A PEOPLE’S WAR: PART 2
A solo scenario for Rebels & Patriots
This is the second part of a two part game. The first section of the game was published in last month’s issue and took the form of a Choose Your Own Path game. In it the player took on the role of Captain Henri Boehmermann, an officer of General Girard’s staff in Saxony in 1813, tasked with collecting a scratch formation of troops from a medical depot and marching them to join the main body of the army.
It is not necessary to have played the first section of the game to play this scenario, which is written for a solo player using Dan Mersey’s Rebels & Patriots ruleset published by Osprey Games. While it is aimed specifically at R&P with a bit of imagination, it should be adaptable to any large scale skirmish set (like for example, Sharp Practice II from the Too Fat Lardies).
SETUP
It is August 1813, outside Magdeburg. Two days ago, you arrived at the village of Rottknullwald, where you collected several detachments BELOW
The 25th Lutzowers pile on, a mixture of HAT, Strelets conversions from ACW figures, from the Waterloo Diorama. of men that had been sick and are now fit for duty. You marched them to the town of Germelshausen where you were to link up with the rest of General Girard’s army. On arrival at Germelshausen one of your scouts dashes up to you.
“It’s the Prussians, Sir. At least, I think they’re Prussians: I don’t recognise the uniforms. They’ve barricaded the town. Looks like some kind of militia.”
Trotting forward on your horse, you examine the position. The outskirts of the town have been fortified and you will have to fight your way in.
YOUR FORCES
You may attach yourself to any of the units below. You are a Captain with 35 Honour Points and the following traits; Brave, Drill Instructor and Stonewall.
You have three leaders, a couple of fresh faced lieutenants named Desproges and Ferroni and Sergeant Major Debbouze, a grinning fellow with a ferocious moustache. This isn’t really
relevant from a gameplay perspective, but I like to assign named officers to my units.
Half company of the 8ieme Ligne (Veteran Line Infantry);
half company of the 8ieme Ligne (Veteran Line Infantry); a single 8lber cannon and crew
(Light artillery with Limber); and a detachment of 37iem Legere
(Light Infantry).
Rank these units from one to four to determine your order of march. If you played last months issue, use the order of march you picked then.
DIDN’T READ LAST MONTH’S ISSUE?
This is a short guide to playing if you don’t have the first part of “A People’s War”. Well firstly, electronic back issues are available from the Miniature Wargames website, so there’s no need to deprive yourself! (well said Mr Kinch! Ed.) But if for whatever reason, you’d just like to play the game without the preamble, simply use the forces outlined. Ignore the section on “Resolving the Effects of Section One”. You may either decide to keep the gun (if you want an easier game) or roll a die and cross the gun off your unit list if you roll an odd number (which will lead to a harder game). You won’t have any of the penalties that could accrue due to your choices in Part One, but then you won’t have any of the advantages that can accrue either.
OBJECTIVE
A scratch force of the enemy have barricaded the outskirts of the town and you must drive them off without too much delay.
SPECIAL RULES
French move first and French troops are all automatically activated on the first turn, but the only action they can take is move. They must deploy on the road or six inches either side of the road and must move on in order of march.
Note: I have deliberately described the enemy forces in game terms (line infantry, skirmishers, etc) because I don’t want players to get hung up on having to use particular types of infantry or whatever for particular units. There’s no reason why you couldn’t use Landwehr, Reserve Infantry or Line infantrymen to represent the Prussian resistance, which is a scratch force anyway. For this game, you will need 30-40 Prussian infantry figures, one gun and six cavalry models. You could equally sub in Russians or Saxons if you have them instead.
THE TABLE TOP
Set up the table as indicated on the map (left). Table size is 48 inches by 48 inches
Terrain is as follows: woods are cover; the two buildings are hard cover; the barricades are treated as cover and provide a bonus in melee, but they are obstacles rather than hard cover.
POTENTIAL ENEMY POSITION (PEP)
Take ten playing cards marked ace to ten. Shuffle them and place one card face down on each Potential enemy position. Discard the unused cards without looking at them. Whenever one of your units moves within twelve inches of a potential enemy position card or fires upon it, turn it over and deploy the troops revealed accordingly.
