94. A Foreign (Legion) Affair - Part 1

Hello again.  A (great) while back I played two solo games of Combat Patrol using elements from Feudal Patrol, or in other words I basically played Feudal Patrol with firearms.  I assigned the "shapes for damage" to certain modern weapons, such as rifles and pistols.  I really like the way Feudal Patrol handles damage compared to Combat Patrol.  I wanted to see whether force-fitting them together would work.  I think it does.

I decided to play the same scenario twice, reversing the opponents, to see if there was any difference in the outcome.  I played on a 4'x4' table with probably-not-enough terrain.  But it's the desert, so....

The scenario involved an attacking force attempting to oust a dug-in opponent from a small oasis in the desert.  This battle report will show the first play-through, using my French Foreign Legion defending against the numerically superior Arab attackers.

There are a LOT of pictures that follow, that show the flow of the game, but you can quickly scroll through them by only looking for the ones with captions, explaining what happened.

A short summary will appear at the end.

The table and the disposition of the forces.  At the top:  the Foreign Legion occupying the small oasis:  3 squads of 6.  At the bottom:  the attacking Arabs:  4 groups of 10 each.

The command squad is not dead; they're climbing from the ground floor to the roof.

The many "stunned" markers are from sprinting into cover.

Turn 1 ends.

Turn 2, the Arabs attempt to get as close as possible while still behind cover, before charging into the hail of bullets.

The Arab right attempts to close with the Legionnaires left.

An Arab group with rifles (carbines, really) sprinted to get within range.

Turn 2 ends.

Turn 3 begins.

The rifle-armed Arabs come under fire first.

The Arabs on the right launch their first major attack against the Legionnaires sheltering in the rocks.

And the Arabs on the left also launch their attack.

A major scrum emerges.

A second Arab group with rifles attempts to support the attack.

The Arab assault is devastated.

This card came up, leading to...

...the fanatics charging AGAIN!

They make contact...

...with mixed results.

The sole survivor finally had enough and ran.

Turn 3 ends.

Turn 4:  On the Arab right, the Legionnaires fared much better than their attackers.  The Arabs were unable to actually come to grips with their spears and were caught in the open.

A look at the general disposition of the combatants.

The Arabs pressed their attack, but poor results again.

Turn 4 ends.

Turn 5 begins.  The Arab left takes fire from the Legionnaires.

The Arab rifles take fire from the command squad, killing their leader.

The spear-armed Arabs finally close.

Unfortunately for them, their opponents are armed with bayonets.

Turn 5 ends.

Turn 6 begins.  The spear-armed Arabs run.

Turn 6 ends.  A fairly uneventful turn.

Turn 7 begins.

Legionnaire shooting whittles down the rifle-armed Arabs.

Turn 7 ends.

Turn 8 begins with a head-shot on the Legionnaire Sergeant.

The Arabs suffer under the shooting reprisal.

Even the stalwart Legionnaires can reach a breaking point.

Turn 8 ends.

Turn 9 begins with a pretty good result for the Arabs on the left.

With the Arab right mostly devastated, the Legionnaires there race to reinforce their comrades on the Legion right.

Turn 9 ends.

Turn 10 begins.

Turn 10 ended.

Turn 11 begins with a devastating volley by the reinforced Legionnaires...

...causing the final rout of the Arabs.

A final look at the battlefield.  The Legion held the town with minimal casualties.

The four dead Legionnaires, out of 18.

The end result was a victory for the Legion, easily holding the small village.  Their rifle fire and accuracy was deadly.  The Arab factions could not get close enough, fast enough, to bring their superior numbers into play, and even when they did, the Legion had chosen their defensive spots well.

My next blog post will detail the reverse, where the Legion attacks an Arab-held oasis.

Thanks for reading.