BATTLE THE FIRST
I dusted off my decade-old modern-era skirmish rules and set out a scenario in which Bob Hurst had 7 men advancing against my force of 4 hidden troopers.
All the figures are the plastic Airfix, 54mm in size, and each man is represented by three poses: standing, kneeling and prone. I have to admit that, over the years, the paint jobs on the figures have somewhat deteriorated. The Airfix plastic does not like paint, and the coating simply flakes off whenever the slightest bending of the figure takes place.
I will be the first to admit that my painting efforts do not produce objets d'art, and this, taken with the inherent flaking, results in a lot of rather grungy-looking fellows, but they serve the bill.
The map is diagrammed below. The Hurstmen's objective was to reach and blow up the warehouse. In a defensive posture, my 4 men were placed as shown. The only question in my mind was whether I should place trooper Schturm in the ruins, so far in front of the rest of my force. But I checked with Schturm; his reply was: "Ja, Herr General, I can handle it." And out in front he went.
I should note that this was a rather international battle. The figures were taken from just about every 54mm set Airfix produced... German Army, Russian Army, British Commandos, Afrika Corps, Japanese Army, American Army... you name it.
Each side's men were grouped into numbered fire teams; the number of each fire team was noted on 3 or 4 cards, and all the cards of the side were mixed and drawn randomly. The sequence was alternate: A draws, B draws, A draws, etc. A fire team could leap into action only when one of its cards was drawn.
I had 2 fire teams, Hurst had 3, and thus he had more cards in his initial deck than I did. To even out the decks, I placed a number of "buffer cards" in my deck... when drawn, a buffer meant that my side was immobile, i.e., no fire team could move. s1 img
As the Hurst force came on the field, the only one of my men they could see was Tora, a tough Japanese trooper. For the first couple of card draws, my men did nothing, while the enemy advanced. Each time a fire team's card appeared, each man in the team was given 2 actions. An action permitted him to do all sorts of things:
- Move 6 inches (standing)
Move 4 inches (kneeling)
Move 2 inches (prone)
Fire
Fall prone
Toss a grenade
Rise up
Load a clip
The Hurstmen thus advanced 12 inches per card draw for the first several turns, seeing only Tora on the roof of the warehouse. Around Turn 3, Hurst's fire team #1 reached the ruins where Schturm was hiding. The card for Schturm's fire team was drawn, whereupon Schturm popped up and fired, point-blank, at Hurst's point man, Grossheit. Alas for Schtuna, he missed.
Schturm had a rifle and his basic probability-of-hit, POH, was:
- POH % = 99 - Range in inches
At 3 inches or so, Schturm's basic POH was thus 96%. While this sounds good, Schturm's problem arose from the fact that his basic POH was modified:
- Rule (a) If a man did not move, and fired, his basic POH was used, unmodified.
Rule (b) If a man could see his target when his card was drawn, and he moved and fired, his POH was halved (x 1/2).
Rule (c) If a man could not see his target when his card was drawn, and he had to move to see him, the POH was quartered (x 1/4).
Schturm fell victim to Rule (c) above, since he couldn't see in his hidden position. When he popped up, therefore, his POH was quartered, and his POH reduced to 96/4, or 24 percent.
This made Schturm most unhappy, for one of Grossheit's cards appeared, and Grossheit took careful aim... BLAM: Grossheit had a rifle, and his basic POH was also 99-3, or 96%, less 10% for Schturm's cover... Grossheit did not miss.
Each man has his own data sheet, shown in Figure 1, below, wherein his Combat Efficiency (CE) is tracked.
Firing is a 2-phase affair. First, we determine, as above, whether or not the target was hit. Then we determine, via a second percentage dice throw, the extent of the injury in terms of target's Combat Efficiency loss. The injury table is shown below in Figure 2 (a toss of doubles on this second throw indicates the target is dead).
| Figure 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CE | Factors | |||
| 96 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
| 88 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 80 | 0 | 0 | - | - |
| 72 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
| 64 | 0 | 0 | - | - |
| 56 | 0 | - | - | - |
- Figure 2.
----------------------------------------
- Man loses 5 CE factors
100----------------------------------------
- Man loses 3 CE factors
66----------------------------------------
- Man loses 2 CE factors
33----------------------------------------
- Man loses 1 CE
Having been hit, Schturm now went to Figure 2 to determine how many factors (circles) he crossed out on his data sheet.
