Introduction In 1972, Leon L. Tucker wrote a booklet of wargame rules for Eighteenth Century miniatures battles, entitled GrossTaktik. They were published by Guidon Games (other titles they published were Chainmail, Tractic.5, Hardtack, Don't Give Up the Ship, and Ironclad). All of these have of course long been out of print. Though the years, Grosstaktik has remained one of my favorite sets of miniatures rules. This article discusses the rules, their mechanics and style of presentation, and gives an example of a typical game played with them. Grosstaktik has of course been out of print for quite a long while. One might wonder, what is the point of an article about a set of "antique" rules such as these? The answer is three-fold: First, Grosstaktik has a number of features which are well worthy of emulation by present-day authors. Second, it may inspire gamers who own a copy to (perhaps literally) dust them off and try them out again. Third, for other gamers, the rules can in fact still be found. Here is a web site which sells old and rare games: http://members.aol.com/hudsonciame/oldrare.htm. (If you are into nostalgia, you will find this site very interesting, by the way.) According to the site, Grosstaktik is available from Hudson Games, for $15.00. (I got my set back in high school for $2.00.) Here is another web page, giving a brief review of the rules. I happen to agree with the reviewer's sentiments, so by all means visit the page!: http://www.tabletoptactics.com/articles/grosstaktik.htm My Experience with Grosstaktik When I was in high school, in the seventies, I belonged to a "clique" of five other miniatures gamers. These other guys introduced me to wargaming, starting with Diplomacy, then other boardgames, then miniatures. Of course, we had no trouble switching periods and types of ganies from one weekend to the next. Back then, as some of you probably remember, the gaming scene was so small that no one even considered specializing. One of our favorite periods was Seven Years War miniatures. There were two main reasons for this. First, we could get figures. Airfix produced several boxes of miniatures useful for that period. They made Washington's infantry which made excellent line troops, British Grenadiers for elite troops, Napoleonic French artillery (you could use spares from Washington's infantry for gunners), and Napoleonic French cuirassiers. You might wonder, why didn't we just do Napoleonics? Well, eventually, we did. But at the start, Airfix only made British Highlanders, French Cuirassiers, and French artillery. I played out quite a few solo battles involving Highlanders against cuirassiers (all in unpainted yellow plastic, of course) on my sand table. These "games" had no rules, but rather followed a pre-arranged script. The idea was that the Highlanders would fight valiantly, but eventually be overwhelmed by the cavalry. A quick head transplant turned a Napoleonic cuirassier into his grandfather from several decades earlier. Jack Scruby of course was producing lead figures, but at 10 cents each, the cost was prohibitive. Second, we could get rules. One of our bunch had a subscription to Panzerfaust, and in the back we found a set of rules for Eighteenth Century battles entitled Grosstaktik. They cost $2.00, but we felt it was worth the investment, so we all sent away for copies. It did not take us long to produce several battalions each of blue-, red-, white, and green-coated infantry. (Cavalry and artillery followed later.) All elite troops wore bearskins, of course. The troops were mounted on cardboard bases (or "trays" as Grosstaktik terms them). This was the first time we had been introduced to this revolutionary concept, which we felt would probably catch on. At first, the trays were not painted. It was not until after three of us attended an actual wargame convention down in Ohio (we were in Detroit) that we saw well-painted figures, and also saw that trays looked much better painted green. During the painting "step", we were not shy about just mounting unpainted figures on their trays and using these. We wanted to play! Which leads to the rules themselves. The Rules So, what sort of battles is Grosstaktik designed for? I can do no better than to quote the author: " The sklllful use of different units in a mutually supporting tactical network is more important to me than reproduction In miniature of a cataclysmlc historical battle" He also states ".. I of necessity retain enough complexity that any large battle in miniature is absolutely doomed to dissolve into a chaos of unplayablIlty." Basically, these rules are for small, pseudo-historical, tactically oriented games, with perhaps 8-10 units per side. Tucker feels that you should be able to play 25 turns to a game, in a single evening. None of our games even went that far. (It is interesting to note that the game mechanics cover only 10 booklet-sized pages, yet Tucker feels these are too complex for large battles. It makes you wonder about some of the 100page "simple, fast-play" rule sets we have seen over the years.) The first thing we liked about Grosstaktik was that they were short, easy to read, and very well organized. The rules booklet (or "monograph" as Tucker