In the year 1145, three battles were fought which sealed the fate of the claimant to the British throne, Prince Charles Edward. The Prince won at Falkirk, won at Prestonpans, but lost it all at Cullodon. Thereupon, the Bonny Prince sailed away to Italy and faded from history.
We recently ran a similar affair in "Ski mish fashion". Here, Prince Brian the First, Duke of Dewitt, pretender to the throne of the island Kingdom of Bingland, landed with his forces on the coast of Bingland, and proceeded to march inland, seeking to carve his way to the capital city of Plundon.
Robert of Hurst, King of Bingland, sought to block Brian's maneuvering, and managed to defeat the usurper in a series of battles, while, at the same time, fighting off a revolt within the capital of Plundon.
And it all came about like this ...
The field, 5 x 9, had some 14 towns marked on it, each no closer than 20 inches to the next. Infantry could move 8 inches per turn, cavalry 16, thus it took at least two turns to go from one town to the next.
King Robert commenced with three field units... two infantry, one cavalry. A unit was defined to be five figures... call it a squad, company, battalion, regiment, whatever takes your fancy. We used 54mm figures, and so, visually, we had 5 man squads clomping about the table and battling each other.
Prince Brian started with two units. He was permitted to come on the field anywhere on the north, east or west edges of the table. King Robert's three units were placed, unknown to Brian, somewhere among the 14 towns.
Each time Royalist or Rebel forces entered a town, dice were thrown to determine the villagers' response. The table is shown below:
| Loyalist | Rebel | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 01 to 05 | 01 to 05 | 4 men join |
| 06 to 15 | 06 to 20 | 2 men join |
| 16 to 40 | 21 to 60 | 1 man joins |
| 41 to 60 | no effect | |
| 61 to 70 | 61 to 65 | 1 man deserts |
| 71 to 80 | 66 to 70 | 2 men desert |
| 81 to 100 | 71 to 100 | Villagers fight |
Use of the table was invoked every time troops entered a village, hence by alternately entering and leaving, entering and leaving, etc., both Royalists and Rebels could hope to consistently recruit new troops... with the potential danger, of course, that instead of flocking to the colors, the villagers would fight, or troops would desert.
Note that the villagers' response favors the rebels under Brian at the lower end of the table, i.e., there is 60% chance that Brian's force is augmented by someone joining up, as opposed to 40% chance that the King's forces recruit successfully.
The other end of the table favors the King... there is only 20% chance that the villagers openly rebel against the King's men, as opposed to a 30% chance that they fight Brian's troops.
The one modifier to the above response table was a -10 added to the dice throw whenever the City of Plundon was involved. This modifier didn't help the King when, late in the campaign, an extremely high dice throw resulted in the citizens of Plundon taking to the streets and bearing arms against the Royal troops.
If the villagers of a town decided to battle, the number of villagers that would fight was equal to: 2 + (10-sided die roll), giving a minimum of two, and a maximum of 12.
When Plundon revolted, as luck would have it, 12 citizens decided to bear arms against the King, and the Royalists were hard pressed to quell the short-lived revolution. King Robert showed no mercy... all 12 unhappy citizens were axed.
In essence, the campaign was a large scale board game, and so combat was highly stylized. If two forces met, they'd be placed 10 inches apart, and from this position, commence to bang away at each other.
A combat was termed an Encounter, and the whole affair was governed by a deck of 10 Encounter Cards. An Encounter ended when:
- One side voluntarily pulled back, or
Only one side was left holding the field.
The deck of Encounter Cards (EC) was composed of:
- 1 Loyalists fire
1 Rebels fire
2 Both sides fire
2 All units with markers test morale
2 Either side may advance to attempt contact (inf 5 inches, cav 10 inches), with a 50% chance that opposing side fires*
2 If in contact, melee
Total of 10 cards
*Melee does not occur until a Melee EC is drawn
Note that there are two ADVANCE cards, allowing infantry to move forward 5 inches, and cavalry 10. But note also, that even though the forces could advance and face each other nose to nose, melee could not occur until a MELEE card was drawn.
This meant that cavalry, with no firepower, would attempt to close on an ADVANCE card, and while waiting for a MELEE card, could get pretty shot up in the interim.
The winning unit in melee received one impact marker, while the losing unit received two markers and then retreated a distance equal to (2 x 10 sided die) in inches.
