I'm playing Bittereinder, the DTP on the Boer War. I'm continuing on my binge of interesting, albeit criticised, titles. The game as published has a couple of game mechanics that distort the historical flow of the action, and strongly encourage the Boers to invade Cape Colony. Other rules make it highly dangerous for the Boers to use their two armies (as opposed to independent kommandos). I'm playing with two simple house rules that seem to correct these problems. They move the action to more historical locations, improve play balance and increase game variety. Rule 12.4.1 (Replace). BOER VICTORIES. Each turn, count the number of Boer victories. A Boer victory is defined as (a) any Boer attack that achieves a DR or DE result, (b) any British attack that achieves an AR result, or (c) any British decision to allow a siege instead of combat. With respect to (c), the Boers get credit for a victory only on the first turn a siege is initiated, no matter how long the siege endures. Roll one die. If the die roll is less than or equal to the number of Boer victories, Empire morale is reduced by one. Optional Rule 12.4.1. For more variety in possible outcomes, roll one die for each Boer Victory and reduce Empire morale by one for each 6 that is rolled. Rule 12.4.2. (Addition) Add one to the siege die roll if the besieging units include an army. The effect of these changes allow the game to simulate the loss of Empire Morale as a result of Black Week, since it is fairly easy for the Boers to cause British morale to drop to 6 by the end of the first turn. With this variant, the Boers can achieve this result without a massive invasion of Cape Colony. With the drop in British morale to 6, and the +1 modifier for armies conducting a siege, there is now some chance of the sieges causing some degradation of British morale on Turn 3. This gives the British player the incentive to march to relieve the sieges, thereby causing the game to follow history more closely. Bittereinder Comments [PA 104] Back to Perfidious Albion #103 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. 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