The Great River Race

Rebels and Patriots is an Osprey rule set and has been a point of interest for some time now.  The games play fast and clean and give me a chance to use my 25/28mm French and Indian War figures which have set idle for years.  For a quick game it naturally sacrifices some "realism" and this is no exception.  Taking the game at face value it has been satisfying so far.  Depending on the scenario each player controls a 24 point company that you can customize by upgrading or degrading units.  So for example you can have natives, light or line or "shock" infantry that can sharpshooters, regulars or poor shots.  Each unit activates typically on a 6+ roll of 2d6.  The company commander gives motivation bonuses and can be played almost like an RPG as he can gain rank and abilities (not all are good) as he progresses.

This was our third game and represents the French with 18 points attempting to get three rafts of supplies down the river and off the 4x4' table.  The British with 24 points have other plans, and a French relief force is on the way.

My homemade rafts with marines and milice aboard.

The activation dice were cruel and a raft broke up immediately
drowning the crew.

The British attempted to cut them off at the ford and capture them.

Just in time some French arrived to shoot British in the back.

This had the desired effect, allowing the two rafts to escape.

Though one was just carried by the current, all aboard down.

Each turn the French diced to see how far the rafts would go and whether they would change lanes in the river, potentially grounding or hitting one another.  After the wretched initial luck the French avoided hitting land or each other.  In the end both officers gained "honor" points in equal numbers.  This scenario is very hard for the river rats and may need some tweaking next time we run it.

We reset the table and did the Beans and Bullets scenario too.

Alas, this was the only picture I took of the glorious French victory.  This game, with each side having 24 point companies, was as difficult for the attacker as the last one was for the defender.  While the British were able to loot part of the French camp they were pushed away with heavy casualties.

We need to add cannons and cavalry to future games to see how they play.  Then and only then will we talk about whether we want to "house rule" anything.  In theory the rules will accommodate games from 1750-1868, but I'm looking for something at the early end.