charmingly refers to them) is 43 pages long, plus a 6-page preface. The complete game mechanics, or "Definitions and Procedures" as Tucker calls them, cover only 15 pages. The rest are "Notes and Appendices". The mechanics section first covers how to mount figures onto their trays, organize them into units, and record losses. Infantry should ideally be mounted 8 figures on a 2" X 1" tray, cavalry should be mounted 3 figures on a 2" X 1.5" tray, and guns mounted one gun model plus 8 gunners on a 2" X 2.5" tray. Limbers are, as the author terms it, "quite optional", the game scale of 25 yards to the inch giving the gun tray plenty of depth to account for their presence. Infantry and cavalry are divided into heavy and light. Artillery is divided into foot and horse. We figured by "horse" he just meant light regimental guns. Figures are actually referred to as "quanta", where each quantum represents about 12 men. Each tray, at full strength, represents 100 actual men, or a battery of four guns plus 100 gunners. All infantry battalions are organized into six-tray units. All cavalry regiments are organized into four-tray units. All batteries are single-tray units that operate independently. There is no provision for generals in the rules. Now, the figures themselves are in fact merely decorative. As Tucker says, most gamers prefer to mount only 4 infantry and four gunners per tray. Losses are recorded using a roster. What is very interesting is that you, as a player, need not reveal how many quanta each tray in a unit actually carries until the unit fires or fights for the first time. An understrength battalion with 6 quanta per tray looks the same as a full strength 3 battalion. This is an excellent "fog of war" technique, clever and simple. ( We never quite got the message about figures being merely decorative, as it happens, nor did we use rosters. We mounted four infantry and three cavalry per base. When a unit took a hit, we marked off a dead figure. This made our games extremely bloody, but we bore with it. Tucker refers to casualty caps as "grotesque shrouds", but we had no qualms about using them; war is often grotesque.) The organization section also describes the formations for each arm of service. Infantry have six formations, ranging from march column to extended line (frontages of one tray up to six trays). Cavalry have four formations, and batteries two (limbered and unlimbered). The "heart" of the rules covers 10 pages. There are two pages each devoted to: Turn sequence, movement, firing, morale, and combat. Here Tucker had a very good idea: Each pair of pages takes up two facing pages, so that one page is on the lefthand facing, and the other is on the right-hand facing. Thus you can see all the firing rules, for example, without needing to turn a page. Turn Sequence Each turn, players trade active and passive roles. When you are active, you get two "periods". In each period, you may either move, shoot, or rally. Thus you could move twice, shoot and then move, move and then shoot, or shoot twice. In your second period, a unit may also be marked to do a defensive fire after the opponent's first period of the next turn. Enemy units check morale when they take shooting hits. Combat happens each turn after both periods are over, and includes its own morale results Movement Each period, a unit receives a certain number of "allotments" (movement points, we would call them today). The unit then burns up these MP to perform various actions. This brings in a lot of subtle effects of different formation. It might seems clumsy, but (as Tucker says) you are supposed to be playing small battles, not recreating Rossbach. Firing Weapon fire uses pretty standard mechanics. Weapons have a short, medium, or long range. Each tray in the unit rolls a die and modifies it, then crossindexes on a hit chart to see how many enemy quanta are lost. Morale When a unit suffers shooting hits, it must test morale. Roll one die for the unit as a whole, modify it (there is a list of fairly standard modifiers), then look to see the result. A positive final score passes. Scores for 0 or less range from, shaken, to disorganized, to routed. A unit in poor morale may also roll on this same table to rally. Rallying takes up an entire period. Thus you could try and rally twice in the same turn. Combat Combat uses the old-fashioned ratio system: Each unit rolls a die and multiplies it by the number of trays physically involved in combat. This is the "melee index". You then add (or subtract) points according to the status of the trays involved. For example, each elite tray adds 4 points, each routed tray subtracts 3 points, etc. You then take a ratio of points, resulting in stand-fast, retirement, rout, or surrender. Each result causes a set number of quanta losses to the trays involved. The bloodiest is stand-fast, which causes 1/4 losses to all involved trays. Rout causes the loser to lose 1/8 losses and the winner no losses. Clearly, this implies that the losers broke at once on impact. And that's it. There are no generals. In fact, Tucker does not even care for command trays. He must think that wars are won by sergeants (the sergeants would probably agree). There are only three morale