Scenario

The chosen scenario was the “Bridge to Victory” on page 43 of the rule book with the modifications outlined below. The attacker’s company has been assigned to support a group of engineers that are going to build a bridge over the river before darkness, so that all of the heavy equipment can be transported to the other side. The defender has a company out on patrol that detects the bridge build so the patrol attacks the bridge site to delay the bridge building.

Terrain

The 6 foot by 4 foot table was laid out approximately as the “Bridge of Victory” scenario in the rule book – a river down the center of the table with a two hills and three forested areas on each side. The individual trees were for asthetics only and had no effect on game play.

Army Selection

First we rolled for Officer traits with the British Office having an Impressive Battle Scar which means he is not popluar with the ladies but people are so impressed he starts the campaign with 5 Honour Points.

The French Officer was a renown Tactician.

For army selection I decided to use a card-based army builder system. The cards were based upon the units that I have in my collection and included 16 cards in each of the French and British decks. The cards were shuffled and chosen randomly until the army reached a total of 24 points. Once the army had reached close to the 24 points the player can then decide to choose another card and reduce the value of units to achieve the 24 points (making a unit green for instance) or not taking the card and upgrading existing units until the 24 points was achieved.

The advantage of this method is that the “Officer” has to use what units are available rather than have total choice over the composition of his forces.

The British had a unit of Shock Infantry, 3 Militia (Green Infantry), a unit of Veteran skirmishers that were good shots, and a unit of Veteran Indian skirmishers. As per the scenario the British were also given two units of Engineers counting as shock troops who could not shoot or initiate combat.

The 24 points of French consisted of a unit of French Light Infantry, 2 units of Coureur des Bois Veteran Sharpshooters and large unit of Aggressive Indians.

The British commander was placed with the shock troops and the French with the Light Infantry.

Deployment

The defender deployed first. The table was divided into nine only, eight inch sections numbered right to left. A ten sided dice was used to determine where each unit arrived. The roll of a 0 meant the unit did not arrive on turn 1 and would need to be diced for at the start of the next turn.

This simulated the defender not knowing exactly where the bridge was being built, and also the need to deploy resources from different locations, with the difficulty that creates in bringing the forces together in a cohesive fashion. As it turned out the majority of the French forces were all deployed on the far left flank, and a unit of Coureur des Bois being deployed left of centre.

There were six sections of river each twelve inches long. The British then rolled a D6 to determine where the engineers had decided to build the bridge. A two was rolled placing the bridge on the far left flank on the opposite side to the French!

For the purists I know the French Napoleonic bridge building set was being used despite it being out of period, however it is a nice piece, looks cool, and I finally wanted get it on the table.

As the British knew where their engineers were building the bridge , they could deploy where they wished.

TURN 1

Turn 1 was pretty quiet both the French trying to re-deploy from the left to the right flank, and the British moving a unit of Militia and their Highlanders to defend the bridge, two Militia units to defend the centre and their Mohawks and Gorham’s Rangers to try and delay the French. The tardy Engineers failed to activate and did not commence building the bridge. The book scenario was changed to only allow one engineer unit to attempt the build activation each turn as it was felt that allowing both to do so would make it too easy for the British to complete the build before nightfall.

TURN 2

The Engineers activated and completed seven of the sixty build points required to complete the bridge.

The British milita moved up to protect the Engineers whilst the Higlanders clambered over a hill to try and get to the rever bank. The two Militia in the centre moved forward as did the Mohawks and Rangers.

The French continued to all move towards their right flank except for the large unit of Hurons who were too busy with the “fire-water” to take any orders.

TURN 3

The Engineers completed eight more build points meaning that the pontoons were ready for placement (even if in the wrong direction in this photo) leaving five to go towards the next section. A Militia unit was starting to cross to the other side of the river to protect the engineers, the Higlanders were still wading through snow drifts on the hill and two militia units had reached the river. The Mohawks and the Rangers both failed to move.

The French were starting to get into position all except for the Huron’s who yet again failed to activate. Unfortunately this time with a double one. The French Officer became so scarred of these fire water drinking natives that he was the recipeint of the Brown Trousers Award reducing his honmour in this game by one (double ones and doble sixes means your roll on a random events table). One unit of Coureur des Bois was in place at the edge of a forest ready to open up on the unsuspecting British.

TURN 4

All three British Militia units crossed the river to take the attack to the French.

