This was a second run-through of BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER (BAB). The first, described in the previous article, had been set up at a PW meeting, while for this encounter, I, as Confederate commander with 3 squads, faced Fred Haub, in charge of 4 Yankee squads. We were still in our 'familiarization mode', and I wanted a small number of figures on the field. Each of our squads had 5 men in them... BAB says use 10 men-per-squad, but we found that the game mechanics (except in one instance) really weren't that distorted by having fewer men per squad. The rules are extremely basic, and the first battle pretty much taught me what to expect in the way of shortcomings... and sure enough, there they were. Fred and I agreed that the rules resembled those old, old sets by Tony Bath or Don Featherstone or Arnold Hendrix of the early sixties, wherein the authors had set down their basics of firing and movement and melee on one page. Occasionally, Fred and I take out one of these old sets and attempt to go through it. We always find that although these one-pagers look so neat and concise, there's so much left unsaid that we, as players, are forced to fill in the gaps for over half the procedures. And so it seems to be for BAB. The publication effort seems to have been concentrated on the slick and glossy booklet presentation, the rules fell by the wayside. Note on the map that my 3 Rebel squads entered the confines of Happy Valley from the south. Each squad was commanded by a sergeant, and Sgt McPuerco and his 5 men made for the eastern wall of the valley. Captain Slagg, who commanded the 3-squad unit, accompanied McPuerco. The name of each squad on the field is placed on a card, and all cards shuffled into one deck. Two cards are drawn at time, which means that cards for squads on opposing sides may be drawn... and I mentioned before that BAB, in its wisdom, is silent about simultaneity. If one squad fires while the other moves, does the firing squad have preference? We'll never know. Sgt Patton, on the west of Happy Valley, soon found himself trading fire with Yankee Sgt Hurst's squad. Each man in a squad firing tosses a 10-sided die, and the rifled muskets had two ranges: Effective up to 20 inches a toss of 0, 1, 2, 3 is a hit Long up to 40 inches a toss of 0, 1, 2 is a hit The above is for targets in the open; appropriate modifiers are imposed for cover, etc. BAB requires that every man on the field be tracked to see if his weapon is loaded or unloaded. I noted, however, that in our games, whenever a squad fired, the players deemed that all the men fired together. I was the only player who, once, had three men in my 5-man squad fire, while the other two retained loaded muskets. When a man in a squad is hit, he's immediately removed (killed), and the squad is given a marker. The marker denotes that the next time the squad's card is drawn, and it's called into action, the squad must take an immediate morale test before it does anything else. On the western side of the field, after a volley or so, I noted that Sgt Hurst's squad all had unloaded weapons and decided to give Sgt Patton charge orders so that his squad could attempt to clear out Hurst's men. "Charge!", I shouted. "Hah, hah, hah!" said Yankee Commander Haub. He grabbed the rules book and pointed out that (a) only the unit officer can issue a charge order, (b) the officer issues it to a sergeant within 6 inches, and the sergeant then issues the order to the men in his squad who are within 6 inches. "Unfortunately for you," said Haub, "Your officer, Captain Slagg, is located on the western portion of Happy Valley with Sgt McPuerco, some 4 feet from Sergeant Patton. At the scale of 5-yards-per-inch, this places Slagg some 240 yards from Patton. Slagg can shout all day, but Patton will never hear him." Haub was right... and Sgt Patton simply continued to trade volleys with Hurst. Since it had been pointed out that Slagg had McPuerco directly under his thumb, Slagg decided to issue charge orders to McPuerco, and when McPuerco's squad's card was drawn, in they went. BAB requires an immediate morale test for a unit called on to charge. Morale Cards BAB furnishes a nice-looking, glossy sheet of morale deck cards, 16 of them... the cards are cut out and assembled into a deck. Of the 16 cards, 12 may lead to desertion, one is a desperate charge, one is a retreat, one denotes that the officer is shot, and one denotes that the sergeant is shot. McPuerco passed his test, and then the defending unit drew a morale card and passed. There's no defensive fire in melee... the attacking unit goes right in, and I assume that the morale draws for both attacker and defense, and the potential of a sudden desertion, take the place of an exchange of fire. McPuerco's squad closed with the squad of Yankee Sgt Haub (no relation to Yankee Commanding General Haub). As the attacker, I was permitted to place my advancing figures against those of the defenders. I had several one-on-one contacts, and then we discovered that after all my men had been placed, Sgt Haub had one unopposed additional defending man. This appears to be one of BAB's major flaws... apparently, only the attacker may place his men... if the defender has a man left over, then tough!, he'll watch the fight, instead of participating. A poorly written melee procedure. Each of the paired men in melee tosses a 10-sided die, and the high toss kills the lower. I had included both Captain Slagg and Sgt McPuerco in the fight... these good people, according to the rule book, were to receive a "special modifier to their melee die roll." After mentioning this "special modifier", BAB, of course, is silent on what it is. My boys got a "+1" for charging, and we gave Slagg and McPuerco another "+1" for their superior leadership. Slagg survived, McPuerco went down, and there were now only 2 men left in the squad. The squad needed a new sergeant. Slagg approached Private Johnson... BAB states that an officer must touch the base of private to promote him... on the next action phase, the private then takes over the squad. Unfortunately for Johnson, he got shot before his next action phase (i.e., the draw of his squad's card). "Well, gol-dang!", said Captain Slagg, who now 'touched the base' of the one remaining member of the squad. "Private Furtle, you will assume command!" BANG! and Private Furtle dropped. "Well, gol-danged!" said the Captain. Happy Valley Now we transfer our attention to the center of Happy Valley, where my Sergeant Porter's squad was engaging in a fire fight with a Yankee squad headed by Sergeant Hubig. About the third volley, when Haub tossed the fire dice for Hubig's squad... WHAMMO!, BANG!, CRUNCH!, SMASH!, BOOM!... every one of Hubig's men scored a hit (40 percent chance each), and all five members of Porter's squad went down. According to BAB doctrine, a squad leader without a squad will immediately leave the field, and I saw Porter no more. I now had only one squad in action... McPuerco and Porter were gone, only Patton was left... a fighting retreat was called for, and so Patton's men started to pull back. On their card draw, the men fell back. Haub then called on Sergeant Hubig's men to follow up... the Hubigians fired... unbelievable! Yet another series of WHAMMO!, BANG!, CRUNCH!, SMASH!, BOOM!... Sergeant Hubig's squad did it again! Every man scored a hit, and Sergeant Patton's men were all gone. Note two things: a. First, for all five of Hubig's men to simultaneously score a hit was statistically improbable (a 1 percent chance to do so)... and to do so twice in a row was mindboggling. b. Second, if we had been playing with full-strength squads... 10-men-per-squad as recommended by the BAB text, instead of 5-men, while the loss of five men would have been horrendous, it wouldn't have resulted in a complete wipeout of the Confederates. Brother Against Brother: Part 1 Another Look at Brother Against Brother Back to PW Review November 1997 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 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