Finally I had a chance to have a face-to-face game for the first time in three months. This was doubly pleasing as it allowed me to try out my new games room with us having only recently moved into our newly built home. The room is not large by games rooms standards at just over 5mX4m  but is enough to display the figures I like and/or use regularly, all my books that had been packed away for about three years and our DVD collection (no not that one!!!). The handiest addition is the under-table drawers to house a lot of the terrain, thanks Pete R for the idea.

With “brown trousers Mizzi’s” French out on patrol again it was time for Rodger and his mates to finally prove who was boss.

Rodger had heard that the French were active along the shore of Lake George and went out scouting to assess the extent and size of their incursion.

Th terrain depicted a forested area on the shores of Lake George that was cut by a small stream not prohibiting movement.

Using Rebels and Patriots rules the two forces chosen by the players were the standard French force and the standard British rangers force in the army list section of the book.

The site of the encounter – a small stream emanating from Lake George

Rodger and his team of Rangers and Mohawk scouts

The French “patrol in force”

The game commenced by the players determining their leaders traits. Blake drew the Tactician card which allowed him to add one to see which side had the initiative and I drew the Brave card allowing the hero Roger to re-roll one failed morale roll each turn. Rather than roll on the leader trait table in the rules I have converted the table to 36 six cards giving the same options but eliminating the need to keep records.

With the aid of his tactician skill Blake had the initiative and moved first trying to use his numbers and close quickly. On the other hand I had a much smaller, but more elite force, and tried to outflank the French and concentrate on attacking the extreme right of their line. I left a unit of Rangers to delay the large Indian warband.

Rangers being out-flanked by the Indian warband

When contact finally occurred, the French Marines failed several activation turns in a row, and received several volley fire without being able to respond. Luckily their morale held and they were able to rally and dress their ranks before the next onslaught.

Rangers and their Mohawk allies outflanking the French marines

Unfortunately this time they were not so lucky and two turns of Mohawk musketry finally had them fleeing of the board.

The Mohawk musketry causes the Marines to run while the rangers retire from casualties

The French Marines enter the forest while to Coureur De Bois control the heights and dominate the firing lines.

The second French Marine unit fired on Roger’s unit inflicting 50% casualties but fortunately (?) Roger was not one of them. These were promptly pulled out of the front   line to avoid any further losses as the game was about to end.

The game ended in a British marginal victory with the British gaining 5 prestige points and the French two. In a campaign sense not enough for the leaders to gain any additional skills.

As usual Rebels and Patriots provided a great game with a variety of tactical decisions for both sides throughout. The most pleasing part was that Mr Mizzi finally broke the “brown trousers” hoodoo and even went on to have a marginal victory in the second game with both sides losing one unit each.

However, Blake, I wouldn’t crow too loudly as the “Kubelwagen” distinction still exists until the next game of What-A-Tanker!!!

(For those not in on the joke, Blake’s Tiger tank was taken out by a Churchill Mk 1 in the first shot of the game with the “it fought like a Kubelwagen” mantra sticking.