Sieges are remarkably difficult to recreate in most wargames. They are marked by long periods of relative inactivity punctuated by moments of high drama in which many men die. I want to wargame this kind of action. Next year I hope to do it in a convention game.
At this point I have all the figures painted (25mm medieval). All the terrain made, individual trees (made of wire and lichen mounted on washers), hills (styrofoam covered in water putty and painted) and a castle (also covered in water putty). The figures are mounted on washers and are formed into units on magnetic bases of various sizes. So all that is needed are rules and players.
The players are the local gamers here in Indianapolis. The rules are a hybrid of my land calculated risk rules, and an MG. The land rules resolve all battles and assaults. The MG is used to add in variability into the battle rules (if someone risks T00 much) and to resolve campaign issues. There is no set matrix. Players are able to make it up in their mind, from there individual knowledge of war and the middle ages.
The game plays in the space of one evening (4 hours or so). Each turn represents one game day. At the start of the day, the referee asks each of the players if they want to start a tactical battle. If they do then action shifts to the land rules. Movement and fighting is done until one both sides decide to no longer advance. While in the tactical game, players can shift their men around at will (possibly opening a flank up to enemy attack). The referee can be certain the battle is over by asking the respective players if they wish to advance more. If they say no, then the fighting is over.
Of the first day of our battle, the attackers use the tactical rules to invest the castle. They drive off the peasants and take the village. They come up to the edge of bow range with the infantry, and then stop. They decide not to launch an assault. The defenders do not wish to sally forth, so the days fighting ends.
Wargamers might not like this idea very much. The point could be raised, "But I want to attack later today!" This is possible to do, but it is not automatic. Commanders often wish their men will fight a second time, only to hear that the orders arrive too late or not at all. This is the type of situations that MGs are better at resolving than mainstream games.
Once battle is over for the day. Players are able to reposition their troops any way they like, so long as they do not move closer to the enemy. Any advancing is an attack, which might trigger a response. Without moving closer, attackers may finish encircling a castle, and place guards at various critical points. The attacker know that they need to hold, the village, the bridge, their own camp, and the castle, to win the game. The defenders only have to hold one of the places. So the dispositions at the end of the day are geared towards either holding ground, or preparing for the next day's assault.
Each player gets to make one matrix argument at the end of the campaign day. This argument can do anything that is logical to the situation. It can trigger off an attack later in the same day (or a night attack). It can cause the enemy to have a problem (like bad water, sickness, or rotten food). It can allow people to slip in and out of the castle. It can cause reinforcements to arrive. It can even trigger off purely individual actions like going for a hunt, or jousting! Most siege games don't work because they do not allow players to do all the actions that are reasonable to a siege situation. They can't because there are too many possibilities. Rigid rules can't be big enough to cover everything. MGs intentionally don't cover much of anything, thus they work!
Structureless MGs are not very useful though. A siege MGs structure comes from a short list describing what the effects "in game terms" of certain problems are. I use the following list.
- Water Problem: 1 man is ineffective while problem lasts.
Food Problem: The men grumble and are unhappy.
Sickness: 1 man is ineffective while the problem lasts.
Weather Problem: Movement rolls are more risky by -1.
2 Problems: 1 man is ineffective while 2 problems remain.
3 Problems: 2 men desert.
4 Problems: 3 men desert.
5 Problems: The castle surrenders or the attackers break camp and go home!
Players can see that multiple problems can defeat a side without a battle! This is the essence of what a siege is. Problems also weaken a side so that an assault is possible.
In our game, the attackers have a cannon with civilian contracted gunners. The castle is made in several parts so that the gun can blow it apart. The gun has not tactical fire power (how could it? It takes 2 hours just to load!) but by use of matrix arguments, it can shoot apart the castle (which is a problem in and of itself).
Our game took 4 hours to play and ran over 19 game turns. The cannon leveled the castle in a week long bombardment. But the critical event was when the defenders brought up a relieving force. They attacked the enemy camp and killed most of their camp followers. This effectively won them the game since the attackers would need to make other arraignments for food (i.e. break the siege).
The attackers drove off the relieving force and offered the defenders the honors of war to abandon the castle. The offer was refused, and the attackers did not obey an order the make one last assault. All of this was handled by the MG and was thus easy to run and quickly resolved. We played out t:wo major actions and two minor fights using the land rules as well. A successful game.
CALCULATED RISK LAND RULES
These rules are not yet ready to present as a completed set but what follows are my working ideas.
