Rebels Against Rebellion solo preview play and impressions - One Stop Co-Op Shop

0:00 Hey everybody, this is Mike with the One Stop Co-op Shop, and today I'm previewing Rebels Against Rebellion, a 1v1 or solo war game about the American Civil War in Eastern Tennessee. And as always, I accept no money for coverage of games. I just want to show this to you so you can make a decision about possibly backing it. And if you like the content on the One Stop Co-op Shop, consider supporting us through Patreon. You get early access to our videos and exclusive videos every month you can't see anywhere else. You can also listen to our weekly podcast for reviews and design discussions, or join the conversations and say hi on our Discord. So this is again set during the American Civil War in Tennessee, and this is something I didn't know about at all until I played this game, but Eastern Tennessee, unlike the Midwest and west of the state, was for the most part strongly loyal to the Union and didn't want to join the Confederacy. But when the state overall voted to secede, there were still pockets of resistance, and perhaps nowhere stronger than in Scott County, Tennessee, where there were multiple battles and military actions trying to control the county, Union loyalists versus Confederates. And what I'll be playing today is the solo mode, which always has you in the position of the loyalists. There is no way in solo to play the Confederacy, but if you play the competitive game, you can of course do either one. And this is from David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin who did Undaunted and War Chest. It is a deck-building war game, and the deck-building is super unique. Really excited to show this cuz I love the mechanics in this one. So I'm going to play through a full solo game and probably lose because the solo mode is very tough as written. I'll talk about that at the end of the video, and then I'll talk about my thoughts on the design overall. So first, let's talk about what's going on with the board

1:30 here. So you'll see there are locations connected by lines. If they have a dark black line, it's a connection by road, which makes it the easiest to attack along. If it's a blue line, it's by river, which is a little bit harder to attack along. And dotted lines are trails, which are very difficult to stage an attack over. Locations can be out of control where they don't have anybody's cube. They could be controlled by the loyalist player with a blue cube, or by the Confederacy player with a gray cube. And I'll note that technically there aren't supposed to be cubes on places like Jelico and Somerset. Those areas have a different color, and that's because they represent areas outside of the county that the Confederacy was sending troops into. So, the Loyalist player can never attack Somerset, can never attack Jelico. The Confederacy just exerts control out of there. But, for ease of play and seeing where the Confederacy's lines of supply are, I'm going to have cubes there for now. The Loyalist player starts with six locations under their control. The game does have little stars next to those to let you know what they are. Uh each location has a certain number of points it is worth while you control it, from one to three, Huntsville being the only one worth that much. You can also, through card play, improve a location, putting a second one of your cubes there. You actually level up the card for that location. Then, it's worth plus one victory point once it's improved.

2:41 So, Huntsville would be four, New River would be three. But, whenever the other side comes in and attacks you and defeats your forces in the location, they get to keep the cubes as extra victory points. So, your victory points are the total you have earned from successful attacks, as well as the total of the locations you currently hold control of. You'll also see cards sitting around the board. These are units you can get into your forces, adding them to your deck. You also have one card in your deck for every location you control. So, the more area you're covering and the more you control, the more slowly and awkwardly you'll go through your deck of cards. And this is a game of control and victory points. At the start of the game, the Loyalists have 11 and the Confederacy have zero because they aren't even in the county yet. And it's also a game about food because food is the main resource. Uh many of your location cards will let you get food, and then pretty much every action you take in the game will cost food. You'll see there's light food and dark food, 40 of the light, 10 of the dark. You always take light food first, and when you spend food from your supply, it does not go back here, but it gets taken out of the game. Because food is not only the main resource, but it's also the timer for the game. Whenever all the light food is gone, the game is basically in sudden death. At that point, if any player begins their turn with more victory points than the opponent, they immediately win. Prior to the light food running out, the only way to win is to have 20 points while your opponent has 10 or fewer, which I've never seen happen in the game. And whereas my deck is eight cards, the six locations I'm holding and my two starting units, the Confederacy separates those cards. They have their

4:12 six locations here and their units here in these different rows. And that's because the location cards are going to determine where they're taking actions, and the unit cards are used mainly when they're trying to control regions, attacking, defending. So, for a human player's turn, you'll generally have five cards in your hand. You can play locations to get food resources or perform other actions, and the unit cards don't usually do anything on their own. Instead, they let you turn movement actions, which every location has, into attacks and attempt to control regions. So, for the bot, they're going to take up to four actions a turn, and they're going to flip a random location card for each one. So, what we do is we flip our first location. This one is Wartburg, which is to the south for the Confederacy. This is one of the six outside Scott County locations they're going to be coming from. And on the left, you see the actions this card can be used for. So, it can be discarded to gain one food to pay for other things later in the turn. It can be used for a move action, that's the little arrow out of the circle. And movement actions are exerted from the location you're moving from. So, if the Confederacy discards the Wartburg card, they could try to move units into Brimstone Creek, which is uncontrolled, and try to take control, or they could try to attack me at New River. But, the attack or the movement comes from the Wartburg card, the location that's being discarded.

5:26 Finally, Wartburg has a card icon with a plus, that's a bolster action, which means they can recruit some new units, adding them to their discard pile. Uh Wartburg is the only one that has a choice. They can either recruit the Third Tennessee Infantry for two food, or the 43rd Alabama Infantry for three food. These units are ridiculously powerful, but they also need supply tracing back to Wartburg. They don't have any food to buy them right now, so you don't have to worry about that, but these are one of the more complicated aspects of the game. But here we have Wartburg, we put it in the first action column, and we see which action they want to take. So first we see if they want to move, but as long as there's light food left in the supply, the Confederate bot will never choose to start an attack unless they have enough food to take control of the area afterwards. And the amount of food needed is the number of stars that location. So if they wanted to come out of Wartburg and take over Brimstone Creek, for example, they would need two food. Right now they have zero. So that's moving. Next they would want to bolster, like buy those third Tennessee infantry I had showed you, but clearly they don't have any food to do that.

