On June 17, 1775, the bloody battle of Bunker Hill was fought, and the British took the hill. Three miles up the road, the lesser known encounter at Brand’s Hill took place, and here, the Americans won the day. I re-created Brand’s Hill in solo fashion, and once again, my rules for the era proved amazingly historically accurate. First, I laid out my green, gridded, ping-pong table-size map of 2-inch squares. Three American brigades, plus an artillery battery, were dug in on Brand’s Hill, and another 4 brigades were close by in support. Stand size was 2-inches-by-2-inches, so that a single stand fit neatly within each of the gridded squares. I defined 2 stands as a regiment, and 2 or 3 regiments as a brigade. Hence, the 3 brigades atop Brand’s Hill, supported by a 2-stand artillery battery, was composed of a total of some 14 stands. Background on the rules system. About two years ago, Don Bailey came up with his STURM rules for WW2, which has been much discussed in the REVIEW. In STURM, Don uses a “reaction sequence”… whenever a unit is ‘triggered’ by a key event (such as being fired upon, being charged, or seeing enemy movement close by), reference is made to an action deck. Each card lists a response to several triggering events, and you select the appropriate one, and read out the response of the activated unit. It may fire back, it may retreat, it may move forward… there are several possible reactions. If, for example, the activated unit fires back, then the original firing unit, which is now being targeted, itself picks a card and determines its own response to the return fire. In this manner, a brief firefight may develop between the two involved units until one of the card draws says “enough!”. I wanted to use a system like that of STURM, but tailor it to the ARW era. I came up with a simple Response Chart as is shown on the next page. It’s ‘simple’ in that it really doesn’t list all the possibilities noted on the action cards of STURM, but contains only 4 of the many possible reactions of a ‘triggered’ unit… the unit may return fire, hold position, charge, or retreat. The chart is entered by looking up the triggering action listed in the left hand column. Percentage dice are tossed, and then, reading from left to right, you pick out the appropriate unit response. For example, if a unit is fired on by a cannon more than 6 squares away, the unit may hold position (a toss of 01 to 95) or it may fall back (a toss of 96 to 100). The targeted unit only has two possibilities listed… it won’t fire back since the cannon is out of range (musket range is 5 squares), and it won’t charge since the unit can only go 5 squares. The British had the initiative, and I diced to see how many of their brigades could move up. There were three possibilities… either all brigades could move, or all but one brigade, or all but two brigades. A low toss (low tosses are good ones), and the entire British force moved up, the infantry advancing 5 squares, and cavalry going up 8 squares. The British advance continued until its units hit the trigger point… came within 10 squares of the defending Americans. Now I listed every American brigade that noted enemy movement within 10 squares (the Response Chart has criteria for enemy movement both within 6 squares and 10 squares). There were 5 such American brigades, and I diced to see how many of these brigades would react. It turned out that, of the 5, only 3 would react, i.e., I’d have to refer to the chart for 3 of them. Note that I didn’t want to go to the chart for every cotton-pickin’ potential triggered unit… much too time consuming… and so I limited the number of reacting units. The British 50th Regiment had actually approached to within 5 squares (musket range) of a defending regiment on Brand’s Hill. This occurred way on the right side of the American line. The defending unit went to the Response Chart and decided to fire. No casualties were produced, but because the 50th had been fired upon, it, too, went to the Response Chart, tossed its dice, and simply held position. One phase later, and the defenders fired again. This time, the 50th took a casualty, and the charted response of the 50th was to charge uphill into the American position. Having been charged, the defending American regiment’s response on the chart was simply to hold, and so we entered melee. RESPONSE CHART ENEMY ACTION FIRE HOLD CHARGE RETREAT Fired on by infantry 01 to 75 76 to 85 86 to 95 96 to 100 Fired on by cannon within 6 sq 01 to 70 71 to 75 76 to 90 91 to 100 Fired on by cannon over 6 sq x 01 to 95 x 96 to 100 Enemy cav move within 10 sq x 01 to 85 x 86 to 100 Enemy cav move within 6 sq 01 to 80 81 to 90 x 91 to 100 Enemy infantry or cav charges 01 to 70 71 to 90 91 to 95 96 to 100 Cavalry charges cavalry x 01 to 20 21 to 90 91 to 100 Enemy inf move within 6 sq 01 to 60 61 to 80 81 to 95 96 to 100 Enemy infantry move within 10 sq advance 5 sq and fire 01 to 20 21 to 95 x 96 to 100 Both the firing and melee routines used 10-sided dice… Hit Dice (HD)… whereon a toss of 1 ,2, or 3 was a hit on the opponent. In firing, an infantry regiment threw 4 HD, looking for 1’s or 2’s or 3’s. If hit, the target received a casualty figure, and took a morale test. And also, if hit, the target was listed amongst those units eligible to react and, in turn, refer to the Response Chart. Each regiment had a data sheet with 10 Efficiency Levels (EL) listed. Crossing out all 10 of the ELs meant the unit was destroyed. The data sheet also listed the ‘strength’ of the regiment… this was the number of HD the regiment could toss in melee. As the ELs were crossed out, the number of melee HDs decreased from 3 to 2 to 1. When the 50th charged the American regiment and made contact, both units immediately received a casualty figure. The 50th then got its 3 melee HD from its data sheet, plus one additional one for the casualty figure on the defender. A total of 4 HD. The defending regiment received its 3 HD from its data sheet, plus one for defending high ground, plus another one for having a unit in support, plus 2 more for 2 casualty figures present on the 50th. This gave the defender a total of 7 in all. Both sides tossed their dice. Both sides scored on each other, producing additional casualty figures. Then 2 parameters were considered in the determination of which unit won the melee: First, the regimental strength, S, as listed on the data sheet. Second, N, the number of casualty figures on the opposing unit. These were combined in the following product, P, and the high product won. P = 10-side die x (S + N) Although the number of casualty figures on the British 50th were more than those on the American regiment (giving the Americans a large N factor), the Americans had a lousy low die toss… they lost, they crossed out 3 ELs, they received yet another casualty figure, and they fell back 6 squares. The 50th, somewhat battered and laden with casualty figures, was now up on the hill, within the American position. And So the Battle Continued The 50th was eventually driven off the hill, but it had done great damage to 2 of the defending regiments. The last phase in the sequence of the half-bound settled the issue of what to do with all the casualty figures that the units had accumulated through several phases of firing and melee. Here, I referred to a chart which translated the casualties into a number of additional ELs to be crossed out on the data sheet. Each casualty figure added +5 to the dice throw. DICE TOSS RESULT 01 to 33 Lose 1 EL 34 to 66 Lose 2 ELs 67 to 100 Lose 3 ELs American fire power won the day. By the third bound, most of the British units were under strength and didn't have the push to win the hill. Back to PW Review October 2000 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 Wally Simon 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