La Grande Guerre

Integrated Campaign and Tabletop System

by Sam A. Mustafa

INTRODUCTION

La Grande Guerre (hereafter LGG) is a simple set of "big battles" rules specifically designed to support a horse-and-musket era campaign, either fictional or historical. It allows for very fast battle resolution with minimal bookkeeping, so that the campaign can actually play out face-to-face, players can set up and resolve battles as they arise, and then return to the campaign.

LGG uses the basing system of my game Grande Armee, but no understanding of that game is necessary in order to play LGG, nor is it necessary to have a copy of Grande Armee, or for that matter even to play LGG as a Napoleonics game system. These rules should suffice for campaigns in the two centuries of "horse-and-musket" warfare, roughly 1688-1871.

1.0 SCALE AND BASING

Infantry and cavalry units represent "divisions" of roughly 6,000 infantry or 3,000 cavalry. Artillery units are abstractions; the presence of a heavy foot (usually 12-pdr) battery represents @ 12-16 such pieces, in however many batteries that would entail. Ditto for the lighter Horse batteries. Divisional guns are not represented; they are assumed to exist on each unit base.

Infantry and cavalry units are based on 3" square stands, regardless of how many and what size of figures you prefer. Artillery units are based on a stand 3" deep by 1.5" wide.

Normally an army has only one officer (mounted on a 2X2" base), representing the army commander. Alternatively, large armies might be divided into "wings" with subordinate wing commanders having their own bases.

Some sort of hit markers will be needed, as infantry and cavalry units may accumulate hits during the game. Casualty figures work best aesthetically, since the game requires no other form of markers or paperwork.

One inch of game surface represents about 200 yards when considering fire and movement, although this shouldn't be taken too literally when considering base size and ground scale. One mile is roughly 9" of tabletop.

Both six-sided and ten-sided dice (hereafter d6 and d10) are needed.

2.0 UNIT FORMATION AND FACING

Given the variable length of game moves and the huge scale involved, units do not change formation on the table. Units are assumed to be trying to get into the most combat-effective formations in every instance. Artillery, likewise, does not "limber" or "unlimber."

For game purposes, a unit's "frontal perspective" is the 45-degree perspective from its forward corners. (This is easy to calculate, given the game's square bases.) Any other angle is said to be a unit's "flank perspective." Furthermore, a unit has a "front line" represented by extending the line of its forward-facing base edge.

Establishing these things is necessary under several circumstances. For instance, it is important to know if enemy fire comes via the flank perspective, or if an enemy unit lies to your unit's front, and so on. Generally, if a majority of the enemy unit's base lies within your frontal perspective, then that unit is considered to be "to your front."

3.0 TERRAIN

Bear in mind the huge ground scale and try to set up games with only major, substantial terrain features. Small streams and little towns of only a few buildings, lightly-wooded orchards, minor elevation changes - these things will not show up at the LGG scale. Terrain is limited to these types:

Clear: This is game-normal terrain that has no effect on combat or movement for any units.

Rough: Dense forest, swamp, marshland, rocky terrain. This terrain is impassable to artillery, vehicles, and heavy cavalry.

Obstacle: This is some linear phenomenon such as a modest river, or a trench or stone wall or embankment that is substantial enough to impede several thousand men. Most obstacles force a unit to stop moving and align their bases against it, and to cross only in that unit's next move.

Road: This enables an artillery unit or vehicle to pass through otherwise impassable terrain.

Bridge: This enables any unit to cross an otherwise impassable river or gorge.

Town: This represents an area of at least five thousand inhabitants, with stone buildings. (Smaller towns may be marked on the board, but will have no effect on play, other than perhaps as victory conditions or landmarks.) Each town "block" should be a distinct square roughly 4" in size that accommodates exactly one infantry unit. Any unit may move through a town, but only infantry units may end their moves in a town block.

Hill: Units do not suffer any movement penalties for moving on hills, but there are combat considerations.

4.0 WEATHER AND RADIUS

There are three visibility conditions, with each placing a limit on the effective radius of an army commander:

    Radius Weather
    20" Normal/Sunny
    15" Overcast
    10" Precipitating

LGG recognizes two ground conditions: Hard and Soft.

