RATING UNITS: Units will be rated in the standard fashion. You can either have the units start in the "READY" state (BDV D6) and adjust based on battlefield conditions or situation or you can roll for each unit's quality with a D20. CASUALTIES: In PK a lose of a stand represents the reduction of the unit's combat ability. This includes killed, wounded, missing, POWs, etc. They are basically removed as a fighting force for the battle. Once the battle is over the units need to assess the type of damage they have sustained. CASUALTY STATUS: As stated above all stands are not KIA, thus you must determine the status of each stand. Roll a D20 for each stand lost on the following table and use any modifiers that apply. CASUALTY STATUS TABLE (D20) < 1 = POW (stand is captured by the enemy) 1 - 2 = KIA (stand removed permanently from campaign) 3 - 6 = WIA (Roll an additional D4)* 7 - 20 = No Effect (stand returns to unit) MODIFIERS (all modifiers are cumulative) -2 = Routed -2 = Destroyed (all stands eliminated) -3 = Routed Unralliable +1 = Cavalry** * When a stand is WIA it may take several weeks for the stand to return to the unit. Roll a D4. That is the number of full weeks before the stand may return to the unit. ** Cavalry tended to not take a lot of casualties. They just ran away. This modifier really applies to the Horse & Musket era. You may ignore this modifier for other era depending on how you feel about it. POST BATTLE MODIFIERS FOR ROUTED UNITS: Units the rout or rout unralliable suffer extra consequences from their actions. ROUTED units suffer and extra DOWN1 in Morale for the next battle. This is a temporary adjustment. If the unit doesn't rout during the next battle this DOWN1 penalty is removed. If it routs again then the DOWN1 becomes permanent. Then the process starts over again. So if a unit routs in four battles in a row then they are DOWN2 on their Morale permanently. [I'm thinking that this should only be applied if the battle ends and the unit is currently routed or the unit has routed off the table.] ROUTED UNRALLIABLE units suffer more temporary penalties. They are DOWN1 in Morale and DOWN1 in Melee for the next battle. If the unit doesn't rout in the next battle then the adjustments are removed and the morale and melee values are returned to normal. If they rout unralliable in the next battle then they are permanently DOWN1 in morale and melee. If they just route in the next battle they are permanently DOWN1 in morale only. The process starts over again after the second battle. REPLACEMENTS: When a unit suffers casualties in battle it will need replacements to bring the unit back to full strength. Depending on the number of replacement stands, the quality of the unit may be temporarily effected. This modification only last for the next battle or if the Army goes into Winter Quarters before they go into battle then the modifiers are removed also. The training the unit does while in Winter Quarters off-sets the quality of the new recruits. 1 stand replaced = no effect 2 stands replaced = DOWN1 in morale, DOWN1 in Melee 3 stands replaced = DOWN1 in all factors Modifiers Guard/Unique - treat the stand loss as one less than reality (2 stands turns into one stand lost for effects) EXAMPLE: The 1st Battalion/34th Regiment has lost two stands in battle. If it then replaces both stands then they are DOWN1 in morale, and DOWN1 in melee for the next battle. If the unit happened to be a GUARD unit the they would be no modifier since 2 stands would be treated like a one stand replacement. The reason is Guard units are usually replaced by the best of the regular regiments, so they see little degradation in quality unless they take severe casualties. NOTE: I'm not totally sold on this idea for replacements so if you have a better idea pass it along. BATTLE HONORS: Now you also have to have Legion de Honour awards for outstanding battle performance. You can all these honors by other names like The Cross of St. George, the Bronze Star, the Iron Cross, etc. The unit should be nominated by the commander and approved by the umpire or the gaming group. This honor is bestowed upon the unit, but doesn't guarantee they will get any better. They just have a chance to get better. You roll once on the following table to see what happens. This roll should be done in secret. Legion de Honour table (D20) 1-2 = Fire UP1 3-4 = Melee UP1 5-6 = Morale UP1 7-19 = No Change 20 = SPECIAL (roll on special table) SPECIAL TABLE (D4) 1 = Quality is raised (reg to elite, elite to guard, etc) This will change the appropriate BDV 2 = Special training as Light Troops or Horse artillery (may now skirmish as preferred, and move on native mobility card) 3 = Any one value is UP1 (you chose) 4 = Any two values are UP1 (you chose) SCALE: Ground Scale (1" = 1 mile, 1cm = 1KM, area movement, etc) Time Scale (1 turn equals one week, month, season, year, day?!) Period (recruitment will vary based on time period and type of nation and national resources) OTHER NOTES: I guess it would depend on the period of warfare you are playing. How *did* the Union army handle reinforcements? I think the owning side would have the choice of raising new regiments or rebuilding old ones. So lets say that you recruited 10 new stands of infantry. I wanted to build two brand new infantry units and have two stands of replacements. These replacements arrive in X amount of time to their parent units. I haven't really given this much thought since the details would be based on the campaign rules. Depended on the state. Most Northern states raised brand new regiments and appointed officers as political favors, losing any potential benefit from throwing