In the wargaming world, everything we hear about "national championships" seems to stem from a group of WRG players getting together and handing each other one trophy or another.
We have the "nationals" in the USA, and the "nationals" in England, and I think there are now "nationals" in Holland.
Enough of this "national" business... now, this very moment, my own rec room is the site of the new, improved "international wargaming championship." All who enter my rec room are coaxed, bullied, threatened and cajoled into entering the listings.
During a visit to England, back in '84? 85(?) 86?, Peter Dennis escorted me to a meeting of the Society of Ancients at Knuston Hall. Lots of avant-garde wargaming, but the event that impressed me most was one presented by Phil Barker.
Mr. Barker appeared at table-side with a host of 2mm figures, Celts and Romans, I think (but who can tell with 2mm figures?), and announced that he was in the process of developing a new set of rules using a new technique for the command and control aspects.
He stated that his basic premise was that when it was a player's turn to move his troops, the player would toss a 6- sided die, and the number of pips showing on the die was the number of groups which the player was allowed to move.
Peter Dennis sat down on Barker's right, I sat on Barker's left, and we joined in what may have been the first public outing of what eventually turned out to be the dreaded DBA rules set.
Barker was still trying to iron out the combat procedures, and group movement capabilities, and wheeling restrictions, and flanking requirements, and which stand could engage which stand, and so on.
In all, I was definitely impressed with the concept, but it seemed to me that most of the problems associated with movement and combat would simply disappear if the game were to be played on a gridded field.
And so on my arrival home, I sat down and derived my own version of the game. Over the last ten years, as each variant emerged, more and more did it differ from the Barker version. The biggest change occurred when I dropped the pip method of movement and went to a simple You-go/I-go sequence.
The current version employs an army of 13 stands: 12 fighting stands plus one for the general. The field is gridded into 2-inch squares, and only one stand per square is allowed.
Victory Conditions
Each side dices for its victory conditions... destroy either 4 or 5 stands of the enemy army. Stands are eliminated, each bound, as each side gets to "challange" the other.
The challenge arises because, as each side takes casualties, instead of stands being instantly removed, the casualty markers are accumulated, and when a side deems that the opponent has gathered enough markers, he can allocate his opponent's markers to remove different types of stands.
Removal of stands requires the following number of markers:
- Heavy cavalry 6
Heavy infantry 5
Medium cavalry 4
Medium infantry 3
Light horse 3
Light foot 3
If you, for example, accumulate 7 casualties, I can challenge you, i.e., direct you, to remove a medium infantry stand (3 markers), and with the remaining 4, attempt to remove one of your heavy infantry stands.
Since I need a total of 5 markers to remove heavy infantry, and there's only 4, there's an 80 percent chance (4/5) chance of success.
The gridded field is about 25 squares long and 18 squares wide. On a side's active phase, all of its stands gets 4 Movement Points (MP). Infantry must go in the direction of facing (horizontally or vertically), and take 1 MP to turn up to 180 degrees. Cavalry may go horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, and, in addition, get an extra 2 MP for reaction, which gives them quite a bit of fluidity.
Combat is fought from adjacent squares. For example, if my heavy infantry attack your medium infantry, the combat points are accumulated thusly:
- a. The attacker always commences with a 50% probability of
hit, as does the defender. Each advantage gives a side +5%, and
at the same time, the other side gets -5%. Which means that as
one side goes up, the other goes down, with the total of the
two always remaining at 100 percent.
b. My heavy infantry are worth 5 combat points, your mediums are 3, hence I have a 2- point advantage. For each point, add +5 to me and take away -5 from you.
c. The final total is 60 for me, 40 for you. I toss dice on the chart:
| No casualties |
| My total of 60---------------- |
| 1 casualty on you |
| total of 30 ------------------ |
| 2 casualties on you |
You have a similar chart; it shows that your total is 40, and your total is 20.
Assume you toss low (below 20) scoring 2 casualties on me, and I toss 45, indicating only 1 casualty on you. We each add up our resultant combat point values as follows:
- My heavy infantry is worth 5 points, plus the casualty
inflicted on you, gives me 6 Combat Points (6 CP).
Your medium infantry gives you 3 points, plus the 2 casualties inflicted on me gives you a grand total of 5 Combat Point" (5 CP)
We each toss a 10-aided die and multiply by our CP.
The high product wins. Each side then takes its casualties and places them in its casualty-accumulation box, where they await the opponent's next challenge.
Note that on a given turn, therefore, during the combat phases, each side can accumulate a number of casualty markers.
The other effect of the combat between stands is that the losing stand is taken off the field... it's placed in the Rally Zone.
This zone has 2 parts... the first is the "disorder" zone, the second is the "ready to go" zone. When a stand is taken off the field, it immediately goes into the disorder zone.
Each bound, a side gets to rally the stands placed in the disorder zone... there's a 60 percent chance that the stand successfully makes it into the "ready to go" zone. If the dice toss is not successful, the stand remains disordered, and the side takes one more casualty marker in its casualty-accumulation box.
Note that all combat basically consists of 1-stand-on-1- stand. The series of plus and minus 5 percent modifiers come from the difference in combat values (as seen above), from flanking stands, from such situations as "pikes facing cavalry" and even the general rates a +5 in combat.
Lost General
If your general is in combat and loses, he, too, goes into the Rally Zone. Here, the problem is that without a general on the field, a side is not permitted to rally... it foregoes its rally phase each bound until the general reappears.
This means that a side's stands, casualties from combat, may continually mount up in the rally zone... they are stuck there until the general gets back on the field.
Another source of discomfort occurs when a side moves a stand into its opponent's base camp (located on its baseline).
Here, too, as long as the base camp is occupied, no rallying is permitted, and stands accumulate in the Rally Zone.
As soon as one sees an enemy stand making for one's base camp, therefore, it behooves one to quickly move a stand back to counter the action.
A typical battle takes about 20 minutes to play.
Preclude Cheap Victories
To preclude "cheap victories," the victory conditions mandate that if a side must destroy 4 enemy stands, it must eliminate one enemy heavy cavalry stand, one heavy infantry stand and 2 of any other variety. If 5 enemy stands are to be destroyed, then 2 of these must be heavy infantry, one of heavy cavalry, plus two others.
Thus a side can't eliminate 4 medium infantry stands and claim a victory.
About half the time, battles are won on the challenge phase when there are not enough casualty markers to fully take out an enemy stand.
Although a lot of players will take chances and play the odds, Brian Dewitt pulled off the greatest coup in this area. He had already eliminated the required heavy cavalry stand, and all that remained was to destroy 1 heavy infantry and 2 of any other type.
At the time, I had a total of 6 casualty markers in the bin, and Brian allocated them as follows:
First, he took 4 markers, and diced to see if he could remove the heavy infantry stand. The 4 markers gave him a 4/5, or 80%, chance of success. He tossed the dice... and away went my heavy infantry.
Then he took one marker and allocated it toward the loss of a medium infantry stand. A single marker gave him a 1/3, or 33% cance of success. He made it!
Last, he took the remaining casualty marker and, again attempted a throw below the 33 percent figure, and succeeded again! Instant victory!!
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© Copyright 1995 Wally Simon
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