Random charge distances in Rebels and Patriots

First blog post for 2019 will be a in-depth deskription of a rule in the up comming Rebels and Patriots rules that go a bit outside the confortable "rampant" box, random charge move distances.

So what is it all the fuss about and way...

It actually started with all Cavalry was shoot to pieces during the playtest games, Cavalry are and should be fragile to firing as well as Infantry in the open BUT at least the Cavalry should have a chanse to reach a enemy before the unit was all gone, at least for the sake of playability of the rules.

The solution on our chalange was to introduce a longer but random charge move, giving the charging unit a chance to closing in befor they was taken out, but also puting the to a risk of ending up in between if they failed to gain enought momentum in their charge.

When your unit want to charge a enemy unit it has to be within Maximum Attack Distance, 12" for Infantry and 18" for Cavalry.... sorry if i choked you..

So we asume your unit are within Maximum Attack Distance, then you roll to Activate the unit as usual suceeding on a 6+

If you suceeded with the Activation, the unmodified dice roll,is the distance your unit must move forward the target unit of the attack. All Cavalry units add +6" to the dice roll. The attacking unit must move the full distance even if it wont bring it in contact with the target unit, remember to honour the 3" rule for proximity to enemy units if the attack dosent make it in to contact.

With this simple solution a unit have the chanse to be able to perform an charge before taking to many casualties, there is still a greate risk to expose themself to enemy fire.

The enemy also act under the threat of being charged before they can eliminate the threat as they cant really be sure when the enemy will comit to attack, will he chanse to Attack further away with the risk of being caught in between or will he try to play it safe and move in possision to get a shorter Charge distance...

This also effect the triangular metaplay between Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery, as for example Cavalry are now a greater threat to Infantry that in responce form-up in Close Order (better protection from cavalry) but that would make the Infantry more vulnerable to Artillery fire.

Here are an example of the random charge move:

An infantry unit wants to Attack an enemy unit that is 7" from them. The unit rolls 5 on the Activation Test and remains stationary as they failed the test (they need 6+ to Activate). If the Attacking unit had their Officer within 12", giving +1 on all Activation rolls, they would have succeeded with their Activation and moved 5" (the unmodified number rolled on the Activation dice) towards the enemy, but they would not be able to make contact as they started 7" away. Instead, the Attacking unit has to stop 3" from the enemy and no melee will occur. 

If the Attacking unit was a unit of Light Cavalry, they would still fail to activate on the roll of a 5, but with the Officer close by they would have gained their vital +1, totalling 6 and succeeding – thereby moving 5" + 6" (Cavalry add +6"), a total of 11" which would have galloped them into contact with the enemy 7" away. 

If the unit being charged was another Light Cavalry unit that chose, and succeeded, to Evade, it would then make a half move (6" for Light Cavalry) as a response to the Attack. Meaning that the unit would be 13" away from the Attacking unit before the Attacking unit moved. The Attacking unit would only make a move of 11" – not enough to contact the target, so the charging Light Cavalry would stop 3" short.

I hope you will like the new charge concept and that it will give you even more interesting games with the Rebels and Patriots rules.

Below some more pictures from a sucessfull British "charge" :)
all minis painted by my matey jesper.