We had an open Tuesday and I wanted to run something. I did not have much time to put together anything, so I decided it would be a good day for some Rebels and Patriots F&I. This would give me flexibility to work with a variable unknown number of players. So, I sent the word out.
The nice thing about R&P is that you can run a game in a short period of time. the rules have a few set piece scenarios to choose from. It does not take too much to modify these on the fly to give variation. I opted for a variation on the baggage train scenario. The game would be a ranger raid on an Indian encampment. In this telling, the Indians were warned and knew about the raid. They sent their women and children to safety (I do not have any painted figures to represent them…). There would be four units guarding the settlement, with the rest out looking to ambush the rangers.
The rangers were able to infiltrate to the camp and prepare the attack. Th rangers would need to strike fast and hard, before the Indians fully reinforced. The Indians would have to hold on with their guards long enough, for the raiding parties to return and win the fight.
The forces used were extremes. The rangers had far superior shooting, while the Indians had superior melee. The Indians would have more troops, based on points. The forces ended up being six units of rangers vs ten units of Indians. Each group was six man each.
I went with the single figure fire/melee method for combat (instead of the 12/6 fixed values). Basically, the player got as many dice as they had figures. Any hit would cause a discipline check, even if no casualties were caused (we stuck with the same hit to casualty ration, as in the rules). This would give the rangers a huge advantage at range, so the scenario would need them to close.
The settlement was broken out into four sections of two buildings each. The rangers would get one point for every section burnt down. The Indians would get four points for each left standing. Both sides would also get the 1 point for not being reduced by one third and another for causing one third casualties (plus any generated by the random events table).
The game was eight turns long, with variable endings. The camp guards set up in each section, with the rangers setting up outside of twelve inches all the buildings on one side of the table. The Indian reserves would then come in as reserves. To enter, they would have to make their command roll, without the command bonus. They would then enter more than twelve inches away from buildings on the opposite side as the rangers. The rangers would have the first turn.
The terrain was covered in open woods, with a visibility of twelve inches. The encampment included buildings that gave hard cover, with everything use being open. There was also a clearing on the other side of the stream.
The Indians set up their forces and then the rangers picked the north side and deployed. They also took the first turn and basically shot up the two forward Indian units. They slowly moved forward the next few turns, finishing off the forward units. The Indian reserve rolls were poor, so the reserves came in staggered over three turns. They tried to sweep forward on the flank and attach the rangers. Unfortunately, this just ended in them on the wrong side of a hail of musket balls,
The rangers kept up their shooting and massacre of the defenders, burning down the first two quarters in the process. The game finally ended on turn elven, with the remaining Indians holding back, hoping the rangers would approach. They did not… The game ended with heavy Indian casualties, but they still held half the camp!
The game ended with both sides not being happy, so a failure on my part. The rangers thought they won, because of the casualties they caused and wanted to use the rule book scenario victory conditions. The Indians felt like they were victims the entire game, as they could not close and just took casualties. I’ll need to plan for that better in the future.
The game was an interesting test of the rules with extreme forces. It is clear that a close combat force in the rules does have a disadvantage in the rules against superior marksmen. So, the games have to have this balance in mind, as the points system does not reflect this well. Either, more blocking terrain or just do not use forces that are extreme on both sides!
- Manteuffel