State of Rebellion: A Don't Tread on Me AAR

[bbmike]

I've been wanting to do a Don't Tread on Me AAR since the third season of AMC's Turn started this year (one of my favorite shows right now). If you aren't familiar with Don't Tread on Me it is an excellent solitaire game by Ben Madison and published by White Dog Games. Go buy it. No, really, it's that good!
I will try to explain how to play as I go along. Feel free to ask an questions or give advice or correct me if I get a rule wrong. I will be using Vassal to run this (there are two cats in my house that suggested I use Vassal). The Vassal module is a heavily modified version of the one that White Dog will send you for free if you buy the game. I do not like the map that comes with the boxed edition (and Vassal module). Chris Dorrell over at BoardGameGeek created a really nice map. I actually printed his map out on card stock and use it to play the tabletop version. For my Vassal version I decided to create my own map and update the counters to look a little more 3D. The screenshot below is what I ended up with. So stay tuned for the first "episode" and I hope you enjoy it!

[bbmike]

Turn 1 (Early 1775)

At the start of each turn I receive a small pittance from London to help fund my operations, in Pounds. This being the first turn I only receive £5. I can carry over any unspent funds, but I am not allowed to have more than £16 at any time. Since I start with nothing I move the Pounds marker to £5.

I now receive the "news" for the current turn. The headline reads, "Shot Heard Round the World!". Our troops have been fired upon by the rabble in Lexington, Massachusetts (Massachusetts Shore on the map). For this turn I must skip the entire British Ground Phase.

Next is the Smugglers Phase. For any smugglers in the Caribbean, 2 d6 are rolled and one smuggler is placed in the Sea Zone number rolled. Smugglers in Sea Zones are a bad thing for me. Their presence determines where Continentals will be deployed later in the game. For now, there is only one smuggler in the Caribbean. I roll one d6. It comes up a "1", North Atlantic. Since there can only be a maximum of two smugglers in a Sea Zone at a time and there are already two in the North Atlantic the smuggler remains in the Caribbean this turn!

Naval Phase. I can now try to eliminate some of the smuggles in the Sea Zones. Any navy units I have in the "At Sea" box can be used to attack smugglers. I have one unit there, Richard Howe. There are two smuggles in Sea Zone 1 and two smugglers in Sea Zone 2. At this point I should mention that each turn I am told by London which state is to be controlled, or "targeted". Sea Zone 1 connects to whichever state is the current Target State. In this case, Turn 1, the Target State is New England. Yes, that means Sea Zone 1 connects to New England just like Sea Zone 2 does. That means a total of 4 smugglers will be landing goods and supplies (Continentals) in New England this turn! I decide to try to take out one of the smugglers in Sea Zone 1 so I move Howe there. I must pay £2 to move Howe so I move the "Pounds" marker down to £3.



I now roll one die. If I roll my naval unit's strength or less (a 4 in this case) my attack is successful and the smuggler is returned to the Caribbean, otherwise it stays in the Sea Zone. Either way, Howe is placed in the "In Harbour" box for the rest of the turn. I roll a 1 (again, Vassal?) so the smuggler goes back to the Caribbean and Howe goes to "In Harbour". Best £2 I ever spent!

The next phase should have been the British Ground Phase, but that is skipped this turn so on to the battle phase.
The only place where British and Rebel forces are in the same county is Massachusetts Shore (where the first shots were fired!). I move the counters there to the battle box. Now I must determine how many Loyalist and Rebel Militia show up to help. Each State has loyalty level that will help determine this. New England's loyalty is current at 3 (low loyalty to the crown). I roll 1 d6 and check the Militia table. I rolled a 5 and since loyalty is at 3 one loyalist militia unit shows up and two rebel militia units.



The attacker and defender strength points are added up. Since Massachusetts Shore is farmland, the second number on the bottom of the counter is used for this. There are five COS (Committees of Safety) and two militia units for the Rebels. That adds up to 7 SP. My two British units and their loyalist unit give me 6 SP. The battle is resolved by dividing the attacker's SP by the defender's SP for a percentage result. The result is rounded down and that percentage is used with a 1 d6 roll to determine the battle outcome. For this battle that means I use the 100% column and roll a 1d6. To battle!



I roll a 6 and under the 100% column the result says 'DE'. DE means Defender Eliminated. Since I was the defender that means my two units are moved to the Prisoners of War box. Damn!



In addition to losing my units, the loyalty level for New England drops 1 point because the Rebels won. I move the New England loyalty marker down to 2.

