry in charge range and take on one of Bill's infantry in the open.

There stands LeMieux like a rail fence

The gun firing at Eric's infantry behind the stone wall was ineffective throughout. At long range (about 20") and with a target in hard cover, I had a pretty poor change to cause casualties. However, I was taking a toll on one of Bill's units. He'd put it in close order to get the extra discipline and volley fire, but that put him in greater vulnerability to my gun.

"Give 'em blizzards, boys!"

On turn 5  Jubal Tardee finally came on the field with banners flying—but too little, too late.

Hurrah, boys! Hurrah!

I managed to sneak a skirmisher unit around the flank of Eric's position behind the stone wall. I finally had a chance to open fire on it without benefit of cover. I moved the cannon up to within close range (12") to get a better chance while Eric was engaged with my skirmishers and a line unit (the other one, not Tardy Tardee's).

Sneekin' 'round the flank

My dismounted cavalry (skirmishers) and light cavalry were operating against two of Bill's line units. Not to much success, I must add. My plan was to advance the skirmish line with the cavalry behind until I got into charge range.

Itch'n fer a scrap with them damn Yankees

That happened once in the game. I was within 11" of a line unit that was just outside the woods. My "3" activation wouldn't cut it. On his next activation, Bill moved into the woods where the odds weren't in my favor. The skirmishers, too, got shot up a bit. One was reduced to half strength (permanent disorder) and the other nearly so. The cavalry, screened as it was, remained untouched.

Eric's line unit behind the stone wall eventually succumbed to the flanking fire and close(r) range artillery and rifles. He popped into half strength and failed a morale check that caused him to skeedaddle—taking "Stonewall" Donaldson along in the rout.

Fire at the blue of their bellies, boys!

Dave's force was being cut to pieces by Bill's three units and the flanking fire of Eric's gun and dismounted cavalry. He was ultimately left with just one figure—Beauregard LeMieux holding off the Yankee horde with revolver in hand and faithful cat by his side. Despite his desperate situation, he defied destruction and kept passing morale/rally checks.

With the Confederate blocking force pushed aside, Bill got the wagon moving off road towards its exit point with nothing to hinder it. As he did that, he pulled back from engaging with me. Jubal Tardee, who had managed to throw just a few ineffectual shots in Bill's direction before this, warily followed supported by a light gun.

They's showin' us their backs, boys! Advance!

Eric was bringing back his forces that had flanked Dave's position. His dismounted cavalry was exchanging shots with my skirmishers and he'd positioned his light gun behind the stone wall at the other side of the field. I placed one of mine opposite his and we were all poised for a artillery duel.

Light artillery at 10 paces, fire!

But we called the game at this point. The Rebs had no chance of catching the wagon. We didn't have the strength to engage more closely without getting shot full o' Yankee minié balls and 10-pound Parrott bolts.

We played 8 turns in just a couple hours. The game was fast-paced and moved along very smoothly. The changes I'd make in the scenario is to make the blocking position less vulnerable on the flank and to start the chasing force on board on turn 1. The lack of any serious pressure on the union for the first three turns of the game let them overwhelm the blocking force. Instead of escaping from the jaws of a pincer, they just had to punch their way out of a wet paper bag.

I'm happy that my forces weren't completely cursed by failure in their first appearance on the game table. Dave's force was wiped out except for LeMieux and his cat, but I incurred only light casualties. None of my units were destroyed or routed—although nearly so. On the Union side, only Eric's line unit—and officer—got routed. Otherwise, they took casualties on several units, but I don't think any were at half strength yet.

Pity the Reb cavalry never got a chance to get in close with pistols 'n' shotguns. It might have been glorious—or in.