6:27 Then they'll try to improve control, which mostly the Confederacy can't do. There are only three locations in Scott County on the entire board that they can improve because a lot of them are locked behind only the loyalist player being able to improve them. But improving a location means you take the regular location card, you pay one food, you get rid of it, and you get a nastier, stronger version of the same card. Their fourth option, the one that they'll do in the beginning of the game, is taking food. So they're getting one for Wartburg. And if they can't even do that because some locations in the interior of the county don't give you any food, they might just have to pass for the action. Okay, so that's it for their first action. Now we check out Monticello. And oh no, they're getting violent really quickly. Because out of Monticello, remember their first preference is to move. So they could go to Big South Fork River, but they don't have two food to control it. They do have two food to take over No Business for Me, which means they are starting a combat. Now we want to look at the type of terrain. So from Monticello to No Business is a path. That means they can only use a single combat card to actually come in, which they will do.

7:29 The attacker always has to play a card face down first. Now the Confederacy has two unit cards to start out. They have the Scott County secessionists, who have a single attack strength, but they have this little special icon here, which means that they can actually take a location over and control it. Whereas the Scott County Rangers have two attack strength, very strong, cuz my starting units both only have one strength and the control icon like the secessionists. But they don't have a control icon, so they can't actually help you get anything. All right, so let's shuffle those up so I don't know which one is which. So, they're attacking with one. Now I need to decide if I want to defend. So, there are two options when you defend. You can discard a unit card. So, here this would give me one attack strength and the defender wins ties, so a 50/50 chance that would be enough to uh maintain the location. Or I can play a location itself, but it has to be the one being attacked. And it's my bad luck, I drew four of my six starting locations and I did not get no business.

8:22 So, I could have played that for a shield, which is equivalent to a gun, but can only be used in defense. Then I would have been able to guarantee my defense, but so it goes. So, the question is do I want to play my Scott County loyalists or not? Big thing is when you defend, that card is discarded immediately and you do not draw as a player until the end of your turn. So, I'll be working with four cards instead of five, which is not great. But I've got a 50/50 chance of stopping them from winning the combat, so I guess I'll discard these guys. Now the bot always wants to play one more card than you play. That's kind of their basic decision-making process. But because they were attacking over that dotted path to get to No Business from Monticello, they can only play one card. They've already reached their max. We just got to see how the 50/50 turned out for us. Not well. That was bad.

9:06 That was very bad. So, they have won the combat two to one. My card's still discarded and so is theirs. But for the bot, you leave it over here above the action to show that it's locked in, so the bot couldn't like use it in another action later, because they can play way more than the five cards a real player would have. So, when you win a combat, the cube or cubes that are being used for control are taken by the winner. And these are each worth one victory point, so the Confederacy gets one victory point immediately. I also lost control, so I'm not gaining the one star victory point here. So, they're at one and I'm down to 10. Then, I also find the No Business card, which was hiding in my deck annoyingly, and I put it back in the location supply cuz I don't have control of it anymore. And in this case, I have to shuffle my deck back up. Not that it matters much cuz I'm drawing all these cards in a second. When an attacker wins a combat, they can then choose to try to control the location if they have enough food. The bots does, remember, while there's light food left in the supply. So, for the majority of the game, they will never make an attack that would not then give them the chance to control the location. And how their control works is they do a control check. They flip the top card of their draw deck, and if it has that little control icon, the little person, and they have enough food, they spend the food. Remember, it doesn't go back to the supply, and they do indeed take control. Well, that was a bad beginning, so they have taken No Business. They get the one star for controlling it, and they place the location card into their discard pile so they can do actions from that location in the future. All right, we're still going even though they already used uh four cards. Okay, so now they're doing Jack's Burrow. And since

10:38 they need food to do everything, if they have zero food, you can always just ignore whatever the card is and give them some food. Okay, then Somerset. We got to see if they can actually do something there. So, first they would want to move in, but Chitwood's has two stars, so they would need two food, so nope. Uh then they wouldn't want to bolster, but Morgan's Raiders costs two food, so nope. They can't improve control, so they just take another food, meaning they will have two food ready to kick my butt in the next round. I discard all the cards they used. I discard all the units they used, although whenever they need to draw on the uh deck is empty, they're just going to reshuffle it, so these guys will come right back until they recruit more people. And that's the end of the first Confederacy turn, which did not go great for me cuz I got chased out of the entire northwest of the county. Remember, I can't do anything unless I have locations that are adjacent. So, now if I want to get to No Business Creek, I'd have to go along the river from New River that I control. I have no way to get to Brinn Finnen. Can't get to Big South Fork River, which is unfortunate cuz the the unit I can recruit in the game, Bolstering is in that location, so I need to have it to do that. Oh, well.

11:38 All right, so going to my cards, I've gotten Buffalo Creek, Huntsville, Chitwoods, and New River. The Huntsville card doesn't have any food, but it is worth three victory points, so I still want to control it. And it lets me recruit the Home Guard for two food or the 7th Tennessee Infantry for three, both of whom have two attack, which would let me at least match those Scott County Rangers that beat me up last round. So, I could get two food from Buffalo Creek or Chitwoods or New River, and then go for the Bolstering in Huntsville. I don't have any units, so I can't try to control anything. So, sure, let's go a bit aggressively. So, I get three food by discarding Buffalo Creek, New River, and Chitwoods, and then I'll spend two of it Bolstering with the Huntsville card to recruit the cheaper Home Guard. So, they have two attack, but they don't have the control icon, and the action on the left for them, the little arrow going up and the trashing symbol, means that later on if I play this card and pay one food, I can permanently upgrade the Home Guard into Captain Bill Hembry, which just gives them the control icon. It doesn't change their attack power in any other way.

