I outlined this siege game some 10 years ago, and then buried the rules somewhere in my word processor. In the June issue, I resurrected it, and described a solo version. It seemed to run okay, and at a recent PW meeting, I presented it to the attending members.
The walls of the town of Aah run all the way across the narrow width of the ping pong table, dividing it in two. One half of the table, in front of the wall, represents the attacker’s area… he’s got a mobilization section in which to gather his troops, an attack section adjacent to the walls in which he runs up and attempts to erect ladders and ramps, and a reserve section, from which he can draw reinforcements.
The other half of the table, behind the wall, is the town of Aah itself… it consists of a number of 6-inch by 6-inch contiguous areas or town blocks, a reserve section from which he can draw reinforcements, and a main ‘headquarters’ area, which is the attacker’s goal… if the besieging force can penetrate the town, and reach headquarters, the game is over.
It’s amazing how many things pop up when a game is presented to ‘real’ people, as opposed to a solo run-through. In my solo effort, I found out I didn’t give the besieging army enough troops, i.e., enough stands, and I thought I had corrected this… but no, once again the attackers ran short of stands.
Bob Liebl’s suggestion was that the attacking force outnumber the defenders by around five or six to one. Another suggestion… years ago, during one of my trips to England, both Ian Weekly and Robin Peck stated that a siege game must have mines, and up ‘till now, I ignored the mining aspect.
At the PW meeting, Stephan Patejek held the besieger’s left flank. During the appropriate phases, his men ran into the attack area, up to the walls, and attempted to set up ladders. The attack area is divided into a number of long, thin rectangles, 6 inches wide, with the long dimension of each rectangle (about 15 inches long) extending straight out from the walls. One ladder can be erected in each area.
Stephan assigned troops to 3 of the rectangles, and when they reached the wall, they tossed percentage dice… 70 percent chance to erect a ladder. All three groups were successful, and Stephan’s men had three ladders to climb. Again he tossed his dice… 70 percent chance to climb the ladders, and again, all three were successful.
When the combat phase occurred, however, Stephan’s men were less than successful. Four stands on each side were defined to be a fighting element, and each side matched his first stand with one of the enemy’s. A 10-sided die was tossed, modified by the type of troop, and the losing stand fell back, while the winning stand remained in combat. The loser then brought up his next stand, and dice were tossed again. This repeated itself until there were stands of only one side left.
Stephan’s troops were, for the most part, medium infantry… they added +4 to the die roll. The opposing stands were heavy infantry (+5) and they added yet another +1 because Stephan’s men were disadvantaged in climbing the ladder. Which meant that the opposition had a +2 modifier over and above that of Stephan.
Stephan’s troops lost all three combats, and fell back from the wall, leaving their ladders behind them. That was the first, and last, attack made by Stephan’s men. When asked why he didn’t sally forth again, he said he was gathering his resources, i.e., trying to assemble some heavy infantry troops to replace his mediums. He never did.
On the besieger’s right flank, Jim Butters was more successful. His heavy infantry surged up their ladders, and drove the defenders back. Initially, Jim’s men contacted the defending archers manning the walls. There’s a phase in the sequence permitting the archers to fall back and to have a nearby infantry unit take their place (70 percent chance, of course). The archers tossed under 70, up ran the replacement infantry, and the combat began.
Jim continually tossed high, the defenders fell back, and Jim’s men set up shop on the wall. In this sector of the field, Cleo Liebl was the defender, and she immediately launched a counter-attack to regain the wall. This time, it was her troops that suffered the -1 modifier for attacking troops on the wall.
At the start of each bound, dice were tossed to determine the elapsed time of the turn. It could be 10 or 20 or 30 days. The attacking side gathered ‘Ramp Building Points’ (RBP) proportional to the period of the turn. I had initially thought that a ramp was a ‘good thing’… if the besiegers built a ramp and attacked, they’d receive a +1 in combat, compared to the -1 they got when attacking from a ladder.
But I had goofed… I didn’t give the attackers enough RBP. And so, not a single complete ramp was built. A ramp was composed of 3 sections, and, in theory, could be completed in three consecutive turns. But with insufficient points, the besiegers remained rampless. When we finally quit, due to exhaustion and the late hours of the night, they had erected only two of the three required sections.
With the elapsed time of the turn at a maximum of 30 days, the victory conditions for the attacker were to reach the town’s headquarters area within 180 days (6 months). If the elapsed time of the turn continually ‘diced out’ as 30 days, this could turn into a fairly short 6-bound game. Conversely, it was possible that with shorter 10-day time periods, the game could stretch out to an 18 turn game.
After this first public outing, I changed the time scale. This time, when the elapsed time dice were tossed, the result could be 1 month, 2 months or 3 months. And the victory conditions were that the town of Aah’s headquarters had to be reached within one year (12 months).
And here, because of the increased time scale, I finally added a mining procedure. Just as the besieging forces received Ramp Building Points proportional to the elapsed time of the turn, they also received Mining Points.
There were three possible mine entry points in the attacker’s mobilization area, each some 20 inches from the wall. The troops could start digging at any of the three. When the mining dice were tossed, the mine would proceed either 6 or 8 or 12 inches.
Eventually, the mine would tunnel under the walls, and it would pop out within the town, if the town’s defenders didn’t destroy it beforehand. I gave the defenders a 10 percent chance, each turn, to destroy a mine, and this occurred only if the mine had reached within the town area, i.e., had progressed more than 20 inches.
Fred Haub arrived at table-side a day or so later, and together, as we played, we talked our way through the procedures.
The combat procedures, as I’ve said, consisted of pairing off stands until there were stands of only one side left. I had made provision for reinforcing a combat by providing each side with a card for each melee. The cards had one of three numbers written on them… either a 1 or 2 or zero. This was the number of additional stands a side could bring into the melee. There reinforcing stands came from a side’s Reserve area.
Fred and I, after examining the melee results of several combats and looking at the losses of both sides, determined that the following allotments of troops should be assigned to each side to present a fairly balanced battle:
| Type | No of Attacker Stands | No of Defender Stands |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy infantry | 30 | 15 |
| Medium infantry | 25 | 30 |
| Archers | 20 | 16 |
| Engines | 2 | 0 |
| Total | 77 | 61 |
Note the predominance of medium infantry on the defender’s side. Our thought was that those being besieged were, for the most part, ordinary towns-folk and not professional warriors.
The last items on the list, engines, were ballistas, placed in the attacker’s mobilization zone and able to fire long range at the men manning the walls. The defenders were given no such engines.
In the original game, Bob Liebl didn’t like the fact that I had given the troops on the walls no covering factor when fired at by the attacker’s archers down below. The basic chance to hit a stand was 50 percent, whether you were in the open or not.
Fred and I developed a table for missilery wherein the percentages changed depending upon whether you were firing on the walls or firing from the attacker’s attack zone or his mobilization zone.
And we also expanded the use of the reserve area. Before, the only function of the reserve was to provide one or two reinforcement stands in a combat. But now, its functions were:
- a. Provide combat reinforcements, as before
b. Provide reinforcements during the movement phases to troops on the field
c. Provide the attacker with troops to defend his ramp structures
The last item, c, was necessary since, during one phase of the bound, the defending townsmen were given three ‘gratis’ cavalry sortis to run out and bash the men who were building the ramps. If the cavalry could win the fight, the ramp was considered destroyed, and the attacker had to begin again.
In the above description, you’ll note I’ve tried to provide all the elements of siege warfare. Some are symbolic while others require a tactical decision to be made by the player.
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© Copyright 2000 Wally Simon
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