"Radius" is measured very liberally. As long as one bit of a unit's base is within the stated distance of one bit of the commander's base, then the unit is said to be within his "radius."

5.0 THE ARMY COMMANDER

The commander's Skill rating may be one of four levels: Great, Good, Average, or Poor. This reflects not simply the man himself, but also the efficacy of that army's staff system, and the average reliability of the corps commanders. Thus, while it's called the "commander's" skill rating, in reality it's the skill rating for the army as a whole. Each skill level provides a player with a certain command die or dice to roll to generate "actions," as follows:

    Command Dice Skill Level
    1dl0 Poor
    2d6 Average
    d10 + d6 Good
    2d10 Great

6.0 SEQUENCE OF PLAY

A game Day is divided into Rounds, which are divided into Actions.

6.1 THE ROUNDS:

To begin a round both players roll their command dice. This is called the "Command Roll." The higher roll will go first in that round, the lower roll second. In a tie, the player who went first last round goes first again. If tied in the first roll of the day, re-roll.

The first player performs a number of actions equal to his total. Then the other side performs a number of actions equal to his total. That completes one round. Make a note on scrap paper to reflect the total number of actions played thus far. Make any alteration in that total to account for bad weather (see 6.3)

All combats occasioned by actions in this round, but not yet resolved, are now resolved.

6.2 DAY LENGTH:

Each Day has a Length, based on the season. These are: Spring (100), Summer (140), Fall (120), Winter (80).

At the end of each round, calculate how many actions have been played thus far in all rounds. When a round ends and the total number of actions meets or exceeds the day's length, then the day has ended. Example of Rounds: It is a Spring day. Both sides have Average (2d6) command dice. The French roll 8 actions. Allies roll 5 actions. The French go first, take 8 actions, then the Allies take 5. The count total is 13, because a total of 13 actions were played in this round.

Roll now for the second round: Allies roll 7. French roll 4. The Allies go first, take 7 actions, then the French take 4. Add 11 to the total count, placing it now at 24. Roll now for the third round, and so on, until a round ends with the total number of actions equal to or greater than the day length (in this case, 100.) At that point the day ends.

6.3 WEATHER MODIFIERS:

After both sides have completed their actions for a round, write the total number of actions played, +2 if Precipitating or +1 if Overcast. (For example, if raining, French perform 9 actions, then the allied player performs his 6. The total number of actions for that round would normally be 15, but add two for the rain, thus counting the total number for the round as 17.)

7.0 ACTIONS

All activities in the game are represented by spending Actions. A player designates a unit that he wants to Activate to do something, and then spends the number of actions required to do so.

Each of the following activations costs one action, as long as the unit in question starts and ends within the radius of the army commander. A unit's activation might take it temporarily outside the commander's radius, but as long as the unit starts and ends within the radius, the activation costs only one action.

Any of these (except rallying) may also be done if the unit starts and/or ends its activation up to double the radius of the army commander, but doing so would cost two actions. (Exception: Light Cavalry, see below.) A unit may not be activated if it would start and/or end its action more than double the radius of the army commander.

ACTIVATIONS:

    A) Move a unit or commander.
    B) Force a combat resolution at that moment (without waiting for the combat resolutions that normally come at the end of the round.)
    C) Fire an artillery unit.
    D) Conduct an engineering activity.
    E) Attempt to Rally or Recover a unit.

A unit may be activated more than once in a round, but never activated more than once for the same activity. (For instance, a unit could be activated to move, and then to fire, but it could not then be activated to move again.) When activating a unit, the player must perform all actions he desires for that unit, before moving on to activate another unit. Once he finishes with a unit, he may not come back to it and activate it again in this round, except in the case of (B), forcing combat resolution, as follows:

It is permissible to return to a previously-activated unit and activate it again in order to resolve combat. For instance, if you want to storm an enemy-held town with two infantry units you can activate one infantry unit to move to contact the town, then activate the other to contact the town also, and then spend another action on each unit to resolve the combat of both against the town, simultaneously.

Once a unit has been activated to resolve combat, it may not be activated again in any other way in that round.

