STRAGGLERS: are figures that drop out of units and form a mob strung out behind it. They must be rallied back to the stand. They are the first to retreat and desert.
RETREATERS: are figures that run from battle. Move them to the rear to a place where they are "safe".
DESERTERS: are figures that flee the field. Remove them from the board.
Sometimes rules writing takes a long time. I began working on Calculated Risk rules in late summer 1992. The first set of rules was for running medieval battles. It sort of worked, but was not satisfactory. It is now a year and a half later and I am still not fully satisfied with what I've got.
Many of the rules have stayed nearly the same for a year now. Movement is just what it was in January 1993. Combat has been the same for nearly as long. What has changed (and what I am still not happy with) is how morale is handled.
I have tried several different methods to include some kind of danger zone based morale system. They all "worked" for what that's worth, but they were slow. Slow is what calc risk is meant to combat, so using a plodding morale system would been entirely out of keeping with the spirit of the game.
I want a few things from this game. It is meant to be used at a convention to run the battles in a combined MG/combat game (like a castle siege, something marked by periods of furious action followed by periods of extreme boredom). For that the rules have to be simple enough for the players to run their battles by themselves with little or no referee involvement. The calc risk idea itself, removes the most frequent player question "How many dice do I roll?" What remains is making the tables simple and easy to read. Danger Zone morale is not a standardly known game mechanism, so it has built in problems for players. Sadly, I feel I must drop it to make the game work. Instead, danger zones are incorporated in a more subtle manner. Namely, the closer to the enemy one gets, the greater the chance of problems occurring. It pays to be more cautious in dice rolling when the enemy is upon you.
Many of the game mechanisms are based on the physical circumstances of my games. I use 25mm figures that are mounted on steel washers. I keep them in metal boxes on 2x4 inch balsa wood rectangles with sheet magnet placed top and bottom. The bottom holds the rectangle down to the box, the top holds the figure secure in the box. It makes sense to group figures into units in the same way as they are stored - to speed up set up and tear down time. In addition, I like the idea of allowing the players to decide how they want to form up their men. There are only 50 or so figures in the game, so moving men around on magnetic unit stands is not that time consuming. The rules try to make use of this fact.
It occurs to me that giving players only so many magnetic unit stands is a simple way to limit their tactical flexibility. Thus, a commander who knows he can only split his army into two effective groups, must figure out where those groups are really needed. Since figures are moved around so easily, their orderliness on the stand is not going to be easily maintained. So telling apart "formed" units from "unformed" can not really rely on neatly made lines. Too often sneaky players form their "mobs" into lines, and end up shooting as much as regular troops do. That is just wrong!
I want the players to be able to tell which units are formed or unformed merely by glancing at the table. So it occurred to me. Why not have square magnetic unit stands be for formed units. Circular unit stands represent unformed units, and figures not placed on unit stands represent mobs. Simple, easy to explain, easy to see.
So players are given say, two formed/square unit stands, two or three unformed/circular unit stands, and 20 to 30 figures. How many figures go on each stand is up to the player. It is limited only by the size of the stand.
That gave me an idea, have no standard unit stand size. Some unit stands are just the 2x4 bases I use to store my figures on. Other stands can be smaller or larger. This eliminates another typical question to the referee, "How do I form my men into a column?" Formations are up to the players. Pretty lines mean nothing, its the magnetic stand that counts, and that is plainly seen by all.
Since figures can be placed or removed so easily from magnetic stands, I figures it would be fun to have rules in which stragglers fell out of units as they moved. Stragglers are a fact of real life marches, but difficult to handle in miniature wargames. They way I figure it, fast moving units tend to build up a cloud of men straggling behind them. The closer to the enemy one gets, the more likely men are to hang back. They can be rallied back to the colors, but that takes time. And in combat, rallying men is likely to be disastrous, rally before going into battle!
As I said above, movement has stayed the same for a year now. Figures get a base movement that varies depending on what type of figure it is. Mobs move as individuals, four inches a turn in any direction. This is very fast and flexible but then again mobs usually use this flexibility to run away from battles. Rushing into battle as a mob is a recipe for disaster. Units of infantry figures may move two inches straight forward or they may about face to point to their rear. If an infantry unit wants to turn, it must roll and take the chance that some men may straggle. Units of cavalry figures may move four inches and make a 45 degree turn each turn. So they are able to maneuver around the table much more than infantry can. Artillery move at one inch a turn or may pivot in place any direction they like.
