Lynn Bodin's recent input concerning the ECW rules I outlined in the January REVIEW indicated that his group of gamers in the Great North West, when introduced to the idiosyncracies of the morale game concept, commented "Yuch! Pfeh! Ptui!..." or words to that effect.
This set me to thinking. My first thought was that there is, obviously, Someone-Out-There who abhors morale games. And my second thought was that perhaps, by generating a set of rules to their liking, I could win back the love and affection of those hardy individualists of the Great North West. So shall it be written ... so shall it be done.
And here, therefore, is yet another outline of a set of rules, one for the American Civil War, one in which each regiment is "rostered", and when its points go down to zero, it goes off the table, never to return.
This is still not quite what those rugged warriors of the northwest prefer... Lynn had indicated that their major preference was to continuously remove casualties from a unit, and see it diminish in size. While he didn't say outright that they liked to tear the legs off the lead figures, or bite their heads off... well ... one might read between the lines ... there's no accounting for tastes.
Lynn did say, however, that although his boys liked to remove casualties from their units, they could live with a roster system, and so I present the best of both possible worlds ... as the regimental points decrease, one can remove a figure or a stand ... whatever turns one on.
A typical roster is shown. It contains the records for up to
three regiments in the brigade, plus ten specific point values
assigned to the Brigade Commander.
As shown, each one of the regiments has a Combat Factor (CF) ranging from 5 to 10. All units commence with a CF of 10, and when the circles below the 10 are crossed out, the CF is reduced to 9, and so on down to a CF of 5. When the CF of 5 goes, so does the unit. Our 30mm ACW game uses a 4-stand regiment. Only when all the CF circles are crossed out do we remove the unit. Until then, we keep all four stands on the table.
Note that each regiment has a different number of circles assigned to each value of the CF. The more circles, the stronger the unit. The total number of circles per regiment ranges from about 12 to 25. I made out five different sets of roster sheets, all of varying degrees of strength. Prior to a game, commanders are free to assign whichever set they desire to a given brigade. In some cases, we have a blind draw for the rosters and the commanders are stuck with whatever pops up.
The roster also includes 10 points, or 10 values ... the Brigadier Factor, or BF... for the Brigade Commander. When a unit is hit, instead of crossing out circles on the CF scale, one may wish to preserve the unit's strength, and instead, one can absorb the hits on the BF scale by crossing out the BF values.
This is well and good, except for the following. By preserving a regiment's strength, i.e., its CF, and absorbing losses on the BF scale, i.e., taking it out on the poor Brigadier, the regiment's morale level decreases. The basic regimental morale level (ML) is defined as:
- ML in percent = (CF x BF) - Distance to Brigade
Commander
Note that at the outset of the game, with both CF and BF at 10 or more points each, the unit's morale level is highest, maximum ML occurs and is equal to (10 x 10), or 100%.
As the CF and BF go down, so does the morale level. The Brigadier has to accomodate up to three regiments, and his BF must be used sparingly.
The morale phase is one of the more interesting aspects ... for it gives a chance for the opposition to target in on a specific enemy unit and force a morale check. For example, when one side, say Side A, tests its morale, the following table is used, and dice are thrown to determine how many units will test their morale level:
- 01 - 33: 20% of the units will test (round up)
34 - 66: 30% of the units will test
67 - 100: 40% of the units will test
If there are 10 units on Side A, and the dice show a 78, then 40%, or four units will test. Which four units? That's determined by Side B, who can now point at four specific regiments, or batteries, or whatever, on Side A, and wait for the results.
Note that, because of the roster system, Side B has no exact knowledge of the status of A's units ... he does know that he's fired at, or meleed with, the opposition, knocking circles off their CF records, and so their morale level should down, but he has no idea of how much damage he has done. Six circles crossed out on one unit's roster sheet will not have the same effect as on others.
When a regiment fails a morale test, it moves back 12 inches, facing, and loses a number of circles equal to half the results determined from the Casualty Chart, as defined in the next section.
Firing
Firing is a two phase affair:
a. Ranging in. One 10-sided die is thrown and the range to the target must be equal to or less than twice the die roll. Another way of saying this is that a given musket volley "reaches out" to twice the die roll and may, therefore, fall short of the target. The maximum range is 20 inches.
b. If the unit does range in for the target, the number of hits, i.e., circles to be crossed out, is determined by percentage dice. This same Casua ty Table is used for melee, and for morale failures.
| Casualty Table | |
|---|---|
| 01 - 33 | cross off 2 circles |
| 34 - 66 | cross off 4 circles |
| 67 - 100 | cross off 6 circles |
The procedure is the same for artillery fire, except that the ranging die is multiplied by 5, i.e., the maximum range is 50 inches.
Modifiers to the above procedure are:
- a.If a target is under cover, use the table as shown,
but halve the number of circles.
b.If less than four stands fire, use the table as shown, but deduct from the table values the number of stands that didn't fire
C. if a unit fails its morale test, use the table as shown, halve the number of circles.
The melee procedures use the Combat Factor (CF) in a stand-to- stand pair-off. Each stand in the unit has its CF multiplied by a 10-sided die roll, and the stand with the higher product fights on, while the loser steps back. The melee is over when only one unit has stands left to fight. The melee results and losses are:
- Winner:Cross out a number of circles equal to the number
of pair-offs lost. All stands reform in place.
Loser:Throw percentage dice and refer to the Casualty Table. All stands fall back 12 inches, facing, in good order.
Note that in the above procedure, it well may be that the winner, even though he has won the field, can suffer greater losses than the loser.
