Rebels & Patriots: Tell Them Where We Died...

Back to the North-West Frontier down BIG with George and I deciding to use Rebels and Patriots again, but picking one of the scenarios from The Men Who Would Be Kings - Seek and Destroy!

Part of George's Pathan force set up in a village, which the Imperial force was tasked to destroy before Pathan reinforcements descended from the hills...

The Imperial Field Force comprised of the 92nd (Gordon) Highlanders, 15th Sikhs, 13th Bengal Lancers and the newly painted 4th Gurkha Rifles. 

No, I don't know why I didn't take any artillery...

As the Imperials slowly advance on the village, the call went out and Pathans from neighbouring valleys rushed to the aid of the beleaguered villagers...

As the Imperials advanced they came under fire from a unit of Pathan Light Infantry on their flank.... 

Inflicting a couple of casualties on the 92nd Highlanders, although losing one of their own...

The Bengal Lancers rashly decide to deal with the pesky rifles and Charge them, losing two lancers and gaining a Disordered marker!

The Pathans decided to shoot at the Disordered lancers but George failed the activation test rolling a Double 1, necessitating a roll on the Fumble table... 

Would the Pathans retreat? 

Would they become Disordered themselves?

George rolls a 4... Charge!!! WTF?! The Pathans charge into the Disordered Lancers and whilst losing a couple of men wipe out the Bengal Lancers!

At this point I decided the Gods of Luck were not going to be with me tonight....

The 92nd Highlanders decide to avenge the Lancers and after a couple of turns of hand to hand combat wipe out the Pathans - They don't like it up 'em!

Meanwhile the Pathan reinforcements reach the outskirts of the village...

Whilst the 4th Gurkhas start shooting it out with the Pathans in the village...

The 15th Sikhs yell "Bole So Nihal!" and capture one of the buildings, wiping out the Pathans within...

And take possession of it. However they face Pathans to their front and flank with more arriving all the time...

Some bad dice rolling sees the 4th Gurkhas become Broken and then fail the Rally test badly and are Routed without a chance to wet their kurkis!

Under fire from three sides, the Sikhs become Disordered, then Broken...

And another bad Rally test sees them Rout!

With just the 92nd Highlanders on the field of play, the Imperial commander concedes defeat and retires to Peshawar for a gin and tonic and a severe dressing down...

Well that was an unmitigated disaster!

I'm not sure why I decided to forgo including some artillery in my Field Force, but that meant my infantry had to clear out the Pathans in the village and whilst the Sikhs took one building, the Gurkhas did nothing (the curse of the newly painted unit) and the Highlanders got side tracked by the Pathans in the hills. I had intended to save the Lancers to take out some of the reinforcing Ghazi Tribal Infantry but wasted them trying to disperse the pesky rifles on the flank.

Some better dice rolling might have taken the edge off the defeat, but even if the Sikhs and Gurkhas hadn't routed (and the Lancers not got charged whilst Disordered) the time limit on the scenario to destroy the buildings given the speed the Pathan reinforcements arrived meant that I would not have managed to destroy enough buildings in time.

The game does play differently with Rebels and Patriots rather than The Men Who Would Be Kings, and with an eye on the First Afghan War it is a definitely better set for earlier colonial warfare, TMWWBK probably being better for the 1870's onwards, especially against stabby native armies like Madhists and Zulus. That said I think the Morale and Disorder rules from R&P is better than the Pinning mechanism in TMWWBK and it might be worth porting it across to see what difference it makes...