Artillery

One very helpful book, Stevenson's WARGAMING IN HISTORY: THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, the historical ratios of infantry to artillery for North and South are given. They are very useful in determining armies in non-historical scenarios. The rules limit both sides to one battalion of guns for every 12 infantry stands. By adding one battalion in addition to this for the Rebels, the proper ratios are attained (about one gun for every 300 men for the Union and 280 for the Rebels).

Allow the Rebels one additional battalion of guns

Stevenson documents that well into 1863, both armies contained large numbers of rifled cannon, the predominating piece in the Union army. Southern artillery was made up of rifled guns and 6 pounders the first half of the war. Even at Gettysburg, both armies maintained half of their artillery strength in rifled guns, while less than 40% were 12 pdr Napoleons. We rule that any army must be at least 50% rifled, the Union allowed to be as much as 65%. This keeps players from "loading up" with their favorite weapon while keeping it historical.

Rifled Arty must be 50% of the batteries - the Union is allowed 65%

A surprising piece of information I have found is that half of ALL batteries, Blue and Gray, were mixed between rifled and smoothbore. For instance, ALL of the Union batteries at Chickamauga were mixed. We allow up to half of all battalions to be "Mixed", another category of artillery unit for OTR:

Add a Mixed Artillery category

Mixed batteries are better than rifled guns with canister and better than smoothbores at long range. In other words a mixture of the strengths of both, which was the purpose of forming mixed batteries.

MIXED BATTERIES

MUSKETRY

Include additional Musket types

Several histories comment on the large numbers of smoothbore muskets and poor quality rifles carried by both sides well into the third year of the war especially in the West. I suggest the following rules: Smoothbore muskets have a range of 4" and a -1 fire modifier because of the common use of "buck and ball" loads. Second rate rifles should have a modifier of +1 for all fire.

At the beginning of the game roll 2D10 for each brigade to determine the weapon quality carried. The opposing player need not know the actual weapon quality until first fire.

UNION	EASTERN THEATER		WESTERN THEATER
	Mid '62	Mid '63	Mid '62	Mid '63
SB Muskets	00-11	00-06	00-29	00-22
2nd rate Rifles	12-36	07-21	30-54	23-43
1st rate Rifles	37-97	22-96	55-98	44-98
Breechloaders	98-99	97-98	99	99
Repeaters	----	99	----	----
CONFEDERATES
2nd rate Rifles	20-48	03-17	55-83	35-54
1st rate Rifles	49-98	18-97	84-99	55-98
Breechloaders	99	98-99	.......	99

Fire Combat

Because of the long reach of OTR rifles and the lack of any short range as with artillery, we use the following rules for rifle fire:

If any target is within three inches of a firing unit, subtract one from the die roll. Allowing the Catastrophic Kill rule to apply for fire within 3 inches works well also. With this rule we often include another already established optional rule: cumulative morale markers.

MELEE

The defender should test for receiving a charge. We roll for the defending unit. If the roll is less than its CV, then the unit stands and fires at the enemy within the 3 inch short range. If the roll is the CV or one greater, the unit fires normally. If the roll is two or more than the CV, the unit is disordered and fires as such. All melee modifiers are applied to the Pre-Melee Test.

MORALE

One of the aspects of Civil War combat discussed at length by many historians was the behavior of the American fighting man. I feel strongly that too many wargames portray morale as a one-dimensional quality every man possessed, like money - some had a little and thus were poor in morale - while others had a lot and were elites.

Morale was behavior in response to the threat of death, orders, confusion, commitment and the emotions they caused. No two men or units behaved exactly the same under similar circumstances.

Each combat unit displayed a different "personality" under fire. For instance, a veteran regiment might refuse to advance when given orders they consider unreasonable, while a green regiment would charge enthusiastically past the immovable veterans. That same veteran unit might heroically take 50% casualties a few minutes later, fighting off an enemy counterattack following the green unit's rout. While current rules might simulate such an event, it is a matter of weird dice roles rather than the play characteristics of the units involved.

The following set of optional morale tables are designed to provide your brigades with more individual character and perhaps more realistically varied behaviors. When rolling for a unit's morale, roll two dice, a D10 and D6. The D10 will determine the morale level: Green, Regular, Veteran or Elite. The D6 will establish the quality of that morale level.

MORALE LEVEL
GREEN	UNION	CONFEDERATE
Poorly Drilled (PD)	1-2	1
Moderately Drilled (MD)	3-4	2-4
Well Drilled (WD)	5-6	5-6
REGULAR
Poorly Led (PL)	1-2	1-2
Competently Led (CL)	3-4	3-4
Well Led (WL)	5-6	5-6
VETERAN
Seasoned (S)	1-3	1-3
Elan (E)	4-5	4-5
Jaded (J)	5-6	6
ELITE
Esprit de Corps (ES)	1-2	1-2
Highly Disciplined (HD)	3-4	4-5
Tired/Old Lag (OL)	5-6	6

Don't be fooled by the three qualities in each category. They are not "poor, medium, and good". Each is a description of attitude and skill, any of them being the "best" behavior, depending on the circumstances. The behavior of the new soldier WAS more dependent on the training and leadership. But even then, a Green or Regular Brigade could be "enthusiastic". A great deal of thought went into them, incorporating leadership, region and training as well as general histories of the various brigades. Several OTR variant morale charts have been published, for leadership, artillery, Western Theater versus Eastern Theater, each in an effort to capture the variation in morale as well as isolate the causes. The morale tables here are my contribution to that effort.

