INTRODUCTION In THE COURIER, Volume V, Number 4, an article appeared introducing a sequence using cards in which each commander alternately drew from a special deck which governed movement and firing effectiveness. Prior card systems used a random system of card draws solely to determine which men or units on each side moved; the current system governs not only when they move, but their efficiency. I became interested in random card draw systems almost a decade ago; I wanted a sequence which did not require order writing each turn and I wanted to take complete control of his forces away from the commander. Paul Koch and Larry Brom were pioneering card sequences... their efforts are seen in the current popularity of ON TO RICHMOND and THE SWORD AND THE FLAME. About a year ago, our group, a part of the Potomac Wargamers in the Washington, D.C. area, evolved what we termed an incremental card system. The previous article showed it was adaptable for unit gaming; this article will indicate its use in single figure scenarios. THE SCENARIO The initial encounter had a shipload of Vikings raiding a shoreline protected by Roman soldiers. The Viking objective was to make off with a few of the peasant population and/or several horses. Figure 1 is a sketch of the 5x9 table showing the placement of the peasantry.  Setup procedures were as follows: a. The Romans designated where 7 troops were initially to be located. b. The Vikings, uninformed of the Roman placement, chose a landing site for their ship, and immediately commenced to move off on the first turn. Seven Vikings were permitted to disembark during Turn 1, i.e., the first Viking card draw. c. After the Vikings' first move, the 7 Romans were placed on the board to start their move. Horses and peasants were deemed of equal value... 1 point apiece. Points were given to the Vikings for captured peasants and horses, half value to the Romans for retaining same, points were given to both sides for enemy casualties, and taken from each side for every extra man, above the initial 7, brought into the scenario. Additional men for the Vikings emerged from the ship; Roman reinforcements entered at Hut A. Two horses and two unwashed peasants were at Hut C... if the Vikings concentrated solely on these 4 points, this left 10 objects still in Roman hands (5 horses in Hut B, 5 peasants in D) which, at half value to the Romans, gave them 5 points. The Vikings, therefore, had to go after 2 sites to pull ahead of their opponents. Peasants and horses, having no minds of their own, only moved under escort; each Roman or Viking could take 2 prizes along. THE SEQUENCE Each side is given a deck of 12 cards from which to draw, with each card denoting a specific number of increments. There are 2 one-increment cards, 2 two-increment cards, all the way up to 2 six-increment cards. Commanders draw cards alternately; all men on their side move. Each increment, each may may move 2 inches, or pivot in place, or fire an arrow, or notch an arrow in his bow. Cavalry move twice as fast as infantry, i.e., 4 inches per increment. An "automatic load weapon" is assumed to take place between cards, hence on a 5 increment card, an archer can fire and notch an arrow on the first 2 increments, pivot on the 3rd looking for a second target, fire on the 4th, and pivot again on the 5th. Alternatively, he could have fired, loaded, fired, loaded and fired at the same target. The 12 card deck is randomly mixed, and 3 cards drawn which the gamer holds in, and plays from, his hand. The remaining 9 are placed face down on the table. Each turn, when a card from the gamer's hand is played, a new card is drawn to replace the one just used. The scenario ends on the play of the last card, i.e., each side gets 12 plays, after which victory points are totaled. THE BATTLE In the first play of the scenario, the Roman commander stationed his 7 troops at Hut C and, as soon as the Vikings emerged from the ship, attacked. The result: 3 Vikings killed, one routing back to the ship. The one factor preventing an immediate total wipeout was 2 Viking archers, who peppered the oncoming Romans with arrows, causing them to think twice. An archer received a 10-sided die, with a die roll result of: 1- 6... No effect 7... Rout 8... Wound 9,10... Kill The die roll was modified by several factors: plus 1 for every increment of fire, plus 1 if the target was unshielded, and minus the ten's digit of the range measurement in inches. Thus with a 5 increment card, at 24 inches, the modifiers were: Fire, load, fire, load, fire (3 increments of fire)... +3 Range of 24 inches (ten's digit of 2)... -2 Target has a shield... 0 TOTAL... +1 A man who was wounded and was hit again, was deemed killed. After the Roman attack near the ship, the Viking leader, 3 points down (1 for each of his 3 casualties), assumed he had nothing to lose in summoning up reserves, and so up from the bowels of the ship appeared 3 troopers, 1 of them an archer. Now the Vikings were 7 points down (-3 for 3 dead, -2 for a reserve archer, and another -1 apiece for 2 soldiers). By a couple of card draws later, the Viking archers had proved their worth; only 3 of the original 7 Romans were left and these were in deep trouble. Additionally, 2 Vikings had made their way to Hut B and were leading 4 horses (4 points) back to the ship. Critical times call for critical measures, and the Roman commander now called on his own reserves: 5 cavalrymen, 2 points apiece, appeared at Hut A, and headed for the beach. At this point, the score stood at -7 for the Romans, -3 for the Vikings. One Roman managed to hop aboard the ship in pursuit of a routing Viking. There was no one on deck at the time and the Viking commander was forced to call up a reserve to counter the invader. The choice was a fortunate one, for in the resultant melee, the Roman was killed and so the -1 victory point cost for the reserve was balanced by the+1 for the kill, and the Vikings now had an additional man at no cost. The melee procedure was a 2 card affair, with a morale check mandated for both sides on the defender's card. I n more detail, first, on the attacker's card, a charge was declared and the charging men placed just short of contact. Second, the defender's card was drawn and an instantaneous morale check was taken by all involved defenders. Any defenders failing morale were turned in place, their backs to the enemy. Third, defensive fire was then permitted at the oncoming attackers. Missile men being contacted (archers, slingers, pila bearing Romans, etc.) could fire for the full extent of the defender's card, e.g., 3 fires on a 5 increment card, while defensive support fire was limited to 2 increments only... thus