"Rebels and Patriots" - A disastrous British defeat - Retesting the game

Manufacturers:   GallopingMajor, Northstar, WargamesFoundry

FrontRank, RedoubtEnterprises, WarlordGames and also PerryMiniatures

Scale:   28mm

Hi, 

because we like the rules of "LionRampant" so much we decided to give some more trials to the other rules written by Daniel Mersey. 

One of them are the rules called "Rebels and Patriots". This is co-written by Michael Leck aka "Dalauppror". You should check out his blog if you haven´t heard about him yet.

https://dalauppror.blogspot.com/

Daniel Mersey and Michael Leck also wrote "The Pikeman´s Lament" that is another ruleset we want to check in future. 

Concerning "Rebels and Patriots" we have already played about two or three games some years ago and due to other things we forgot about the rules. But yesterday Franz and I gave this ruleset another chance and we have been very excited about it.

The ruleset is written for quick skirmish games and covers the conflicts in Northern America. It contains a campaign system and a good number of scenarios.

We chose to play a game of FrenchIndianWar using the scenario "A" within the book. We used the army lists for the British and the French armies concerning the FIW in the book. But as we wanted to know about the effects of artillery we also gave each force a unit of medium artillery.

The scenario itself

My interpretation of the terrain for this scenario.

The Army list for the British force.

The first British Line Infantry. (NorthstarMiniatures and the one in the second line left is
RedoubtEnterprises)

The second British Line Infantry. (Figures by GallopingMajor)

And the third unit of British Line Infantry. (Again figures by GallopingMajor)

A unit of British Light Infantry using some Roger´s Rangers made by NorthstarMiniatures.

The British Shock Infantry using a mounted officer as the force´s leader.
A mixture of NorthstarMiniatures and WargamesFoundry.

Finally the additional unit of British artillery. (FrontRankMiniatures)

The French force.

The first unit of French Light Infantry containing the leader of the whole army.
(Figures WarlordGames)

The second unit of French Light Infantry. (A mixture of NorthstarMiniatures and GallopingMajor)

The French unit of Skirmishers (I am not sure about if they are NorthstarMiniatures)

A large and aggressive unit of 18 Hurons. (A mixture of different manufacturers including PerryMiniatures)

The French Artillery. (Again FrontRankMiniatures)

Now it was time for the gaming. Franz decided to play the French. After rolling dice it was clear that he had to be the attacker.

The advance of the French attackers.

The British deployment.

First action. The French gun firing at the British force ...

... causes the first casualty.

Not a good start for King George´s soldiers.

In revenge a unit of British Line Infantry takes aim on
the Coureur des Bois and one of the skirmishers gets lost.

The other actions in turn one only had been movement actions. So here comes turn two.

Starting turn two Franz again ordered his artillery to fire
at the nearest unit of British Line Infantry.

The effect was horrible. Another three British soldiers
are leaving the gaming table ...

... the units gets a disordered marker and has to fall back.

The French Coureur des Bois also take aim of the already
decimated British unit.

Another casualty ...

... and another disordered marker and fall back.

The Indian warband has entered the woods.

An overview on the movements of both forces.

The second British Line Infantry using its "first fire" to shoot at the Indian warband.
It causes two dead warriors.

Franz rolled poorly for the warbands morale ...

... so the warriors had to retreat getting two disorder
markers. Seemed that the fortune of war found its way to
the British.

Now the British artillery joins the fighting.

One French soldier has gone.

My attempt to rally the first British Line Infantry was a
desaster.

They rout without having shot at all.

Every time a unit has left the table the friendly units within 12 inch have to test for their morale. And I made a big mistake. I will have to remember for future games - if there are two units as close as in the following picture, first check the morale of the unit that is in second line. Otherwise if the unit in first line fails it could be a bad thing. If the unit can´t fall back the complete range it suffers one casualty for every inch it cannot move.

I checked for morale for the first line first and failed the test. The test on the second unit was good. If I had checked for the unit in second line first the fall back wouldn´t have caused any losses.

Due to the failure of the morale test and the fact that the
unit was not allowed to fall back its complete range I lost 
another figure for each inch I was not able to move this 
unit - three inches in total - so another three losses.

The British cementary after turn 2.

The French losses after turn 2.

And Franz gets his first point for control of the objective 
marker as he is the only force within 3 inches to the marker.

The beginnig of turn 3 - The Coureur des Bois shoot at 
the second unit of British Line Infantry. Because of being
sharpshooters they hit on 4+ within 24 inch range.

Because of that the range is more than 12" every 3 hits
on 4+ causes a casualty. Franz achieved 5 hits - so it is
only one more loss.

But this casualty is followed by another morale test.
Again a miserable dice roll effecting another two
disorder markers.

So - in total three disorder markers for this unit ...

... and the unit also routs. This means that the other unit
within 12" has also to check for morale - and believe it 
or not - it also failed and had to do a fall back with half
range of its movement.

A look on the gaming table from the British view.

The Roger´s Rangers had managed to get into the woods.
But enemy fire hits them hard. Another disorder marker 
followed by another desastreous dice roll for morale that
causes another two disorder markers.

The Rangers leave the battlefield.

Meanwhile the last unit of British Line Infantry was
threatened to do another fall back. It stops directly at the
edge of the battlefield. Because of at least two disorder 
markers they will have to check for a rally activation next
time. If they fail to rally they will again fall back and will
leave the table, too.

And of course they failed. King George won´t be happy
about the poor performance of his troops.

A look at the casualties after turn 5 - the losses of the British ...

... compared to those of the French.

Now it is time for the Indian warband to occupy the ridge.

Their next activation brings them into contact with the
last British infantry unit - the shock infantry which is the
best disciplined unit on the table.

Fierce fighting kills two British soldiers and three warriors.

The Indians have to retreat followed up by the British
and the melee continues. Another three British soldiers
killed and four more deadly wounded Hurons.

And, yes - the Indian unit is wiped out.

The heavily decimated unit of British Shock Infantry.
It also has two disorder markers - so it is in danger to rout.
Besides the unit of artillery this is the rest of the former
big British force. 

In the background one unit of French Light Infantry is
preparing to do a last firing on the British leader´s unit.

And they aimed very well. Franz rolled enough hits to 
kill these two remaining guys.
GAME OVER !

This game had been a great desaster for my troops. I rolled very bad while Franz rolled very good.

But it was a very good game. We are looking forward to do another game soon. Next time including some cavalry just to check their behaviour on the battlefield. Though the rules are meant for conflicts on the battlefields of NorthernAmerica we will test it with forces of the SevenYearsWar next time. But that´s because my collection has not enough figures for doing this with AWI or ACW. We are sure that a trial with SYW units will also be ok and give us a good game, too.

Cheers

Mike