12:41 But, if I have an extra food and don't need to fight with the Home Guard on a future turn, it might be worth doing. All right, that's all my cards played. If I had cards left in my hand, I could choose to discard as many of them as I want, and then I draw back to five cards. I'm going to draw the two I had left, and then shuffle my discard pile. Didn't get much done that turn except for getting some stronger guys to fight. All right, back to the Confederacy. So, first, they're coming from Jamestown. I hope they can absolutely do an attack in a New River cuz they've got two food, the minimum they want to be able to control it. And this time, they've got a road. I mean, they can play up to three unit cards. Now, they only have two in their deck total, but remember, they always want to play one more card than me. So, if I just play New River or a unit, then they're going to play two of their cards. If I play two cards, they would want to play three, but they don't have that many. So, I've got the New River card. I've also got the Scott County loyalists, but here's the problem. I didn't get the Home Guard and even putting these two together, I only have two strength. And remember, if I play any number of cards, then they're going to play both of theirs, which is three strength. So, I really needed the Home Guard to bring this one home. Now, that being said, I'm going to lose the New River card from my hand anyway. So, there is literally no reason not to play that to at least force them to use both of their cards cuz again, they want to play one more card than I do.

13:54 So, they get three attack, I get one defense. They win. But, haha, they can't take control of New River even though they have the food for it cuz they don't have any uh units left in their draw decks. They're going to be attackless for the rest of the round. But, I do lose New River. That's two points down for me and one up for them for defeating my cube. So, it's already three to eight. The Confederacy uh tends to kick some butt quite a lot. They clearly have way more resources and military units than uh just a single county in Tennessee. But, yes, they can't take control. So, New River just goes to supply. All right. What are they doing now? Cuz they still have two foods. They're probably going to recruit some people. Jellicoe's up. Their first preference would be to go into Trammels and take control of it. They have the one food but they don't have any units. So, they will instead bolster. Jellicoe lets you bolster two cards for a single food.

14:40 It's the best deal in the game. And these are super strong units. The 5th Tennessee Cavalry and the Confederate Militia both have two attack. Both have the take control icon. But, they both also have a very important symbol that is unique to the Confederacy side. And that X means that if they ever are involved in a successful attack, not just the card that's needed to control a location, but actually use in an attack on one of my locations, then the card is removed from the game. So, often it's a little bit of a game of chicken of trying to get the Confederacy to use their forces uh in attack that doesn't maybe matter that much to get rid of their awesome units and then uh they'll be out of the game and you can try to take the location back. But, here they paid one of their two food. These guys are bolstering the discard pile, which I will note means that suddenly they now have units that could be uh shuffled into a new draw deck if they get the chance to attack again this turn. They will certainly take it. Okay, their location deck is empty, so we reshuffle, and it's Monticello. Oh man, they're going recruitment crazy here. So, they already control no business, so they can't move there. They don't have enough food for Big South Fork River. So, next option is to bolster. Captain James Rule also costs one food. He's also a strong two with control. And he's a little different. He has an arrow pointing down instead of the X, which means if he's using a successful fight, then they have to recruit him again, but he can come back over and over. And trust me, he's a thorn in your side when you're playing against the Loyalists. Well, that does empty them out of food. So, whatever they get this time, Somerset, they're just going to get a food for. And now they have just so many strong units.

16:11 The best I can do is hope to bleed him a bit and uh get him discarded eventually. I come back to me. All I have left is this little heartland of control. They have taken every thing else. And I got Huntsville again, which doesn't have food, Chewood and Buffalo, which do, and the Scott County Loyalists. So, I can take something this turn. And yeah, I think Brimstone is a good one. It's only worth one star versus uh Brimstone Creek and Homestead's two stars, but it's hard for the Confederacy to get to. They'd have to go over a river or a trail, and it gets you food, which neither of these ones do. So, it gives you more flexibility with your card play. And you can see what it improves into right down here. It becomes a Brimstone card with two defense, but also with an attack and a control icon, cuz Brimstone is one of two locations in the game that turns this location card into a unit card as well, and you can use it either way, which is really great for your play flexibility. Although, I guess thinking a bit more, maybe I should go into Homestead just to exert some influence on the west, like to try to win back New River or Brinfinnan. I'm just worried though that it has no food. So, yeah, let's go to Brimstone first. All right, so I'm playing Huntsville to move into Brimstone, the Scott County Loyalists with their control icon to take control of it, cost me my one food, and it gives me one victory point, and the Brimstone card added to my discard for the future.

17:25 And then, what else do I want to do? I could think about improving Chitwoods or Buffalo. Chitwoods improved version gives you two food instead of one, which is pretty crazy. Although, you always have the danger of them just coming in from Somerset and blasting you to pieces if you invest in it. And when you improve a location, besides getting another card, you also put another cube there, which temporarily gives you one victory point. But, if the enemy comes in, it gives them two victory points for kicking your improved position out. I could also improve Buffalo, because that's only surrounded by trails and rivers. It's really difficult to get to, and the improved card is just an awesome defensive card, three shields, so it makes it almost impregnable. And it's worth an extra victory point, but it doesn't do much else for me. Whereas, with Chitwoods, it's worth two food, which can really get me ahead.

18:10 But, it's a chance. I mean, if they attack from Somerset, although I know their Somerset card is in the discard. You do have that information from the bot. So, let's go for it. So, I get a food from Buffalo, and then I'll discard Chitwoods. So, I put that card back in the supply, and I get the Camp Chitwood card that hopefully they won't take from me immediately. Oh, by the way, if they come in and attack a location that is improved, the card that they get back, if they take control of it, is the basic card. They would have to improve it themselves. And I do get my second cube here, which puts me back to 10 victory points. Yeah, hopefully I can hold it. We'll see what happens. All right, the Tennessee has one food and there's so many good units. It's a little bit scary. Uh Jacksboro. Uh they need two food to control Buffalo Creek. They can't afford the 11th Tennessee Infantry. So, just a food for them. Uh next is Oh, No Business, the place they conquered. And they can absolutely afford to push on into No Business Creek. It's only needing one food for control. And I mean, at this point, yeah, they have so many cards.