The modifier for the table in Figure 2 is to add 10% for every hit taken by the target. Here, Schturm had received only one hit, tossed a 68, added 10% for a net of 78, and the result was that he lost 3 CE factors. He thus crossed out the top line of his data sheet, leaving him with a CE of 88.
Now he took a reaction test, based on his CE of 88, as shown in Figure 3.
- Figure 3.
----------------------------------------
- Man falls prone, on his back. On his next card, he can only turn over.
CE---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Man falls prone, on his stomach. On his next card, he can function normally.
1/2 CE-------------------------------------------------------------------------
- No effect
----------------------------------------
Schturm's CE of 88 meant that a toss of 44 or below would keep him on his feet. His throw, however, was 55, and so he fell, facing to the rear, on his stomach.
Now, with Schturm down, the question became: whose fire team's card would next appear... Grossheit's or Schturm's?
Fate ruled against Schturm; Grossheit's fire team's card was drawn, and Grossheit leaped over the rubble at poor, prone Schturm. Melee is instantaneous, resolved upon contact. For this, we drew from a 10-card Melee Deck, containing cards for such things as "fire", "strike", and "recover" for both sides. When a "fire" is called for, the man fires one shot and regular fire procedures follow. When a "strike" is required, a simple dice toss on the chart of Figure 2 determines how many CE are lost. Each time a man loses CE, a quick reference to Figure 3 determines if he stays on his feet.
There are 2 cards in the Melee Deck titled "Determine winner". When either of these are drawn, the participants stop hacking at each other and we determine who is the victor.
Schturm would have liked to have drawn a "recover", allowing him to regain his feet. But Grossheim got a "fire" and a "strike"... Grossheim was hard to stop once he got going. Only the "Determine winner" card put an end to his pummeling poor Schturm.
Both men added their remaining CE to a percentage dice throw; the higher total is defined as the winner. Schturm was down to 64 CE, while Grossheim wasn't even touched; he wasn't even breathing hard and still had a CE in the 90's.
'Twas no surprise that Grossheim won, and Schturm, as the loser, was placed on his back, now more than ever at Grossheim's mercy. Let us draw the curtain on this particular event.
Remember, I had asked Schturm if being placed in the ruins bothered him. Ever the good soldier, Schturm passed on, doing his duty as he saw fit. Unfortunately, Grossheim didn't see it his way.
With my advance man gone, the action switched to the flanks. I ordered Nitzki, hidden in the woods, to dash forward and take cover in a forward wooded sector. Nitzki, a good communist, instantly obeyed, but... he found the rough terrain of the woods held him up at its edge. He had a 70% chance to run into the woods, and failed to make the required dice throw. So there was Nitzki, in the open, kicking at the roots and vines entangling his feet.
Now came Hurst fire team #2 Fennel and Larou. Fennel was a Brit, Larou was an Australian, and together they swamped Nitzki with fire and sword... figuratively speaking, of course. They fired, knocked Nitzki off his feet, and charged.
My man Tora, on the warehouse roof, couldn't help Schturm since all the action took place in the ruins, out of his line of sight. He could, however, see the clash between Fennel, Larou and Nitzki, and he potted both Fennel and Larou, reducing their CE by a box or so. But both these warriors, when testing their reaction on Figure 3, tossed very low dice, remained on their feet, and refused to be diverted from the attack on Nitzki. Exit Nitzki.
This left me with 2 men, Tora and a staunch commie named Rakov. For a turn or two, Rakov held his own on my left flank, while Tora picked off two very key men on Hurst's force. Hurst's fire team #1 was composed not only of Grossheim, but of 2 men lugging a heavy machine gun, Schtimmer and Knoler. If Schtimmer and Knoler ever got set up, 'twould be no contest.
As the crewmen set up their weapon behind a stone fence, Tora took careful aim at Knoler at a range of some 35 inches:
- POH = 99 - 35, or a basic POH of 64%
From this we deduct 10% for Knoler's cover, another 5% since he's a kneeling figure, add back in 10% for Tora's rested weapon, and the result was a final POH of 59%. BANG! Knoler was hit, took a reaction test (Figure 3) and keeled over.
A card or two later, and Tora took aim again. BANG!, Schtimmer keeled over.
Tora appeared to be a dead shot. I don't remember him missing at all during the encounter.