The Brigadier can assist in the melee, adding to the CF of his unit. Simply cross out the number of his BF points you wish him to add to the unit's CF. And remember, of course, that in doing so, you are endangering the morale level of the entire brigade.
The percentage chance of the winning unit getting a breakthrough move, defined as %(B), is shown below. If the breakthrough occurs, the entire winning unit participates.
- %(B) = 20 x [No of pair-offs won - No of pair-offs
lost]
Now we come to the sequence and movement procedures.
During each turn, each side has two move/fire phases. During each of these phases, while every unit on the side starts out with one action, i.e., it can move or fire once, there may be a try for a second move action for the Tide, permitting two "moves", or one "fire" plus one move
The chance of obtaining a second action for the units in any brigade is a function of the points of the Brigade Commander, and how much his units are separated. If "0" is the distance from the Brigade Commander to the unit in his brigade which is furthest from him, the chance for a second action is:
- Chance for second action = (10 x BF of the Brigade Commander) -
D
Thus if the Brigade Commander splits up his brigade, sending one regiment this away and another way out that away, the large negative factor produced by the distance between the two units will prevent him from obtaining a second action. And what's worse, if the Brigade Commander misses his dice throw, his "guaranteed" one action is TAKEN AWAY, i.e., he gets NO actions, and his entire brigade is immobile. Note that splitting a brigade also negatively impacts on morale.
If a side dices for and gets its second action, then, while a regiment cannot fire twice, it does get a bonus if it stands and fires. The bonus is a +10% added to the Casualty Chart dice throw.
- On an action
- unlimbered guns move 4 inches
infantry move 8 inches
cavalry move 12 inches
limbered artillery move 12 inches
Assuming we haven't turned off the boys in the Great North West thus far, then the one area remaining Uncovered is the sequence itself. However, knowing of their penchant for "traditional" systems, as Mr. Bodin is wont to say, this last will be a bitter pill for the troops to swallow.
The reason is that we're going to use a randomized card deck (Aha! ... two fellas have already left the table, a third is crying softly in his beer, and Lynn Bodin is hanging on the arm of a fourth, begging him to stay).
But we cannot be stopped now. Let us continue as if nothing happened... the end is near.
The deck consists of 12 cards and the sequence is. diagramed.
| Number of Cards | Type Of Card |
|---|---|
| 2 | Side A will test morale |
| 2 | Side B will test morale |
| 2 | Both A and B will test morale |
| 6 | Melee |
The morale phase, instituted when one of the six Morale cards is
drawn, has already been described. Additional factors, however, are
that:
- (i) When a unit fails a morale test, it moves back 12 inches,
facing.
(ii) When it does so, the opposing side gets a chance to obtain a "free advance", a 6 inch move forward, with an opposing brigade. The percentage chance of doing so is the Brigadier's BF points times 10, i.e., BF x 10.
(iii) If morale tests for both A and B are called for on the Morale card, and A fails morale once and B three times, then B gets two chances to advance, i.e., the net number of failures is considered as governing.
(iv) The value of this exploitation move is that it is without terrain penalty, i.e., advancing units may move unhindered through woods, on slopes, etc.
Note that half of the deck is made up by the six Melee cards. A melee does not begin until such a card is drawn. As the cycle of the sequence continues, therefore, two units that are brought into face-to-face contact may still fire at each other, or back out of contact, etc., until a Melee card appears.
Now that, gentlemen, is a barebones outline of the ACW system. Surely it's enough on which to base a game.
I should note that we've playtested the system many, many times ... for the ACW era, for Napoleonics, even for a modern Vietnam skirmish, making a few changes here and there to suit the era involved.
And I should also note that not all the folks who have tried it have found it trouble-free. Hank Martin, for instance, disagrees with the artillery procedure of ranging in. Hank's problem stemmed from several instances in which his artillery, during an ACW battle, fired on - or attempte to fire on - a nearby enemy unit which was about 6 or 7 inches away.
Remember that in the ranging-in process, the artillery blast "reaches out" to a distance of 5 times a die roll, giving the guns a maximum range of 50 inches. Unfortunately, Hank rolled a 111", not once, but a couple of times, indicating that his battery inflicted no damage to the target located a mere 6 inches away.
Hank's position is that, since the artillery's maximum range is 50 inches, 6 inches or so is well within cannister range. Hence the battery's fire should inflict some loss on the target, and it was unrealistic that the guns should miss altogether. The better procedure, in Hank's eyes, was that there should be some minimum casualty loss at point blank range.
Another topic of discussion concerned the use of the Melee cards, and that the sequence mandated that two units, brought into "contact", jaw to jaw and belly to belly, could not begin to hack at each other until the draw of the card.
Here, there was talk of a "guaranteed melee", i.e., if the next card that was turned up was not a Melee card, the melee should be fought regardless.
My own opinion regarding the above two topics (there were others), is based on the fact that I like the unexpected, providing the "unexpected" doesn't go too far overboard.
In both of the above situations, I think that the novelty of the situation outweighs any disadvantages. And the statistics of the situation indicate that the "unexpected" won't happen that often that it becomes "expected".
In short, the system appears to work, and if it ain't broken, don't fix it. Ana I'm quite curious about how the warriors of the Great North West view the game as is ... assuming they wish to view it at all.
All the nitty-gritty of the game is at the option of the player... there's virtually no end to the modifications one can superimpose on the basic outline of the three elements of:
- A mixed sequence of fixed and random phases.
A recorded tally of regimental strength.
A recorded tally for the Brigade commander.
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© Copyright 1988 Wally Simon
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