I have just finished the latest edition of 'Dispatch', and may I say how much I still like receiving your magazine. It keeps me in touch with what's going on the other side of the pond. I particularly enjoyed reading the Viking Raid rules as in Swindon we occasionally put the big battalions away and get down to some serious skirmish games - it also reminded me of Howard Whitehouse's excellent game in Augusta several years ago. However, I did notice the usual plus and minus concept behind the mechanics, and with it the long lists to be gone through every move. Not only do I find this a drawback, but don't like the way it makes players try to get every +1 for themselves and inflict every -1 factor on their opponent, irrespective of what their troops should really do. This often leads to playing according to the rules and not, as I think wargaming is about, playing according to the period! Recently we had a tabletop argument over a 30Yrs War tercio being able to debouch from a village and fight unimpaired. One side, knowing the period, said it neither would nor could do it, while the other maintained there's was nothing in the rules to prevent it. Later one wargamer said, "I'm not going to lose a competitive game just because I don't know the period." I think that's very sad as, for me, a lot of the fun in wargaming is the research, learning the new tactics and trying to put them into operation. OK, I often get a stuffing whilst I'm learning a new period, but I seldom make the same mistake twice. What it all boils down is mindset, or the attitude to rules. I suppose being a 60s teenager I have little respect for rules, preferring shared perceptions and values to control behavior. I see rules as the tools of bureaucrats, conartists and bullies: the beloved of the petty-minded. Rules help people manipulate situations and dodge core arguments or judgements witness how lawyers defend the guilty because they can see how they can manipulate the law in the competitive sport we miscall a justice system. Maybe it's because I don't wargame to win - I've been enough of a winner in life not to care what happens in a wargames room. I wargame for fun, to learn about military history and to try my hand at generalship in both strategic and tactical situations, governed by period implications of manoeuvre and technology. I like to win (who doesn't) but I find it increasingly difficult to bother with those whose desire to win encompasses learning to exploit a set of rules to their advantage, rather than take the trouble to research and learn the period properly. Why bother with beautifully- painted armies of different periods if no matter the era being gamed, troops can oblique, wheel, shuffle sideways or retire, indulge in fire and support, switch targets at will, and with commanders in radio contact at all times. Why not buy one generic army based around the 20thC and have done with it? Three of us here: Richard Ellis - the Miniature Wargames photographer, Adrian Hussey (a regular reader on the Web) and I, have been working on devising a playing mechanism dependent upon period knowledge, rather than upon rule manipulation and we think we're near to cracking it. It entails basing all movement and fighting on the type of commanders or troops involved and the situations in which they find themselves. We unimaginatively call it Type-Situation Mechanism or TSM! Don't DBM, Try TSM! Here's what we've got so far: TSM This type and situation mechanism depends upon the talent of commanders, training of troops and the situations both get into. Play is based upon period knowledge of what could be done or could happen in a particular era: all formations, troop classifications, movement and ranges should be based upon period practice or gleaned from other 'rules'. DICE: 3 special D6s, called, painted & preferably colour-coded: T&S Rating Marked up thus Colour GOOD 1 2 2 3 3 3 RED ORDINARY 1 1 2 2 3 3 BLUE POOR 1 1 1 2 2 3 YELLOW Every command figure and every unit is of a 'type' (fixed); and where they are on a battlefield and what's happening to or around them, places them in a 'situation' (variable). MOVEMENT Before each 'turn' of simultaneous movement, each command fig. dices to determine how much of his force he can move, reflecting quality of generalship, staffwork and the vagaries of battlefield communications. He does this by throwing 2 unopposed D6s UNOPPOSED THROWS Command & Control: Each General gets a Type D6 dependant upon whether he is rated inspirational, average or a bit of a duffer: Good, Ordinary or Poor. He also gets a Situation D6 for visibility, terrain being crossed, degree his command is engaged etc.: Good, Ordinary or Poor. Throw the dice, add together and refer to the Unopposed Outcomes Chart. FIGHTING: When units come into action they must dice to determine the uncertain effect of their fire or melee performance. They do so by nominating their target or melee opponent and each player makes an opposed throw of 2 D6s. OPPOSED THROWS: Shooting & Meleeing: Each unit gets a Type D6 dependant upon their class and training etc. guards/elite/veterans, regulars or militia/recruits: Good, Ordinary or Poor Then a Situation D6 for evaluating sort of shot they get: depth of target, range, cover etc. or melee advantages: flank, defences, weapon, horse vs foot, etc.: Good, Ordinary or Poor. Throw the dice, add together and compare scores; the refer to the Opposed Outcomes Chart. Charges: An opposed throw determines the effect of any defensive fire and the morale of both sides. The result says if the charge goes in and the relative situation dice for ensuing melee moves. Next move units do what their sort and class troops would do in that type of situation in that period. Any real disputes go to a 1 D6 