8.0 MOVEMENT INCREMENTS

When activated, a unit may move up to one increment of its movement allowance. It may move greater than one increment, but with certain penalties and/or cost. The basic movement allowance increments by unit type are:

    Unit Types : Each Increment is:
    Infantry, Foot Artillery, Vehicles : 12
    Irregular Cavalry : 14
    Other Cavalry & Horse Artillery : 18

When activating a unit to move, the owning player can spend additional actions to "buy" additional increments of movement allowance. Each additional action spent grants another increment of movement allowance. For instance, a player could activate an infantry unit to move, then spend three actions on it, thus "buying" up to 36" of movement (three increments.)

No matter how many increments a unit moves, it may only be activated to move once per round. For example, you may activate your cavalry unit and move it two increments. Once that entire move is complete, the unit is said to have been activated to move, regardless of how many actions it cost to do so.

8.1 ADDITIONAL INCREMENT COST

Each increment of movement which begins or ends beyond the radius of the commander costs an additional one action. For example: you have an infantry unit in reserve, within the commander's radius. You wish to move it out to the extreme right flank of the army to meet an enemy threat. This will take it 29" of movement (three increments), and place it beyond the commander's radius (but not more than double his radius.) The move will therefore cost 1 Action to activate normally, plus 2 Actions for a second increment, plus 2 more for a third increment. The second and third increments cost extra because during those increments the unit moved beyond the army commander's radius. Therefore this move costs a total of 5 Actions.

8.2 SPECIAL MOVEMENT CASES

Light cavalry units, who are supposed to operate on the army's flanks, do not pay the additional 1 Action penalty for movement increments that begin or end beyond the commander's radius.

Artillery units may not be activated to move more than one movement increment.

A commander must be activated in order to move. When activated, he may move in any direction, in any ground condition, on any terrain other than impassable, up to 20". He may not move any further than that, nor may any additional actions be spent on him in that round.

8.3 ATTRITION CHECKS

Each increment of movement beyond the first forces the unit to take an Attrition Check to see if it suffered stragglers from the extended move. In each case, roll one d10, attempting to roll equal to or less than the unit's Morale value. If the roll fails, the unit suffers one hit.

8.4 MOVEMENT RESTRICTIONS

Units must obey the "movement physics" of the game, as follows:

    a) They may not move through terrain that is impassable to them. No part of their base, no matter how small, may do so.

    b) They may not end their moves overlapping any friendly units, although they may move through friendly units.

    c) Only infantry units (and the commander) may end their moves in a town block, and only infantry units may attack a town block.

    d) Units may move forward, backward, sideways, in any combination; it is all considered normal "movement." Units are only restricted in the direction and trajectory of their moves when within 6" of the enemy (see 8.5)

    e) Only infantry and cavalry units may move into contact with the enemy, and they may only do so by using forward movement (i.e., by contacting an enemy with their front.) A unit may not retrograde or flank-move into contact with the enemy.

    f) When a moving unit encounters an obstacle which it must move across, or moves through Rough terrain, it must take an attrition check (as in 8.3) It must check once each time it is activated to move through rough terrain or across an obstacle, but never more than one such check per round.

8.5 MOVING NEAR THE ENEMY

Your unit may only move to contact (hereafter called "attack") an enemy unit if your attacking unit is already within one movement increment of that enemy unit at the moment your unit is activated to move.

Furthermore, once a moving unit approaches within 6" of any enemy unit, or if it starts its move within 6" of any enemy unit(s), then its movement is restricted in the following way: it may only move directly toward, or directly away from the nearest enemy unit, with units in its frontal perspective having priority. (Obviously, it may stop at any point of that move, short of contact, or along its line of retreat. If several enemy units are within 6" on more than one side of your unit, and you wish to withdraw, then you must do as directly as possible from the nearest enemy units, without getting closer to any other enemy units. If no such path of retreat is possible, then the retreat is not allowed.

A unit moving "directly toward" the enemy must only do so by moving forwards. It may pivot toward the enemy and then move in a straight line toward him, it may wheel into contact with the enemy, it may use oblique movement, but in every case it must be moving its front closer to the closest enemy unit.

A unit moving "directly away" from the enemy may do so in any fashion or facing.

An enemy unit that is already "locked" in base-to-base contact (see below) does not count as an enemy within 6". Thus, you can pin enemy units with your own attacks, enabling your other units to move more freely.