19:07 Literally, only one out of five would not take control of No Business Creek. And yep, they didn't get it. And unfortunately for both those returning cards and the ones that discard the card forever, that only applies if they win a combat, not if they're used for control. So, Captain James Rule is sitting around to do something nasty in the future. Are they going to pay one food and take over No Business Creek? Which is honestly a pretty crummy card. There's nothing there. They can just move out of it. So, they can take it. All right, next is Wartburg. And yep, they need two food for either of those. They need two food for the cheapest of the options here. The bot always buys the cheaper one, Third Tennessee Infantry first. So, they're just getting a second food. So, they can probably do something nasty with this final draw. Please don't be Somerset. Please don't immediately take Camp Chitwood. It's not. It's Jellicoe.

19:53 Oh, which means they're trying to come into Trammells. And oh,

19:57 they actually did not get the control check. Now, for the bot, that unit card still stays locked in there even though they failed the control check. It's kind of like a little nice thing for the player. So, yeah, instead, they can't do anything else except take food cuz they already bolstered in that location. But, that means they are set to attack in lots of dangerous places when the next turn rolls around. All right, let's see what I've got. Ooh, I got Camp Chitwood, so I can get two food at least this once. You can also choose to keep a card in your hand. Like if I was sure they were going to attack from Somerset into Camp Chitwood, I could keep this just for defense, but that seems a little bit silly in this case. All right, so Brimstone I wanted to upgrade because that turns it into a unit. Buffalo Creek I should probably just get food from. Now, I do also have a unit card. So, if I didn't want the two food for Chitwood, I could go into Slaven Mill. Now, I could go from Buffalo into Trammells.

20:45 Yeah, that seems like a good option. All right, so let's get the two food from Camp Chitwood first. Gives me a lot to do. And then I'll put Buffalo coming in with the Scott County Loyalists, take over Trammells. It cost me one of those food. And then I want to improve Brimstone cuz it's another one that's out of the way, tough for them to attack. So, this one victory point should hopefully be a lock for a little while. That cost my second food from Chitwood, and it gets me the upgraded Captain William Robins. And you do see in the upper right there, it says Brimstone. It says Brimstone at the bottom along with the one food cost to improve the card. But yes, it's got two defense if he's directly defending Brimstone, or I can use him as another one attack control unit, which is never a bad thing. And with just Buffalo Creek, I guess I'll get a food for next turn.

21:31 Back to the Confederates. Somerset. No, THEY'RE TAKING CAMP CHITWOOD. NO. OH, this bad. I didn't keep the card.

21:40 No. See, there's not a

21:42 [sighs]

21:42 lot I can do here, unfortunately. It is over a road from Somerset, so they can bring up to three units in. So even if I had Camp Chitwood and the Home Guard, like the most I would have would be four defense, which actually might have been enough. But I can still play the Home Guard or the Scott County Loyalists. I want to use the Home Guard. Actually, this one I think I'm going to lose. I'm just going to play the Scott County Loyalists to force them to play more cards on their side, and hopefully some cards that they have to get rid of after using them. So that's one attack for me, and they are doing three attack for them, and it does forever get rid of the Confederate Militia, because again, they were used in a successful attack, not in a control. But they definitely win, so that is two more victory points for them as they take over Camp Chitwood, and I lose two victory points. And the important thing about these attack victory cubes is that they never go away. Like control of locations flips back and forth, but your military victories are forever. So I lose Camp Chitwood, but again, if they take control, actually let's see if they do.

22:40 They do. And unfortunately, again, it does not get rid of that card cuz it wasn't in the attack. But yeah, when they take control, they get the basic Chitwoods again. Although, if you look at Chitwoods in the bottom left here, that improvement icon, the plus on a person, is gray, which means unlike a lot of locations, the Confederates he can also improve it to get more food. Whereas, you'll see a location like Brimstone only has the blue, So, they can't recruit the guy that I did to help them fight cuz he's not on their side. He didn't want secession. Yeah, so that was that was terrible. But, at least it cost two of their three food. So, small favors. Oh, they got No Business Creek. This is great. No, it's not. No, it's not. I thought it was great cuz that card has no food, but they do have one food and they could get to Brinfinan, which is another one that I like to control when I get the chance if they don't kick me out of all my places too quickly cuz it can be improved to also get you two food, but it's like really hard to conquer cuz it's all paths. But, if I'm lucky, they'll draw the Scott County Rangers and not Captain James Rule and they won't take over Brinfinan.

23:37 Okay, awesome. That's small favor. That means James Rule is sitting right there. Now, importantly, when they start an attack, they're locked in even if the attack goes poorly for them. They can't do anything else. But, when they do a movement to take control and the control check fails, they get to take another action. Unfortunately for them and luckily for me, No Business Creek can't do anything except move. So, they can't take food. They can't improve it. They can't bolster it. So, that is literally two wasted cards for them cuz they also locked down the Scott County Rangers. All right. So, what are they doing instead? Monticello. And they're just getting food cuz they can't recruit him and they don't have two food to take over the Big South Fork River. All right. And finally, Jamestown. What are they doing in Jamestown? Oh, man. They're taking over New River cuz we know James Rule is on top of their deck and I don't control it to fight back even though I saved my Home Guard. I could have stopped them, but nope. I'm not there. So, yep. They spent their last two food and again, he is not returned cuz that was a take control not an attack. And they get New River. Oh, man. Help me. Well, we are tied 10 to 10 and the Confederates is just running roughshod over the entire west of the county while I'm trying to hang on in the east. So, what do I have left? I have Captain William Robins. So, I could do an attack with him. I also have the Home Guard. So, I could attack and try to take control. I could even go back to Chitwoods. Hmm. Well, I know who they're going to be flipping from. So, when they defend, they just flip a random unit card from the top of their deck and a random location card. If the location matches, so very low odds on that, they get the bonus for that. And if the unit

25:08 is able to defend, which they pretty much always are, then they get their defense. But importantly for the bot, it doesn't hurt them at all. And for a player, when you defend, you have fewer cards in your hand. The bot doesn't have that kind of negatives. And yeah, I mean, three? Yeah, three of their four units right now have two attack. So, for me to win a battle into Chitwoods, which yeah, I guess I'd have to attack. Yeah, I'd have to attack from Trammel or Buffalo Creek or Buffalo. And only Buffalo Creek would let me play two units actually have a good chance of beating them. If I came in from Trammels over the path, I can only attack with one unit. And I really need two to use Captain William Robinson home card and have a good chance of beating their one unit card for two defense. Darn it. I mean, I guess I could do something else for it. I could get some food and then um attack and take over Homestead to get some central pressure on them. That's the next best thing, right? Okay, so I already have one food from last turn.