Enthusiasm

Roll a D6 for Enthusiasm, if (modify by -1 for each category below):

Green or Regular Unit, and:
Exceptional of firebrand Division Commander
Unique Uniforms
Unique name or Title, and/or 1st brigade from their state

If a 1-3 is rolled the unit is "enthusiastic" in addition to its Green or Regular morale grade and quality.

For example, if a brigade with a morale level of green(MD) has a Firebrand divisional commander (officers being rolled for first) and is called the "Vermont Brigade", a roll of "4" would make the brigade "enthusiastic".

When a morale roll is completed for "enthusiastic" units and the results determined, adjustments are made to the result:

STANDARD RESULT	EFFECT OF ENTHUSIASTIC
Stand to WD2:	Subtract 10, apply the new result
Deploy to 1/2 Speed:	Add 10, apply the new result
45 Deg R to NE:	Add 15, apply the new result

The new Morale Tables will create some of the real differences in personality between Union and Rebel troops. The "enthusiastic" modifier will create volatile, brittle units, which can charge the guns or fade into the woods just as quickly. The Union tended to create new units from recruits, letting veteran regiments die out, while the South continually fed raw troops into seasoned regiments. Thus seasoned and elite troops in the Federal army behaved differently than those of the South.

Optional Morale Tables

There are three Morale tables for each Grade of morale, twelve altogether. They are used just as the normal OTR, with the exception of no morale modifiers for GREEN, VETERAN or ELITE units. There are still the modifiers for "in works", "per bases lost" and now "Enthusiastic".

The only change to the normal result that we use is for the 45 degree move. We have the player declare their intent to move the unit BEFORE the morale roll. If there was no move planned, it is treated as a DEPLOY result. If there was an intent to move, a die is rolled. With a 0-4 the 45 degree result is applied. If a 5-9, it is a 45 degree move away from the nearest enemy unit. (that is a 45 away from the line to the nearest enemy unit.)

The new morale tables will force you to "know" your troops. The jaded Veteran unit will be a rock on defense, but will tend to stall if asked to advance. A well drilled Green unit will be almost as dependable as any regular, "almost" being the finesse in reading the charts (and your troops). If these tables have you thinking of your brigades as "personalities" during your games, instead of more-or-less of the same thing, then they will have been worthwhile. Try them out on a simple scenario like Paul Koch's "On to Prattville". Enjoy.

MORALE
GREEN	Poorly Drilled	Moderately Drilled	Well Drilled
ROUT	00-09	00-09	00-08
WD2	10-24	10-19	09-15
WD1	25-29	20-29	16-29
STAND	30-50	30-39	30-35
DEPLOY	-----	40-44	36-44
1/2 SPEED	50-69	45-60	45-55
45 RIGHT	70-74	61-65	55-62
45 LEFT	75-79	65-70	63-69
NE	80-97	75-94	70-94
ADVANCE	98	95-97	95-98
REVENGE	99	98-99	99
-
REGULAR	Poorly Led	Competently Led	Well Led
ROUT	00-09	00-07	00-06
WD2	10-20	08-14	07-09
WD1	21-30	15-25	10-20
STAND	31-44	26-34	21-29
DEPLOY	45-49	35-44	30-39
1/2 SPEED	50-69	45-54	40-44
45 RIGHT	70-72	55-59	45-49
45 LEFT	73-75	60-64	50-54
NE	76-95	65-90	55-90
ADVANCE	96-98	91-97	91-95
REVENGE	99	98-99	96-99
-
VETERAN	Seasoned	Elan	Jaded
ROUT	00-05	00-04	00-06
WD2	06-09	05-09	07
WD1	10-20	10-17	08-20
STAND	25-30	18-20	21-25
DEPLOY	31-40	21-25	26-45
1/2 SPEED	41-49	26-35	46-55
45 RIGHT	50-52	36-45	56-57
45 LEFT	53-55	46-54	58-59
NE	55-89	55-84	60-96
ADVANCE	90-96	85-90	97-98
REVENGE	97-99	91-99	99
-
ELITE	Highly Disciplined	Esprit de Corps	Tired Old Lag
ROUT	00-01	00-02	00-03
WD2	02-03	03	04-05
WD1	04-06	04-10	06-15
STAND	07-10	-----	16-20
DEPLOY	11-20	11-15	21-35
1/2 SPEED	20-35	16-20	36-45
45 RIGHT	36-37	21-30	46-47
45 LEFT	38-39	31-40	48-49
NE	40-95	41-85	50-96
ADVANCE	96-98	86-92	97-99
REVENGE	99	93-99	-----

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