9.0 ATTACK AND WITHDRAWAL

When attacking an enemy unit, square up the bases as best possible, and turn defenders to face their attackers, doing as little change as possible to the ground held by the respective units. Each attacker should contact only one defender. No more than one attacker may contact one side of a defender's base, and no more than two attackers in total may contact a single defender. (Thus the maximum attack is a 2-1 attack, possible only if two basesides of the defender are exposed.)

A defending unit turns to face its attacker. If attacked again from a different side, it turns again that way. Thus, a defender always faces the last enemy attacker that contacted it.

Once in contact with the enemy, attacking units are "locked" and may not be activated again in this round, unless the attacking player spends an extra action to resolve the combat prior to the end of the round.

Remember that any combats left unresolved are resolved at the end of the round - after both sides have acted. Therefore it is possible for a defender to Withdraw from combat if he is moving second and the combat has not yet been resolved. However, if an infantry unit is contacted by enemy cavalry units, then that infantry unit is "in squares" and may not withdraw from combat.

To "Withdraw," a unit must be in base-to-base contact with an enemy that attacked it, but the combat has not yet been resolved. A unit which withdraws from combat must move at least 3" away from its attacker(s), and must attempt to move as directly away from its attacker(s) as possible, without moving closer to any enemy units. If this is not possible (if any withdrawal under 3" would bring it closer to enemy units), then it may not withdraw from this combat. A unit which withdraws from combat may not attack any enemy units in that round.

The player who moves second might also opt to move a new unit to attack an enemy that is already in contact with another friendly unit. (For instance: French cavalry A has attacked British infantry 1. But the combat is not resolved, and now it is the British player's turn to act. He charges his British cavalry 2 into A's flank. A must turn to face this new attacker. The original combat no longer exists: the combat is now British 2 attacking French A.)

10.0 RESOLVING COMBAT

Each unit-type has a Combat Value (CV) against Foot or Artillery and against Cavalry units, depending on whether the unit is an attacker or defender. For instance, line infantry has a CV of 1 when attacking enemy cavalry, but a CV of 4 when defending against it:

    Unit Foot/Arty A/D Cavalry A/D
    Line Infantry 4/4 1/4

To resolve combat, add together the CVs of all attacking units and roll 1dl0. Next add/subtract any appropriate modifiers. Although the final result may be higher than 10, it may never be lower than 1. Do the same for the defending unit, and compare the results.

If the defender's total is equal to or higher than the attacker's: The attacker takes one hit (unit of his choice, if more than one). All attacking units fall back 3".

If the defender's total is double or more than the attacker's: The attacker takes two hits and all attacking units fall back 3".

If the attacker's total is higher than the defender's: The defender takes one hit and falls back 3".

If the attacker's total is double or greater than the defender's: The defending unit is routed, and one attacking unit (his choice) must occupy the ground held by the defender (if possible if the defender was an artillery unit, there might not be enough room.)

Infantry that is attacked by cavalry (even if another non-cavalry unit is also attacking) is assumed to be "in squares" and thus does not fall back. Instead, the victorious attackers fall back 3", unless the defending infantry has been routed.

10. I RESOLVING COMBAT AT THE END OF THE ROUND If a round ends and there are still opposing units in contact, then these must now be resolved. The player who moved first in this round gets to pick the combats for resolution in any order he desires. Nonetheless, in each combat, the side which moved into contact is still considered the "attacker." (Players will need to keep track of this, although it should be fairly easy to remember.) Once all these combats are resolved, the round is over.

10.2 FALLING BACK FROM COMBAT

A unit that lost a combat and must "fall back," may not do so through terrain that is impassable to it, nor through (touching) any enemy units. If no such path exists, the unit is routed instead.

A unit whose fall-back is blocked by friendly units must fall back through them, and keep falling back until there is space for it on the table to stop. There is no additional penalty for this.

A unit that falls back through rough terrain or across an obstacle must take an attrition check.

11.0 RESOLVING HITS

Each unit starts the game with a certain number of Strength Points (SPs). An infantry unit has 4SPs, a cavalry unit has 3SPs, and an artillery unit has 1SP. Each hit a unit takes reduces its SPs by one. When a unit's SPs reach zero, that unit routs.

