Bob Liebl indicated that he was going to present a game to a group of comparative newcomers to wargaming, and he had set out something simple with his British colonial figures. He wanted to host a scenario with some 4 players per side. For the initial run-through, I was on the native side… We had 3 players, each with 4 brigades(?), or whatever units natives come in. My own 4-unit brigade consisted of 2 units of fanatic, sword-bearing Pathans, one unit of musket people, and another of jezail-bearing warriors. Each unit consisted of around 10 to 13 men. As were setting up, Bob came to my side of the table and whispered in my ear: "You also have a 10-man unit of cavalry which will appear later in the battle on the British baseline." Since Bob, himself, was the British commander, I wasn’t sure why he was whispering, and what was so secret… perhaps he didn’t want his inner, British half to know what was going on. But I played along, and whispered back: "Gosh! This is exciting! Let me know when the cavalrymen will come on the field." Each of the units in each command had a colored ID painted on its base… white, yellow, red, etc. There was deck of cards, and on each card, one of the colors was painted in. Draw a card, and all units of both sides, of that ID color would move and fire. In essence, that was the sequence… the simplest of the simple. My immediate question concerned movement and firing priority… If two opposing units bearing the same color wanted to move and fire and produce an impact on each other, how would we determine which would act first? Not to worry… We’ll take care of that later, said Bob. This problem actually occurred later in the game. I had moved my red ID riflemen to fire on one of Bob’s British units, also with a red ID mark. Evidently, I moved too soon, because after I set up, and was just about to fire, Bob indicated he hadn’t moved his unit yet and was going to move it elsewhere. Whereupon, he moved it elsewhere. Whereupon, I moved my unit elsewhere. My jezail-bearing troops had a 36 inch range, and I initially thought that I’d be able to play defensively and to pot the Brits as they moved up. Movement was in 3-inch increments. Roll a die for the number of 3-inch increments, and move your troops accordingly. With a good, high die roll, a unit could zip forward up to ten 3-inch increments, and then fire. A yellow ID card was drawn, and my yellow-ID jezails were about to fire. But what happened was that an oncoming British unit, also of the yellow persuasion, tossed high for its movement, and ran right up the field to set up in front of the collective noses of my defending jezail troops. The sequence is ‘move and fire’, and so my jezailleers and the British fired simultaneously. This didn’t seem quite logical to me, for the British had just run a half-mile across the field, and somehow, they managed to pull their triggers at the same time as my native troops. I later offered a suggestion that a stationary unit should have firing priority over a moving unit. Nope, said Bob… Let’s keep it simple. No priority, just move and fire. Bob seems to be in love with the PIQUET "groping for dice" method of firing and morale testing and melee. For example, my Pathan jezails used the following dice: When firing an 8-sided die When moving a 10-sided die When in melee a 10-sided die Taking a morale test an 8-sided die Other units used 12 and 6-siders. My druthers are to forget about the silly "groping for dice" procedures… Sometime ago, some clever fella invented the 10-sided die, and thus permitted the straight use of percentages in a game… what could be simpler? Close Around the third turn, my fanatical Pathans, the sword-bearing warriors, moved up and got close enough to the Brits to permit them to close when their color ID card was next drawn. It was about time for my fanatical warriors to draw blood. All they had to do was to cross a small ford and contact the Brits. But Bob had a "unit" of British photographers accompanying his troops. And he moved them into the ford, thus blocking it. Enraged, my sword-bearers, when their card was drawn, moved into the photographers. Snicker-snee! Snicker-snee! With their 10-sided dice flashing away against the photographers’ measly 6-sided dice, it was no contest. Each man in combat tossed his die and compared it to his opponent’s. Whichever side was high, killed his opponent. But the photographers had done their duty. Although they were wiped out, they had blocked the ford, and on subsequent card draws, the British poured volley after volley into the fanatical Pathans. The British troops used 10-side dice to fire. Each man threw his die, and a toss of 7 or more (40 percent) knocked off a Pathan. With some 12 men in the British units, it didn’t take long before the sword-bearers melted away and ran off the field. Around Turn #5, out of my original total of over 42 Pathan infantry, I had 6 guys left. Things were looking bad on my side of the field. But help was on the way! For it was time for my fanatical cavalry (even more fanatical than my fanatical sword-bearers) to appear on the field. These men were the Pasha’s best, trained since birth to ride in the saddle, and, with one whisk of their shining scimitars, they could zoop off an opponent’s head. I had previously designated the point on the British baseline at which the cavalry would appear. And it was just down the slope from a British artillery unit, perched on a hill, which had been peppering away at the Pathan lines all during the battle. When my cavalry ID color was drawn, the 10-man cavalry tried to charge uphill against the artillery unit. The cavalry tossed a "2" for its movement increments… Normally, it could advance a total of two 3-inch increments, 6 inches. But going up the hill, it lost 2 increments… Another way of saying this is that the cavalry couldn’t move up, and it simply stood there, milling around. And on the artillery’s next card, the crew turned the gun around and smashed the troopers at short range. Four 10-sided dice were throw, looking for a "7" or more. Three cavalry dead. On the next turn, the artillery’s card appeared before that of the cavalry’s, and, once again, BOOM!, another 3 men dead. Only 4 men left in the Pasha’s own! Not to worry. Somehow, on their next card, they charged uphill. Four British artillerymen fought 4 fanatic cavalrymen, with the troops on each side tossing a 12-sided die. Hard to believe, but the artillerymen fought like devils and wiped out the four horsemen! It was just a bad-hair day for the Pathans. Back to PW Review February 2001 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 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