About a decade ago, I saw a set of rules wherein, when one side contacted the other, one round of combat was fought each bound. Each side then tested for the bound, and if both sides passed, the melee continued... and continued... and continued.
There must be something salvageable from this procedure, sez I, and so I thought I'd try it out again. The scenario was set in the American Revolutionary War, and I laid out the battle of Eutaw springs, which we, the Muricans, almost won... but almosts don't count on the battlefield.
Brian Dewitt commanded a 2-regiment brigade on the Murican's right flank; opposing the Dewitt units was Jack Culberson, in charge of a 3-regiment British brigade.
Brian's two regiments were trudging along, advancing toward the British camp, stumbling through the scruff and the brush and the brambles and the tumbleweeds... and his advance unit, the 401st, made contact with the British 3rd. The second Dewitt unit, the 66th, not too far behind the 401st, hung back due to its problems with terrain.
The undergrowth really wasn't that bad; each unit, each turn, had an 80 percent chance of advancing unimpeded. The usual Simon rule for "rough terrain" gives a unit a 70 percent chance to advance; here, I upped the percentage to 80.
Even so, the 66th just couldn't seem to keep up with the 401st, and the 66th fell behind, leaving the honor of the first contact to the 401st.
Each half bound, both units in contact tossed their dice, and the result would be to remove from combat either one or two men. These men weren't really 'dead' (the number of actual casualties were assessed after the melee was finished)... they just wouldn't participate in the combat anymore. My thought was that, eventually, one unit would run out of men... at that point, the side with men remaining would be declared the winner, and we could go on to bigger and better things.
Now, here's the rub. The British 3rd had 8 men in the unit... even if they lost the maximum, 2 men, each half bound, they were guaranteed to last at least 4 complete bounds. The 401st had 5 men in it; they were thus guaranteed to last at least 3 rounds.
But on the second round of combat, however, a new development occurred... British General Culberson tossed into the melee the two sister regiments of the 3rd. Now, instead of 8 Brits present, there was a total of around 18.
And on the third round of combat, the slow-moving sister regiment of the 401st, the Murican 66th regiment, finally arrived...
What was happening, therefore, was that the melee was growing... and growing... and growing... neither side was going to run out of men, and therefore, there could be no winner as each side continued to march units up to reinforce those already in the fight.
It was obvious that, given time, this particular combat would eventually engulf all the units on the field, indeed, all the units in the entire American revolution, if we carried it out far enough. I must admit that all those table-side took the entire affair in good fashion... they're used to extraordinary happenings on the Simon battlefield. This is not to say that my ears didn't turn red from the cross-table comments, but at least there was no talk of running me out of town.
Lessons Learned
Melees should be short and sweet. Definitely not longer than one bound. One contact, bring in one or two additional units as desired, and declare a winner.
One other item that developed as a result of perusing other rules systems. All units in melee should show some wear and tear... none should get off scot-free. Even the winning unit, or units, should suffer a casualty or two, or perhaps a box crossed out on the data sheet, or a diminution of its strength.
Bounds in a table-top battle are usually defined in 15, or perhaps, 20 minute increments, and one would think that if a unit engaged the enemy for this period of time, there would be some lessening of unit capability.
Interesting Event
There was one interesting happening during the presentation of the above battle. Fred Hubig arrived late, and the Muricans and the British were going at it hot and heavy as he took his place at table-side. Fred sat down, studied the layout and immediately announced in a positive manner: "Aha! It's the battle of Eutaw Springs!"
A silence fell over the field. Eyes opened wide, mouths even wider, jaws were gaping, shock was writ upon each of our countenances... There was no doubt in our minds... we were in the Presence of Greatness... a personage who could instantaneously pinpoint and identify a not-too-well-known ARW battle. This was a prime Hubigian Moment of Glory.
I immediately submitted Fred's name as a candidate for one of the professorial Chairs at the Centre For Provocative Wargaming Analysis. I also wrote to the Board of Directors of HMGS... I think Professor Hubig deserves a lifelong membership.
Back to PW Review January 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.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com