Redvers’ Reverse A Legion Wargames game by Geoff Noble and Godfrey Bailey “I was sold by a damned gunner!” Context and premise of the game Redvers' Reverse puts you into the polished boots of Redvers Bulleri as you lead a great army of British troops on their way to relieve Ladysmith; the eyes of the British Empire are upon you. General Buller left Chieveley Camp that morning with 16,000 soldiers in 4 infantry brigades, with 2,600 mounted men and with 30 guns of the Field Artillery, to which was added a formidable complement of naval guns - 14 12-pounder and 2 huge quick-firing 4.7-inch guns from H.M.S. Terrible. The latter were dragged by great teams of oxen. The last time such a great force had been fielded by any nation was 45 years earlier when, during the Crimean War, Lord Raglan took 26,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry and 60 guns into action at the Alma River. Ahead of you lies the Tugela River, 70 to 90 metres wide, which you must cross, possibly under fire from Boers who may be hidden on the other side, or who perhaps are not there at all. You haven’t reconnoitred the river so you don’t know where the driftsii are, and you haven’t sent scouts to take a shufti at the land on the other side to see if Boers are loitering about. Instead you’ve been shelling the empty hillsides for 2 days, to no obvious effectiii. You have at least heard that before you arrived, the Boers blew the railway bridge, though the road bridge to the west of Colenso is still standing. Before dawn you start the advance on the river. Your orders take time to reach your subordinates, who sometimes simply ignore them, and after the two-day delay shooting at shadows, you’re in a bit of a hurry to reach the besieged garrison half a day’s march north. Geoff Noble’s design notes on page 12 of the rulebook give important background to the battle, the game and the design. General remarks The game allows for you to combine 8 “negative” variants with each other and 10 “positive” ones, with the proviso that the positive and negative points balance to 0, so hundreds of variants are possible. This version of the rules only refers to a small number of variants that change a rule. The game uses the Turn & Status track not just to keep track of the turns (and the status) but also to store up events that you won’t resolve immediately but that wait for future turns. It’s therefore essential to remember to move the Turn token along the track at the start of each move. When the rules ask you to select an area according to certain criteria, and more than one area satisfies them, you decide. Nomenclature The rules refer to Buller, Longiv, and the leadersv. If leaders are killed in battle, they are replaced by anonymous subordinates (shown by turning their tokens over); Buller and Long are not replaced (the backs of their tokens are blank). British officers (other than Buller and Long) show a letter A for Aggressive, B for Good, and C for Cautious, temperaments that influence their tendency to charge to the guns, follow orders, or ignore them. A brigade is commanded by a leader and comprises units that may be battalions (of infantry), regiments (of cavalry) and batteries (of guns). The map is divided into areas by parallel white lines. Distance (movement and range) between area a and b is given by the fewest number of parallel grey lines you must cross to get from a to b. Drifts (fords) and bridges are symbolised by squares. These are also treated as areas delineated by parallel lines. If a bridge or drift joins a and b, the range from a to b is 1 (the river counts as a single set of parallel lines), but the distance is 2, since units must enter the bridge or drift from a (1 set of lines) and leave it to enter b (a second set of lines). The rules refer to Boer zones. Zone A comprises the 5 areas abutting the northern, red edge of the map from Red Hill to the Tugela River. Zone B comprises all the other areas north of the river together with the drifts and bridges. Zone C comprises areas south of the river. The rules refer to emplacements, which are positions that the Boers have prepared for protection against hostile fire. Emplacements are shown on the map as rectangles with the name of the commandos that start in that area. These emplacements are fixed features of the landscape and may change hands during the battle. They modify dice rolls throughout the game. The rules also refer to emplacement markers showing “hidden” or “captured”. These markers have a Union flag on the reverse. The “hidden” markers remain in place, and contribute to modifying dice rolls, until a Boer unit fires from that area, after which you remove the marker from that area. The Boers can win back a “captured” emplacement from the British. You draw chits from cups, place markers on tracks, map areas and also on the tokens that represent units, and you use counters to keep track of quantities. The tokens for Boer commandos show a single digit, representing its fire power, or strength. Boer commandos can move from the area they occupy to an adjacent area (that is, they have a movement point of 1) each turn. Boer artillery never moves. Rules reformulated by Martin Sharman March revised April 2021 The tokens for British battalions, regiments and batteries show the name of the unit at the top, on a strip whose colour corresponds to its brigade. The two numerals represent strength (firepower) on the left and capacity for movement on the right. On the reverse of a battalion token, the strength is lower, representing a depleted battalion. One side of the regimental tokens show strength and movement points when mounted, and the reverse shows the statistics when dismounted. Batteries have strength but no movement on the side representing unlimbered guns, and movement but no strength on the limbered (mobile and attached to horses) side. Leader tokens bear their names on the obverse and “Replacement” on the reverse. To the right of the letter A, B or C that represents their temperament, the numeral represents their capacity for movement. The British HQ is operative when the numeral 2 is face down, and ready to move when the 2 (its movement points) is showing. Setup 1. Track and chart markers: On the Turn & Status track at the top right of the board, place markers for Turn and Boer Confidence on 1, and for Loss on 10. On the Segment track immediately next to the T&S track, place the Segment marker on ‘British Send Orders’. This track is intended to help you remember where you are in the various steps in each turn. 2. On the “sequence of play” chart immediately below, place one of the two Step markers against ‘Return Close Order and Bob Hart to Cup’. Put the other Step marker somewhere on the “fire procedure” chart on the left margin of the board. 3. Prepare 2 Event and 1Boer Strength cups: Remove all 5 ‘Hesitate’ and 2 of the ‘Close Order’ chits1 from the British Events and put the rest in a cup. Place all Boer Events in another cup2. Set aside the 2 ‘No Fire’ chits3 from the Boer Strength chits and put the remainder in a third cup. 4. Prepare the drifts: Turn the drift markers face up and pick out the single 12, all 3 of the 10 and 1 of the 6. Turn them face down, shuffle them and place 1 each face down on 2nd Pont, Wagon and Native drifts on the Tugela River. Remove the remaining 2 drift markers without looking at them. You now have 3 drift markers, whose values you do not know, hiding 3 of the drifts. 5. The remaining drift markers comprise: a single 8, 2 x 6, and a single 4. Shuffle them face down and place 1 on each of Bridle, 1st Pont and Small Falls drifts. Remove the last drift marker without looking at it. All the drifts are now hidden, with unknown values. 6. Prepare the armies: A solid khaki background of the front side of Boer commando tokens indicates full strength, while a pale grey stripe on the back indicates reduced strength. The 2 Boer artillery units (one of 2 guns, the other of 3) have blank backs. Place all the Boer tokens, full strength side up, on their starting areasvi, giving each area that contains Boers a Hidden marker. Place 3 of the 4th Group commandos to the left of the main map in the ‘Robinson’s Drift area’ but do not put a Hidden marker in that area. 7. Place the tokens for General Buller and HQ (with the numeral 2 face down) in their spaces on Shooter’s Hill at the south edge of the map and Colonel Long in the space immediately to the east. Now fill up the other boxes in the areas near the middle of the south edge of the map, going from left to right, with: • 2nd Artillery (dark grey4): Lt. Col. Parsons, 63rd and 64th Field Artillery, both turned to show 2 movement points (and pictured limbered with a trailer) rather than 6 strength points. • 5th Irish (tan): Major Gen.