First experience with Rebels and Patriots

I am no fan to make reviews before you test the game, sometimes what looks great on the paper does not work on the table and vice versa. With Rebels and Patriots (RaP) we already played two games, unfortunately they were ruined by weird scenario and terrible rolls on my side, however they give us some basic overview on the functionality of the rules and game flows. So let’s take a ride and look on the game mechanics. Please note that following report is based upon RULES AS WRITTEN view of the rules. Yes, you can modify everything, but I need to know how it works before modding.

Let’s start with statement „This is not yet another Lion Rampant“. This iteration of rampant engine is much closer to traditional games then to Dan Mersey’s Beer and Pretzel classic. Rework on activation, charge and morale bring it closer to black powder classics more that you think. If you followed previous works of Mr. Mersey and Mr. Leck you will notice that they try to keep the rampant engine closer to the period flavour. Command and Control, weapons and tactics evolved in years of warfare so does the game mechanics to follow the improvement in warfarw. Reworked RAP removes a lot of beer’n’pretzelity from the game. Where in early LR a DR games all units were more-or-less equal, you are encouraged by game mechanics to follow certain (history plausible) pattern. It seems to me that disbalance between overpowered and funy list can be done much easier.

Armybuilding systems allows you to represent almost everything you wish, you can employ your creativity and work upon abstraction of the unit labels and stats. Units do what their label suggest and work accordingly. Line infantry is good in close order gunfire. You can use skirmishers to shield your grenadiers who brings havoc in close combat. Light infantry will flank your sides so no one will be able to attack your line from behind etc. You can modify your units with some interesting upgrades, especially +1 discipline is worthy for units you think will not benefit from commander bauble (outflanking cavalry).

After you select your army – or company, you have to select your leader. Leader gives +1 to discipline (+1 activation, rally and morale) in 12 inches area (from leader’s unit, not actually from him, so it’s actually up to 17 inches diameter bauble. Think twice about leader’s unit and deployment. Leader can get some ranks and traits by collecting honor (objectives) from battles. I am not sure how negative traits works in such leader dependant game.

Now, you have your company ready, select your scenario. There are some interesting scenarios, including going down the river followed by enemies on the banks, however 48x48 table is realy small especially if you field large infantry and shock cavalry units. Saying that, I did not find general rule, what to do if you are unable to deploy all your units, and it can easily happen if you deploy from corner.

The game turn is IGOUGO system, where players try to activate all units before another player and so on. Each activation is only one action – move, shoot, fire, form close order, volley fire and rally and you roll dices to order  your soldiers to do selected action. Activation is on 6+ on 2d6 modified by discipline and disorder. I  recommend thinking twice about activations and the possible outcome of enemy thread range (fire and charge). Attack action – charge – is random your activation roll is your movement for attack action. Cavalry adds +6. I don’t like random charge distance, and I struggle with consistency in the rules. Don’t like it here either. You activate on 6+ but if you use your discipline, officer and formation you can get 3.

For fire and melee, you have specific combat or fire statistics (5+ for most units), roll 12 dices for units not in disorder and 6 dices for units in disorder and see the result. You will need two or three hits to cause casualty on opponent units. So far so good.

Unfortuantely I am very disappointed how the morale does (not) work. I was afraid when I read it, and the actual test game proove the point. For most of the morale test you have to roll about average on 2d6. Thanks to a lot firepower and activation and shoot rolls, amount of casualties and morale test caused grows quite fast. Almost all units receiving disorder token (failed morale test caused even by one casualty) in one round was taken out of battle in next round. Recieving disorder token does means your unit is significantly crippled. Rally test removes all disorder tokens, but also the unit is unable to do anything else, playing practice targets for your opponent. In my point of view disorder effect is balancing the effect of that much firepower on the table, so the units will not be taken out that much fast.

I understand the reason for update in the mechanics to correspond with evolution of warfare, however it does not hit the target with me. In early rampants, most of the rolls are bellow average. If you would activate, you receive very stable outcome. I am afraid RAP brings more random results, a lot of important rolls are above average, and can have disastrous effect. In my point of view the joy in gaming is being succesfull – you don’t need to win, however you want your units behave well and works. Even if seriously crippling the unit by only one disorder token can be historically accurate and is balancing effect, I am not sure it brings joy and it’s not working with me.

The rules are well written with only minor wording issues, but nothing game breaking.

Generally, the game is great addition to the genre. It’s very early to say morale is wrong, let’s see more games and I will return to it later on. If the morale does not work for me, my bro was quite happy with that. You can play historically sensible games or Hollywood version of the same. It brings more competitive level to rampant games and overall it’s a great game.

Companies used in the Test Games:
His Imperial Majesty of Russia  Neva Regiment of Heavy Cavalry
2nd Leutnant Von Nussberg, Cautious
Good Shooting Line Infantry (marksmen)
Line Infantry
Large Aggressive Shock Infantry (grenadiers)
Shock Cavalry (dragoons)

221. Line regiment of France
2nd Leutnant Zemal Zindricha
Line Infantry
Line Infantry
Shock Infantry
Light Cavalry
Light Artillery