For some time now, most of my rules sets use what I term a "local reaction" ploy, permitting a player to have one, or more, of his units respond to a threat generated by the opponent. This type of ploy is used in Howard Whitehouse’s British colonial rules, SCIENCE VERSUS PLUCK, in which a British brigade, when faced with a horde of natives suddenly materializing from the nearby sand dunes, can attempt to fire, or form square, or a combination of both.
NAPOLEON’S BATTLES employs a similar rule...an infantry unit, charged by enemy cavalry, can attempt to form square in the face of the oncoming horsemen and cause them to draw off. There are other sets of Napoleonic rules which provide an opportunity for infantry to rapidly form square, and I’ve always wondered why the rules seem to focus solely on the cavalry-vs-square situation...why not when an enemy is about to close in on a unit’s flank?...why not when a unit in march column is surprised by a charging unit?
Most games employ alternate movement...Side A moves, his units close to contact, some defensive fire is permitted, and melee is resolved. In this type of sequence, Side A essentially shouts "I gotcha!" as his units move into contact, with Side B given only a very limited response to a specific situation.
And so, taking off from there, I permit a side a certain number of emergency responses, thereby...I hope...opening up the game.
I do this by assigning a side a number of Reaction Points (RP). To react, the player crosses off one of his RP, which indicates that the order was sent (the adjutant rode out, the heliograph operator wigwagged his message, the radio-man called up the unit, etc.). The second step is to answer the question: did the order arrive and was it understood?
I always use a probability of 80 percent for this, i.e., toss percentage dice for a response of 80 or under, and the order was successfully received, and the unit can respond accordingly. If the order did not arrive, the RP is forfeit, and another RP may be assigned, crossed off, and the dice thrown again. A maximum of 2 orders may be attempted to be sent to a unit...there’s got to be a limit in gaming terms to the number of times a commander shouts "Move!" or "Fire!" to one of his units and gets no response.
Overloaded RPs
Recently, I presented a WW2 game in which I inadvertently overloaded the sides with the number of RPs provided. And I further exacerbated the situation by permitting the sides to accumulate their unused RPs from turn to turn in unlimited fashion, and then, when desired, to "unload" them whenever they deemed fit.
My idea of the RP concept is that it’s a ploy to give the sides a "bonus" reaction in times of emergency. In the WW2 battle, the plethora of RP made the "bonus" aspect laughable, as the sides used, over-used, and mis-used, their RPs.
In a game I hosted shortly after the WW2 fiasco, a Napoleonics affair, the issue of the availability of RP resolved itself. RP were provided in a rather skimpy manner, and, because of their scarcity, the participants had to be quite selective concerning the situations they deemed serious enough to warrant the expenditure of an RP.
Here, too, unused RP were permitted to be accumulated from turn to turn, but since there weren’t enough of them in the first place, this never became a problem.
The Napoleonic game was on a large (grand tactical?) scale, using 15mm troops, with a single stand representing a regiment. It configured units into divisions, with each division composed of a number of brigades. A brigade consisted of 3 to 5 stands. Each division commander, each turn, diced for the RPs he received.
His basic allocation on each turn was a single RP per brigade (it could be less), so that with 4 brigades, he nominally received 4 RP.
If, for example, enemy cavalry charged in on one of his infantry brigades, which was still in line formation, he could expend a divisional RP to attempt to have the brigade form square. If the order never arrived, a second RP could be spent. But in assigning 2 RP to that particular infantry unit, the other units in that division were deprived of RP, and their response suffered accordingly.
I use an alternate movement system, and in experimenting with the reaction concept, I’ve discovered that the participants should be permitted to use their RP after a movement phase to prevent the "Gotcha!" syndrome. One side moves, the other side, having been caught unawares, attempts to respond, and the first side, seeing that the opponent has responded, may attempt to draw back. Thus both sides, in sequence, get to employ RP, hoping to react.
For example, in a WW2 game, after the enemy moved, I used an RP to send an infantry unit into a nearby woods to scout the woods to see if any enemy troops were present. The order was received by my infantry, off it went, and the unit discovered that both enemy armor and infantry were hiding in the cover. Having used one RP on my scouting unit, I was allowed to use a second RP on it to attempt to have it withdraw. This, too, was successful, and the scouting unit emerged from the woods, slightly out of breath, but able to report back to headquarters about the enemy’s presence.
What was interesting about this exploit were the probabilities involved. First, the unit had to receive its scouting order (80 percent). Second, it had to enter the woods (70 percent to traverse rough terrain). Third, upon discovering enemy troops, it had to receive the order to reverse its tracks and report back (80 percent). Fourth, in heading out of the woods, it had to go through rough terrain again (70 percent). Put all these probabilities together by multiplying them out, and you get a resultant probability of success of only 31 percent to complete the mission.
When I first instituted the reaction concept, I permitted either side to use its RP allotment anytime in the bound that it deemed one of its units might be in trouble, i.e., encountered an emergency situation. This led to many table-side discussions as to the definition of "emergency". Lots of game-wasting time. If Side A’s cavalry didn’t charge, but simply moved to within charge distance of Side B’s infantry, was that an immediate emergency? If Side A’s infantry merely fired on one of Side B’s units...was that an emergency?
And so, I knocked out the "emergency" restriction. If a side wants to use its RP to perform additional actions...any additional action...either move or fire or change formation...let it do so. The governing factor is the availability of the RP...using them indiscriminately during the turn may cause heartburn later, when they are truly needed.
If kept within limits, the reaction concept works. Apportion out a number of RP to a side to permit around half its units to respond. And then, put a cap on the number of RP the side is permitted to accumulate, i.e., carryover from the previous turn.
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© Copyright 2001 Wally Simon
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