Note: While the circumstance might arise where you might have to fire upon a unscouted enemy (i.e. a face down card) with a line infantry or a gun, this represents the more experienced troops scouting the position. Line infantry will lose their first fire bonus, but it may be worth while “scouting” a position first to try and manoeuvre your units to concentrate your force as otherwise you’re blundering forward and could end triggering multiple units at the same time. In my experience, planning how you do this is a large part of the skill of this particular scenario.
If the card is revealed is a light cavalry unit and it is deployed behind the barricades, place the unit on one of the unrevealed flank PEPs and place the flank PEP card in its place in the barricade, which is then revealed. If both flank PEPs have been revealed, place the cavalry unit between the two houses.
If the card is revealed is an artillery piece and it is not deployed behind the barricades, place the unit on one of the unrevealed barricade PEPs and place the barricade PEP card in its place, which is then revealed. If there is no unrevealed barricade PEP available, count the artillery piece as destroyed. There are advantages to driving on with the bayonet!
PLAYING REBELS & PATRIOTS SOLO
Playing a game against a mechanically controlled opposition always requires an amount of honesty and common sense, to do otherwise gives an unchallenging game. Enemy units should roll for activation (and rolls of double 1 and double 6) as normal. The enemy troops on the board will act using these rules of thumb:
The enemy troops are a scratch force and poorly trained. They will not attempt to form close order unless they are behind a barricade. Units that may form close order, that are behind a barricade and do not have a target in range will do so.
Guns: Guns once deployed will remain stationary and will always fire at the nearest eligible unit.
Cavalry: Cavalry that are Attacked by infantry will always evade. They will attempt to Counter-Attack any cavalry.
Cavalry that are in range of an enemy unit and may charge without crossing difficult ground or obstacle, will do so. If there is terrain in the way, they will move so as to be best able to charge across open ground, unless they can Skirmish and bring an enemy unit under fire.
Line Infantry: The enemy troops are a scratch force and poorly trained. They will not attempt to form close order unless they are behind a barricade. Line infantry that are behind a barricade and do not have a target in range will do so.
Line infantry will always attempt to Fire if they can. Line infantry in Close Order will volley fire if eligible to do so. In the event that a Line Infantry unit is in a position to Attack (i.e. charge), it will not do so, unless it outnumbers its target by 50% or more. If a Line Infantry
unit in a barricade/building is bypassed (i.e. it has units more than six inches to its rear), it will immediately take a disorder marker and retreat six inches. It may then be rallied as normal and will attempt to move at greatest speed toward the nearest barricade or building and occupy it, unless there are targets in range.
Skirmishers: Skirmishing troops will always attempt to Fire if they can, if they can move far enough to get a target in range, they will use the Skirmish action. If they can do neither, they will move towards the nearest enemy unit. They will always attempt to Evade if attacked.
ENDING THE SCENARIO
The game will end after twelve turns.
If the Prussians still have an unbroken unit in either of the barricades, the French (i.e. you) have lost.
If the Prussians still have an unbroken unit in either of the houses, the French have won a marginal victory.
If there are no unbroken units in either the barricades or the houses, the French have won a major victory.
Score Honour points as follows: +2 Honour if you destroy the gun
+1 Honour for each barricade taken
+2 Honour if you managed to cause at least 66% casualties on the enemy
+2 Honour if you managed to take less than 33% casualties
+1 Honour if one of your units moves off table between the two houses before turn 12.
CONCLUSIONS
I’ve played this several times and while on the face it of it, it’s quite simple it’s rather more difficult to carry off than it seems. Having a gun in play makes a big difference because it allows you to force hidden units to deploy before you have to get in range with your infantry. The downside to that strategy is that hidden units don’t fire and essentially don’t act until they are revealed. It can be tempting to go straight up the middle in a full throated bayonet charge and damn the consequences. This can work, but it’s a gamble as you run the risk of revealing three or four units at the same time, who will blast you on their turn. Your troops are better than the Prussians facing them, but numbers will tell eventually if you’re not careful.
If you’ve good intelligence, you will have some idea of the composition of the enemy force beforehand by examining the discarded cards. Because of the way the deployment rules work, cavalry if they are present will probably be at the flanks and a gun if there is one present will probably be behind a barricade.
One thing you will have to do is attack: twelve turns isn’t that long and it’s very easy to burn through your available time trying to pick a hole in the defence. You will need to move forward (albeit with imperfect information), because your troops will take eight turns to get across the table at full pelt as it is. So time’s a-wasting! ■