First of all the game is played with 25mm figures. The figures are individually mounted on washers so that they can be formed into whatever formation the players desires. Each commander has a set number of unit stands at the beginning of the game. This limits the tactical possibilities. A unit stand consists of a piece of balsa wood with a magnetic sheet mounted on top of it. Round stands represent loosely formed units. Square stands represent rigidly formed units. Lose or unformed units rally faster, while rigid or formed units are better in combat. The various floors of the castle also count as unit stands, without even a rally roll.
Units have to have a rally point to form their unit around. This can be a leader or standard, a camp or another obvious geographic location like a bridge, a village square, or a cross roads. Figures don't have to be formed into units they can move individually as a mob of individuals (but they had best stay out of combat unless they want to die fast).
Players get to make calculated risk rolls in five different areas: Movement, Morale/Critical Distance checks, Melee, Rallies, and Saving Throws for heros. The player may roll as many dice as he wishes. 6s score successes, 1s cause problems.
The risk one must calculate is this; 6s give a better and better result up to six 6s. After six 6s it gives diminishing returns and by eight 6s actually causes the attacker a problem. So the players are gaging the effect of rolling more dice on two curves: the curve of possible 1s and the curve of possible 6s.
As you can see, the good outcome of the 6s kicks in much sooner than the bad effect of the Is. So a safe risk would be to roll few dice. That way one avoid both the bad results of the 1s and the bad results of too many 6s. But the game is not that simple. Tactical situations, like the kind of formation a unit is in, what the terrain is and how close one is to the enemy all modify the curves.
The closer to the enemy the sooner the 1s begin to cause problems. I use the zones mentioned in the morale article on space. Figures are 1. out of battle, 2. aware of the enemy, 3. in the flight zone (bow range), or 9. in the fight zone. Once in the fight zone, 1s cause problems as fast or faster than 6s cause successes. I want fights be won more by maintaining unit cohesion longer than the other side, than by just killing figures. Once the other side is a mob of men, they can be easily annihilated by pursuing cavalry. Lots of men run away from battle, more than that die.
Players must accomplish the following actions. They must rally their figures to units. If this is done out side of the flight zone then it carries little risk (one needs six 1s before anything bad happens). For each 6 rolled a man joins the ranks. If a unit is inside the flight zone or worse inside the fight zone, attempting to rally is at best disastrous.
Once a unit is formed, it must maneuver towards the enemy. Units all have a basic risk free move. Infantry units move 2" straight forward, or can about face. Cavalry can move 4" and make a 45 degree turn. Artillery moves 1" straight forward, or pivot in place any direction. Individual figures (a mob) many move 9" in any direction. By rolling dice a unit can get additional movement: 2", a 95 degree turn, 2" and a 95 degree turn, or 9".
So Infantry must take risks to turn their units at all! As one gets closer to the enemy, movement will cause more and more men to straggle from the unit. Stragglers form a cloud of figures moving up behind a unit. They can be rallied back to the unit but that can be more dangerous than advantageous. Once in the fight zone movement rolls are really more dangerous than they are worth. Only a beaten unit, trying to rout away at warp speed should take them. Since stragglers on a rout are usually killed.
The player must cause his men to cross over the invisible barriers of certain critical distances. The awareness zone is easy to cross, even mobs can usually do it. A unit only needs a single 6 to keep on advancing. The flight zone requires two 6s to enter. Mobs, unformed units and peasants get negative modifiers on the number of 6s rolled (ie if the modifier is -1 and I roll two 6s then only one 6 counts). Unformed units of archers can often move into bow range but have a hard time closing to melee. The fight zone requires three 6s to enter. One risks having deserters when Is are rolled, or if one fails to pass the check. In general only formed units of knights and men at arms are able to close to combat successfully.
Finally the player must win the melee. Each 6 rolled kills a figure. But there are many negative modiflers to over come first. The less formed a unit is the larger the negative modifier is, but even formed units have a minus one 6. This forces players to take risks in battle. Risks that might make the rear figures retreat rather than take them with you.
Naturally hero figures (leaders, mounted knights, sometimes spies and always damsels in distress) will be in the fore of any battle, as such they may well be killed. Since this ignores their super human positions, I have one last calculated risk roll. Heros can roll to save their lives vs various attacks. They are very likely to live, by they may end up wounded, captured or worst of all made to look foolish or cowardly in the eyes of the men! Sometimes honorable death is preferable to disgraced life. The choice is yours.
Back to Experimental Games Group # 26 Table of Contents
Back to Experimental Games Group List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1993 by Chris Engle
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