FIRE ON THE FRONTIER and THE NEXT BIG LITTLE THING

The third battle of Rebels and Patriots was the Bullets and Beans Scenario. This saw a group of Loyalists defending their wagons from a patrolling band of Continentals. This was played by a couple of returning gamers and a few new players. The game was played on July 5th, the day after the 247th Birthday of the United States of America. 

The Opening of the Battle. Loyalists in Their Wagon Lager as the Continentals Come Pouring in from Three Sides. 

New York Continental Line Milling About Trying to Get Their Berrings in the Early Morning Light. 

As the Full Light of Day Arrived so did The Rest of the Loyalist Forces. The Continental's Fire had a Very Limited Effect on the Garrison Troops. So Little in Fact They Felt Cocky Enough to Bring up Their Unengaged Troops to Support the Firing Line. 

While the Fire Had Begun to Have a Telling Effect on the Defenders, There Own Return Fire had Reduced One of the Attackers Key Line Units to Half. Meanwhile the Defenders Reinforcements Where Now Close Enough to Influence the Battle.

On the Other Flank the Continentals Militia Who are Protected by Woods Were Having an Effect on the Defenders. They had Also Cause a Bottleneck for the Follow Up Regular Forces Delaying Their Needed Firepower. 

The Delay had Been Costly as by the Time the Regulars got to the Fight a Quarter of Their Unit was Lost. Meanwhile Luck was with the Loyalist as an Extra Line Unit had Joined the Battle. 

With Over a Third of Their Force Lost and Now Heavily Outnumbered the Continentals Gave Up the Fight and Headed Back to Their Homes. 

This was a complete disaster for the Attackers. Poor initial placement had kept half their firepower out of the fight. More importantly the Loyalist never missed an activation roll, and scored at least one hit, and more often multiple hits on every fire action. While the Continentals suffered from a number of low ammunition Special Action results, the Loyalists were rewarded with extra troops. On my last post I said that to gain an overwhelming victory you needed to have a lot go your way, or your opponent needed to have things go wrong. In this game both of those things occurred to give the Loyalists a decisive 4-to-0 victory. 

On to the next project, which is making Command & Colors: Napoleonic into a full miniature game. To address the hardest part for me, the painted miniature, I have decided to use the printed flats from WoFun. With this little preamble...Behold. 

Front View of the French.

A More Typical View of the French. 
Cavalry on the Flanks, Line Infantry and Artillery in the Center, Light Infantry with Skirmishers. 

A Closer View of the French Infantry. 
Line Across the Center, Artillery in the Middle, Light Infantry Right Foreground with Skirmishers.  

This is just the start as there are lots more French for me to edge paint and whole armies of Austrians and Russians to oppose them. 

I am off to Gen Con for the next few weeks. When I return, I will be working on the next batch of these troops, along with more buildings. I hope to complete enough to get a game in before mid-August. 

HOUSE DISASTER AND MORE AWI

 It has been nearly a month since I last posted and I can sum up the delay in one phrase, Gen Con Prep. The big show is less than two weeks away, and I will be heading to Indianapolis in a week. Still, I have not only been working, but I have new buildings finished and a couple of AWI games AARs. 

Building Disaster: OK, not really. I have been constructing new 15mm 4Ground buildings for my upcoming WWII game. The first batch is all damage buildings, while the second are more of the intact versions. As usual my goal is to have enough to make towns, and eventually cities to fight in. 

Vehicles Added to Provide Scale. The Central Grand Hotel is Missing its Roof. I Have Spent a Long Time Trying to Dry Fit This. It is a Tricky Thing. 

On the AWI front I ran two games of Rebels and Patriots. The first is a repeat of the previous scenario with new players. This was a reversal of the last fight with the Colonials making a very strong defense against the Loyalist forces. A last-minute surge by the Loyalist Regulars saw them pull off a tie in Honor Points but having suffered tremendous casualties in the process. 

This Time the Colonials Chose to Make Their Initial Stand at the River on Their Left Instead of on the Hill Behind. 

Colonials Also Chose to Make a Direct Defense of the Bridge.

A Command Failure Forced the Light Troops into an Assault Against the Bridge Defenders. This Turned Out to be a Blessing in Disguise. On the Opposite Flank the Colonials Fire has Chased of the Iroquois and Compelled the Loyalist to Advance Through the Woods.   

A Quick Dash by the Light Infantry Took the Bridge Objective, but Only an Amazing Morale Check Allowed Them to Hold it. In the Right Background can be Seen the Loyalist Advance from the Woods into the Open Ground. The Capture of that Objective on the Final Turn Prevented a Loyalist Disaster. 

Consistent Poor Command Rolls and Colonial Firepower Prevented the Rest of the Loyalist Forces Ever Crossing the River. 

A lot has to go right to win a decisive victory in Rebels and Patriots, or a lot wrong. I will have another ARR with my next post, and a preview of some upcoming things in 2024.