recruits in with veterans. A few states (Wisconsin comes to mind) tried to keep regiments up to strength by feeding the new recruits into the veteran units. The 3 year regiments that re-enlisted in 1864 got to recruit new members to rebuild their strength, although by then the quality of recruit was usually questionable. So, what I would expect to see is the veteran regiments decreasing in size, but aggregate brigade strength would be maintained by adding fresh regiments of recruits. ADDITIONAL RULES NOTES BY TIM KELLOGG After careful reading and some thought of Eric's original posting, I have decided to wade in with some additions. MOVEMENT In general, units combined into a command must move together, according to the standard PK command group. There are no limitations to the number of units which may be attached to a command group. Movement proceeds according to the usual initiative process, with the exception that no fire is permitted in the campaign move. When a unit encounters an opponent, play switches to the table game rules and play continues allowing for surprise rules. (As yet to be considered, let alone written.) All campaign movement is assumed to be on roads. No cross-country movement is permitted. River crossings are unlimited as long as a bridge exists along the road. When no bridge exists, a pontoon bridge may be erected by sappers. (This is subject to the period in which one is playing.) If no bridge exists, then movement may be performed but only after obtaining a Infantry/cavalry Move in Difficult Terrain card is obtained. Command Groups encountering a river must halt upon contact. They remain halted until the Infantry/Cavalry Move in Difficult Terrain card is turned. Movement through towns is unimpeded. Campaign Sequence Cards Infantry Move in Open Cavalry Move in Open Artillery Move Heroic Moment Infantry/Cavalry Move in Difficult Terrain Dress Line/Milling Around Sapper Task Naval Phase Brilliant Leader Deployment Officer Check Command Indecision Stratagem ADDITIONAL SEQUENCE CARDS FOR CAMPAIGNS Weather Change Roll 1D10 1-2 Light Rain (Movement reduced by 1/3) 3-4 Heavy Rain (Movement reduced by 1/3 and river crossing impossible except at rivers.) 5-8 Sunshine 9-10 Fog (Line of Sight is reduced to 1D10 inches.) Intelligence Report Upon turning this card the referee divulges the location and composition of the closest enemy unit. (I am looking for suggestions for creating a system for imperfect reports.) Staff Error - Roll 1D6 1 Command group turns left at next intersection. (Or roll 1D6 1-3 left, 4-6 right) 2 Command group halts in place for the remainder of the turn. 3 Command group turns right at next intersection. (Or roll 1D6 1-3 left, 4-6 right) 4 Command group dilatory, moves only 1/2 rate for the remainder of the turn. 5-6 Command group questions orders and remains in place until an Officer Check card is turned. SUPPLY AND LOGISTICS: Perhaps the most expedient method of handling S&L is to assign reload cards based upon scenario constraints. In a campaign this abstraction is no longer effective. Method One: Assume Lines of Communications exist over any road connecting the command group to a fixed supply point. When significant enemy forces have cut the LoC, then the command group looses 1 regulars reload card and I militia reload card for every turn after a randomly determined point in the game. Method Two: Establish a number of reload cards available for each command group for the entire course of the campaign game. After a tactical game turn in which reload cards are used, remove one card per turn. Once reloads have been used, the command group may not fire, but may melee normally. ADDITIONAL RULES NOTES BY NEIL STOKES For the campaign I used a hex based map and counters for each army. The map and counter locations were available to all players all the time,(but...). I used cards to determine the players action. A couple of things I did may be of interest to people designing other systems. I graded each hex with a forage value. This was essentially how many troops a hex could support when the dreaded ATTRITION card came up. Armies also have a limit storage capacity for forage. Travelling slowly an army could attempt to keep its stores filled and mitigate the effects of Attrition. Travelling quickly the army would use up its stores potentially evaporate. Some of the actions (cards) I used: ATTRITION: When every this card should up the player calculated how many men he could support. Those he couldn't support were gone. I let the players determine which troops disappeared. I let the armies maintain a limited moving storage capacity to mitigate the effects of attrition. You could just as easily use the placement of depots. RECRUIT: The player could opt to recruit more troops. We used a political point system to determine how well people were doing (first one to 1,000 points wins). Recruiting new troops cost political points. I let the armies immediately put troops in the army. They could also be made to travel along the lines of communication. REVEAL LOCATION: The counters on the map only indicated the location of an army the last time this card was drawn. The actual location was maintained by the players and myself as GM. I based the number of reveal location cards on the nature and size of the armies. You could use intelligence to either take a number of these cards out of your own deck or put more in someone else's. POLITICAL ACTION: The campaign running is basically everyone jump on ROME. There are 3 Roman armies and swarms of uncoordinated barbarians, and not based on any history that I am aware of. I did, however, introduce a zero sum game for the Roman