opposed throw winner's view prevails. A few examples: A rather incompetent Spanish hildago general leans out of the window from his hacienda HQ to shout his orders to a collection highly- decorated waiting ADCs. A POOR commander in a POOR situation gets 2 yellow dice. He scores 2 +1 = 3 so only half his force gets orders to move. The figure of Jackson is placed upon a promontory overlooking a Union force as it puts in an assault across the Shenadoah Valley. A GOOD commander in a GOOD situation gets red dice and throws a 2 + 3 = 5 and can then move all his units. A French Line fires upon a column of Russian Grenadiers charging -it. The French are ORDINARY troops in a GOOD situation: so 1 blue and 1 red dice. The Russians are GOOD troops in a POOR situation so 1 red and 1 yellow dice. The French score 2 + 3 = 5. The Russians score 3 + 1 = 4 The French have WON this round and are in a good situation for the melee. The Russians are BEATEN and must remove HEAVY casualties. The number of figures you take off depends upon what you think heavy casualties for a column hit by musketry would have been and you remove figures according to your fig:men ratio. They will be in a poor situation in the resulting melee. I would estimate about 50 men down but being Russian Grenadiers they are shaken but charge in. The melee is French: blue & red; Russians: red & yellow - normally it would be blue & yellow versus red and red. Although being Grenadiers (others would have stopped) the Russians will likely regret that volley! The melee goes French 2ñ + 3 5, and Russians 3 + 1 = 4. The French Win, but it's not a double. So what happens ? I'd say the French lose about 30 men and the Russians about 50. Being in a POOR situation but still being Grenadiers the Russians are driven off but fall back in disorder and won't rout unless hit again. The French also disordered, cheer, fire few parting shots and thank their lucky stars while their officers beat, cajole and order them back into formation. About the best ordinary line could hope for - no perfect volley or bayonet charge to finish their opponents off as most gamers would dearly love to put in. That's the job of the cavalry you have in support. Had the dice been French 1 + 2 = 3 and the Russians still got their 4, I'd have said casualties would have been French hit by a storming column get some 60 inflicted managing to put about 20 back on their foes. The French run back in disorder and keep going for some time while the Russians occupy the ground and await orders to reform. DOUBLED the CATASTROPHIC means they rout and scatter until the next day. A Rifles Off icer at Waterloo gets it all wrong and deploys his men in open order behind the British ridge just as a French cuirassier regiment thunders over the crest. They fire off sporadically and defend themselves with butts and bayonets. The British are GOOD troops in a POOR situation: red + yellow. The FRENCH are ORDINARY troops in a GOOD situation: blue+red. The British cheer as they roll 3+2 = 5. The French groan to see 1+1= 2. The Rifles have DOUBLED their opponents, inflicting SEVERE casualties and are in as EXCELLENT a situation as the circumstances permit. The Cuirassiers have been DOUBLED, inflicting NEGLIGIBLE losses and are in a Catastrophic situation - for them. So what happens? Probably some 20 saddles have been emptied including many officers, control has been lost and the move has ground to a halt. Next move, the riflemen scurry back unmolested to the safety of a square or the sandpit, possibly firing at the cuirassiers who are obliged to mill about in disarray for a turn. Example 4 is a good illustration of what we are trying to achieve. The results from the charts are always relative to the types of troops involved and the situation. Under a manipulative rules system the cuirassiers would probably have lost as many as 25% and routed off the table: a ridiculous result after contacting light infantry in open order. Here they lose about 1 figure and their attack breaks down, all for no British loss; which is about the best result the British could have hoped for. Had the dice gone exactly the other way, the British would have lost 50/60 men and scattered in all directions, only reforming eventually because they were the 95th - a Dutch-Belgian unit so broken would leg it for Brussels! Skill is still there -- you have to get your troops into the most advantageous formation and position relative to the circumstances of the fight. Chance is still there as the dice can cause successes, predicted results and dire reverses. BUT no matter what the results what happens should always reflect what would have happened in the period. It's all relative! If you publish this little tirade I do hope some of your readers will try TSM. They really do work and it stops rulesmen dominating and ruining the hobby! The key to making them work is a change in mental attitude - they're not a'set of rules' in the normal sense - you have to approach each situation on its merits, use your historical knowledge to make an interpretation, and then build up a body of precedent over the game (or over a series of games). For example, how to handle multiple melees. As long as people realize that it is not a replacement for the 'traditional' game, but a different sort of game, and approach it with that mindset, they could get a lot out of it. Unopposed Outcomes Chart Score: Control 6 Move all force 5 Move all force 4 Move all force 3 Move 3/4 force 2 Move 1/2 force 1 Move 1/4 force Opposed Outcomes Chart Score Situation Inflict if relevant Doubling Excellent Severe Won Good Heavy Equal Draw Moderate Beaten Poor Light Doubled Catastrophic Negligible Back to Dispatch Sept 2000 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com