I've mentioned my klunky collection in the past. I have two forces, Blue and Gray, American Civil War, of oversize, gross, fat little fellers, purportedly 25mm in size, but somewhat larger. I picked them up several HISTORICONS ago, when a dealer said to me: "Here's a box of 25mm figures for $25. How about it?" How could I refuse a box of 25mm figures for $25? I counted them when I got home... there were about 50 Yankees and 50 Southerners, infantry and cavalry, plus artillery persons and officers. The bargain of the year. Not so, thought the players who frequent the environs of my pingpong table. How could you have thrown good money away for such ugly looking figures? I farmed out the painting of the klunkies to two superior painters, Patrick Burke and Fred Hubig. I think Pat worked on the Yankees, while Fred did the Confederates... but both forces turned out to be absolutely without peer! The fat little guys, it turned out, each had a personality of his own; each was a miniature caricature with a large tummy, fat cheeks, huge beard, etc. Being a large-tummied person myself, It was no wonder I so admired the klunkies. Klunky Game In a klunky game, each player handles about 3 to 5 figures. The rules are the essence of simplicity; for example, the sequence consists of 4 phases: (1)The men of Side A move, fire, load their weapons, mount, dismount, etc. (2). All mounted men on the field may move 12 inches. This is a "horse phase"; only the horses move, and the men simply sit in the saddle. (3). The men of Side B move, fire, load their weapons, mount, dismount, etc. (4). All mounted men on the field may move 12 inches. This is a "horse phase"; only the horses move, and the men simply sit in the saddle. On Phases (1) and (3), all men each receive 2 actions. An action can be used to move 6 inches, to fire, to load a weapon, to aim, etc. Note that for each complete 4-phase bound, the men on a side can move a maximum of 12 inches (2 actions at 6 inches per action), while horses, moving twice during the bound (Phases (2) and (4)), can move 24 inches. On any of the phases, men may charge one another, and melee is resolved on contact. Whenever a charge is declared, the men involved are not moved into contact, but reference is immediately made to a deck of 7 cards, called the CHARGE TO CONTACT DECK (CTCD) drawn randomly. The cards determine the reaction of both the attacker and the defender. Some cards are annotated "Attacker moves forward 3 inches" I or "Attacker moves 6 inches" while others state "Defender gets 1 action; may load or fire", or "Defender gets 2 actions; may load or fire", and so on. In the melee, therefore, as the attacker gradually closes to contact, dictated by the draw of the cards, his target may -- or may not -- get off a quick shot. I should note that the rules list four different types of weapons: pistols, rifled muskets, smoothbore muskets, and Spencers. And all are given a basic 50% chance to hit. The differentiation between weapons is in the range (pistols and shotguns fire 10 inches, muskets fire 40 inches, etc.) and in the rapidity of fire, which is referenced to the data sheet assigned each man. A typical data sheet is shown below: NAME MORALE LEVEL 50 45 40 30 24 22 21 20 19 18 15 P/SH: F L F L F L F L F L F L F L F L F L F M: F L L F L L F L L F L L F L L F L L F S: F F F L L F F F L L F F F L L F F F P=Pistol SH=Shotgun M=Musket S=Spencer F= Fire L=Load (Cross out the weapons that do not apply.) On the right side are tabulated the fire/load sequences which are tracked for each man... note that the Spencer, denoted by 'IS", can get off 3 shots (there are 3 "Fs" in a row) before it must be reloaded. Two actions, "LL" are then required to reload. In contrast, the pistol, "P" gets off only a single shot before it must be reloaded, but it takes only a single "L" action to do so. I have been approached many times by purists who cry out that the Spencer should be given 10 shots, and the pistol 6, before reloading is required. I simply ignore them, as I do the HMGS Board of Directors. This is a game, a klunky game, crafted by a klunky writer, for klunky figures and klunky players. We need not agonize over historical accuracy... all we need do is, in some way, show that the Spencer fires more rapidly than the pistol, and that the range of the shotgun (10 inches) is far less than that of the musket (40 inches). As I mentioned, all weapons fire with a basic 50% chance to hit. The only key modifiers are -20, if the target is in cover, and +20, if the shotgun is fired. Now, admit it... is that not truly the essence of simplicity? Dangerous Dan McFee In one recent game, one of my men, a shotgun-toting fellow named Dangerous Dan McFee, was charged by 3 of Tony Figlials mounted troopers. The horsemen started out 12 inches away. We quickly whipped out the dreaded CTCD., and began drawing cards. Attacking horsemen advance 3 inches, said the first card. They were moved up, now located 9 inches from Mr. McFee. The next card gave Dangerous Dan an action... he chose to pull the trigger of his weapon... WHAMMO! ... a shotgun blasts all targets within a 2-inch zone. Dangerous Dan tossed dice for each of the 3 targets. He had a basic 50% to hit, plus an added modifier of +20% for the shotgun, a total of 70%. Dan was rather ruffled... he hit only 2 of the oncoming horsemen: a.First he checked to see if he hit the rider (70%) or the horse. The result was one horse down, one rider wounded. The man whose horse was hit then automatically dismounted, his horse dead and his charge coming to an abrupt end. The other rider, on his data sheet, crossed off one of his Morale Level numbers. b.Both affected men took a reaction test. Note on the data sheet on the preceding page that there are 10 Morale Levels listed on the left side of the page. The levels start rather low, around 50 or so, and get even lower as the man's injuries increase. C.When taking a morale test, a man adds his own Morale Level to that of any friend on the field, and then subtracts the distance between him and his friend. For example, if the wounded attacker, whose own Morale Level (ML) was 45, called on a friend whose ML was 40, some 10 inches away, the total comes to +45 +40 -10 or 75. A percentage dice toss under 75 and all is well. Above 75 and a fall-back takes place. In the above situation, the attackers passed their tests, and smashed into poor Dan. Immediately, each man crossed out one ML number as an initial loss in melee. Each man's ML is his base in melee; he adds it to a percentage dice throw, attempting to get over 100. There are other modifiers (such as +10 if you're an officer, -10 if you're at a disadvantage, etc.) that come into play. If you total over 100, you don't lose any more ML's, but if you toss less, you get to cross out lots of ML's. I'm afraid that Dangerous Dan crossed out so many of his ML's due to the savage attack of the two horsemen, that he was never heard from again. In fact, as I remember, that seemed to be the fate of the rest of my valiant force. Back to PW Review August 1994 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1994 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com