players allowing them to steal each others political points. I can imagine all sorts of fun with Napoleon's marshals and Union generals. MESSAGE: Allowed messages to be sent and received. ADDITIONAL RULES NOTES BY PETER ANDERSON Although nothing terribly original, the weather obviously needs some seasonal (and potentially geographic) adjustments. For central Europe, one might try something like this: Additional weather types: Heat: Movement reduced by 1/3, must rest every third day (or move card?) while in effect or command may suffer attrition. Snow: Visibility effect like fog, and reduced movement and need for rest like Heat. Extreme Cold: Rivers freeze over after 2 move cards and are freely passable. Fatigue effect like Heat. Thaw: Movement reduced 50% as raids turn to quagmires! A number of move cards under the Thaw card equaling the number of cold move cards melts rivers making them have reduced passability like under Heavy Rain. Month Die Roll 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Jan Cold Cold Cold Snow Snow Sun Sun Sun Sun Thaw Feb Cold Cold Snow Snow Sun Sun Sun Sun Fog Thaw March Cold Snow Snow LRn HRn Sun Sun Fog Thaw Thaw April LRn LRn HRn HRn Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun Fog May LRn LRn HRn HRn Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun June LRn LRn HRn Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun Heat July LRn HRn Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun Heat Heat August LRn HRn Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun Heat Heat Sept LRn LRn HRn Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun Heat Oct LRn LRn HRn HRn Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun Fog Nov LRn LRn HRn HRn Sun Sun Sun Sun Fog Fog Dec LRn HRn Cold Snow Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun Fog I might also suggest that Light Rain only effect movement starting with the second or third move card. You might also want to have more cavalry move cards in the strategic deck that the usually equal proportions in the tactical sequence decks. Heavy rain and Thaw should have a chance to wash out Pontoon Bridges. IF you use a referee (and a computer would potentially make a good referee if a simple grid system were used), suggest the intelligence report be about a RANDOM enemy unit (perhaps influenced by spy activity, which could easily be added in abstract fashion if desired): For a randomly determined enemy command, the referee rolls a D10: 1 - accurate report of location and strength of command 2 - accurate report of location and strength of command 3 - accurate report of location of command, strength off by 25% +/- 4 - accurate report of location of command, strength off by 50% +/- 5 - accurate report of location of command, strength exaggerated by 100% 6 - location of command off by 1 days march, accurate strength 7 - location of command off by 2 days march, accurate strength 8 - Location of command off by 1 days march and strength off by 25% +/- 9 - Location of command off by 2 days march and strength off by 50% +/- 10 - Enemy commander scores counterintelligence coup, and is allowed to feed a complete fabrication to the unsuspecting player! Napoleon's orders being captured by the Russians in 1807 come to mind, as does his attempts to mislead the Russians subsequently by "allowing" them to capture phony documents. During the Revolution, George Washington was famous for his interest in intelligence and counterintelligence operations. Obviously, this roll might be modified by resources allocated to spy activities, a bonus to the Colonials in the AMR, or the Natives in a Din of Battle campaign, etc.! Cavalry scouting (or Reconnaissance) rules are clearly needed (? To be abstracted into the sequence deck as a "Cavalry Scouting Report" card - at which time the scouting procedure could be resolved at a cost of an impetus per command scouting?) OTHER NOTES BY ANDREW PALMER My ideas for supply and logistics are as follows (in no particular order) Each command group has a number of supply points. At the end of each day it looses a number of supply points based on the units in its commands, perhaps 1 for Art, 2 for Infantry, 3 or 4 for Cav (Horses to feed). Or one point per stand. The state of a command group for a battle, can then be based on the number of supply points available. Delivery of the supply to the command group is by far the most interesting. The one idea I am considering is to give each side a number of cards indicating supply arrives at destination. These have to be assigned to a command group or a supply depot, at start of day. When the card is turned the relevant group or location gets the supply points assigned to the card. Now when the supply line is cut, any supply card that is turned over that uses that route could be lost, or captured. (depending on how long ago the line was cut.) If the supply is captured the card should be removed from the deck and replaced by a Dress Line card. The distance supply has to travel should reduced the actual value of the supply card. This should encourage the setting up of supply depots, and make military targets. Fighting a battle should also consume supplies, perhaps two/three days worth of supplies. Feeding off the land could be achieved perhaps by providing supply to the group at the start of each day, perhaps one point per unit. This of course could not be kept up indefinitely, and perhaps areas should be rated for the total amount they could supply or were willing to supply. Back to The Gauntlet No. 15 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Craig Martelle Publications 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