Bill Protz started it... he has a magnificent collection of 30mm Seven Years War troops, he likes the CHARGE rules, and almost two years ago, he got the whole thing going. An Umpireperson volunteered his services, people drew up their 30mm orders of battle, I threw in my two cents concerning a set of campaign rules using area rather than hex movement, and we were on our way. It was all sorta stimulating, and I even wrote an article or two on the campaign for the REVIEW. As with all campaigns, however, although all went well at first, things started to slow down... and slowed... and slowed... and finally halted in the fall of 1989. Then a fella named Tom Miller stepped in as Campaign Umpire; Tom is in the Dayton, Ohio area, and he has given the campaign a new life, goosing it where it should be goosed, and displaying what seems to be an inexhaustable supply of energy for the affair. Tom rewrote the campaign rules from A to Z ... area movement was out, hex movement was in. He told us to revamp our orders of battle, giving us a chance to regenerate our armies. He sent out unit roster sheets which were to be filled in. He asked that we send in our moves in timely fashion. He sent out a small campaign newsletter. But by far his most wondrous efforts have been associated with the maps he turns out. In the packages I've seen, he's taken the large "cross country" hexes, broken them down into smaller hexes, and then, in turn, when a battle was to be fought, broken those down into table size hexes... all in watercolor! The campaign area of interest to me is the eastern part, where my own country, Ostlandt, is surrounded by three other principalities: Ronussia: Bob Hurst as King Bob, the personification of magnificence and conviviality... an ally of Ostlandt. Pomerania: Fred Hubig as the Grand Duke, a true leader of men who will not accept second place... an ally of Ostlandt. Ardoberg-Holstein: The Son of Satan, the Devil's spawn, the Evil one... obviously NOT an ally of Ostlandt. For the first couple of turns, as Tom Miller phased himself in, I, as the esteemed and beloved leader of my people, the redoubtable Lion of Ostlandt, simple gathered my forces and stood pat, trying to assess just who was doing what to whom. It turned out that Ronussia and Pomerania, champing at the bit to bring freedom and liberty to the oppressed peoples of the world, struck to the north... both sent forces into neutral Suden. The Emperor of Ardoberg-Holstein was comatose; all was quiet on Ostlandt's southern border. Duke Hubig's foray into Suden was directed at the town of Bornon and Umpire Miller sent the Duke a fairly extensive number of colored maps of the vicinity of the town, an order of battle for the Suden force (to be seen only by the Suden commander) , the disposition of troops on both sides, and a series of battle orders for the engaged forces. In looking at the huge amount of data received by the Duke, it occurred to me that if Tom prepared as extensive a package for ALL campaign battles, he must be independently wealthy, for held have no time at all to earn a living... There are, perhaps, some 20 campaign participants, all of whom are moving troops, attacking, defending, reorganizing... while I am not particularly concerned with the goings-on of all 20, and can concentrate solely on the region of interest to Ostlandt, Tom cannot. He must give each gamer equal time, and if his input to each participant is as detailed as those I've seen, he puts in a 60 hour week devoted solely to drawing maps and gathering data... I am truly impressed. Using Tom's input, we set up the battle of Burnon, which consisted of two separate encounters as diagrammed: Fred Hubig, Grand Duke of Pomerania, had two Pomeranian forces, Pl and P2, trying to squnch a Suden force, itself of two elements, S.1 and S2. Pi was the Duke's larger force; it was opposed by a much smalkr holding force, S1, where SlIs function was to delay P1 sufficiently so that the main Suden force, S2, could breakthrough P2 and escape to the northeast. Battle A, P1 vs S1, proved quite interesting. A much outnumbered S1 was eventually overcome by Pl, but not before the Grand Duke had second thoughts on the advisability of his invasion into Suden. Battle B gave the Duke additional nightmares, for S2 succeeded in defeating the Duke's containing force, P2. Although formulated under the precepts of the CHARGE campaign, if the truth be known, we did not use the CHARGE rules to resolve the battles. We used, instead, our group Is rules, POUR LE MERITE (PLM) , which was first published in the REVIEW circa 1986. PLM1, the 1986 version, has given way to PLM2, which is less complicated and moves faster. PLM is a "morale game"; figures are not removed when unit losses occur. Instead, "casualties" are evidenced by a degradation of the unit morale level: a. When fired on, or engaged in melee, a unit tests its reaction by taking a morale test. b. If it fails the test, a marker is placed on the unit. The marker we use is a 30mm figure holding aloft a flag termed the Flag Of Dishonor, the dreaded FOD. c. A unit of "regulars" starts with a morale level of 80%. Each FOD permanently reduces the level by 10%. Thus two FOD's produce a 