26:02 Um I need Huntsville to stage the attack. I need Captain William Robins actually do the control. So, I'll get a food from Trammels, and then I'll move from Huntsville into Homestead playing William Robins not as his location but as his units to take over Homestead. So, that uses all my food, but it gets me uh two more victory points for having Homestead. That's something. This is just a place to attack from. Now, I have the home guard left. I feel like I should keep them. I mean, they're my best unit, right? So, if they're going to attack me, and they probably will, I want to be ready. So, yeah, I won't discard that. I'll just draw four new cards to go with it. All right, I achieved something. I achieved something. They're going to crush me, but I did something for a second. All right, first, No Business Creek. They got no food, so that card is no good. I love that they drew that. It's funny. I read through the entire historical companion book that the team wrote about the history of these incidents. And the No Business in No Business Creek area, apparently the family moved in there, they like left, and then the wife was like, "We had no business moving there in the first place." I'm totally butchering that story. David explains it much better, but it was something like that. But yeah, that was a wasted card. Love to see it. Okay, Jellico. Well, they're going to get a food cuz there's still tons of light food left and they don't have any. Somerset.

27:13 Nope, they can't attack out of there cuz Chitwood's is still there and they can't afford the Raiders. So, they get another food. And then Jacksburg. I know they're doing, "No, don't do this." They're going to come into Buffalo Creek and I was just thinking I could attack Chitwood back. All right. Um so, I mean there's no way I win this, right? They can play three cards and they have enough. So, I guess the best I can do is try to get rid of some of their like single-use cards. So, I'm going to do Home Guard and Buffalo Creek itself. Maybe not. Do I do Home Guard? I still want to attack the guys. I just don't know where I can. Let's do the Scott County Loyalists in Buffalo Creek. That's the most that I can play, so that's two. That's going to get them to play three cards. I'm just hoping that I get the ones to make them go away. Oh, I did. Beautiful. All right, so yeah, they destroy me. Five attack, but the 5th Tennessee Cavalry is gone forever. Bye. And James Rule goes back to the Monticello space. They have to recruit him again. Oh, actually this is better than I thought cuz look, that's their only control unit left. So, they do kick me out of Buffalo Creek, I lose two victory points and they get one. They are ahead 11 to 10. That's terrible. But, haha, those guys can't control. So, they don't seal the deal and actually take control of the area yet. So, I mean that was pretty bad. I'm down to three cards and no food, but at least they didn't get ahead yet. And again, they've lost some good units.

28:25 They haven't even recruited into the ones that have supply. I haven't even talked about that yet. But, I'll give you the quick version. So, most of the other units they can recruit are these hugely powerful Confederate Army units. And yeah, they are just so powerful. Look at the Morgan's Raiders for example out of Somerset. They have five attack. They also have the control icon. And they also have an amazing one, that little control with a rifle icon. That means that if they win in an attack, they also count as a controlling unit. So the Confederates doesn't even need to discard another card to take control of the area. Although they do still need the food to pay for it. But yeah, they're also single use. And then they have this little circling arrow that says Somerset. And what that means is that that unit can only be used in a location that is connected by roads along controlled locations to Somerset.

29:12 So they could be used to defend Chitwoods. They could be used to attack Slave and Mill or Buffalo Creek along roads. They could not attack Trammels along the path. They have to basically be able to trace roads back to Somerset. So usually once the bot gets a bunch of those, it makes it a lot easier because I know it'll flip cards that just don't apply. And how the bot handles that is it's kind of like a wasted card for them. But here they've only recruited the people out of Jellico, which are usable in any conflict. So I'm really glad they're gone. Anyway, it's my turn. All I have is Trammels, Buffalo, and the Home Guard. I could try doing an attack into Chitwoods from Trammels. It would be a 50/50 cuz I would use the Home Guard for two attack. And they've got the Scott County Rangers and the Scott County Secessionists. So if they flipped the Rangers, I would accomplish nothing unfortunately. And I'd be wasting the one food I could have gotten from Trammels. I could instead get a food from Buffalo then improve Trammels.

30:02 That's the other one that gives me a unit when it's improved, which would be pretty nice. But if I don't kick them out of places, I need to get the victory points for taking those cubes, too. And it makes it harder for them to attack in my other areas. Like if I kick them out of Chitwoods, they can't come into Trammels. Well, they can from Jellico. But they can't come into Buffalo. They can't go into Slave and Mill. It'll slow them down. Ah, dang it. Dang it. Dang it. Dang it. I'm doing the attack. So I don't even have any food to take control. You can attack for free. It's just the cards. It's the only action in the game you can take without food basically. So I'm attacking from Trammels with the Home Guard. It's a pass, so I couldn't bring anybody else anyway. Hoping for the 50/50 flip. And actually it's worse than 50/50 I just realized because uh they could also flipped Chitwoods. They didn't. And yes, let's go. So, these cards are not locked into action spots cuz again the bot is random in how they defense, so they don't suffer from it at all. But, I kicked them out of Chitwoods, so that's one victory point for me and minus two for them. Take that. And then I got to find Chitwoods.

