"Patriots & Loyalists" - Visiting a classic design, p.2

One-Hour Wargames Scenario #4 "Take the Hill" continues, with the venerable "Patriots & Loyalists" rules. Turn 5 Patriot turn resulted in good fortune for them and a bold stroke has them routing the large Anhalt-Zerbst battalion, pushing back onto the objective with the large Continental Battalion, while the North Carolinians race to join them at the hill...

The Patriot plan is to contest the hill with the large Continental Line Unit [in blue] while the North Carolinians [in white, in column] race to hold their open right flank. They also need to get their rifle unit back into the fight and keep the Lights busy while they have greater strength in the road valley.

They are being somewhat helped now that the Highlanders are masking their gun.

Meanwhile, the British mean to turn the Continental's flank and clear the hill, send the North Carolinians packing, then overrun the gun!  The Irish will plug the gap along the road. They also roll well for Actions, get 4, and are able to put effective fire upon the hill and move up the Irish.

Turn 6, the Rebels roll low and only have 2 Actions.

To make matters worse, the Brits roll high and get 4 Actions on their Turn 6!

The lead flies along the road as the Irish finally move into position. The Lights in the woods are out of the firing arc of the Maryland line along the road [in PaL it is a strict 22 degrees].

On the hill - aka the objective and victory condition - the Loyalists and Scots send the Patriots packing! After a moment's pondering, I decided to fire the Scots rather than charge, which may have bogged things down, and left them open to attack by the North Carolinians.  Generally speaking, Fire is the most reliable way to fight in PaL.

Meanwhile, on the right, the Lights blast away at the Rifles, who roll misrably and take 2 PM...

...and since they have 2 PM already, they depart the field [I forgot...it's 5PM to rout, actually. Not a big deal as the elite Lights were still way ahead in the firefight, and they'd most likely have sent the Rifles packing soon enough].

The Lights now begin their movement to turn the Patriot line from the right flank...

...while the Loyalists roll astonishingly well and easily withstand the Patriot gun's fire!  With no figure casualties, if one passes morale, there is no effect upon a unit from being fired upon.

On Turn 7, everyone rolls well for activations!  The Generals are pleased.

Turn 7 end, view of the battlefield. The Patriots along the road are threatened on their left by the Lights and on their right by the Loyalist unit. Their line is reforming over 12" away from the objective which is strongly held by two units with few PM, and a gun on the left.  The Irish are steadily Firing into the valley which will shortly be cleared so they see no need to take risks!

Closeup from the left - the Americans have certainly lost the objective and will be lucky to stay in the field at this point.

Turn 8, the Americans roll 4 Actions again, and their gun unleashes Fire at close range - to no avail!  The Loyalists are Grenadiers In Disguise today, and they easily pass all their Morale checks!

Game end.  The Marylanders are retrograding so the Lights are not enfilading them. However, the Marylanders and their Patriotic Gun are now in the way of the other Continental line unit.  Out of position, and unable to contest the objective even with several more turns to go, the Rebels concede.

Well, this was a pretty traditional and entirely believable re-enactment.  I did make a few errors and forgot rules occasionally, plus my figs are based 4/base, and the rules have them 3/base, which caught me up a few times as the mechanics are linked to bases, not figs.

The British had the tougher task of taking an objective, but with the edge in quality - Lights and Scots - and an amazing performance by the Loyalists in the center [who were only supposed to support the effort] they easily pushed back the Patriots. Miserable morale rolls by their mediocre troops also didn't help!

There were several instances where units found themselves out of position on the battlefield due to poor planning on my part.  PaL is a strictly linear game, units are not very maneuverable, and planning an effective firing line must be done 2-3 turns ahead, when the battalions are moving onto the table.  Much like in real life! This is something I would want to keep.

The one thing I don't like is that IF you roll well for morale, there is zero effect from being shot it.  In game terms, enemy Fire is entirely ineffective if you pass morale.  This removes the differentiation between casualties and morale, and thus surmounting casualties with superior morale, which typifies the British performance during the war.  While I believe in the morale-driven mechanic, I may have to introduce a separation between actual casualties - wounded and dead - and morale. 

Permanent Markers result in a steady decline in unit performance - each PM cancels the Fire / Melee of one stand.  Thus a unit has a definite decline, which is realistic. However, the nuance of becoming disordered and re-forming isn't represented - there's no way to rally off a "Permanent" Marker.  I'd prefer to have that aspect of the battle in the game, actually. Whether to spend precious time re-forming for greater combat effectiveness or advance in a somewhat disordered fashion is a key command decision in the period, and I miss seeing it.  So there needs to be a way to rally off markers, but also a way to be unable to rally back "the dead and wounded."  

Overall, PaL is an interesting and flavorful set of rules that take a bunch of traditional mechanics and put tremendous focus on morale as the key factor in a battle. It is the lever with which one will push the enemy away and take ground, while positioning is the fulcrum. A great accomplishment by Scott Holder!