Some time ago, I played in a game using Sam Mustafa’s GRAND ARMEE rules, and liked the way Sam employed his Command Point (CP) system to activate the various units on the field. Since that time, I’ve implemented my own versions of CP systems in a set of rules for the ECW, for the ACW, and for ancients. This current article tells of my attempt to use CPs in a WW2 battle. Along the way, I discarded the term “Command Points”… no more CP. Instead, we have Time Increments (TI), TI points which a unit uses to perform a variety of needed functions. This came about after a discussion with a friend, Don Bailey, who thought that, during a bound, there was only so much time for a unit to do things… to fire, to advance, to take a morale test, etc.,... hence time had to be apportioned amongst the items to be accomplished by a unit. I used Don’s comments as my guidelines. On the accompanying map, the attacking force came on the field from the north… their objective: to get across the river and blow up the radio tower. I played this solo, and defined one stand (I was using my 20mm figures) as a platoon, with 3 platoons forming a company. The attackers had 3 companies of infantry, and one of armor (3 tanks), a small reinforced battalion, a total of 12 stands in all. I mention this because each stand had to be tracked in terms of its Loss Points… when it reached an Loss Point level of 30, the stand was destroyed. The defenders had only 3 infantry companies… no armor… a total of 9 stands. As the attacking force advanced south, I selected a defending platoon, pointed to a specific house on the field, tossed percentage dice, and there was a 70 percent chance that the platoon was in the house and ready to fire. If the toss was failed, the platoon hadn’t gotten its orders, and would turn up elsewhere. To active a side, the first item in the sequence was to see how many Time Increments (TI) each of its units were assigned. Depending upon a dice throw, this would be 5, or 4, or 3 TI. A TI could be used to fire or to move 5 inches, and so on, as listed below: Table #1 Fire 1 TI Reload weapon 2 Morale check when hit 3 Move 1 per 5 inches Move over obstacle 2 Fall back 4 Close assault 2 On the first turn, the attackers each had 4 TI, and so the heads of their columns advanced across the bridges a distance of 20 inches. Note that they had no targets… all of the defenders were hidden… and so they devoted no TI to firing. In the sequence, after the attacking Active Side moves, fires, etc., close assault is resolved, and the initiative goes to the opponent. Note that this is a simple board game sequence… the Active Side does whatever he desires on his half of the bound. The defenders were next… when they diced for their TI, they, too, received 4 TI, and they fired at the platoons that had just crossed the bridges. The firing routines are determinative… no dice tossing. Each weapon scores a certain number of Loss Points against its target. Table #2 Rifle platoon 2 LP MG 4 LP (Each rifle platoon could be accompanied by an MG) Tank vs tank 6 LP Anti-tank vs tank 6 LP The defenders couldn’t expend all their TI on firing… the maximum permitted a firing unit is 3 TI. And if it fires for its maximum, there’s a chance it’s out of ammunition. Table #3 Fire for 1 TI No penalty Fire for 2 TI 50% chance to run out of ammunition Fire for 3 TI 70% chance to run out of ammunition The defenders opened up on the attackers, and each fired for 2 TI. As expected, with a 50 percent chance of running low on ammunition, about half the firing units ran out. I had prepared a small marker containing boxes, oil cans, etc., to indicate an out-of-ammo unit. Each of the targets also received a marker… this one was a casualty figure, indicating that the next time the unit was activated, the first function it had to perform was to take a morale test. Note in the listing of TI requirements, that the morale test consumed 3 TI, severely hampering the targeted unit. Initiative then switched to the attackers again, and they diced for their TI. The TI chart is shown below. Table #4 01 to 33 Each unit receives 5 TI 34 to 66 Receives 4 TI 67 to 100 Receives 3 TI Again each of the attacking units received 4 TI. Those that had casualty markers took their morale tests. The Morale Level (ML) of each unit was defined as 60 percent. I set this pretty low… I usually use an 80 percent ML, but for this encounter, I wanted lot of fall-back… surprisingly, I didn’t get them. For the most part, units would pass their morale tests. But the units that passed their morale tests, which used up 3 of their allotted TI, now had only a single TI to do anything. And the units that failed, fell back and recorded 2 LP on their data sheets, and kept their markers. This meant that the next time they were activated, they’d again have to take the morale test. The attacking force ignored the bridge on the eastern side of the field, using only the one in the center and the western one. And they attacked with only the infantry companies… I held back the 3-platoon armored company, trying to see where it would most be needed. Conversely, I committed only 2 of the defending companies to the field, holding one in reserve until the attacking armor showed up. This happened around Bound 6, when the armor crossed the center bridge. At that time, all the units of both sides were engaged. As the battle continued, the units recorded more and more losses, more and more LP. The LP listed in Table #2 were not the deciding values, for these listed points I termed “temporary LP”. Converting them to “Permanent LP” (PLP) took place at random occurrences. Prior to the start of each half bound, I tossed percentage dice. Each half bound added 12 percent, cumulative, to the probability that a conversion took place. For example, at the start of the 4th half bound, there was a 4x12, or 48 percent chance for conversion of temporary to PLP. When this occurred, I referred to the following damage assessment table: Table #5 01 to 33 PLP = 1/4 temporary LP 34 to 66 PLP = 1/2 temporary LP 67 to 100 PLP = All temporary LP One of the first affected units was the attacker’s Platoon R. This unit was first over the center bridge and took it on the chin from all defending units. It had accumulated around 70 LP when the damage assessment phase occurred. A high, unlucky dice throw on Table #5 said that all of the 70 LP were immediately converted to PLP. Since only 30 PLP were required to destroy a unit, this was overkill and Platoon R evaporated under the weight of fire. Looking at the above narration, the actual sequence consisted of the following phases: (1) When a side is active and is to move its units, a Before movement, it should be determined if a damage assessment phase occurs. The chance of this occurring is 12%, cumulative, for each half bound. When damage assessment occurs, all units on both sides with temporary LP transfer their temporary LP to permanent LP (PLP) using Table #5 b The side dices for its TI, from 3 to 5 TI increments Table #4 01 to 33 Each unit receives 5 TI 34 to 66 Receives 4 TI 67 to 100 Receives 3 TI (2) If a platoon has a morale marker, the first thing it must do when activated, is to take a morale test. If it has any TI left over, it may perform other functions (3) Melee is fought immediately upon contact. Around Bound 9, the defending platoon was driven out of the area near the tower, and an explosives charge set. On Bound 10, there was an 80 percent chance the charge went off… it did. Mission accomplished. Both forces had each lost 5 platoons of infantry out of 9. I played the game out on a full size 9-foot long ping pong table, which entailed lots of walking from side to side. But I took my time, and the encounter killed two 1 ½ hour sessions on two successive afternoons. Not too bad for a solo action. Back to PW Review April 2002 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com