Well, I am still a bit limited, so I was able to talk my buddy in bringing his WAS 28mm skirmish troops and terrain, so we could do a Rebels and Patriots game. The troop mix was similar to the last time, but with a different twist.
He had the Just Fields mat from Cigar Box, so we had a nice base terrain to work with. I set up the board with a central village and various woods (I did bring some trees…). I then set up a fortified camp in one corner of the board for the defending force.
The defending force would be the French. They would have one command in the camp and the other entering in on the road, o the opposite edge. Their mission was to join back up with the rest of their command, after completing an unsuccessful recon. They have been harassed by Austrian Grenzers and need to get back to base before other German closing forces cut them off.
The allies included an Austrian force that had to set up outside of twelve inches from the entering French column. The Hannovarian command set along the southern table edge (random locations) and the Hessians entered starting on turn four on the central road on the southern board edge.
The sides would get a victory point for every enemy eliminated and another for each commander. They would also get one point for each building int he village they controlled. Finally, the allies would get a point for every unit in the French camp at the end of the game. The game was twelve turns with variable ending.
The game started with the French scouts entering in on the road at the march, trying to move forward as quickly as possible. The Austrians held back initially and engaged with long range fire, while placing a blocking force by the fort to slow down any relief. The Hanoverians decided to mostly ignore the fort and try to help out the Austrians.
The French in the fort decided to hold their position, until the direction of the allies could be determined. It did not help that they kept failing their command rolls! Of course, this was not helped in that they had a minus two the first two turns….
The French column saw the allies closing on them and decided to abandon a road march and started to deploy to fight their way through to the village. Seeing this, the allies started to close and engage at short range. As the noose tightened, the French saw their chance to charge into the Austrians, that were kind of isolated and smash them before the Hanoverians could help out.
Well, the attack did not go as planned, as the dice failed them and the Grenzers were able to hold off and even win most of the hand to hand combats. This allowed the Hanoverians to arrive and help with the fight, as the Hessians headed to the village to close the trap.
As the march column was fighting for its life, the French in the fort finally decided they would need to come and help. This was first limited to one unit and then most of the rest of the company.
Unfortunately, the relief force was too late and the scout first was mostly destroyed. With the French mostly reduced, the allies turned onto the relief force and started to cause casualties. At this point, the game ended with four extra turns on turn sixteen.
We counted up the points and it was a large allied victory, as half the French were eliminated, along with one commander and the allies held all the village buildings. The French only eliminated a single unit of Grenzers to show for all their work! The French would need to run away to fight another day!
- Manteuffel