12.0 COMBAT MODIFIERS

A unit's combat roll is modified as follows:
-1 for each hit on the unit
-1 for each enemy unit within 2" of its flank/rear and behind its front.
+1 for being a second unit attacking the same defender
-1 if attacking up an elevation +2 for defending in light cover
+4 for defending in hard cover

To he considered "behind your front" more than half of the enemy unit's base must lie behind your unit's front line.

13.0 ARTILLERY FIRE

Spending an action to fire an artillery unit represents time spent in prolonged bombardment. The artillery unit's CV represents its ability to defend itself with canister and shot against enemy infantry and cavalry units.

An artillery unit has a Firepower (FP) rating, and a range, expressed in inches. For instance, a 12-pdr heavy unit has FP=2 and a Range of 8". An artillery unit may only fire upon enemy units that are within range and in its frontal perspective. It must fire on the closest enemy infantry or cavalry unit within its frontal perspective. (Potential artillery targets may be ignored, if they are closer). If two units are equidistant, it may choose. The firing player rolls a d10 and adds his FP, plus/minus any modifiers:

    +2 Firing into enemy's flank perspective.
    -1 Soft Ground
    -1 if target and firer are on different elevations.

The target player rolls a d10 and adds:

    +1 if an infantry unit
    +2 if a cavalry unit
    +4 if an artillery or engineer unit
    +2 Soft cover
    +4 Hard cover

Each player's modified roll may not be lower than one, although it may be higher than ten. If the target player's modified roll is equal to or higher than the firer's, then the fire has had no effect. If the firer's is higher, then one hit has been scored. If the firer's is double or greater than the target's, then two hits have been scored.

A target unit may be routed by artillery fire, in which case it is removed from the board.

14.0 RECOVERY AND RALLY

A player may attempt to recover lost strength from infantry and cavalry units that are on the board. The unit must be activated, and then a d10 is rolled against that unit's morale number. If the roll is equal to or less than the morale number, one hit is removed from the unit. A unit may only be activated for recovery if it is more than 6" distant from any enemy unit.

A player should have two places off-board where he will keep units that have routed, designated the "Rallyable" and "Non-Rallyable" boxes. A unit that routs when beyond the army commander's radius is sent to the Non-Rallyable box. Units that rout when they are within the radius are sent to the Rallyable box. Only these latter are eligible for a Rally attempt.

A player spends an action to activate a routed unit and attempts a successful roll against its morale number, as above. If the roll fails, the unit remains off-board. Another rally attempt can be made in another round. If the roll succeeds, the unit is placed on the board anywhere the owning player desires, within his commander's radius, and greater than 6" from any enemy units.

A newly-rallied unit is placed with two hits (if cavalry) or three hits (if infantry). It will have to recover those hits in subsequent activations in subsequent rounds.

15.0 END OF THE DAY

When a round ends, and the total number of actions played equals or exceeds the number for a day fought during that season, the day has ended. The players must follow a series of procedures now that will determine the long-term outcome of the battle:

1) Stay or Leave? Each player takes a piece of scrap paper and secretly writes "stay" or "leave" and then reveals it to the opponent. If both players have written "stay," then there will be a second day of battle. The battle is thus far considered a "draw," pending this next day of fighting.

If both players have written "leave," then the battle is over, declared a draw.

If one player has written "stay," but the other has written "leave," then the former is the winner and the latter is the loser.

2) Will there be a Pursuit? In the event of a draw, there is no pursuit. (Skip to Step 4). Otherwise, both sides now total up the light cavalry SPs they still have on the board at the moment the day ended (note: light cavalry SPs - regardless of how many units that means.) If the losing side has an equal or greater number of light cavalry SPs, then his retreat from this battle is covered; there is no pursuit.

If, however, the winning side has a greater number of light cavalry SPs on the board, then he will pursue his beaten foe.

3) Resolve the Pursuit. The winning/pursuing side subtracts the loser's total light cavalry SPs from his own. The number remaining (his advantage in light cavalry SPs) is the number of Pursuit Dice (d6) he may roll.

For each pursuit die, a roll of 1-2 scores a hit against an infantry unit, a roll of 3 against a cavalry unit, a 4 against an artillery unit, and a 5-6 has no effect. Hits that cannot be allocated against a unit-type because there are no more remaining have no effect. The losing player decides which of his units will absorb these hits. Any new routs that are caused by pursuit are placed in the Non-Rallyable box.