30:58 It gets in their draw pile. Yep, and they lose control, but I'm not getting it. Now, I just shuffle those back up. Cool. And then I'll get a food for next turn in Buffalo. All right, but going back to the Confederates, this turn could be nasty. Monticello. Oh, they're trying to take Big South Fork. Ha, this is great, actually, cuz I know that since those guys are there, that's going to be them and they don't have a control action. But, remember they don't waste the action, they go to their next preference, which is Bull String. They got James Ruleback with his uh strong fighting power. All right, then New River. So, they've got one food. Oh, which actually they can attack Homestead for two, Huntsville for three, Brimstone for two. They already have uh No Business Creek, which would be for one. And that can only be bolstered by me, so they're just getting food. Okay, next is Jamestown, and they already control New River, which is next to Jamestown. So, they're getting my other hated unit, Champ Ferguson. He's a three attack, and he gets sent back like James Rule, but he only costs one food, so he's a nightmare. Recruit some of these big units that are useless if they're not in the right place, bot, please.

32:03 Okay, No Business is next. Oh, and they already control everything there, and they can't bolster it. So, that's another food for them. See, I said earlier they made themselves very dangerous for next round uh with some really strong units, and I can't do much about it. All right, coming to me. Huh. Okay, so I got somebody to control stuff. I only have two places that can make food. So, I could go from Homestead into Bryn Fynnon and eventually uh improve that to get more food generation. Or I could go uh if I use Buffalo and Captain William Robins for food, I could take back Buffalo Creek. But, I'd rather wait until they go in there and then attack them. So, yeah, let's get two food, I guess. Oh, wait, I already had one food leftover. Are there any other options I can do? Yes, I can improve Huntsville, which is maybe worth doing.

32:50 Just to get some more victory points. All right, so I'm still getting two food from Buffalo and Brimstone. Then I'm playing Homestead and the Scott County Loyalists and one of the three food I have to take Brin Finon and hopefully improve it for its farming power later. And then I might as well, I'm going to spend a food for Huntsville to improve it into the Breastworks because Huntsville is where the biggest battle in the conflict was actually fought and they had built all these fortifications. Didn't help the Loyalists actually keep it. Probably won't help me either. But, you know what it does do? Give me another victory point. I'll just show you the count. I'm at 12, they're at nine. Not going to last, though. All right, what's he's about to do now? Monticello. They do have enough to take over Big South Fork River. And let's see if they do. Yep. So, that's all their food, but it gives them another access point into the center of my position and gets them two more victory points.

33:40 Although, it is kind of another dead deck card for the Confederacy. So, if they draw it when they don't have food to do anything, it could be a good for me. Wartburg. They don't have anything to do there, so they're going to get a food. Jamestown. Yep, they don't have anything to do there. They're going to get another food. Okay, what's left? No Business Creek. No, no, no. The only place they can go is Brin Finon cuz they already have New River right down here. They already have Big South Fork. And they always want to attack me if they can. Okay, this is good. I should be able to stop them from winning. Question is, do I just use the Home Guard or also use Brin Finon? It's a pass. They can only use one card. Uh Captain James Rule, he's only a two, so he would not beat the Home Guard. Champ Ferguson is a three, that's what I got to be scared of. And then they also have their regular two attack units. So, it's a 2/3 chance if I just use Home Guard, I'll be okay. And that way I can uh improve Brin Finnan or get some food from it.

34:37 It's a little bit risky, but I'm going to do it. I'm just going to defend with the Home Guard. Don't you whammy me, game. Okay. So, we win the tie cuz we're the defender, but since he didn't win an attack, he does not go back. It's literally only if they win the attack that the card is taken out. But it does still count as their actions. They don't get to like take food or do something else. Oh, it's no business Creepy. He couldn't do anything anyway. All right. And back to me. I've got one food. I want to take over Buffalo Creek from Huntsville with the loyalists. I also want to do improve Brin Finnan, but that wouldn't give me enough food. So, I'll get two food from these ones. Brings me to three food, and then I'll use Huntsville and the loyalists to take control of Buffalo Creek again, getting me back to 14 victory points if I don't mess up. And I've got one food for later. But we're talking about food, we've got a bit over 10 left in the light food.

35:26 Remember when that runs out, if you start your turn with more victory points than your opponent, you win the game. So, it usually becomes kind of a game of sudden death where one player has to get ahead, and the next player has to get ahead. What makes the bot ridiculous though is that they stop caring about whether they have enough food. So, they just attack you everywhere, and it's very hard to survive. I've only won like one game out of five, but we'll talk about that later. What are you doing, bot? They got Jellicoe. Oop, which means they want to attack Trammells. And I know that one of their two cards is their two attack guy, and one of their two cards is Champ with three attack. So, I ain't winning. Uh, do I make them use three cards? Yeah, cuz then they might get rid of James Rule as well. That would be a bonus for me. Yeah, I know they're using those two. Oh, wait a second. It's over a river. So, I don't have to do that. Cuz they can only use two cards anyway. And I know that either card would be strong enough. So, I'm not going to use the Scott County loyalists. I'll still use Trammells, of course, cuz they're taking it anyway. So, they have to use the max of two cards to attack over a river. And surprise, surprise, it's Champ Ferguson.

36:27 So, he goes back to be recruited and bother me again. They take Trammells and they're going to get it no matter what. But who's actually Okay, so James Rule is at least out of contention for a bit, but they spend one food and they get Trammells for themselves, which ties things back up at 13 each. Fantastic. Okay, then they're doing no business. That's just food and Somerset. Oh man, they're going to take Chitwoods back. Cuz yeah, we know that their last card has a control. That's all their food, but now they are ahead of me 15 to 13. Ouch. But they're out of food and units, so they're just going to get one from Jacksboro. And that's how it goes. Lots of unit-wise, they could defend with two or one. It's more likely going to be two. So if I would attack him this turn, it's going to have to be big. Oh, and it's not going to be. Most I could get would be two with Captain William Robins and the Scott County Loyalists.