If the player chooses, he may roll as many dice as he wishes, to gain extra movement for his unit. A unit may add extra inches or turns on top of his normal move. But if a player rolls too many sixes, he may actually cause his unit to lose even its normal movement "No move." The risks of moving are that figures may straggle out of a unit. Naturally, since figures can not straggle from a mob (since a mob by its definition does not have a unit stand to straggle from) mobs are not allowed to roll for extra movement.
After all the units have moved, players may chose to rally their men. Again they roll as many dice as they wish. For every six they roll, one figure joins a stand. If the player is trying to rally his man to an unformed unit then he add two to the number of sixes rolled. This makes it easier to rally men to an unformed unit. One tactic a player might use is to rally his men first to an unformed unit and then rally the unit stand from unformed to a formed stand. Players also get a plus one when rallying men to walls. Men like to hide behind walls!
Castle walls are built in formed unit stands that give the defender the advantage. They act as extra "free" unit stands. Once defenders and attackers are intermingled in side castle walls, though, they are both considered mobs.
It is dangerous to try to rally figures to stands that are within bow shot of the enemy. It is even more dangerous to rally men once a unit is in combat. Men tend to retreat out of bow range when rallies are attempted so close to danger. If a unit is far enough from danger to provide an opportunity for someone to desert, that too may happen (but only if a players rolls very poorly while taking too much risk). Men who retreat are moved into a mob that forms out of bow range from the enemy, most likely in cover. Deserting figures are removed from the table altogether.
Once men get within four inches of one another it seems likely that they will start a melee. Generally stands must be touching, but since setting unit stand together may be blocked by pretty terrain features, melee can happen between any units that are within four inches of one another. Players roll as many dice as they wish, sixes score kills (one figure dead per six rolled). But the number of sixes scored is highly modified.
If a unit has only one figure on the stand, or a single figure is fought then he subtracts one six from any he rolls. Knights fighting peasants add one six (if any are rolled). Cavalry vs a mob add two sixes (if any are rolled). Hitting a units flank adds one six to the attackers score (if any sixes are rolled). If the attacking unit is formed one six is subtracted from the total. Unformed units subtract two sixes from the total. While mobs subtract three sixes from the total. Peasants figures fighting subtract one six from their total. Attacking someone behind a wall subtracts two sixes. Attackers shooting bows subtract one six from the total. Thus a mob of peasants shooting bows at a man behind a wall, start off with a minus seven (ie they have to roll eight sixes to score even one hit!)
Combat is generally not settled by killed figures. More likely it is settled by which sides men retreat from the fight first. Attackers cause their own men to run away by negative effects from their combat rolls. This creates battles in which units of men crash together, kill a few figures, and then each side retreats away. If a side can maintain cohesion after breaking the enemy, they may be able to destroy the enemy. More likely though, unaggressive players will use the break as a lull in which both sides regroup for the next fight.
Lulls in fights and moving men up to various danger zones, allows one to insert places for players to make matrix arguments. For instance, an invading force invests a castle. They want to place their artillery before attacking. This is done by an argument. The defenders may try to place a spy in the enemy camp, or poison the wells, another argument. Only if the defender or the attacker decides to sally forth to fight does the game switch back to the combat rules.
The game tends to begin with a flurry of movement, until players get to defendable positions. Then there is a period of matrix argument maneuvering. A few probing attacks happen. Then after another period of argument maneuvering, both sides tend to clash in a major fight, that settles the matter.
So it works, but it doesn't look pretty yet. Each player is given a 4x5 inch photo reduced copy of the combat rules and an index card for each matrix argument made. The table is laid out with lots of home made trees, buildings, hills etc. So the playing area looks good. In many ways this is a very mainstream looking high quality miniatures game. I'm not really satisfied with it, but it should make a fun game and display the Matrix Game well. I guess that's all I can ask for.
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© Copyright 1993 by Chris Engle
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