Place Rebels Phase. First, I place any COS units in the Rebel Force Pool (max of 2). There are three there so two are placed. I roll 1 d6 to determine which state and another to determine which county. For the first COS I roll a 3, Pennsylvania, and then roll a 6 which place the COS in the 'county' of New Jersey. The second COS ends up in the State of New York, and county of Hudson Valley.
Now the Continental Armies are placed. This is where the smugglers determine where they will go. I roll 1 d6 to determine which Sea Zone to start in. I roll a 6, Cape Fear. Since there are no smuggles there I continue in numerical order to the next Sea Zone, so I go back to Sea Zone 1. There is one smuggler there so I draw one random Continental Army and roll 1 d6 to see which county of New England to deploy it in. A roll of 4 places it in Massachusetts Shore. Great. That's where to 5 COS units are. Moving on to Sea Zone 2 there are two smugglers. That means two more Continental Armies will be deployed to New England. Die rolls send one to Rhode Island and the other to Maine/Nova Scotia. I continue to the next Sea Zones but there are no more smugglers so no more Continentals are deployed.

Rebel Campaign Phase. I roll 2 dice to determine which States Rebel campaigns will take place. I roll a 3 and 5. Two minor campaigns will occur in Pennsylvania and Carolina. Before the campaigns start the two States receive reinforcements. A Continental goes to the lower numbered state and a COS to the higher numbered State. The units are placed according to priority so the Continental is placed in the county of New Jersey (with the COS already there) and the COS goes to the county Over the Mountains in Carolina. Minor Campaigns are now conducted in the two state. Since there are no British units in Pennsylvania the Rebel units there are moved to the State's critical county (the county with a blue die marker). The two Rebel units in Pennsylvania are moved to the county of Around Pennsylvania. There is a British unit in Carolina in the country of Piedmont so the COS unit moves there and a battle ensues!



Carolina's loyalty is at 8 and since Piedmont is a Loyalist Stronghold, +1 will be added to the Militia die roll. I roll 1 d6 and get a 6. The +1 is added resulting in a 6. :) Two loyalist and one rebel militia show up. The battle takes place in Wilderness so the first number on the bottom of the counters is used for calculating SP. That gives the Rebels 3 SP and the British 5 SP, so the 50% column on the Combat Results Table is used. I roll another 6 (come on, Vassal!) so the outcome is DR, or Defender Retreats. Since the battle took place in a Loyalist Stronghold the British unit is able to retreat into the Cape Fear Sea Zone. And since I lost the battle, Carolina's loyalty drops to 7. That ends the Rebel Campaigns Phase.

Logistics Phase. I can now spend £1 per county to raise loyalty in any state by 1 (maximum of 4), but only if I have any Lobsters in the state. I don't. I can now move any of my units around via Naval Transport, that is if I had any left to move. I do have one unit in the Cape Fear Sea Zone that I can land now. I could pay £1 to move it to another State but I've decided to keep it in Carolina. I have to place it in an unoccupied county so I pick Charles Town, another Loyalist Stronghold in Carolina. I also move Howe back to the At Sea box at this time.



Liberty Phase. It's now time to move the Liberty marker. This is how the game is either won or lost. If the Liberty marker reaches 9 or higher I lose. In order to keep the Liberty marker from advancing I must control a total of three states, one of which MUST be the current Target State that London has picked out for me. Control is defined as having only British units in the State. I do have one unit in the State of Virginia so I have control there. The only other State I have a unit in is Carolina, but since there is a Rebel unit there as well no one controls it. I have to move the Liberty marker up to 1.
Now each State's loyalty marker is adjusted according to rule 13/4. New England goes down 1 (Rebel controlled), New York goes down 1 (Rebel controlled), Pennsylvania goes down 2 (it is Rebel controlled and Congress is there), Virginia goes up 1 (only British there, yay!), and no change in Carolina (British and Rebels are there).

Finally, the Random Events Phase. For Turn 1, I roll 1 d6 to see what event happens this turn. I roll a 1 which is "Invasion of Quebec". Great, now the Rebels are invading Canada! I roll 1 d6 to see how many Continental units are involved. I roll a 6. Damn! The good news is these Continentals are taken from the map. There are only 4 available so only those 4 are sent to invade Quebec. For each Continental marching to Quebec I roll 1 d6. On a roll of 1-3 the unit goes back into the force pool (it is considered to have deserted, surrendered, died from smallpox, etc.), otherwise it makes it to Quebec.
I roll: 4,5,5,4
Here's proof of my bad, bad rolls. I've always thought Vassal isn't fair when rolling dice. I really think I should use actual dice for this.  8)



All of the Continentals manage to make it to Quebec! Bad luck for me. Quebec gets no roll for Militia units and is considered farmland for battle. That gives the Rebels 8 SP and the British 6 SP, putting the battle on the 100% column. I roll a 3 so the outcome is AR (Attacker Retreats), a British victory with the Rebels retreating to the State of New York and county Connecticut Coast. Quebec is safe for now but New York is full of Patriots.

And that's it for Turn 1. I hope it wasn't too boring, I'm trying to make this a tutorial as much as I can. I think this is a fairly typical start for Don't Tread on Me. I've had much worse. Here is how the board looks at the end of the turn: