With lock down in Melbourne continuing for at least another fortnight and likely to go much longer Steve and I decided to try another game system on zoom. After the success of our What A Tanker game last Friday we decided to try another one of our favourites, Rebels and Patriots. The rules needed some tweaking in order to provide the “fog-of-war” and to make the game work.

The tabletop providing lots of cover but also some key lines of sight. Controlling these is key to winning the scenario. The Rangers were able to do this.

Here is what we decided to start with:

Scenario:

You are a leader of a small force of rangers charged with dispersing a band of aggressive Indians who are terrorising local farmers Yo need to seek and destroy at least two war-bands without losing more than 25% causalities (in points not units). You have been told the indians are camped by a small stream some distance away but you do not have a map of the locale.

You have the following at your disposal:

• Leader – character trait – “Blessed” = +1 to all leader casualty test rolls.
• 2 group of six rangers (Small units of  Aggressive Veteran Light Infantry @8 pts each)
• 2 units of 6 Mohawk skirmishers (veteran Skirmishers @4pts each)

The Rangers at the start of the game.

The disposition of troops was an umpire decision but was reasonable. As umpire you are not trying to make the game harder for players but more enjoyable.

Special rules:

The leader and his bodyguards are a separate unit that can only be targeted if the enemy is within 12″. He fights like a ranger unit but with half dice but does not shoot.

All units must be given an order at the start of the game.

1. Move in X direction and attack any enemy in sight
2. Move in X direction and skirmish with any enemy
3. Move to X (must be in line of sight of commander and unit) and hold/shoot/skirmish

Order can only be changed if leader within 12″ and within line of sight.

When ranger units are shot at by enemy is in cover they can only be seen if the leader is in line of sight of the enemy, or if they roll above the range shot at from with 2D6.

To date the Indians have only operated in small groups and you are unaware of any large units taking the field.

Indian rules:

The Indians are not interested in a “stand up fight” preferring to harass the enemy and only prepared to fight in close combat when their opponents are weakened (disordered or broken).

All Indian units will try to move within shooting range of the nearest enemy and skirmish. They will attempt to charge any disordered or broken enemy within line of sight.

The Indians local knowledge means the location of all ranger units at any time are known to them (umpires helicopter view.

Rangers controlling the “sight lines”.

There were a couple of learnings from the exercise.

Firstly, we believe that most skirmish style games or games with a small number of small units would work well, and in fact probably better than over the tabletop as the helicopter view is eliminated.

What the Rangers could see. Often it was only trees!

Secondly, Rebels and Patriots rules and French Indian War scenarios with its dense terrain would work well. The larger FIW battles that were more like a sma Seven Years War game with their linear tactics probably less well.

The 4′ X 4′ table and 4 units per side worked well and gave a quick game.

The rangers spot Indians moving in the trees up river

The changes to the rules with “what the leader can see” was an excellent concept and meant that to be successful you needed to keep him within range and line-of-sight of all his units.

The “umpire run” opponent moving within strict parameters was easy to run for the umpire but does depend on coming up with realistic scenarios and guidelines that suited the umpire driven forces. Those we provided for the Indian contingent proved quite realisitic.

The Indians get behind the Ranger’s Mohawk allies but receive a single casualty and decide to run off without firing a shot.

The game itself was fun with some dice outliers creating the only anomalies, but these were rules specific that could have just as easily occurred in any face-to-face game. As usual the game outcome was on a knife edge with first the Rangers teetering before the Indians finally had enough and fled.

Mohawk allies lose three casualties in the first shot of the game (Indians rolled nine 5’s or 6’s with their 12 dice) causing them to flee. As their General was in line-of-sight they were able to relay and re-join the battle line towards the end of the game.

Steve and I will try it again, this time with less terrain, larger units and the Indians being player driven to see if we can find any other bugs to iron out before taking it to the rest of our “PIG posse”.

Indians using cover to prevent more casualties.