Firing was done as indicated below:
- 1. each side fires in groups of four. at 25% per man to
hit.
2. The 5-man units are ignored for firing purposes.
3. Each hit places one marker on the target unit.
4. The only way to remove an Impact marker is to test morale during an encounter.
The important thing in firing is that the impact markers remained with the unit. There was no way to remove the markers except to engage in an Encounter, wait for a MORALE card to be drawn, and test the unit's morale. If the test was successful, all markers were removed.
Units started with a basic morale level:
- Elite (Royalist cavalry) 100%
Regulars 90%
Villagers 70%
Both Royalists and Rebels had a number of officers (from 3 to diced for at the beginning of the game) and these officers could assist with Morale Points, with a subsequent risk of being killed, equal to twice the number of points with which they helped out.
Villagers had no officers, and they checked their morale straightaway without the benefit of outside support. Villagers, therefore, tended to melt away much more quickly than the other troops.
Each 5-man unit tested morale separately when a MORALE card was drawn. A marker reduced the unit's morale level by 10%, and a further deduction of 10% was made for every man less than five in the testing group. Thus a 4-man unit of Regulars started out with (90 - 10) or 80%. The results of failure (percentage dice throw above the morale level) did not mean that an entire unit routed, i.e., was removed from the field, but was as follows:
- Odd dice throw One man removed
Even dice throw Two men removed
Prince Brian placed one of his units (the Browns) at Point A, and the other (Colonel Nelson Eddy's Own) at Point B, at the start.
The Browns went from town to town, spreading the revolution quite successfully... a series of lucky dice throws resulted in lots of recruits pouring in to help the Rebel cause. On the eastern side of the field, Colonel Eddy's Own had less success with recruiting, but did manage to come awfully close to entering Plundon itself after a series of encounters with the Royalist defenders.
King Robert's elite cavalry did good work, charging time after time, and despite loads of impact markers - placed by the sharpshooters of Colonel Eddy's Own - manag*d to hold off the Colonel's troops.
In melee, after a MELEE card was drawn, the Encounter was resolved as follows: 1.Each side is paired off into 2-man groups and the pairs engage in combat. Add the Combat Values below- to a percentage dice throw. A losing pair withdraws from the fight. 2. Combat Values (CV): Loyalists 15 per man Rebels 15 per man Elite trcops 20 per man Villagers 10 per man Mounted 10 per horse Deduct: 2 from each man's CV for every marker on the unit 4 from each man's CV if the opposing unit is in cover. This modifier lasts until the attacker wins a round of combat.
As stated, King Robert's greatest threat was on the eastern side of the field, as Colonel Eddy at first seemed unstoppable. After awhile, however, the lack of successful recruiting (no one seemed to want to join the Colonel's force), coupled with a gradual erosion of Eddy's Own due to the accumulation of impact markers, reduced the Colonel to but a memory.
Indeed, the Colonel's force was finally snuffed out in a very inglorious manner: the last two men entered a town, hoping to recruit for the Colonel, the dice were thrown, the response table consulted,.. and it turned out that these last two thought better of their assignment, and deserted.
Before the Colonel disappeared, however, King Robert had one last traumatic experience. As the remnants of Colonel Eddy's troops approached the capital, the King withdrew his forces into Plundon, ready, if necessary, for a last stand. Having entered Plundon, the response table was looked at to see how the good and faithful Plundoners reacted. It was at this time, that the townsmen of Plundon chose to rebel and the King was hard pressed to put down the revolt.
With the Colonel gone, King Robert gathered his forces to face the oncoming Browns.
Once again the elite Royal cavalry led the attack, assisted by the remainder of the King's troops. The Browns were overwhelmed, and driven back (the loser of a melee retreats a distance equal to 2 x 10-sided die throw).
Prince Brian, with his invading units gone, his hopes of gaining the throne smashed, rode off to the sounds of the Royal raspberry. Bingland was saved from invasion again... long live the King!
The intent of this fairly simple campaign game was to lay the groundwork for a more ambitious campaign patterned in the same manner.
Prince Brian's objective was merely to "touch" the town of Plundon to achieve complete and utter victory. The larger scale game will have the same sort of victory condition... all the claimant has to do is to fight his way to Plundon itself, and he automatically gains the crown.
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© Copyright 1988 Wally Simon
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