I needed to run a game for our Tuesday group and did not have time to do what I originally planned, so I opted to go to my stable and do a Rebels and Patriots game. I wanted a table that had a large hill and a town at the base of it. The idea would be an Indian raid with the intent to burn down the village.
So, I set up the table using the hill terrain at my FLGS. I put that down and laid out my cloth on top of it. I set up the town and clutter from my collection. One of my buddies brought his Indians, so I let him use them. Six units of six models. I added one unit of French Courrier de Bios. These would be split into three forces, one for each player.
The English would start with six small units of militia that would have to defend the village from the raid. Starting on turn four, the English would roll for the entry of provincials as reserves. These would be divided into three forces, one for each player. Each player would have to roll a one on turn four, followed by a 2 on turn five, then so on. Once the reserve arrived, the second unit would arrive automatically on the next turn.
The Indians would have a single unit regeneration. They could take any unit and remove it from play (it would count as a casualty) and bring it back 2d6 behind the original unit on a roll of 2+ on a D6.
Victory conditions would be based first on losses. Players would get one point if their force did not take two thirds losses and would get one point if they caused two thirds losses on the opponents. In addition, the French would get one point for each burning building or crop on the table. The large buildings could have up to four fires, the mediums two and the small ones one. All crops would be just one. The side with the most fires would get an extra point.
To start a fire, a player would roll a D6 for each model trying to start a fire and have a success on a 4+. The same was the case for putting out the fires. At the end of the fire, we would roll for each fire. On a 6, the fire would spread in a random direction (on a D6 scale) to the nearest item within six inches. On a 1, the fire would go out. On turn ten, the wind would pick up and there was a plus one to the roll.
The colonials would set up first behind the road and the French force would set up eighteen inches within line of site or six inches outside line of site. All forces got set up and we were off!
The colonials set up spread across the village, setting up back in the center. Their plan was to try to maximize there fire lanes and use their shooting advantage to do the most damage. The French decided to match the colonials and commit a little more heavily to their left flank.
We got going and the French headed at full speed into the village. The colonials maximized their shooting and shot down many of the attackers. With the losses piling up, the Indian units pulled their reconstitutions early on. With that, they were able to break into the village and start clearing the village. On the left, the attack concentrated on trying to take out colonials. In the center, once the foothold was actives, the units started to concentrate on firing the buildings and fields. Unfortunately, they kept rolling ones on the spread and had to restart most of them. On the right flanks the advance was much slower, in more of an intent to pin the colonials from redeploying.
The colonials held their ground and just kept shooting. The right was being overrun, but the timely arrival of reserves saved them. As the reserves continued to pile in, it was more than enough to cripple the attacks in that area. The center held firm and once their reserves arrived advanced to put out the burning fires. On the left, they were able to do the same and wipe out that attacking force.
There was a last minute attempt to start fire, but it was too late. With the colonials streaming in and putting them out faster than they could start, the game ended on turn sixteen!
We totaled up the fires and it was a clear colonial sin for that point. All the French forces took high losses, so that was three more for the British. Only one colonial force was taken below two thirds. The French did get a free honor on the random table. So, it was a 4-2 British victory.
In hind site, I made two mistakes. The first was the big hill. It ended up pushing the town too close to the board edge. This caused some issues with arriving reserves, that gave an unintended advantage to the British. I also needed to have a a point when the fires would burn down the terrain and not be able to be put out. Another advantage for the British…… Next time, I will fix those. In any case, the game went well and we got a final result that could have gone the other way with a few different decisions!
- Manteuffel