On the field before the gates of Fort Splode, a British colonial foree was on display. Twenty-two units stood at attention: 2 squads of Regulars, 5 Volunteer squads and 15 native units ... all 5-man squads each. Overlooking the field, on the walls of the fort, were stationed two 5-man British regular units. The British command had received word that every one of the 22 squads on the field was suspect ... revolution was afoot, and any, or all, of the force might engage in open rebellion. Only the loyalty of the 2 units on the fort ramparts was not in question, and they scanned the field, looking for trouble. The PARADE GROUND MUTINY scenario was generated almost a decade ago; Tom Eisworth and I played the game, and a write-up appeared in the REVIEW at that time. Recently, I decided to try it again ... the original scenario was one of a Napoleonic era mutiny;. this time, we used a British colonial setting... the world renowned rules BRIT-BUSTERS (see the PW REVIEW, May '85) served to guide us. Jeff Wiltrout and I took charge of the rebels, while "Colonel Bob" Hurst and Fred Haub ran the loyal British forces. A quick die roll, and it was decided that the British were to move first. Each unit on the field had a "Loyalty Quotient" (LQ) as follows: Unit Probability of Joining the: British Cause Rebel Cause Regulars 60% 40% Volunteers 50 50 Natives 40 60 Each side was given 220 points with which to bribe, or win over, forces... one squad per turn. On Turn 1, the Brits chose to persuade one of the Regular rifle units to remain loyal. The Loyalty Quotient, LQ, of the Regulars was 60%, and to this the British added 40 points from their reserve of 220 LQ, so that the total was 100% ... the Regulars were automatically theirs! The Brits now had 220-40, or 180 LQ points left. The newly baptized Regulars immediately made for the hill at the northwest corner of the field ... they were to remain there for the remainder of the scenario, peppering away at anyone who looked like a rebel. During the last half of Turn I , the rebels chose to win over a sleepy-looking Gatling gun crew... these were Regulars, their LQ being 60%, the basic probability of turning traitorous was 100-60, or 40%. To this the rebels added 40 points, making 80%... a dice throw, and voila...the Gatling crew were part of the uprising. The sequence used alternate movement and at the beginning of each of its moves, the first action each side took was to choose a unit, determine if. it was loyal or rebel, and then move all its forces, including the newly won unit. At this point in the first turn, a fatal mistake was made by the rebels. Having persuaded the Gatling crew to join the cause, the rebels held fire, focused the gun at the units on parade, and declined to spray. The British Regulars commanding the walls of the fort. Fatal! Fatal! The next turn, after the Brits won their their next unit, they took the opportunity to clear the Gatling. The crew got got off only one burst before they evaporated under two turns of concentrated fire. The rebels lost a valuable asset here, for the Gatling, had it ever truly roared into action, fired with the effect of 3 full squads. Each turn, units declared their affiliations, the weapons of both sides cracked, and bodies gradually covered the field. Another key failure of the rebels was to win over a unit of fierce tribesman known as the Rama Damas. The rebels invested 20 points in th;s unit, totaled 80'/0' in the loyalty lottery, but an unlucky dice throw placed the Fighting Rama Damas on the British side. The Rama Damas, before they declared for the Crown, had been in an optimal position to charge the flank of a pro-British unit ... which was why the rebels needed them. Once the Brits took them over, however, the flank was secure, and now the British sent the Rama Damas to smash into the rebel Rally Point. In BRIT-BUSTERS, the Rally Point is the location for each side at which men that have failed a morale test are kept in limbo. As they recover, they join a unit. When the Rama Damas reached the rebels' Rally Point, they did double duty: they not only prevented the rebels from rallying, but they began chewing into the large host of disorganized men waiting there to rally. The rebels managed to send a unit back to combat the Rama Damas and, at the end of a fierce fight, the Rally Point was cleared of intruders. The rebels, therefore, were free to take men from the Rally Point and reinforce other units ... but, unfortunately, not for long. Into the Rally Point crashed another loyal British unit, and the rebels, who were having a hard time just holding their own on the parade ground, couldn't divert any forces to drive out this second invading squad. The British Rally Point was safe from rebel intrusion ... it was located inside the fort. For a while the rebellion held its own ... the British ran out of loyalty points before the rebels, and several units, which the British hoped would remain loyal, turned sour. The deciding factor, however, was the British decision to strike directly at their opponents' Rally Point. As long as the raiding British units were within the confines of the Rally Point, the rebels were denied their reinforcements, and as their men fled or fell due to British firepower, the rebel units kept decreasing in size, without the possibility of augmentation, causing a proportional decrease in rebel firepower... The British finally managed to form a ring of men around the parade ground, and the rebels' attempts to break through failed. A turn or so later and surrounded units threw up their hands and, once again, declared their loyalty to the Crown ... until next time. THE HISTORY OF FORT SPLODE This structure first appeared In a British colonial era skirmish in which Pat Condray and Fred Haub handled the native forces. One of the native objectives was to "take the fort", the other was the inevitable "wipe out the relief column". At the start of the encounter, the only troops the native saw within the fort were 2 units of British cavalry. On the very first turn, the cavalry mounted up, ready to ride out. For some reason, this made Condray, who is by nature suspicious, even more suspicious ... he kept his native units away from the fort... wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. It turned out that Condray's instincts did him well, for the cavalry had set up enough explosives (and lit the fuse) to completely demolish the fort, and everything within 6 inches of it, on Turn 3. As scenario designer, I had tried to sucker the natives into storming the walls ... Condray, however, just wouldn't bite. Turn 3 came and BLOOEY!! The fort 'sploded. Hence the name ... Fort Splode. Back to PW Review June 1985 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1985 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