60% morale level, which makes for a fairly "shaky" unit. d. A unit that receives 5 FOD's is deemed completely ineffective as a fighting entity and is removed from the field. The total number of FOD's received by a force also determines the ability of the entire force to continue the battle, i.e., it affects "army morale". The FOD's supposedly reflect the attitude of the force commander as he sees, each turn, more of his units failing moral - e tests, being defeated in melee, falling back, etc. The first critical point occurs when the total number of FOD's received by all the commander's units equal the number of units he has on the field. At this time, there is a 60% chance that the commander calls the whole thing off, disengages, and yields the field to his opponent. In our Battle A, for example, Suden holding-force S1 was composed of 7 units... 5 inf antry and 2 guns. The Grand Duke I s PI had, initially, 10 units. Thus the Grand Duke's design was to inflict 7 FOD's on S1 before he received his own critical number. This critical number was 10; S1 had to quickly inflict 10 FOD's on Pi. I say "quickly", because what made the game even more interesting was that on Turn 8, P1 was to be augmented by the arrival of its reserve, another 10 units. This would bring the total Pomeranian contingent to 20 units, and the chance of S1 "bumping" the Pomeranians 20 times for 20 FOD's before they themselves received 7 FOD's, would be nil. S1 fought well and, around Turn 6, the FOD score stood at Pomeranian:8, Suden:6. At this time, force P1 had overrun the Suden defense line, and S1 was slowly being pushed off the field. The Grand Duke then ordered a charge; the resultant melee was won by the Pomeranians, thus giving S1 its 7th and critical FOD. S1 then took its 60% "Give up?"test. But Sl had one more card to play... its force commander, Colonel Swill, had 50 points, total, by means of which he could REDUCE the 60% figure. Swill took 30 points off his own total, leaving him 20. The chance of S1 leaving the field thus became % =(Basic 60%) - (Swill's points) 30 = 60 - 30 The dice were thrown, and to Swill's delight, S1 refused to give up the ghost. Another charge by the Duke, and in this melee, although S1 received another FOD, the Pomeranians themselves took two FOD's! There were, therefore, two simultaneous tests: a.The Suden test. Here, since S1 had gone one FOD over its critical value of 7, its basic chance to leave the field was increased to 70%. Swill threw in his remaining 20 points to help out, and the tally was: %= (Basic 70) - 20 = 50% Unfortunately for Swill, his dice throw was a 43 ... Swill was through. b.The Pomeranian test. Here, having reached the critical level, the Duke's force began with a basic 60%. The Duke then tossed in his entire allotment: %(Basic 60) - 50 10% The Duke's toss was a good one; it was well above the 10% figure, and the Pomeranians celebrated their victory with a large pizza feast. Realize that Battle A, described above, occurred simultaneously with Battle B. And in Battle B, the Duke met his match. The forces in Battle B were much more equal, and the game proved a close one. Again, both sides had their VP total reduced to the almost-zero point simultaneously, and one or two quick "bumps" on either side would turn the tide. Speaking of "bumps", a quick description of the firing procedures in PLM2 might prove of interest, as a unit must immediately institute a morale test when fired upon. If fired on once... one morale check; if fired on three times... three morale checks ... tke'. Musket range is 30 inches; the key parameter here is the Range Factor (RF), the ten's digit of the range measurement. The second key factor is the number of volleys permitted... a maximum of two per turn, decided by a card draw. Third is the number of men firing. Here, we use front rank only, and simply count the number of stands. These three factors are combined to produce a number called the Morale Effect (ME): ME = (No stands firing) x (No of volleys) X (3 - RF) If, for example, 6 stands fire twice at 18 inches, then RF and we have: ME (6 stands) x (2 volleys) x (3 - 1) = 24 The target unit tests morale; it subtracts the ME from itS Morale Grade. A unit of regulars has a Morale Grade of 80%, and in this case: Unit Morale = 80 - ME 80 - 24 = 56% Note that the firing unit tosses no dice; the only dice throwing is done by the target unit. A morale failure produces a fall back, and a FOD is bestowed upon the unlucky unit. Back to Battle B Both sides reached zero VP simultaneously. Both sides tossed in large gobs of their commanders' points to reduce the probability of defeat. Another bump or two, and the Suden side ran out of savings points... the probability of leaving the field was 80%... and lo! the dice toss was a 93! The Suden pitbulls would not quit! Not so for the Pomeranians. Their next toss produced a mighty expletive from the Duke: 1101 Shukky Gee!", he thundered, "I've lost the battle!" As the reinvigorated CHARGE campaign goes on, we'll update now and then in the REVIEW... stay tuned... Back to PW Review January 1990 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1990 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