Tora was supplied, as were all men with a rifle, with a clip of 10 rounds, plus 2 spare clips.
But while Tora was peppering away, Rakov was being flanked by Hurst's fire team #3. Here we had Kelly, a British Commando, and Doberman, a refugee from the Afrika Corps. Kelly didn't speak German, Doberman couldn't speak English, but somehow, they worked well together.
Both Kelly and Doberman were armed with SMG's, which had a basic POH of:
- POH = 59 - Range in inches
Note that the rifle, with its reference of "99", outreaches the SMG by some 40 inches. Note also that the basic POH of the SMG indicates that its maximum POH, occurring at a range of zero inches, is 59 percent.
Increasing the POH of the SMG is accomplished by adding 3% to the basic POH for every round fired. Since the SMG has a 25 round magazine, then if the full magazine is fired, the POH thus goes up by 3 x 25, or 75 percent.
Kelly fired at Rakov at a range of 25 inches. The basic POH was:
- POH = 59 - 25, or 34%
This is a fairly low number, but Kelly increased it.
First, he had a rested weapon (+10%), and then, he devoted 15 rounds to Rakov, increasing the percentage by another 45%. The total POH thus became: 34 + 10 + 45, or 89%, a much more respectable percentage.
With an 89% POH, it was hard for Kelly to miss, and Rakov crossed out several CE factors, took a reaction test, and ended up by falling on his back.
At this point, with only one man (Tora) functioning, it was no contest... I raised my hands in surrender, and told Tora, the great Samari warrior, to run like hell for the boonies, to live to fight another day. The battle was over.
As I mentioned above, this skirmish encounter was fought with each man represented by a series of poses: standing, kneeling, and prone. The Airfix plastic figures must be modified, for while each box of figures contains a quantity of standing and kneeling figures, there are never enough prone men. Figures must be cut off their bases, arms shifted, knees bent, etc., enough to keep you busy with a soldering iron for a few hours.
Battle the Second: ACW
The next battle deals with the ACW, and here, too, I used a variety of poses-per-man. Here, I've amassed a quantity of 54mm Yanks and Rebs in the following poses:
- Standing (walking or running)
Hands in air (first level of hurting, slightly wounded)
On knees (second level of hurting, hurts a lot)
On back (third level of hurting, really hurting, seriously wounded)
Dead (no more hurting)
Loading musket
Whenever a man fires, his standing figure is replaced with the "loading musket" figure. When he's hit, then depending upon the extent of his injury, one of the "hurting" poses replaces him. What all the above means is that a simple glance at the table during a skirmish encounter tells you the exact status of every man on the field.
For years, I've been crying out against the use casualty caps to denote injuries, and I am definitely not a fan of tipping a figure on its side when a man is injured.
If one is going to present a skirmish encounter, 'twould seem that the figures are few enough in number to warrant a small investment of money and time in whatever poses are deemed necessary.
In my medieval rules, for example, in which knights and men-@-arms hack and smash at each other, there are only two poses per man: either he's on his feet, or he's knocked down and prone.
But now, let me go on to the ACW battle.
BATTLE THE SECOND
This encounter was sort of a test for a skirmish campaign... a group of Rebel soldiers marching through enemy territory, trying to make it back to their own lines. I wrote about something of this sort about six months ago, and it seemed to have potential.
I commanded 10 Confederates, all starting on the southern baseline. Their objective: run, run, and run to the northern baseline, for he who made it off the table, lived to collect his pension and write his memoirs.
Bob Hurst was in charge of 15 Yankees, determined to stop my boys. He spread his men out all across the 9-foot table, since he didn't know just where on my baseline would be my starting point.
The sequence of the half-bound consists of several phases:
- Phase a. Side A dices for the number of actions to be assigned to each of his men. The side receives either 2, 3, or 4 actions, and can use them to move, fire, reload weapons, etc. Each action permits a 5-inch move, hence a man with 4 actions can zip along for 20 inches. On this first phase, no man can come closer to an enemy figure than 1 inch.
Phase b. Side B gets 2 actions which he can devote to defensive fire. He can also use his defensive actions to attempt to reload his weapons.
Phase c. Side A's men, within an inch of the enemy, may close for melee.
Phase d. Side A can attempt to rally his men.