The Highlanders were slowly moving towards the river and the Engineers were having a morning cuppa and again failed to do anymore building. The Mohawks and Rangers finally crossed the river.

The French were now in musketry range and opened up on the British. First the French Light marines shot at a unit of Militia.

Inflicting two casualities on the British. They promptly failed their morale check and fled back across the river.

Then the Coureur De Bois opened fire on the second unit but missed.

Meanwhile the Indians and the second unit of Canadians moved closer to the fight.

TURN 5

With things starting to hot up the pressure was now on the Engineers who had been very tardy to say the least. This time they just past their activation test adding six more build points for the second piece of the bridge.

The Broken militia Unit failed their rally attempt and promptly routed off the table.

Not knowing what had happened on the other flank the militia defending the river opened fire on the Coureur des Bois who failed their moral and retired broken.

The other remaining Militia opened fire but had not been given the order to load their muskets resulting in a big “fizzle”, but not much else.

The stout-hearted Scotsman failed to activate even with the plus two for general and shock troops, leaving the bridgehead vulnerable.

In the French turn the Coureur des Bois rallied back to disorder and the Light Infantry opened up on the advancing Militia inflicting two casualities. Following the recent misfire of their muskets they thought that “God and Country” were against them and promptly routed on the spot.

The Hurons had finally mustered up enough courage to advance on the bridge to hopefully deliver the “coup de grâce”.

With only possibly three turns left the game was becoming quite tense.

TURN 6

Turn 6 began with the Militia defending the bridge failing to activate, and the Scotsmen finally reaching the river edge. The French shooting disordered the Rangers and took a casualty of the Mohawks as the Hurons moved into charge range. The Engineers rolled a huge 12 to activate placing another piece of bridge on the table.

TURN 7

The British Engineers were forging ahead as night was approaching. Another activation placed another piece of bridge. This meant that the British just needed 19 points of activation to complete the bridge with next turn beginning the random game turn end sequence.

The Militia fired unsuccessfully on the Hurons as did the Mohawks on the French Light troops. The French return fire totally routed the Mohawks as the British force was gradually slinking away.

TURN 8

At the start of turn eight we needed to dice to see if darkness had fallen. Fortunately for the British they were still able to work in the failing light and in a last desperate effort to finish the bridge they failed to activate ……….again! Being classed as shock troops and with the Commander close by they only needed 4+ on 2D6 – the precious “buttercups”!

TURN 9

With the Indians approaching the Militia retreated across the partially completed bridge to relevent safety.

The Rangers became all enthuisisastic and rolled a twelve to activate meaning they need to roll to see what positive impact it had. Just in the knick of time they rolled a third six to have a unit of British line infantry arrive as reinforcements.

Not to be outdone the Hurons also rolled box cars and were given a second activation for the turn. They promptly charged the Engineers in the river and forced them to retreat despite being in cover. The aggressive Hurons followed up but failed to hurt the permanently disordered Engineers who whipped em big time and forced them back across the river in disaray. With the game balancing on a knife edge the Hurons decided to retire with their additional move. The firepower of the Scots, Rangers and the newly arrived British line would have decimated them.

TURN 10

Darkness was about to fall at the end of the turn and at the moment the game points were slightly in favour of the French who had beaten up the British force considerably. If the British were to have any chance of winning they needed the Engineers to activate with at least a die roll of seven. Nup! They activated, but with a roll of six meaning the bridge was left just one build point short of completion. So near, but unfortunately the several failed rolls to activate had cost the British dearly. They would not be able to advance on the French positions in the cover of darkeness without that bridge!!!

The French combined firepower forced the Scots to retreat in good order and routing the damaged engineer unit, ending the game.

It was going to be close. The French gained three points for preventing the British from completing the bridge (I think they did that themselves), 1 honour for destroying an Engineer unit, and and one point for losing less than 33% casualities. Unfortunately they lost one point for the “Brown Trousers Award”. Leaving the total on four.

The British gained 2 honour points for having more than 40% of the bridge being completed, and one point for the Officers “true grit”. Winning isn’t everything, especially if your name appears in print. It might even cancel the effect of that “Impressive Battle Scar” on the ladies!

The French officer proved his reputation as a superior tactician even if he is scared of those fire water drinking Hurons.

Rebels and Patriots are a decisive set of rules where both shooting and combat are designed to bring about a quick result. They do however, create a great period feel.