One of the problems in most wargames is that we know and expect the enemy that we are facing to always be to our front and all of our plans are usually made with this in mind. Troops run from table flank to table flank and off board marches are not allowed. While in certain periods of time, armies were nice enough to march to a mutually agreed upon spot, this is not always the case. The point of fighting an action is to win, and what better means of helping your cause than catching your enemy off guard.
In the past year I have run a scenario for German Southwest Africa with interesting results. A German column, out-numbering the native force two to one in terms of manpower and equipped with field guns and machine guns, is order to capture a waterhole. They are warned that they are under native observation and that they need to turn in an order of march. The natives are told they can start on or off the board at their own option. The results have been similiar in all cases. The Germans, in the belief that the enemy is to their front, always place their strongest units at the head of the column, and the weakest at the rear. Where the natives have attempted to hold the board, they have lost, as the German firepower can be brought to bear on them.
On the other hand, where the natives have started the game off board, and hit the enemy from the rear, they have managed to chew up the German column. The naval detachment, the worse of all German units, is usually holding that spot and gets hit hard. The Germans find themselves having to re-orient themselves and advance in a new direction.
There are a number of other periods in which non-frontal attacks are famous - look at Fredrick the Great's attack at Leuthen - or the counteracttack of the I Corps (Longstreet) into the II Corps (Hancock) during the battle of the Wilderness. Modern Tactical doctrine calls for the rolling up of a fortified position from the flank - and it is advice that was learned in blood. So how can we set up games without setting one side up?
For skirmish or colonial actions there is the scenario given earlier. Give one side a full strength column and an objective, or just put them on the board. Let the other side hit them where they want. A column well protected will be difficult to hit, but at the same time, a column well protected may not have the strength it needs at the front to punch through.
Civil War actions could be fought by letting one side move down the narrow edge of the board, while having the other advance across the wide edge, and give information to both sides that might tend to let them believe that the other side is doing the same. To mix things up, have each side roll two dice, one red and a white, for example, to determine what turn they enter. If the red die is even, have the side enter the number of the white die turns early. While if it is odd, use the number on the white die to determine the number of turns late the unit will enter.
Another option is to use scouting points. Let both sides total up the number of figures used in their army for scouts, i.e., Medieval armies would count light horse, Seven Years War armies use light infantry and light horse, Modern armies use recon units, etc. Foot units could count as one-half point per man, while light horse would be one point per man. If the ratio of larger to smaller is one to 1.2, then nothing happens. If the ratio is 1.2 to 1.6 make one side set up first, leaving two feet between each flank and the board edge. Allow the other side to set up second, but not to start troops off board. If one side has 1.61 points to 2 more than the other, allow it to start up to 1/3 of it's strength off board on either flank, and again have the outscouted side set up first. Finally, if one side has better than a two to one ratio, have the outscouted side set up first and allow the entire enemy army the option of starting on either flank.
Do not let the outscouted side know what the ratio was; if he was outscored by a lot or little; he does not know. He may wish to cover his flanks or take the chance and leave them open. Either way he will no longer be thinking on a one front basis.
One additional thing to do if you use the scouting rules is to determine how many of the units used by both sides fail to make it to the battlefield. Pair off the scouting units as evenly as possible from both sides in terms of scouting points. Thus, a 24 man light infantry unit could be paired off with a 12 man light horse unit, or three 12 man light infantry units would be paired off against an 18 man light horse unit. Once all pairing is done, if one side outscouted the other, it should have units left.
For the paired units, roll one D6 (six sided die). On a roll of a 1 or 2, the units have broken contact with each other and may be used in the battle. On a roll of 3, 4, 5, or 6, they remain locked in action off to the flanks and unable to make it to the battle. For units which are unpaired, they make it to the battlefield on a roll of 1, 2, 3, or 4, but on a roll of 5 or 6, they have managed to mix it up off board and are unable to return; more likely than net they are pillaging some supply train, village, or what have you. Using this system can lead to some interesting actions. Buying leads of light troops can aid your scouting, but there is no certainty that they will be present at the battle. It can give a small, but good army an edge ever a large but poor one, and give some commanders the shakes as they try to figure out whether they were outnumbered in scouts by 1.21 or by 2.1 It also gives you a reason for having all these boxes of Civil War cavalry that you are so unsure of what to do with!!!
Don't try to run all of your games as multi-front actions, but do them often enough that the players are never sure of what's happening - as their real-life counterparts would have been. You will find it makes for more interesting games.
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© Copyright 1986 Hal Thinglum
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