Many authors, including Father Aelred Glidden and Donald Featherstone, have observed that whether one perceives a set of wargame rules to be "realistic" or not turns on an individual's notions of the importance of certain elements.

To some, it is essential that morale be the deciding factor; others stress the relationship between time and distance at a certain scale. But I have a more fundamental concern - the very idea of the turn and the turn sequence. (Since preparing the first draft of this article, I've received MWAN #82, with Jim Getz's "Why Do We Have to Have..." article, which contains many of the same reservations regarding turns which I have attempted to address.)

My reading of military history strongly inclines me to the belief that rules with a fixed turn sequence and unchanging movement allowances may be exhaustively researched an fun to play, but are not "realistic," if by that we mean similar to combat. Nothing in real life, let alone the insanity and chaos of war, operates according to predictable sequences.

Chaos on the Job

I think of my own experiences as an attorney. For example, shortly after I was sworn in I was assigned to appear for a party in an alimony/child support proceeding in Family Court. I studied the facts and all the applicable statutes and cases and prepared the client for the appearance, leaving nothing to chance, and anticipating every possible contingency.

I concluded that there were four possible outcomes: I might win, I might lose, a last minute settlement could be reached, or the couple might reserve its decision. Yet, something completely different happened. I arrived at court and checked in with the judge's secretary. She told me that the judge would not hear any cases that day, as he and the other Family Court judge had started a feud over shared office equipment and each had sworn out complaints for the other's arrest!

The point here is that almost nothing ever turn out the way we expect, and that predictable, sequenced turns and subroutines cannot be expected to simulate war.

A typical Civil War rule set might provide for (1) Union movemen (2) Confederate movement, (3) Union infantry fire, (4) Confederate infantry fire, (5) Union artillery fire, (6) Confederate artillery fire, (7) morale checks, (8) melee, and (9) rally attempt. While it is logical that all these things should take place, the predictable ordering of them makes planning much too easy and eliminates the lost or confused orders, delays, and confusion which we know dominated the battlefield.

A turn sequence gives us an elaborate form of chess, not a simulation of battle. Rules sets which attempt to inject uncertainty into a fixed turn sequence usually do so by using complicated (and easily forgotten or misunderstood) subroutines which determine whether a unit has enough "command points" to move or fire, or whether it is within "command radius." I find this cumbersome and slow moving.

What is needed is a simple and elegant way to generate unpredictability and constant surprise. (While I doubt that the following suggestions are entirely original, I have never seen them listed anywhere.)

Do Away With Turns

The first and most fundamental improvement is to do away with turns and sequences entirely, by drawing randomly for actions. Using the 9 actions listed in the above paragraph as an example, write each on the back of an index card. Prepare another index card which says, "Shuffle." Mix all cards together and draw one at a time, performing the action indicated. If "Shuffle" is drawn, all cards go back into the deck and you shuffle, of course.

You will never have to consult a turn sequence chart or wonder if you forgot a particular sub-sequence; the card is sitting in front of you. If you want to keep track of "turns" (because one side must accomplish a certain objective by the 20th turn, for example), simply mark down one turn as passing every time you shuffle.

This means that you will see all sorts of strange things happening. You may end up with something like this: Union infantry fire; Union movement; Confederate artillery fire; Shuffle; Confederate artillery fire; Union movement; Union artillery fire; Confederate infantry fire; Shuffle; etc.

The Union artillery may sit silent, while the Confederates move three times in a row. Now you have something approaching the chaos of real warfare! Your skills as a general, not as a chess player, will be tested.

The flow of a battle using the random draw system is much more like the historical record of a real action, where no commander ever knew what was going to happen when, or whether his men would move when he wanted them to or fire at the enemy when the opportunity presented itself.

The random draw system can be used for rules of your own devising and it can be introduced into most commercial sets or those found in MWAN. To make pre-existing rules work with the random draw system it may be necessary to change certain mechanisms, by making melee part of the movement phase, for example.

Solo Play

This random draw system works particularly well for solo play, and reinserts real uncertainty and suspense. The system feels especially appropriate for skirmish wargaming and for colonial periods, but may be employed for almost any time and scale. (For WWII in Normandy, for example you can use cards stating: German infantry movement; American infantry movement; German vehicle movement; American vehicle movement; German fire; American fire; and Shuffle.)

For each period and scale the type of cards and possible actions can be varied to suit your own needs. You may even wish to use separate cards for different units or wings of an army. There could be a card for the Russian 1st Corps movement, and a separate card for the Russian 2nd Corps.

Better organization or leadership can be reflected in what cards are used. Thus, if the Prussian army is well organized and brilliantly lead, one card can read "Prussian Movement," and all units in the Prussian army can move when this is drawn. A more chaotic army may have individual cards for each major subdivision, so that three cards ("French 1st Corps Movement," "French 2nd Corps Movement," and "French 3rd Corps Movement") are used. The random draw system makes it unlikely that all three corps will move in a coordinated fashion, or even move at all in one "turn."

A native army in a colonial game could have two separate movement cards, both of which allow the entire native force to move, to better "simulate" its mobility and knowledge of the terrain.

More Variable Ideas

There are numerous other ways to inject uncertainty and surprise in a wargame. Many rules already use variable movement (e.g., infantry units move 2D6, not a standard 8 inches.) Another interesting possibility is variable combat capacity, using different combat charts. There can be 6 different charts for infantry and artillery fire, with a die roll determining which will be used that day (with each side using the same chart or perhaps even rolling separately.) This would "simulate" all the factors which would actually influence such results, such as powder being wet, excessive fog, jitters, or just a bad (or really good) day.

In his excellent rule set Drums of War along the Mohawk, Bill Protz makes creative use of random events which are triggered by drawing certain playing cards. A different set of appropriate random events could be used in any rules for any period. He also uses playing cards to randomize which side moves, similar to the Sword and the Flame system.

Objections

Objections can be lodged that these random systems detract from the skill needed to play well. However, a strong contrary argument can be made that true skill on the battlefield requires coping with the totally unexpected and making use of what opportunities are available.

As an example of how this system works, I am enclosing a small rule set for the increasingly popular American West era. While not nearly as entertaining as "The Rules With No Name," (MWAN #82), or Desperado, these rules demonstrate one way to use the random draw system.

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