WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED arrived, Issue #75, December, 1993, and on page 13, something struck my eye... an interesting article by a fellow named Stephen Simpson, termed RULES FOR THE MID-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (RMEC).
I felt an immediate kinship with Mr. Simpson... so much so that I shall call him Stephen; he had, in fact, created a 'morale game', a very simple amalgam of rules in which all combat outcomes - firing or melee - were resolved solely by means of the affected unit taking a morale test.
In other words, when your troops fired on mine, it wasn't you that tossed the dice to determine my casualties... instead, 'twas me, tossing the dice, with my own targeted unit taking a morale test to see what the result of the impact was.
I set up a fairly small battle using the Simpson rules to further examine their content... an encounter at Skunkle's Church, an American Revolutionary War engagement between 3 American infantry regiments in defensive posture at the Church, and 4 attacking British infantry regiments.
One cavalry regiment supported the Americans, while 2 cavalry units, plus a gun, were assigned to the British.
RMEC defines unit sizes as follows:
- Infantry regiment: 8 figures
Cavalry regiment: 4 figures
Artillery battery: 6 figures
I was a wee bit surprised at the seemingly over-large battery assignment, but no matter, since crew size doesn't even play a part in the rules. Two or three infantry or cavalry regiments comprise a brigade, and each has a Brigadier in command.
The cannon fires line-of-sight... anything the crew can see on the table, they can hit. Muskets range out to 10 inches.
I played the game in solo fashion... it turned out to be quite entertaining, and lasted about an hour, and with the small number of forces set out on the table, presented no problems, so basic are the rules. The sequence has 4 phases:
- Side A moves and designates impacts on Side B
Side B units take appropriate morale tests
Side B moves and designates impacts on Side A
Side A units take appropriate morale tests
At the start of the engagement, the only deployed unit on the field was the American 55th, an "above average" unit, meaning it could take slightly larger losses than its fellow units.
Note that RMEC is demanding in terms of the losses that units can absorb. Each time a failure of a morale test occurs, regardless of the reason (firing or melee), one-quarter of the unit is removed from the field. And there's a strict limit to the number of failures before the unit itself is removed from the field:
- Above Average Unit... unit is removed on the 3rd failure
Average Unit... unit is removed on the 2nd failure
Below Average Unit... unit is removed on the 1st failure
As I said, the only deployed unit on the field was the American 55th at the Church. All other units on both sides entered in marchcolumn formation. Which meant that, sometime during the battle, they would have to deploy, and here, RMEC requires each unit doing so to test to see if it receives its orders... there is a basic 70 percent chance to achieve success.
This basic percentage is modified by the Brigadier's factor, which is diced for and is either +10$, 0$, or -10$. In dicing for the capabilities of the Brigadiers on both sides, my dice tossing left something to be desired, for most of them emerged with a negative factor. These officers definitely didn't inspire their men to greatness, since the Brigadier's modifier also comes into play during the morale tests taken by his units.
Eventually, all units deployed, marched up and the battle began. The first shot of the war was fired by the British battery, which, due to its long range capability (line of sight), had unlimbered way, way out on the British left flank, safe from the Americans.
BANG! went the gun, the war was on, and the targeted American 37th regiment took its first morale test.
The morale test consists of tossing two dice: one 8-sided and one 6-sided. The 6-sided toss is always subtracted from that of the 8sided, and if the result is positive, all is well. A failure produces (a) a loss of figures, but (b) the unit holds it ground. The result is modified by a very short, simple listing of several factors:
- -2 a. The testing unit is not deployed
-1 a. The unit is being charged in melee
b. Cavalry or limbered artillery under fire
c. Infantry or artillery in melee with cavalry
d. If the impact is caused by more than one unit
+1 a. Under fire from artillery over 18 inches away
I noted the very last factor on the above list of modifiers; this, to me, is what I call a "hole filler" in the rules... evidently RMEC doesn't want too many units routing from the field from long range artillery shots, and this modifier was tossed in to plug the gap.
In addition to the above listing, the Brigadier, depending upon his quality, will also contribute his +1, 0 or -1.
Despite the "hole filler" modifier of +1, the first artillery shot in the battle resulted in the targeted American unit, the 37th, failing its morale test (a teeny 8-sided die toss, coupled with a large 6-sided toss) , and although it held its ground, 2 figures were removed. The 37th was not a lucky unit... the next artillery blast, long range as it was, resulted in a second morale failure, and the 37th, an average unit, having suffered all it could (2 failures), routed from the field.
A more glorious result for the defending Americans occurred when the two British cavalry units descended upon the single American cavalry unit. Immediately upon contact, all units took their requisite morale test, and one British troop failed... off the field it went, for, as a below-average unit, it could only hack a single morale test failure.
The melee thus continued into the next turn, when the remaining units again tested... and... Huzzah!... off ran the other British below-average cavalry unit! Note that the American troopers were also below-average, and they were at first outnumbered (-1 on the die toss) and their Brigadier didn't help (he contributed a -1 factor), but somehow they managed to survive two rounds.
Despite the above singular cavalry success, mere flesh and blood couldn't withstand the oncoming British advance, and eventually, the outnumbered Americans withdrew - or, rather, fled - from the field.
Picky-picky fellow that I am, I could only find two possible faults with RMEC.
The first was that Stephen had failed to discover that percentage dice existed. RMEC incorporates the use of the following: a combination of 8-sided dice and 6-sided dice (the morale tests), 6-sided dice (to issue orders), 10-sided dice (to see if units receive their orders to deploy), and 12-sided dice (to see if a replacement commander appears if an officer is killed in combat). Decimalizing all the required dice-tossing functions is a fairly easy process, and to my mind, would standardize the procedures. The second flaw is that the listing of pertinent factors used in the morale tests is, perhaps, too short. As is, it's a delight, for the 6 listed factors (7, if you count the Brigadier's contribution) take all of 10 seconds to memorize, and the game truly zips along. But since this table is the heart and soul of RMEC, 'twould do no harm to add one or two additional modifiers.
In all, however, for a set of rules presented in a page-and-a-half, RMEC rates 10 in the scale of 1 to 10.
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© Copyright 1993 Wally Simon
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