Triple-Posting:  Flag Day, This Day in History and Replay Turn 9

Happy Flag Day! 
and
 This Day 150 Years Ago in Rebel Raiders' History: Lee and Longstreet Cross the Potomac

Historical Event:  On June 14, 1863, Lee and Longstreet crossed the Potomac into Maryland, a fateful step that in just over two weeks would bring them to the fields of Gettysburg.

Game Connection:    General Robert E. Lee appears on two cards:  Bobby Lee (Card 60) and Lee Moves North (77); Longstreet has his own card (Card 79).   Bobby Lee allows the South to re-roll dice in combat, while Longstreet adds a die.  In 1861-63 The Lee Moves North card prevents the Union from making attacks near Richmond for the turn (reflecting their need to respond at Antietam and Gettysburg); in 1864 it merely costs the Union an attack pawn (which accounts for Grant sending a corps to Washington to confront Jubal Early).

Rebel Raiders Replay  (Turn 9 –December 1863)

Designer Mark McLaughlin as CSA; Naval Historian Brandon Musler as USA

When we last left off, the North had driven Southeast from Nashville, taking first Chattanooga and then Kennesaw Mountain, putting the Union adjacent to Atlanta.

The Few Just Keep Getting Fewer – Until There Are None

Eight Blockade Runners go down this turn!  Eight!  That lamentably for the South is EVERY Blockade Runner they had on the map!

Here is how they were lost:

-USS Unadilla (Card 17) catches one coming out of Mobile.  One Blockade Runner gets past the gunboats on the Blockade Station outside Pensacola only to be caught in the Gulf by USS Housatonic (Card 27).  The USS Powhattan (Card 21) picks off another, one loaded with 2 VP cargo, outside Charleston.  Runners are also caught going in or coming out of Tallahassee, Key West, Wilmington, and New Bern.  An eighth is also caught, but by this time Mark is not even bothering to write down where – it is just too sad.

The two Raiders at sea, as if things were not bad enough, manage to snag but a single VP among them.

Brandon is beside himself with glee, and two friends who stopped by to watch the game for a bit, tell him he can no longer complain about not rolling high enough on his dice.

The Southern VP total is so depleted that if not for the play of Lively Little Trade (Card 57) it would be down to zero. 

The South builds Batteries in Atlanta and Vicksburg, places the Ironclad built last turn in Memphis, buys a Raider and Four Blockade Runners and, just to show the South WILL rise again plays Card 63 – CSS Alabama!

(The famous Raider is depicted in full color on the cover of the game, and was along with CSS Shenandoah (depicted on Card 64) one of the most successful of all of the Rebel Raiders on the High Seas.

To be continued....

First Time Using the REAL Game...

Today I finally got to "play" Rebel Raiders on the REAL game (instead of my old hand-made playtest copy).

Actually, I did not "play" but taught the game.  My friend Bob, who had been a playtester but had not played for months, was the South, and Charlie, who had never played, was the North -- and I coached him just a little, but only on explaining what he could do, not what he should do.

 Bob as the South frustrated Charlie early on...by turn six he had not lost a single city or port...and had lost only Fredericksburg (which he took back) and had Louisville.  His blockade runners were steaming in and out of ports quite merrily and his raiders were having a romp on the seas.

Charlie got on a slow roll...he kept winning naval battles, sinking ships and blowing up batteries, but LOSING the final attack.  We counted: he made 12 amphibious attacks over the course of the game   and won ONE...Savannah was the ONLY port to fall!

But that was key...as from there he rolled through the South, where there were very few defensive batteries - as Bob concentrated on putting batteries in ports and on using his resources to build ironclads.

Charlie came out of Savannah and took Augusta, then into Atlanta and from there straight across to Vicksburg, then fought DOWN through Baton Rouge to New Orleans!

Jackson died defending Fredericksburg, and Grant took Richmond.

The final battle was a huge naval fight at Memphis (fourth such of the game).   Porter's mortar boats finally had an effect, knocking out a battery before the battle, and the duel of U.S. ironclad Carondelet vs rRebel ram Manassas was epic! Six rounds of combat during which four rebel and three union gunboats were sunk, along with one rebel ironclad forced to retreat due to a mechanical failure card and one Yankee ironclad sunk...then it was Carondelet and another ironclad alone vs Manassas and Charlie won.

That cleared the way for the attack by the army which took Memphis...and that was game (Atlanta,Richmond, the three Mississippi cities, negative rebel points makes for an automatic victory)...and it came on the last attack of the last turn of 1864.  (That is normally the last turn of the game, but Charlie played the card that gave him a chance for a 13th turn and he did win the election that would have given him one more turn)

Charlie sank 33 blockade runners through the course of the game -- there are 17 counters available, which means every blockade runner was basically sunk twice (the South still had four on the board)  and he sank four raiders (but Alabama, ironclad raider Stonewall and two others were still at sea)

It was a great game, both had a lot of fun and both want to play again! (Hopefully next time I will get to play!)

This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History

-Dedicated to Civil War episodes, battles, people and ships that also appear in GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas, my next game.

April 15, 1863

            Historical Event: “Captain, there be whales here!”  On this date in 1863 the Confederate raider CSS Alabama captured two Union whalers off the Brazilian island of Fernando de Norohna.  Over the course of the war Captain Raphael Semmes almost single-handedly destroyed the American whaling fleet, doing great commercial damage to the Union and New England in particular.

            Game Connection:  The Alabama is not only on the cover of the game but also is a counter and card (Confederate card 63, as depicted below).   Hunting whalers is also what raiders like Alabama do best – and there is even a separate special zone on the map for such activities. 

Rebel Raider Shipping Date Confirmed!

GMT announced today that Rebel Raiders will ship in late April, along with Iron & Oak,  a tactical Civil War naval game which gamers can use to play out the battles in Rebel Raiders if they wish.   A section of the Rebel Raiders playbook shows how to use Iron & Oak for such a purpose.  So when Monitor and Virginia clash, or Kearsarge and Alabama meet, or when you are ready to run the gauntlet of guns at Vicksburg, rather than just play a card and roll a few dice for a quick result, you can go to Iron & Oak and fight it out in detail.

Late April, 2013:

Iron & Oak

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas

My Friends at GMT have also put my blog up on their site:

Mark McLaughlin's Blog

Mark just started a new blog covering his various novels and game designs. It includes a feature on Rebel Raiders on the High Seas - 150 Years Ago - that ties in the cards with history. Drop by and say hi to Mark and check out the blog. It's here:

http://markgmclaughlin.blogspot.com/