REBLES AND PATRIOTS - THE LONG-AWAITED RETURN

 

WOW!!! Where did a quarter of the year go? 

It's hard to believe a bit of illness, family gatherings, and a few conventions have taken up so much time. Enough of the explanation. On to the game. 

The Battle of Slising Hill was a simple encounter battle. Both sides entering from opposite ends with the objective of taking and controlling the central hill. 

The Empty Battlefield. Slising Hill is at the central intersection of the paths just above and to the left of the woods on the far right. 

The Approach. Both the Continentals and the Crown Forces Advance Their Line Units Up the Center. 

Continental Skirmishers Have Driven Back the Crown's Light Infantry on the Flank. In the Center the Hill Blocks Line of Site as Each Side Continues Their Approach. 

In the Center a Charge by Crown Forces is Pushed Back by the Continentals on the Hill. On the Flank Massed Firepower has Driven the Crowns Supporting Troops from the Field. 

A Number of Well-Placed Volleys by the Continentals on the Hill has Seen Off More of the Crown Forces. At the Hills Base Stand the British Grenadiers, the Last Hope to Save the Crown's Day. 

In a Few Quick Volleys the Grenadiers Clear the Hill of the Continental Line, but Minutemen and Militia Press Forward to Take Their Place as the Sun Fades from the Western Sky.  

By Days End the Crown Forces Concede the Field to the Continentals.  

The Crown had a serious opportunity to win the game, by launching a charge with the Grenadiers, but instead choose to shoot the enemy down. While ultimately successful they failed to get on to the hill to gain the victory points they needed. While a very one-sided victory by points, this was a very close-run game. 

In other news I have been slowly building up my Epic Legion Imperialis forces and terrain. I have played a few times, but we are still learning the rules. Everything is slowly creeping forward as new forces appear in every game. 

The Horus Heresy in Epic. The Emperor's Children Space Marines Vs Solar Auxilia loyal to the Death Guard Legion. 

Wreckage and Ruin in the World of Epic. Lots more painting needing to be done.  

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. 

American War of Independance - On the New York Frontier

 

This week I ran a game of Rebels and Patriots. I had geared it at 36 points per side as I had expected 4-6 players. It turned out to be only 4 players, so everyone had plenty of troops to use. Unlike a lot of Daniel Mersey's rules, failure to activate a unit does not end your turn. This turned out to be a very good thing as there was a lot of poor dice rolling for activations in this game by both sides. 

The scenario was for a force of British and Loyalists to scout the area to determine the Continentals intentions. For the Continentals it was to prevent the area being scouted and cause as much damage to the Crown forces to make it too costly to continue. 

Colonials Initial Deployment. All of Their on Table Forces are South of the Fox Stream, mostly close to Van Ives's Farm and Scott's Hill. 

About Midway Durning the Game. The British had Been Slow to Deploy, while Their Allied Tories and Natives had been Rapidly Advancing to Bring the Fight to the Colonials. Here Thay have Just Completed Scouting of Green Tree Medow. The Opening in the Upper Right Between the Two Woods. 

A Short Time Later the Natives have Chased Away the 3rd New York from the area of Scott's Hill. They are Coming Under Heavy Fire but have Managed to Scout the Hill. The British 60th Lights have Finally made it to the Bridge. 

Late in the Game the Continental's Rifle and Minutemen have Finally Made an Appearance. Their Firer has Greatly Reduced the Tory Line Infantry. Up Until now The Crown side had Things Going Their Way, but in two Quick Volleys Washington's Riflemen had put Some Serious Hurt on the Crown Troops.   

Games End. The Crown has Succefuly Scouted Three of the Four Areas of the Battlefield. While the Continental Riflemen have Pushed the Win into a Pyric Level.  

Everyone had a good time despite what I can only call some hideous dice rolling. I will be running more of these games in the future. A lesson I hope was learned that while firepower can weaken troops, it takes guts and cold steel to move them off a position. Future games will see players creating their own Commanding Officers, which is something I left out since this was a learning game. 

I feel that each person controlling an 18-point force is sufficient. It will need to be, until I paint up another great block of figures for this game. There already are Culpepper Minutemen, New York and Connecticut Regulars in official uniforms, as well as a large group of the British 24th and now that I have seen them in action, forces from the Iroquois Confederation will all be joining in. 

IT HAS NOT ALL BEEN ABOUT THE DOGS

 Over the past months there have been many other games and projects I will try and get to here. These are some examples.

Epic 5th NY for On to Richmond Project

Epic Union 1st Brigade

Epic Confederate 1st Brigade

Preview Leviathans 2022

Leviathans French (left), German (right) Cruiser & Destroyer

Leviathans Germans & French 

AWI Test Paints Figures from Rank and File 

AWI Rebels and Patriots Game