Perhaps, at this time, especially for the new readers, it is time to restate the purpose of the READERS' FORUM. It is simple. We only intend to provide our readers with a constant mean to expose their ideas, problems and points of view on the wargaming in the Napoleonic Era. Anyone can participate and give his opinion. However, I must point out that a high level of gentlemenship is mandatory. I am going to stricly enforce that rule if it becomes necessary. I repeat once more...that we request the list of references used to back up the ideas, articles etc.. We strongly recommend the useage of references sources, as much as possible traceable to archives. Please note that the above does not exclude frank discussions. My comments on the Zallnick letter is a good illustration of what we request.--Jean Lochet. 1. ON RALLY FORMATIONS by Tony Zallnick Dear Mr. Lochet, Our little group of miniature wargamers here in Binghamton, N. Y. have been gradually "doctoring" published rules to reflect what Mike Gilbert called "Logical Realism". Some time ago we came to the conclusion that soldiers were not stupid and would form square if charged by cavalry, regardless of orders from the Prince of Orange. Our "doctored" rule is very similar to the one in your Club rules, which I just purchased at Origins with a view to more doctoring of our own rules. I must say that your rules have been very helpful,.and I found them logical, well organized, easy to understand and very complete. There is one aspect of a miniature battle (real battles, too) which we have not yet found covered in rules, specifically Rally Formations. Most rules allow broken units to attempt to rally with probability of success. If they do rally, there is usually a delay time (half turn, full turn, etc.) for the unit to be re-organized. In the absence of a specific rally formation, however, most gamers will form a column in order to get the unit back into the fight more rapidly. We started to analyze this with some logical realism and it just didn't make sense to us. How do you stop a mob of men running from the fight? There are many examples of troops only being stopped by a line of their compatriots with leveled bayonets or lances, as the routed French cavalry at Quatre-Bras. It would seem that once they were stopped, they could be in a line just in front of their "support". Occasionally, the officers and non-coms could rally their units, stretching out in a line, they would threaten, grab, hit or shoot anyone who came by, until the line started to fill in. Would the commander of the first company, having stopped some men, send them farther to the rear because they were second, fourth, or whatever company? It seemed logical to us that the officers and non-coms would spread out in a long line, stop everyone they could, and then start sorting. We reflected this in our rules by giving the commander an option. If he did not write a rally formation in his orders, the rallying unit automatically formed a line. If a rally-in-column order was written, the rallying unit formed 100 yards further to the rear. This has resulted in some very interesting gaifte situations. In one case, shortly after instituting the rule, a commander ordered a column rally formation for two units that had "retired" considerably from the battle. The unit rallied and were duly formed 100 yards back. When the commander attempted to move them on the next move, the opposition graciously pointed out that they appeared to be outside command radius. They were by about 40 yards. This rule has worked well for us, but our feeling for realism is mostly supported by our logic. We would appreciate it if anyone has any additional ideas or documentary data regarding this topic. Comments from Managing Editor: Well, we are very pleased to see that our rules were able to contribute something constructive. The subject of "RALLY FORMATIONS" is ignored by most rules including ours and is open for discussion in this magazine. we'll publish any pertinent (if possible substantiated comments from our readers). In our rules we have swept the problem under the rug. We do not specify any "RALLY FORMATIONS", however, we feel that we have a fairly decent system and here is how it works: 1. When a unit is routed it is considered unformed, dispersed, etc. At that point we give it status points in attempt to reflect the disorganization status (or chips) as follows: Charge - 2 Chips Melee - 2 Chips Rout - 4 Chips So, a unit that charged, meleed and routed has 8 chips. 2.The next turn, at the beginning of the game, an attempt is made to rally the unit. If the rallying is sucessful, the unit starts to remove its chips. A general add a bonus in that operation. A maximum of 7 chips can be removed in one turn. IMPORTANT - The rallying unit cannot move, or initiate fire, melee, or charge until all the chips have been removed. At that point only it is considiTied completely reorganized, and then can move, but only in the next turn, in any formation it wishes. We feel that the unit had enough time at that point to reform in the best formation for the job to be done. I should say here that most of the time the chosen formation is the column for the infantry. we are awaiting comments from our readers. More Readers' Forum: British Skirmishers More Readers' Forum: More British Skirmishing Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 1 No. 48 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1980 by Jean Lochet 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