a supporting defensive bowman could pivot and fire once, but no more, against an attacker charging another. Fourth, after defensive fire, still on the defender's card, the attackers checked morale; men that failed were pivoted with their backs to their enemy. Fifth, melee was then fought using the same table as that described for use in missile fire. The loser was reversed in place, back to the opponent. If neither man scored, the dice were thrown again until one, or both of them hit. All this took place on the defender's card, hence routing defenders were now moved back their full move distance as mandated by the number of increments drawn. On the next card (the attackers'), routing attackers pulled away, and as they did so, the defenders got in their "free hacks". One of the terrain layouts used in the scenario had a fairly impassable creek running north and south placed in the middle of the field. Crossing the creek took 2 complete card draws... regardless of the number of increments. The barrier affected the Romans more than the Vikings; Hut B was now almost cut off from the Roman garrison at A. The Vikings had more mobility because of their ship; this could move along the coast at 6 inches per increment. The Vikings took full advantage of their ship, hopping from one side of the board to the other. In one game, the Vikings had gathered the peasants and horses from Hut C, loaded them aboard and took off for the western side, attempting to try for Hut B. The Romans, needing speed, had called for 4 additional horsemen, who raced down the road, crossed the bridge, and sped towards the ship. The Vikings had sent 4 men towards Hut B, but seeing the horsemen come tromping along the road, the 4 men reversed themselves, and with a timely display of 5 and 6 increment cards, managed to get aboard before the cavalrymen arrived. The Romans hit the beach, dismounted (taking one increment) and stormed the ship. The Romans charged home on their own card draw; they lost 1 increment for the delay caused by having to leap up and aboard the ship. The defenders' card, the Vikings, was drawn next, and here it was that the lights went out for the Nordic invaders. On the defenders' card, the first action is for the defenders to test morale... and this first action did the Vikings in... the shield wall crumbled for, due to some poor dice throws, every single one of the Vikings broke and ran. In a morale check, each man counts 30 points, while wounded men and routing men count 15 points. When morale is tested, the tester has the option of grouping up to 3 men for the check. The morale level of the group is the SUM of the individual morale levels of the men LESS the distance between the 2 figures furthest apart in the group. There were 5 Vikings ready to do combat as the Romans charged in. These were divided into one group of 3, another group of 2. The group of 3 contained a wounded man, hence the group morale level was 30+30+15, 75%, less the distance between the 2 furthest figures, 3 inches, making 72% in all. The smaller group had 2 unwounded men in it; its morale level was 30+30, 60%, less the distance between the 2 men, 1 inch, thus totaling 59%. Both groups failed their test; neither rolled under the required number using percentage dice. Consequently, the Vikings ran, and as they ran, the Romans took their "free" swipes, killing some, wounding others, and racking up victory points. Note in the morale procedure, that it pays to have your men clustered in groups of not less than 4. If an abled bodied group of 3 tests morale, it totals 30+30+30, 90%, less the distance concerned, say 3 inches, or 87%. But if two men are detached, their base morale is down to 30+30; and if one becomes wounded, it becomes 30+15, or 45%. If, for example, this last group draws into its morale check another man, say 20 inches away, their base total becomes 30+15+30, or 75%, LESS the 20 inch distance, for a resultant of 55%. Hence the third man, because of his distance, is as much a liability as an asset. The morale rule forces the commander to group his forces; it is dangerous to send individuals out on their own. The problem of sending out one or two men and having them rout back due to poor morale caused by their isolation is a very real one. To alleviate this, each side was assigned a total of 100 morale points with which the commander could assist, on a "one-shot" basis, any of his troops. Thus if 2 Vikings were detailed to proceed to Hut B and, along the way, one became wounded due to a good shot by a Roman bowman, the 2 Vikings who were, say 2 inches apart, would have a basic morale of 30 (unwounded man) plus 15 (wounded man) minus 2 (distance between them), or 43%. The Viking commander, to help the duo out in their morale check, might allocate 47 points to them, bringing them up to 43+47, or 90%. This 47 point assignment, however, would leave the commander with 100 less 47, or 53 morale points for the remainder of the game. The commander's morale point inventory was a highly valued asset. FINAL THOUGHTS The incremental card system is adaptable to any level skirmish game in which different weapons must be differentiated by their loading times. In the scenario described above, an archer took one increment to draw an arrow and notch it to his bow, enabling him to fire every other increment. Crossbows, in contrast, might take 3 increments to load, so that the crossbowman's rate of fire would be one half that of the archer. Similarly, in a horse and musket game, muskets could require 4 increments to load, while rifles take 6. In essence, the card system is an alternate move system; where it differs from the usual you-go/I-go sequence is that the increment cards impose turn by turn restrictions on what one's force can do. Sometime during the game, the 6-increment cards will be drawn, and everyone moves out efficiently. At another point in the game, the 1-increment cards must be played, and part of the tactical methodology is knowing just when to "waste" a low increment card. Another item of interest in the rules is the firing system in which the range modifier is the ten's digit of the range measurement. Rather than define short, or medium, or long range, with their appropriate modifiers, the range measurement itself is its own modifer: 32 inches gives a factor of -3, while 57 inches gives a modifier of -5, and so on. Thus there is no reason to specify a maximum range for the weapon... it fires until the range modifier makes it impossible to hit. Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. VI No. 2 Back to Courier List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1985 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com