Here, in this Peninsula encounter, there were 8 un-British brigades attacking 6 British ones (a brigade equals four units, i.e., four battalions). Part of the un-British force were the dreaded Armenian Freedom Fighters. This was the fourth battle in which the AFF participated, and to-date, they had done nothing to impress the bystander.
The British force occupied a fortified position on a small ridge in the center of the field, and also placed a brigade in the town of Puerco Gordo, on the right flank. The entire left flank was wooded, and the defending British light troops placed in the woods, were far outnumbered by the attacking light units.
General Haub, the un-British commander in charge of-the attacking forces in midfield, surprisingly launched an immediate cavalry charge into the gap between the ridge and Puerco Gordo. During the movement phase, the active side receives 4 actions for each of its units... infantry move 4 inches per action, cavalry move 6 inches, hence the Haub cavalry squadrons charged forward 24 inches.
Luckily for the defenders, they were still another move away from contact. On these movement phases, units can approach no closer to enemy units than 2 inches. Later in the sequence, there is a separate close-to-contact phase, wherein the active side's units that are within 2 inches of an enemy unit, may close.
After movement, there is a fire phase, and several cavalry units took casualties. Firing is a simple procedure: each man counts for 30%, hence you total the percentage for a unit (30 x number of men), and each hundred points yields a Casualty Die (CD). Toss the CD's, and a result of 1-to-4 is a hit on the target.
A unit, upon taking a casualty, receives a casualty marker, but does not undergo a morale test. Which means that no matter how much a charging unit gets shot up, it will still enter melee.
The melee results, however, take into account these casualty markers... both those received during the melee, and those with which the unit entered the melee... with a large number of markers weighing it down, a unit will rarely emerge as the winner of a combat.
One turn later, the Haubian cavalry closed. The melee sequence is a bit out of the ordinary... there are several subphases to it:
- a. During movement, the active side's units cannot contact enemy units; they must remain 2 inches from the enemy. On the contact phase, the active side selects one of his units that ended up 2 inches from an enemy unit, and closes.
b. Thus far, we have only the lead unit of the active side and the unit with which it closed, i.e., the lead unit of the nonactive side, in combat. In the next subphase, both sides now try to march other units into the fight.
c. Prior to commencement of the battle, each commanding officer dices for his Military Capability (MC)... it is either a 50%, 60% or 70%. Now, in the combat, the active side designates a unit which he wants to march into the fight. The probability that this unit can advance 4 inches toward the 2 engaged lead units equals the MC of the Commanding Officer.
d. If the MC was 70%, then a toss of 70 or lower, and the unit can march forward its 4 inch distance. If it reaches the melee, well and good, but if it doesn't, it may attempt another advance, this one at 10% less than last time, i.e., 60%. A third advance will occur at the 50% level, and so on.
e. Note that if the second unit reached the melee, yet another unit may be selected to begin its marches, with each march reduced 10% below the last.
f. Once the active side has completed his advances toward the melee, the non-active side may attempt to bring in his supporting units, again using the MC of his Commanding Officer.
In the cavalry charge described above, the horsemen contacted a British unit in line, and each side managed to bring in one support unit... the others failed to toss the appropriate dice.
Melee, similar to firing, uses the number of participating figures to tally a number of Combat Points (CP). Each 100 CP yields a Casualty Die. As I remember, the Haub charging units totaled some 480 CP, which were then augmented as follows:
- a. Each type of unit is given a basic number of points as a starting figure. The charging cavalry, on the point chart, totaled 120 points.
b. These points were then multiplied by the number of staff officer figures in the cavalry brigade, which turned out to be 4, hence 4 x 120 equals 480 Combat Points.
c. General Haub, however, had yet another source of Combat Points to draw on. Each unit is tracked on a data sheet, and each sheet has a unique listing of reserve Combat Points (CP) applicable to special situations.
d. One such special situation gives each cavalry unit a reserve of 1,000 CP to be used only when it contacts infantry in line. Note that the usual method of augmenting a cavalry unit's points when it strikes an infantry-unit-not-in-square is to give the cavalry an additional bonus of +20, or +30, or whatever. The additional bonus is a fixed amount. Here, however, the player can select his bonus, keeping in mind that whatever number of points he commits now, will be crossed off his reserve, and not available for future melees.
e. General Haub, it will be remembered, had 2 cavalry units in the combat. The good General Haub then committed 500 points from each of his two cavalry units in the melee, leaving each with 500 remaining points.
f. This gave Haub a grand total of 480 + 500 + 500, or 1,480 points... 14 Casualty Dice plus an 80 percent chance of a 15th.
g. The defending British infantry only had about 6 dice total. Haub's tosses of 1-to-4 inundated the defending infantry.
h. After the casualties were scored, the winner was determined. This is a function of 2 parameters:
- N Number of your stands in combat. Note that the actual casualty calculation was dependent upon the figures involved, whereas the determination of the winner is a function of the number of stands.
M Number of casualty markers on the enemy units. Each side computes: 10-sided Die x (N + M) The winner is the higher product.
Note that in the determination of who won the melee, the number of casualty markers borne by the enemy units is a factor. This means that casualty markers carried into the combat - received during the prior fire phases - will be a significant factor in the calculation.
In the melee described above, the British line unit, fairly buried in casualty markers, lost the melee and fell back.
The success of the cavalry charge opened up the center of the field to the attackers, and they poured into the gap. They also overran the brigade holding the British right flank at Puerco Gordo, and it is a sad thing to relate, but the British commander sent his emissary out to negotiate the terms of surrender.
In the above narration, it will be noted that while the casualty markers from fire and melee played a role in the determination of who won a melee, they apparently did nothing else.