37:15 I have one food. What do I want to do? Let's see, I could attack from Homestead into Slaven Mill, use the Scott County Loyalists to control it. Could also improve Buffalo to give myself a victory point and give me a stronger card and save a bit more food cuz they're just going to probably take Slaven Mill anyway. And again, I could like attack New River, but with these units, I'm not going to win. I don't really have very many strong units at the moment. If I could save up to three food, I could have recruited the 7th Tennessee Infantry. That'd be awesome. But okay, I'm going to get two food or no, no, sorry. I'm going to get one food and then spend it to improve Buffalo. Now I'll discard the rest. And Buffalo becomes Julia Markham, a lady who historically fought off Confederate soldiers that were coming into her house and threatening her sisters. She got stabbed for it in the face, lost an eye.

38:00 It was pretty terrible, but she's three defense, so hopefully things will go better for her this time. And it does get me to 14 victory points, one underneath them. And whoa. Definitely ready to defend this turn, although it might not accomplish much. Like if they attack me in Huntsville, they're not even next to Huntsville. They're not even next to Brimstone.

38:17 Great. Where are they going to attack? Probably somewhere New River. They can only go to Homestead or Brimstone Creek and then have two food. So nope, just getting food. And we only got nine left in the supply. No business Creek. They can attack bring Finning again. What's the best they can do? Just two. And it's a pass so they can only bring one. So let's use the home guard, right? And yep, doesn't work. But it didn't cost them anything either. Okay, Big South Fork River. They can take over Slave Pen Mill. And do they? Yes, they do. Man, they're not attacking me as much as they have in some other games at least successfully, but they're just taking territory like lots and lots and lots of territory. All right, I guess they'll just get some food for their last action at Trammels. I forgot they had taken that location. Gosh darn it. And we know that's James Rule, so it's definitely going to be a two defense if we attack them. Yeah, the only locations I have in my hand are Huntsville. Oh, they are next to that New River. But it's a river so we can only bring two units, not all three, which wouldn't be enough to kick James Rule out of there.

39:18 I could go get Brimstone Creek just to get victory points cuz the food's going to run out and I'm going to lose immediately. That would use up all my food so I couldn't get like the 7th Tennessee Infantry, but they cost three. I don't know if I'm going to get them anyway. In some games I try to go to Big South Fork River to get Tinker Dave Beatty or Beatty or however you say that last name cuz he's amazing, especially if you use him for defense cuz then he's three and he doesn't go away cuz he's a basically the opposite of Champ Ferguson. They like fought each other historically and Champ was a terrible guy. But that's not going to happen this game. They rule the north. So man, I'm really torn. I guess I'll get a second food and then attack from Huntsville into Brimstone Creek. And I guess discard this other card. Gets me two victory points, which is still not as much as them. Yeah, this one is not going my way for sure. Again, partly that's because I usually they recruit a lot of these units they can only attack from certain places. So it makes them a little bit more swingy whether their attacks actually succeed or not. But it's not happening this game. Okay, I got some stuff. Oh man, I didn't get much food. Well, we'll see what happens.

40:19 Probably going to put me out of my misery here. Wartburg, they would need at least two to do anything. They get a food. Jamestown, they're buying Champ Ferguson again. No. Somerset, getting a food. And Tellico, absolutely nothing they can do there. Getting a food. Well, oh no, there's only four food left uh four light food left. And they're ahead of me victory point-wise. So, if they just kept that, they win immediately. Oh my gosh. All right. So, at the very least cuz I again can't really successfully attack them, let's get a food from Julia Markham and spend it to improve Brinn Finnen to get me the double food option, Brinn Finnen farm. And with the improved control there, I'm at least tied with them, so it wouldn't be an immediate victory.

41:02 Places I can attack from for no effect. And I will talk about this at the end of the video. In a real game, I would just attack from Brimstone Creek against them at New River if for no other reason that they would be forced to use some of their units from their hand. And then they would have fewer cards available to attack me on their turn. But, uh the solo mode doesn't allow for that at all. Yeah, I don't think I'm going to keep any of these. Let's just uh discard them. And so few food left, they could just win the game immediately here. Okay, Jacksboro, they're attacking Buffalo Creek. Uh-oh. Okay, which I do have in my hand. Huh, I could do three here. I mean, it's not going to be enough, right? Cuz they've got Champ on No, that's James Rule. So, if they do three I mean, at least I guess it would slow them down, right? Or do I You know what? Let's do one for two. So, I can maybe attack them on my turn cuz if I don't, then I'm definitely done. All right. So, yeah, they're doing James Rule. We knew that. And also Oh, that was good. Okay, that was very lucky cuz both those guys go away. But then uh Buffalo Creek is a two, so they do have to spend two food. Oh wait, they got to see if they take it over. Uh they don't take it over. Oh, that well, that's even better. Although, it still puts me down to 15 victory points and them up to 18.

42:11 So, it's not too great, but yeah, they only have a single weak unit left. Okay, no business, they're getting food. There's two left in the supply. Uh-oh, Monticello, they are getting James Rolfe back. I hate that guy so much. All right, and they're doing Jellicoe, which is another only food one for them. So, okay, they are doing well. There's a single food left, so if I take it, cuz I can't do much on my turn without taking it, then I will myself give them the win unless I can swing the game quite a bit. Oh, shoot, which I can't. I can't even attack them with these cards. I have all the wrong locations. All right, well, I don't want to get the food, cuz that's an immediate win for them, and I have no food. So, I'll just discard Breastworks. Maybe keep Brimstone, cuz it's a unit, and just hope I get better locations to attack from. I don't really know. See, I mean, this is definitely the end. No Business Creek. They're going to attack Breeden again. And do we know who this is? Yeah, so it's only going to be one attack. So, that part's good at least. We can um automatically win it just with a weaker guy, cuz that was a pass, so they can't bring any more. Yep. Okay, so that was all right. Then Somerset. Oh, they're finally late recruiting one of these uh big units that need supply. Well, they're now out of food, so they're definitely going to get the last food here. Yep, Jamestown. Okay, so now there are no more light food in the supply, so they will attack indiscriminately, well, not really indiscriminately. So, yep, Trammells is going to attack in Buffalo.

