Rebels and Patriots AWI British v American

Having played several games of 'Men Who Would Be Kings' and heard good things about Dragon Rampant I bought a copy of the latest Osprey ruleset 'Rebels and Patriots'.

Once I'd had a quick read-through I thought I'd give them a trial solo game using the basic 24 point British and American Militia forces (though with the American mounted riflemen replaced by more infantry). Dicing for the officer personalities gave the British a 'Ruthless' officer who had to issue attack orders within 12" of the enemy and "Cunning" for the Rebels which would have let them use some dummy units.

I set up a fairly open table and deployed the two armies:

Both sides advanced with the odd unit failing to activate. The British Light Infantry got some lucky hits on the Rebel Riflemen and put two disorder markers on them:

The British officer was shot down and severely wounded by the Rebel Militia, slightly disconcerting his unit. Rebel Skirmishers tried to work around the British left flank:

One unit on each side has become rather exposed and have started to take hits:

The isolated British Infantry break for the rear but the British Grenadiers plug the gap. On the right the British Light Infantry push forward:

The isolated Rebel Militia unit takes heavy losses and falls back:

As the Rebel Riflemen are 'timid' in combat the British Light Infantry charge home but only inflict a single hit:

The two lines exchange fire. The British Light Infantry fall back reduced to half strength:

The British Infantry in the fenced field break and rout after a disastrous morale test. It's all over for the British!:

In total the British lost 26 figures to the Rebels 24.

So how does it compare to Sharp Practice and MWWBK? I think once you got the hang of it the game would play faster than SP. The unit activations (basically throwing 6+ on two die with various modifiers) are quickly done and do give some flavour to the different units.

Unlike MWWBK each side only has one officer so the effect of having a useful/useless officer with each unit is diluted. Looking at the traits table for the officers they don't seem as extreme as MWWBK.

Firing is simple to resolve as are the morale tests. The firing is not as deadly as MWWBK. Odd things happening on a double 1 or 6 for unit activation can have a big effect as well (similar to the 3 flags thing in SP). Movement is a set distance unless you issue an attack order where it is variable.

So a fairly simple ruleset that would give a quick game. Gary is a big fan of Dragon Rampant so perhaps we can give the rules another runout at the club sometime.