Not to worry. There is always a function for casualty markers. The sequence for the half-bound is given below, and attention is drawn to the phase wherein something termed the "Status Deck" is called upon:
- Phase 1 Side A, the active side, removes all casualty markers.
Phase 2 Side A moves its units
Phase 3 Both sides fire
Phase 4 Side A's units, those within 2 inches of enemy units, may close to contact
Phase 5 Resolve melee
Phase 6 Draw cards from the Status Deck
The draws of the 12 cards from the Status Deck bring into play a series of required morale tests for both sides. Neither side escapes the draws, for the intent is to have "bad things" happen to the parties.
There are cards calling for testing all units with casualty markers, cards for the sides to designate opposing units to take a test, cards for a limited number of morale tests, and so on. This means that casualty markers pile up on a unit until the Status Deck phase occurs, and suddenly, the weakened state of the unit becomes apparent, it fails a test and falls back. This phase occurs twice each bound, hence one cannot escape the dreaded Status Deck for too long. Status Deck cards are drawn until one card, labeled "End Of Phase", appears.
Note that in the sequence listing given above, the first function of the active side, its first phase, is to remove all casualty markers. If the active side, therefore, can survive the very last Status Deck phase of the last half-bound, it goes into its own half-bound refreshed, while the non-active side still remains burdened with its own casualty markers.
I mentioned, in describing how melee points were generated, that the number of officers on a brigade staff acted as a multiplier for the regular number of Combat Points. For example, each man in an infantry unit counts as 10 Combat Points (CP). An 8-man unit would thus generate 80 CP.
If there were 4 officers with the brigade, we multiply 80 x 4, to get 360 CP, each hundred points of which yields a Casualty Die. The officers also play another role, for the Morale Level of a unit is a function of the size of the brigade staff. Each unit always has a Base Morale Level of 40%, and to this is added 10% for every officer on the staff.
The number of casualty markers on a unit deducts from this level, subtracting 5% for every casualty marker. This deduction is what caused the defenders on the right flank of the British line, in Puerco Gordo, to fall back.
The defending battalion came under severe fire from the attacking un-British, and before the fire phase ended, the battalion had accumulated 6 casualty markers. The markers did nothing in an immediate vein, but a phase or so later, when Status Deck cards were drawn, and the British units were called upon to take morale tests, these 6 markers served to reduce the battalion's Morale Level by 30%, and the men in the unit abandoned Puerco Gordo as fast as their little feet would carry them.
To make matters worse, each time a battalion fails a morale test, its brigade staff is reduced by one officer, thus leaving a sour taste in the mouths of its sister battalions, whose own Morale Levels are now reduced by 10% (remember that the Morale Level of a unit in the brigade is a basic 40% plus 10% for every brigade officer).
In similar fashion, losing a melee also knocks off one staff officer, again reducing the capabilities of sister units. Officers are the key to the battle, and failing a morale test or losing a melee produces, in effect, a double whammy, for when officers are removed from a brigade, not only is the Morale Level reduced, but the melee multiplier goes down.
I should mention one last new procedure which is implemented in the rules. This concerns the fire phases.
Each side is given a Fire Deck consisting of 6 cards; when the fire phase occurs, several of these cards are drawn and contributed to a common deck. The Fire Deck cards are:
- Card #1 1 unit fires
#2,3 2 units fire
#4,5 3 units fire
#6 All units fire
The Military Capability (MC) of each side's Commanders (50, 60 or 70 percent), determines how many of these cards will be drawn. Each side dices on the following chart:
- 100--------------------------
- 2 cards
- 3 cards
- 4 cards
Thus a commander with an MC of 70 would contribute 4 cards if he rolled dice of 35 or less, he'd get 3 cards if the toss was 36 to 70, but he'd get only 2 cards if his dice throw was more than 70. And so, when fire time comes, each side determines the number of its cards, selects them at random from its own deck and contributes them to a common deck, to which is added one "End-of-Phase" card. Now the cards from the common deck are randomly drawn and the units designated on the drawn cards may f ire. The f ire phase ends when an "End-of-Phase" card appears.
This means that although you've contributed 4 cards to the common deck, while your opponent placed only 2 cards in the deck... in theory "outshooting" your opponent... you may not, in practice, get to do so.
Statistically speaking, you should outgun him, but I wouldn't count on it. I like the unexpected results of the fire phase, produced by the sudden appearance of the End-of-Phase card.
There is a fire phase every half-bound, and since both sides fire during the phase, casualty markers accumulate twice during the bound from fire, ready to do their dirty work when the Status Deck cards are drawn.
In addition, there are two melee phases per bound, and here, too, casualty markers accumulate twice during the bound.
Given all these markers, the critical phase - and this, too, occurs twice each bound - is the Status Deck phase. If a side can survive the draws of the Status Deck, and hold its position without falling back, it gets a new life for the next turn... at least until the Status Deck pops up again.
Interrelation
What I've tried to do in this set of rules is to interrelate a number of concepts concerning melee, officer capabilities, morale, etc. For the most part, it seems to work, producing a simple game that quickly comes to a conclusion as one side or the other accumulates too many casualty markers to digest properly, and its units start to crack.
Brigades start out with 4 staff officers, giving each of their units a basic 80% Morale Level. One or two casualty markers, each with its -10% modifier, coupled with a loss of one or two officers, each also, in effect, deducting 10% from the Morale Level, and the brigade is a lost cause.
There are provisions for reserve officers arriving at division headquarters and then being apportioned out to the brigades, but there are never enough reserves flowing in to bolster all the units in the division... as the battle continues, the player is forced to list his brigades in order of priority, a triage listing of sorts... as he determines which sector of the field merits the most attention.
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© Copyright 1993 Wally Simon
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