I went first, dicing for, and receiving, 3 actions... all my men advanced 15 inches upfield. It was now General Hurst's phase for defensive fire,- and for the first shot in the game, one of his men took careful aim at my officer, Captain Porter.
To keep the procedures simple, I only list 3 weapons, each of which, when in range, starts out with a basic 50 percent chance to hit when the target is in the open:
- Pistol 12 inch range, does not need to be reloaded
Musket 24 inch range, must be reloaded
Shotgun 12 inch range, must be reloaded, but can fire twice
All weapons receive a +10 modifier when fired at short range, defined as half the total range. A man also receives a +10 modifier for each action he spends "aiming" his weapon.
The result is that the probability of hit (POH) for the weaponry is fairly high, while the modifiers are few, and this is so to speed things up.
The man who fired at Captain Porter started out with a basic 50% and added +10 for an "aim" action (he had a total of 2 actions during his defensive fire phase), which gave him a POH of 60 percent. BAM! and Porter was hit.
The extent of Porter's injury was referred to the following:
- INJURY TABLE DICE
----------------------------
- Man is killed
100-----------------------------------------
- Down 1 level
66 ------------------------------------------
- Down 2 levels
33 ------------------------------------------
- Down 3 levels
The modifier to the dice throw is a +10 for every hit incurred by the target. In this case, Porter was hit once, hence we added a +10 to the dice throw.
The toss was a 93; with the +10 added, the net was 103, and poor Porter dropped like a log, fatally shot. And this was only the first Yankee shot of the game!
We then did two things: we replaced Porter with a "dead" figure, and we replaced the Yank's figure with one indicating him loading his musket.
Each action given to a side contributes 20 percent to the chance that a man can reload. Thus with 4 actions, a man could devote 3 of them to reloading (3 x 20, or 60%), and if he was successful, he could fire on the fourth, and be unloaded again.
Note on the above list of available weaponry, that pistols, which are carried only by officers, never need to be reloaded... they can fire forever. The moral of the story is: don't approach an enemy officer unless you've knocked him down beforehand!
In charge of the Hurst forces was Major Doubleday, and he waded fearlessly into my men, his pistol blazing away at 50% POH, leaving a trail of downed Rebels behind him.
And my officer, young Captain Porter, had never even had a chance to unholster his weapon!
At first, my Confederate force was all over the table, for I thought that the further apart my men were, the more the probability that someone would make it off. Around Turn # 3, I decided this was not the case, and I attempted to consolidate.
But as I consolidated, so did Hurst; he also drew his men in toward the center, and the end came soon.
In addition to Porter, another key man in my force was Shotgun Charley. Every time Charley pressed the trigger, he was allowed to fire twice, and in previous battles, whomsoever Charley hit, just lay there permanently, and we replaced him with a "dead" figure.
But in this battle, Charley had barely gotten onto the table when he was targeted by the Yankees. His response on the INJURY TABLE, was to go down 2 levels, and we replaced Charley's standing figure with one on its knees.
A couple of turns later, Charley got to his feet again, and tried to run to cover. Charley had 2 actions, giving him a 10-inch move, and the cover was 12 inches away. Needless to say, Charley never made it.
Note on the first phase of the half-bound, that the active side dices for its actions, and that on the last phase, it gets to rally its troops. The term "rally" really means "recover", and the side attempts to recover whatever wounded men it has on the field. Each action diced for in the first phase yields 20 percent toward the Recovery Factor (RF), and the following table is used:
- ----------------------------
- Down 1 level
- Recover 1 level
- Recover 2 levels
On the turn that Shotgun Charley recovered, I had 3 actions, giving me an RF of 3 x 20, or 60%. A toss below 30 then permitted Charley to rise up 2 levels, fully recovered.
Note that if a man does not recover, i.e., his toss is above his RF, then he goes down a level. This means that if you have 2 actions for the turn, it gets rather dicey as to whether or not you should attempt any recovery at all. The RF is only 40% for 2 actions, meaning that the chance of worsening a man's injury is 60 percent.
In part, this is what did me in, for I remember that, due to poor dice, I received only 2 actions for many of the turns in the game. I had a lot of men at the third level of injury, prone and on their backs... one more decrease in level would finish them off.
I declined, therefore to recover them, since I couldn't risk the chance of losing them. Which meant that as more of my men went down, they stayed down.
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© Copyright 1993 Wally Simon
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