grades, elite, line, and auxiliary. The rest of the booklet is devoted to notes about the rules, mechanics of game control, principles of game design, and background about the Eighteenth century. We played quite a few battles with Grosstaktik. We never caught on about quanta vs. figures, so our games were very bloody. We also made a template for grape shot, and all trays in the template took losses. I do not think this is what Tucker had in mind! We learned very quickly to limit artillery in the game a lot; it was just too powerful. Our best games came when we played out a campaign. We had a large paper map on my basement wall, mounted on cork. The map was divided into game-tablesized rectangles. Each unit was marked on the map by a numbered flag. The background was that a large force had landed on the coast, and was trying to take over the map. The defenders then marched on from their side of the map to try and stop the invasion. Most games were dominated by artillery until we cut down the number of batteries. We also had very little cavalry, since they were a lot more trouble to paint. I am sure if we played again, the games would look a lot different. We hated "extended line" because you moved so slowly. We hated march column and attack column because the grape shot template was so deadly. Most units tended to adopt line or open line (3-tray or 4-tray frontages). The games emphasized musket fire, mostly because combat was so risky. Looking back, I can see all sorts of mistakes we made; but then, we were groping our way through the rules with no "mentors" to help interpret them, so all-in-all we really did pretty well. House Rules At the end of his preface, Tucker writes: 'Admitting that no two wargamers agree precisely about rules, and admitting that it is very nearly impossible to anticipate all circumstances and eliminate, all ambiguities, you should regard these rules as a bare framework Apply them flexibly, and modify them freely in accordance with your own tastes." (This is also a sample of Tucker's relaxed, elegant, somewhat academic writing style, which makes reading the rules a pleasure rather than a chore.) In that spirit, I felt justified in making a few changes to organization of units, and to include a few cases which the basic rules did not cover" Organization When I use Grosstaktik these days (which is not very often, I admit), I use my 15mm "tricorne era" figures (Austrians, Spanish, AWI, and Russians). My plastics have long since been given away to deserving younger gamers. I use the same ranges and movement rates as the regular rules, with one exception noted below. Mounting is four infantry figures on a 1-1/2" X 1/2" tray, three cavalry figures on a 1-1/2" X I" tray, and two gun models plus eight gunner figures on a 2" X 1-1/2" tray (a battery tray is actually a pair of lXl-1/2 stands). This lets me use my figures for most sets of rules. (A low-volume rant: I have never been a fan of 3-figure-perbase mounting for infantry. The figures don't store efficiently in my boxes, and the stands are just too small and "fiddly") You could, if you had scads of figures, double up your infantry trays and have 8figure trays measuring 11/2" x 1", but this really adds little to the game. Use the same ranges and movement rates as in the rules. These work out very well for 15mm scale games. There are no rosters. Two "hits" removes a figure. Mark one-quantum hits with a black loss ring, and a full figure gone with a white loss ring. This does not allow for the understrength "fog of war" effect, but there is no reason you could not use rosters if you prefer them. (in fact, using rosters would allow for 5mm games with many figures per tray. Imagine a battle using a scale of 1:5 or even 1:3, with 20 or 60 figures on a 2" x 1" tray - what a sight that would be!) This does not work perfectly for cavalry, of course; you just have to remember it takes eight rings to kill off a tray, not six. The owning player is usually only too happy to point this out if a tray is about to be removed prematurely. In the interest of play, losses are always consolidated onto a single tray, rather than spread out among trays. Movement Most of a player's time in a Grosstaktik battle will, as the author intended, be taken up with the details of formations and movement. Every formation moves and maneuvers at a slightly different cost. A unit may wheel about one flank (this is not stated anywhere explicitly in the rules). When a unit changes its frontage, It does not need to also pay the movement that individual trays use up, merely the formation change cost. The extra movement Cost is just too hard to figure out. An about face means each tray in the unit needs to do four 45-degree turns. A unit in attack column, for example, required 4 movement points to rotate 45 degrees. Infantry receives 12 MP per turn. This means It takes a bit more than one full period to about face if in attack column. It is important to note that elite troops take 2 MP less for all maneuver (but not regular movement) costs, and elite troops take 2 MP more. It would thus take an elite attack column only 8 MP to about face. It would take the poor auxiliaries 20 MP almost two full periods. As an added