Last Thursday we played a game of Rebels & Patriots set
in the Seven Years War. Instead of 12 figure infantry units, we used 16 bases
with 48 figures per battalion, using 4 of our usual battalions grouped
together. That’s why they have so many flags. Small units (cavalry squadrons
and skirmishers) have 8 bases with 16 or 24 figures respectively. I figured we
could have lots of figures on the new teddy bear fur game mat (from Killing
Fields) and yet have a small number of units on each side.
The Prussian general Zeitgeist rolled up wheezy as a
character trait. It prevented him from entering woods, no big problem since the
Prussians have no light troops in this scenario. Austrian general Esterhazy got
ballroom darling, which allows him to get give a unit a 3” bonus move once per
game. Rick correctly predicted it would be forgotten in the heat of battle.
The scenario is based on the Lament Ridge scenario, with the
ridge replaced by the crossroads.
The Austrians had 3 line infantry battalions @ 4 points each,
a small skirmish unit @ 2 points, 2 small shock cavalry squadrons @ 5 points
each and 1 medium artillery section @ 6 points. The Prussians had 2 line
battalions @ 4 point each, 1 line battalion “good shooters” at 6 points, 2
small shock cavalry squadrons @ 5 points each and a medium artillery section @
6 points.
Both sides deployed as below. Moltke said “errors in deployment
cannot be rectified”.
Cavalry on both sides could not wait to get into musket and
artillery range of the enemy.
It took 85 minutes to play 5 turns. The Austrians lost two
cavalry squadrons for 10 points while the Prussians lost 1 for 5 points. Austrian bases lost in combat, rather than fleeing,
were 11 cavalry and 12 infantry. The Prussians lost 4 cavalry and 2 infantry. Mistakes
were made by both commanders and the umpire.
General Zeitgeist AKA Bahama (don’t ask) gained 6 honour points.
General Esterhazy got none but avoided getting hit by enemy fire.
I think this worked well and looked pretty good. We used
magnetic sabot bases to show that units were in close order. I think in the
future we’ll put all save skirmishers on these bases (4 small bases fit on each)
and indicate close order by putting them together neatly, and otherwise by
staggering the bases. Our next game of some sort will be after my trip to Maine.
3 comments:
That certainly gives a ‘big battle’ impression. I like the mat too.
I haven’t used movement bases in Rampant games very much but should I feel compelled to do so I was thinking of using irregular shapes for default clumps and rectangular ones for close order and equivalent.
Thanks, enjoy the idea of visually representing these rules at a higher level.
Nice looking game and interesting to see these rules used for a bigger game. Little Wat TV did something similar with Isandlawana, so could be something to explore more in the future.
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