4) End of Day Recovery. Each side may now make a free Recovery attempt for any unit that needs one. After that, he may make a free Rally attempt for any broken unit. In this special phase, even units in the Non-Rallyable box are eligible to make a Rally attempt, but they do so with a +2 penalty to their rally rolls.

A routed unit which fails to rally in this End-of-Day Recovery phase is permanently eliminated.

If the losing side has been Pursued, then its Rally and Recovery rolls all suffer an additional +1 penalty.

5) Amalgamation. Finally, each player may now reorganize the units in his army by converging weakened units into fewer, stronger ones. Cavalry units may only converge if they are of exactly like-types. (Heavy cavalry may not converge with Light cavalry, for instance.) Infantry units of different types may converge, but if they do so, the converged unit takes on the type of the inferior component. (If Line infantry and Militia converge, the new unit is all-Militia.)

A unit may not converge to a strength higher than the maximum for cavalry (3) or infantry (4).

6) Return to the Battle or Campaign. Once all the "End of the Day" procedures are complete, the players may return to the campaign system, or to a second day of this same battle. Some units, of course, will be going into the next day's battle with hits already on them. These, too, can be recovered, even though they were inflicted in the previous day. This would represent lightly wounded men returning to duty, stragglers being rounded up along the line of march to the battle, etc.

16.0 COMMANDERS

The army commander is not a unit. He does not block fire, may not be a target, and has no effect upon movement, other than to act as the point from which the radius is measured.

Any unit, friendly or enemy, may move through his stand, although if the commander is penetrated by an enemy unit of any type, he must take a casualty check. The owning player rolls a d10. If the result is "1" then the commander has been killed or captured or otherwise disabled, and a subordinate must take command. The commander's skill level is reduced by one level (if Poor, no reduction takes place) for the duration of the battle, regardless of how many days it lasts.

SUPPLEMENTARY RULES:

1. STRATEGEMS:

The action system is inherently unfair. It is possible for you to roll miserably and never activate your army, while the enemy rides roughshod and destroys you. While this is certainly defensible as a simulation of combat results, it isn't much fun as a game. While keeping the unpredictable and thus "unfair" action system, the game nonetheless offers some chances for redemption by the Luck Gods.

Each side is allowed a certain number of "strategems" per battle (regardless of how many days that battle may last.) They are drawn as follows: Each player places six chits marked "Strategem" and nine chits marked "Nothing" in a cup. From these fifteen scrambled chits, each player draws ten. A player might thus have anywhere from 1-6 strategems available. Discard the remaining chits without your opponent seeing. Keep your ten chits in the cup.

A strategem chit may be played at any time in a round, although no more than one strategem may be played per round.

A strategem may be used to:

  • Re-roll any die roll (including the command roll)
  • Resolve combat immediately or cancel the opponent's action to resolve combat. (A strategem may not be used to avoid combat resolution at the conclusion of the round.)
  • Flip the order of play for the round, regardless of the command roll. (You may move first or second, no matter what the respective action scores are.) The player with the lower roll has the option to do this first. If he declines, the higher player may opt to invoke it. Whichever player invokes it, his opponent may use a strategem to change it back.
  • Move any one unit up to two movement increments, without requiring an activation, during your round.

2.WING COMMANDERS:

A large army might have one or two wing commanders. If playing a campaign in which multiple armies are merged, then the commander of one army might become a wing commander in the new, converged army.

A wing commander moves by activation, exactly like an army commander. If the wing commander is within the radius of the army commander, then he extends that radius from his own stand, too, thereby increasing the number of units who may be activated with only one action. Units that rout within the radius of the wing commander are "Rallyable."

An army may have no more than two wing commanders.

In the event that the army commander is killed, a wing commander must take over (player's choice, if more than one.) This will move the army's headquarters and have an effect on the army's skill level (perhaps an improvement!)

3. SUDDEN DEATH ARMY MORALE FOR COMPETITIVE PLAY:

When playing a one-off competitive game, such as in a tournament setting, employ a "sudden death" victory condition as follows:

At the end of each round, following final combat resolution, if an army has broken units greater than one-third the total number of units with which it started the game, then its morale has collapsed, and it has lost the game. (If this happens to both armies, the game is a draw.) Infantry, cavalry, and artillery are all counted as "units" for this purpose. If the day ends and neither side has broken, the game is a draw.

