The Gloomy Hill Of Uncle Vanya

I threw together a quick game of 'Rebels & Patriots' yesterday. Although I've got the rules and have played a few games at our club, it's not a game I've ever really set up at home, and playing games at home is really how I cement a set of rules into my head.

I used my GNW Swedes and Russian, and played the first scenario in the book, where the two sides are battling for control of a hill in the centre of the table.

Both forces were 24 points. The Russians had three units of Line Infantry and two of Shock Cavalry, whilst the Swedes were fielding two units of Shock Infantry and two small units of Aggressive Shock Cavalry. So the Swedes very much had an attackingly force whilst the Russians had the advantage of numbers.

As with most games the battle opened with a cavalry action on the flank. The Swedes charged, but their Aggressive advantage didn't give them as much of an edge as expected.

Both units fell back, but the level of casualties on the much smaller Swedish unit saw them disordered.

Things hotted up as both sides approached the hill. The Russians opened fire, putting a few hits on the Swedish infantry.

As often happens in this scenario, both sides lurked out of sight of each other on opposite sides of the hill, waiting for the other to make the first move and expose themselves to fire.

In the centre both sides' foot exchanged fire, whilst the cavalry reorganised on the flank.

On the hill the Swedes advanced, hoping to survive the first round of incoming fire from the Russians and then sweep them away with a devastating charge. The Russian volleys shattered the Swedes, who routed.

The unit lost on the hill contained the Swedish leader, so the whole Swedish force had to test morale. Most of the units ended up disordered. Despite this, Swedish fire routed one of the Russian cavalry units (the big gap in the middle of the picture), allowing the two small Swedish units a chance to take on the surviving Russian one. 

The Russians charged the disordered and damaged Swedish cavalry, destroying it.

The second Swedish foot unit was routed by musketry.

This left one Swedish cavalry unit, that was quickly routed off the table.

The Russians won a decisive victory.

The Russian musketry was devastating, whilst the Swedes never really got a chance to exploit their more aggressive close-range attacks. Making their cavalry units small probably didn't help either; I might have to rethink their force a little. And maybe more terrain and cover would have helped; there was little chance to organise an approach that wasn't going to get shot down.

However the game, although short, got me a feel for the mechanisms again, and I may set up another at some stage.