bonus, I also say that elite units take 1 MP less on movement costs. It costs a line attack column 3 MP to move one inch "in the field", so it can move four inches per period, or eight inches in a full turn. But elites can move six inches per period, half again as fast. The rules do not say so, but I allow maneuver allotments to be carried over into the next period (but not the next turn). The rules cover forming square, but not coming back out again. I say that the cost to come out of square into a given formation is the same as the cost to enter square from that formation. Line infantry are not normally allowed to operate as independent trays ("skirmish" would be the newfangled term). An exception is American militia. These are allowed to "scatter and take cover, boys!" at the start of the game. They must then skirmish for the rest of the game. Each tray is treated as a separate unit. Such "untrained skirmishers" must roll a 4-6 in order to move. Shooting Mounted troops may not shoot. Auxiliaries suffer a -1 on their shooting dice. Artillery are treated as detached trays, for a -2 to be hit, I toned down the fire losses a bit. In the basic rules, you get a +4 to hit at close range and a +2 at medium range. This means at close range a battalion does an average of 10 hits, making it almost certain that its target will rout. I changed the firing to +2 at close range, +0 at medium, and -2 at long range. This does make ballshot pretty weak at long range, but that is OK with me. I also added a +2 factor for first fire. The rules are a little vague on how to handle grape shot. They state, "Grape, however, spreads out over 4 inches at medium range, and across 6 inches at long range." When we used to play, we assumed this meant to make a template covering the entire 16 inches of grape shot range, and that all trays in that zone were liable to take losses. Oh mama! That was one of the main reasons artillery was so powerful. I suspect this is not what Tucker had in mind, to say the least. Nowadays, I say that if the target unit is two trays wide, grape can roll two dice if at medium or long range. If the target unit is three trays wide, grape may roll three dice at long range. Morale In the basic rules, you take a morale test to rally, but this gets to be rather complicated, especially for routing units, so I just made a simple rally table: Rally Table State : Score to Pass Shaken : 2-6 Disorganized : 4-6 Routed : 5-6 Modifiers: Elite: +1 Auxiliary: -1 At half strength: -2 If a unit passes, it is in good morale. If it fails, it stands as it is if shaken or disorganized, and keeps routing if routed. You can try to rally once per period. Routing units move at double march-column speed each period. When a unit tests to rally its morale, the rally test cannot have a result worse than the unit's original morale level; such poorer results just mean "no improvement". Combat Since losses are consolidated, there is no need to trade trays around within a unit. However, a reinforcing unit may take an active period to trade places with a front-line unit. It may not count as "advancing". There are two "periods" in a turn, so a friend could move up during the first period, reinforce during the second, and fight that turn. Squares may not be relieved in this manner. In the rules, two fairly evenly matched units can fight just about forever, wearing each other to a nubbin. To stop this sort of thing, I say that after two consecutive "stand-fast" results, the side with fewer combat points each turn must roll, routing on a score of 1-3. 1 feel this more accurately reflects the short, sharp nature of horse and musket combats. Examples of Play Below are two simple scenarios, which illustrate how the game mechanics work in practice. Fire and Movement: Infantry vs. Infantry Let us assume that two battalions of Prussian line infantry top the crest of a low rise, and see before them, 15 inches away, a single resolute regiment of Austrian line musketeers awaiting their attack. All three units are six trays strong, and all three are in "extended line" - 6 trays wide by I tray deep. The Prussians decide to cross the three-hundred-yard killing zone and drive the Austrians back to Vienna. In extended line, it costs a unit 5 MP to move one inch "in the field". Since infantry gets 12 MP per period, the Prussians can advance about 2-1/4" per period. A unit gets a 1-period charge bonus of 6 MP, so it could charge 3-1/4". Therefore, the first turn, they just march calmly to just outside 12 inches range. They then mark themselves to do a defensive fire and take no actions during their second period (except to entertain the Austrians with regimental band music). It is now the Austrian turn. The Austrians are not about to walk forward under these conditions, so they just play music during their first period, then mark themselves to do a defensive fire during their second. The Prussians see that it is time to make omelets, so they advance their 2", and let the Austrians shoot their defensive shot. The Austrians choose one regiment and slam out a first-fire volley, at a final modifier of +0. They roll 6 dice, needing a 5-6 to score 1 hit. They score 3 hits. The target regiment must now test morale at a -3 for 3 hits, but +1 for advancing. They roll a 4, for a final score of 2, and thus pass the test. The Prussians then march forward their second period, ending at 7 inches range (medium range is 6 inches), ending their turn. The Austrians now fire off two volleys on a row (one per period), one against each regiment. Each target suffers two hits, and rolls at a -1 final modifier. One unit passes, but the second rolls a '1' and fails, with a shaken result. It is the Prussian turn. The shaken unit spends its first period rallying. It needs a 2-6, and rolls a 3, so it passes. While it rallies, the first regiment marches into medium range, 5 inches from the Austrians. During their second period, both regiments shoot their first volleys at the whitecoats. The far-range battalion does 2 hits, the mediumrange battalion does 3 hits. Not very good shooting, actually. The Austrians test at a total -5 modifier. They roll a 3, -5, getting a final -1, "shaken". During their turn, the Austrians spend the first period rallying, then fire a volley at the medium-range Prussian battalion. They roll 5 full-strength dice at +0, and one tray at 1/2 strength for a -2. They score 4 total hits. The Prussians roll a 3, +1 for advancing, -4 for hits = 0, shaken. It is now the Prussian turn. The shaken unit rallies, rolling a 2. The first unit advances to medium range. Both units now fire off a medium volley. They score 9 total hits on the now-nervous Austrians. The Austrians test at -9 for hits, -2 for 25% total losses. They score a 3 -11 = -8, routed!. The poor whitecoats turn and run two turns worth of movement at march column speed. Since march column pays 3 MP to move one inch in the field, this totals to 16 inches. Melee: Cavalry Vs. Cavalry As you can see, even with reduced effectiveness, musketry is quite powerful, and only seldom will battalions cross bayonets. To illustrate melee, let us assume that a 4-tray regiment of French hussars (light cavalry), auxiliary quality, is trotting forward to engage a 4-tray regiment of British light dragoons (also light cavalry), line quality. Each regiment is arranged two trays wide by two trays deep. For cavalry, this is "assault column". Light cavalry receives 20 MP per period, plus an 8-MP bonus if it charges. In assault column, this lets the troopers clop about at 6-2/3" per period, with a 2-2/3" bonus for charging. The rules do not give any particular charge bonus, but there is a bonus for "advancing this turn". I take this to mean that the unit advanced on its most-recent movement period. So the two units meet in a swirling cloud of dust and sabers. Let us assume they meet on the British turn. The French roll a 3 for their melee index, X 2 for two trays in combat, = 6. They add +4 for two trays of light cavalry, +4 for two trays that advanced, +6 for two trays in good discipline, +6 for two trays above 3/4 strength = 26. The British roll a 3 also, getting a 6 for their melee index, +4 for two light cavalry trays, +4 for two trays advancing, +6 for two trays in good discipline, +4 for two trays of line quality troops, +6 for two trays above 3/4 strength = 30. This is a 1:1 combat, so the result is a stand-fast: Each side loses 1/4 the engaged quanta, or 4 hits. The rules as written are silent on whether rear-rank trays can be maneuvered into contact, so as to bring more men into contact. However, because he spends several paragraphs detailing how rear-rank trays can trade positions with front-rank trays, I assume that this sort of movement or maneuvering is forbidden. On the next turn, the French roll a lucky 6 for their index, for a base 12, +4 for two trays of light cavalry, +6 for two good-discipline trays, +6 for two full-strength trays (remember that losses are consolidated onto rearrank trays) = 28. The British roll a 2 for a base 4 index, +4 for light cavalry, +6 for discipline, +6 for full strength, +4 for line quality = 24. This is another stand-fast, so each side suffers 4 more hits, losing a tray each. But now the British must roll to resist panic, since they had fewer points, routing on a 1-3. They roll a 7, and rout! They suffer another 1/8 losses (3 more hits), and the French may follow them up as they rout. I play the game such that pursuers also move at rout speed. Both units will avoid other units within a 6-inch corridor. Friends in the rout path can open ranks and let the routers through on a score of 3-6; otherwise they drop a morale state. Tucker states that troops ending a melee should be shaken for one turn, then normal, then given "some sort of a bonus", but does not state what this is. I simplify things by just saying that the troops are shaken on the turn after they end a fight, or if pursuers get into combat with a new enemy, and that's it. Conclusion So that is Grosstaktik. It is my hope that, after reading the above article, you have gained an interest in these rules. If you have a set, get them out and try them again. If you'd like a set, visit the web page mentioned in the introduction, see if you can get a copy, and set up a small game. I think you will enjoy the experience. Back to MWAN #114 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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