For tournament purposes, each player is awarded victory points, as follows:

    0 if his army broke
    1 if his army did not break
    +1 if he won the battle.

Therefore a player who breaks his opponent in a clear victory wins 2-0. An end-of-day draw is scored I-1, and a "both broke" draw is scored 0-0.

4. OUTRIDERS:

Irregular/Militia cavalry can be designated as "Outriders" before the battle. (Examples would be Cossacks, Turkish irregulars, Spanish guerrilla cavalry, Hungarian Insurrection cavalry, etc.) These units will cost only 1 action to activate, even when up to three times the radius from the commander. There is no extra cost for this designation.

Outriders, however, tend not to be on the army payroll, and their level of enthusiasm leaves much to be desired if things go badly. Therefore, when they rout they are immediately lost. They may never be rallied.

Army Commanders:

    Poor: Grants a 20% bonus to the base points allowed for the army
    Average: No charge
    Good Subtract 10% from base points.
    Great Subtract 20% from base points.
    *Guard status may be applied to Elite infantry, light or heavy cavalry, or any type of artillery.

USING A POINT SYSTEM TO PURCHASE ARMIES:

A good base is 400 points. If building a balanced force, that will allow for a typical Napoleonic army of about 60,000 men.

Regardless of the base number of points chosen, both players first select the skill level of their army commanders, which will immediately affect the base points remaining with which to buy units. No wing commanders may be purchased for tournament play.

Army creation for tournament play must adhere to the following criteria:

  • No more than one-half the army's units may be cavalry.
  • No more than one-fourth the army's units may be artillery.
  • Elite and Guard infantry may never comprise a greater number of units than the combined total of Line and Militia infantry.

THE LGG CAMPAIGN: ROSTERS:

The small number of units needed per army makes LGG ideal for campaigns. A simple roster can keep track of units in each army. Units with reduced strength can be expressed as fractions, such as: "3 Line inf, one 2/4 Line inf." (Three full-strength Line infantry units, and one that is reduced to a strength of 2.)

ATTRITION:

Although attrition was a major concern for all armies on campaign in this period, it was generally a concern shared equally by both sides. Therefore attrition should only be applied against armies which do unusual things, because other, "normal" attrition would not change the strength of the two armies, relative to each other.

    1) Moving,
    2) Being in Enemy Territory,
    3) Being cut off from one's line of communications to one's base,
    4) Bad Weather,
    5) Guerrilla activity,
    6) Anything else the referee or players desire such as random factors (a typhus epidemic, etc.)

Whenever one condition applies to an army, it is said to be "Normal" attrition, which causes no loss, since it is assumed that stragglers will be rounded up, replacements sent forward, depot battalions drawn down to replenish field battalions, and local men conscripted.

Whenever two conditions apply to an army, attrition is said to be "Heavy." If three or more conditions apply, attrition is "Severe."

In Heavy Attrition, roll one d10 for each unit in the affected army, trying to roll equal to or less than the unit's Morale factor. If the roll succeeds, the unit is unaffected by attrition. If the roll fails, the unit suffers a 1-hit loss. In Severe Attrition, two d10s must be rolled, and thus up to two hit losses are possible for each unit.

Artillery units may each re-roll one failed attrition roll.

BUILDING, BUYING, MAINTAINING

In whatever campaign setting you devise, the economy should be based on "points." Each side can spend those points on units and leaders. Each province of a nation can generate a certain number of points each turn. Each unit has a "Buy Cost" in points, as well as a (Maint)enance cost, also in points. After paying Maintenance for his units, a player can purchase new ones.

Newly-purchased units are always at full strength. Referees may wish to develop "R&R" rules for worn units to recover, or may allow them to return to home provinces to rebuild at a reduced cost, etc. Otherwise, the only way to increase the strength of worn existing units is to converge them (see "Amalgamation," 15.5.)

CONCLUSIONS AND CAVEAT EMPTOR:

LGG is an experimental game system, and designed to be open-ended. It has been playtested... a bit. I'm publishing it in MWAN because I'd like to get the game "out there" to see what a wide variety of players can do with it. I welcome your suggestions and input.

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