43:37 Uh-oh, because again, once the lights food supply is gone, they no longer care about whether they have enough food to control the place. Although, they actually Buffalo, they do have enough food to control, it only costs one. They just want to attack, attack, attack to get victory points for defeating me, and uh kick me out of locations I control. So, what can they draw? If they draw these guys, they won't be in supply, cuz they're finally along a path, so that'll be a waste. So, it's either going to be two attack or zero. Shuffle them up. Do I have Yeah, I don't have the Buffalo card. So, if I play Home Guard, I can definitely stop them, but can I possibly conquer anywhere if I play Home Guard? Well, if they get the zero, I win anyway, so should I play nothing? Cuz here's the thing, if they if they get the zero, they're going to have a two, so in most fights, I can start like if I attack them in New River, I'll need to have a three.

44:29 Yeah, I mean, it's it's a super long shot. I think I just hope that they got the five there. Nope. So, they kick me out of Bryn Fanning, and that's definitely a death knell. And they do take it over, too, just for insult. Remember, that was improved, so they gain two victory points, I lose one from the improvement, one from controlling it, then they take it over. Oh, it's a complete route here. Yeah, it's 21 to 13 coming into my turn, which is actually pretty close to the 20 versus 10 auto win if the food hadn't run out. But the light food has, so if I cannot somehow get that gap shrunk so we tie them at least, I lose. Well, let's at least try to get some good fight going. All right, here we go. I know they have a two defense card on top, so I'll attack New River from Brimstone Creek. I can only bring two units. I'll bring I'll have the Home Guard [clears throat] and the Scott County Loyalists. They flip a random defense, Wartburg. And Morgan's Oh, I forgot it was Morgan's Raiders on top. I should have realized that. That means that they literally don't defend at all cuz these guys don't have supply back to Somerset. So, I could have won with like nothing. I mean, it doesn't matter. Okay, and then I Oh, no, I don't have enough food to take it over. Never mind. So, I just chased them out. Does make them lose two victory points and me gain one, then I can get a food from Captain William Robbins. But oh, it's sadness. Uh the Loyalists definitely got destroyed in this game.

45:43 Their turn starts. The light food is out. They win immediately. All right, so what do I think about Rebels Against Rebellion? I think this game is great. I love love the deck building concepts here, which at least I've never seen before, although I did hear that some war games I haven't played before have done locations tied to cards before. Was it Wilderness War? But anyway, the idea that as you get more locations, you can exert more influence on the board, like to attack you need to have an adjacent location, but also that your deck gets muddled up with those locations, so it's harder to kind of draw the card you want, I think is awesome. Especially, I know this is more of a competitive thing, but when you get into the Confederacy, having these incredibly powerful units that can only attack down certain avenues, that really changes up the game in a fun way as well. And even though it is a historically based game, and the map is going to start out the same way each time, the randomness in the card draw and how combats go and where attacks get staged has made the game feel very fresh for me each time. Like some games I did get Tinker Dave for better defense. Some games I did recruit the 7th Tennessee Infantry. Some games I really controlled the West. Some games I really controlled the East. So, I know I've said in the past for some war games that when they only depict one conflict, it can get boring. I don't really feel that way here. I also think the asymmetry between the sides is great. I already talked about the in supply units for the Confederacy. The Confederacy also does have a unit problem. As they win, their units go away. So, the loyalists can kind of win a war of attrition. I mean, except here I just got mobbed so much.

47:10 And the turn-to-turn choices are really interesting. So, yeah, it's just a fantastic war game and a light war game. I taught this to my wife who has literally never played a war game in her life, but she has played some deck builders, and she was totally getting it, doing everything great. She had a little bit of trouble with the supply rules, but besides that, everything made sense and she put up a good fight. Now, how do I feel about the solo bot? This is still mostly positive, but there are some mixes here. It's very quick to resolve. Figuring out what they're going to do works very well with this little table. And even though they are inherently dumb and don't know kind of where they should and shouldn't attack and how they should do things, the very fact that they have these two separate decks, so they always have units to attack when they need them, they always have locations to attack from when they need it, gives them way more flexibility and just straight up power than a player would ever have. So, they present a great challenge without too much overhead. Uh for me though, too much of a challenge. I do think they are a little bit too intense. Like I said, I think this is what, maybe my seventh or eighth solo game, and I've only won a single time, and that was kind of a fluke cuz it was based on them getting a lot of these in supply cards that need to attack from very specific regions, and then me getting lucky and having those cards drawn at the wrong time. So, I kind of felt like I lucked into the win instead of fully earning the win.

48:22 So, this might sound a little bit weird, but I uh talked to David Townsend, one of the designers, and he said it was okay for me to say this. I have sent David a few things I would change in the solo rules that first of all give you difficulty levels, which the game does not have at all right now, but my little uh suggestion for David would give it like an easy, medium, and hard mode. And they would also make the bot a bit more consistent both in being weaker and more realistic to what a player could do, but also being slightly smarter in their decisions, especially when it comes to those in supply units. So, I don't know where that's going to go. David said he's going to check it out when he has time, but I think the game is already being printed or is very close to print because they want to be able to deliver the game very soon after the crowdfunding campaign. And more power to them cuz the competitive game is 100% awesome. I have no notes for that. But here's the deal I made with David. If they don't have time to try out my solo suggestions and potentially put them in the game, I'll do a new video once the game delivers with my variant solo mode, and I'll post it on BDG and such as well. And I've tried it out, and without saying too much cuz I want to see how they kind of deal with it, I think it pretty much fully fixes my issues with the difficulty and swinginess of the bot. So, long story short, if you trust me and my solo design sensitivities, and you're curious about this one for solo play, I'd say go into it full confidence. If the design team doesn't take care of you, I definitely will. So, that is it. Thanks for watching everybody, and a special thank you to our biggest Patreon supporters, Matt G, Dan J. William F, Steve Wren, Andrew R, and Chris C. We'll see you at the next stop.