I set up a solo siege game in which the walls of the town being besieged ran across the short width (5 feet) of the ping pong table, dividing it in two, with one half representing the attacker’s area and the other half, the defender’s area.
The defender’s area represented a town, and that half of the table was composed of areas, drawn in at random, each about 6-inches by 6-inches, with one key area designated as HQ. The attackers’ objective, as they came over the wall, was to work their way to HQ… if they entered HQ, the town would immediately surrender.
On the other side of the wall, the attackers’ area was divided into two main regions, a mobilization area, and an attack area. The besieging side could move its troops around in the mobilization area, and on one of the phases of the sequence, the troops would dash out of the mobilization area, enter the attack area, approach the walls, raise their ladders, and begin the assault.
At the beginning of each bound, I diced for the elapsed time of the turn… this would be either 10 or 20 or 30 days. The attackers’ goal was to reach enemy HQ before 180 days passed (6 months), otherwise the enterprise would be deemed a failure.
The passage of time also came into play by furnishing the attacker with Ramp Building Points (RBP) by means of which he could erect ramps to reach the top of the walls. Ramps were important, since a force attacking from a ramp would have a ‘plus’ in combat, while one attacking from a ladder would suffer a ‘minus’.
Each bound, the attacker accumulated his RBP and could devote as many as he wished to building a section of a ramp. Three sections were required to complete a ramp and when all three sections were completed, up the ramp would storm the attackers, waving their ‘plus’ before them. The number of RBP given to the attacker was equal to twice the number of days in the bound, i.e., a 30 day turn produced 60 RBP. This made sense, since the longer the time period, the greater the probability that a ramp cold be completed. The probability of completing a section of a ramp was: P = No of RBP + 20.
The heart of the sequence was in the combat section. There was a phase for simultaneous archery fire, but the true focus of the battle was on the troops climbing the ladders and moving up the ramps. Alas!… in my battle, fought solo, the attackers didn’t get to erect a complete ramp, since the defenders had two methods of destroying a ramp section. First, they collected Ramp Destruction Points (RDP), and second, they could make sortis out of the town on the ramp builders.
RDP, like RBP, were given in proportion to the elapsed time of the turn. RDP proved somewhat of a fizzle… there really weren’t enough of them to knock down a ramp section, but the sortis were quite useful. The defending side was given three cavalry sortis for the battle… on the appropriate phase, out from the town dashed a cavalry unit, smashing into the ramp-building people, causing great unhappiness.
The attackers, around the second bound, reached the walls, and proceeded to construct ladders (70 percent chance). Mounting the ladders also called for a 70 percent dice toss, and in the combat phase, the attackers had four ladders erected, with three of them full of troops.
Most of the defenders were archers, but the rules permitted a nearby heavier unit (70 percent chance) to run in and displace the relatively weak archers for combat. In the center of the field, the archers failed their 70 percent test, and had to face the music alone. On both flanks, however, the archers were successfully replaced by heavy infantry.
Each type of troop was given Combat Points (CP):
- Mounted Troops 5
Archers 2
Initially, there were four stands-per-unit engaged on each side. Stands were paired off… each added a 10 sided die roll to its CP, and the stand with the higher total fought on, while the lesser total drew back. This kept up until stands of only one side were left in combat.
The winning unit held position and had one stand destroyed, while the losing unit lost two stands and had the remainder of its stands placed in the Reserve Zone.
The Reserve Zone was used, during a particular phase, to reinforce units on the field.
Looking at the CP listed above, it was no surprise that the attackers on the walls in the center of the field easily knocked off the archers, and gained a foothold. The results on either flank, however, were not so good… the defenders held position.
Having gained a position on the wall, the attackers, on the next bound, jumped down from the walls, and entered the town. They were now backed up by another unit.
The town defenders counter-attacked. Note that in the combat results, the winning unit always loses a stand. Which means that you can win only so often before your strength goes to zero. And each time the defenders counter-attacked, one more stand would be knocked off the invaders. A no-win proposition. The attackers had to pull back. Another way of saying this is that, next time out, I’ll give the attackers more troops.
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© Copyright 2000 Wally Simon
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