Lord Walte, 25mm tall, was determined to assault the Earl of Corth's castle. Castle-assaulting is a fairly risky business, and Lord Walte enlisted the services of two Lord Knights, each with a retinue of mounted and foot troops. The troops of both sides were graded in one of three categories: Superior Mounted-knights, foot-knights Trained Men@Arms, bowmen, crossbowmen Untrained Townsmen, untrained bowmen In my own 25mm medieval armies, all figures are mounted on 2-inch wide stands. The troop types are easily distinguishable since foot-knights have 4 men per stand, men@arms have 3 per stand, while the untrained townsfolk are mounted 2 per stand. The sequence differentiates amongst the troop types by limiting what they can accomplish each bound. Each side is given a sequence card deck, and on each of the 10 cards is annotated a particular troop type to be called into action. The cards are drawn alternately. Superior units move on 4 of the 10 cards, trained units move on 3 of the cards, while the untrained townsfolk move on only 2. Some of the cards indicate that two types of troops will move... for example, both superior and trained units may move in unison. The other types of cards are: 'fire' cards (either bows or crossbows, or both, may fire), or rally cards, or 'forming up' cards. Assault the Castle Baron Chargg's retinue was chosen to directly assault the castle, which was defended by a unit of foot-knights, a unit of men@arms, and some missile troops. The rest of the defenders were outside the castle... and Lord Walte's other forces hoped to divert these outside units, keeping them away from Baron Chargg's efforts. Walte's troops came on the field in three columns, each led by a unit of mounted-knights. The sequence ordained that superior troops moved more frequently than the others (4 cards in the deck), and it was ruled that if superior troops led a column, all units in the column could move whenever the lead unit moved. This offset the slow-moving pace (2 cards in the deck) of the untrained troops. At 10 inches per move, the columns approached the castle rather rapidly. The third card in Lord Walte's deck was annotated "Form up". On this card, a side could attempt to combine his units into blocks, or brigades, or divisions... call them what you will. The combining process required 4 steps: (a) Each of the Lord Knights on Walte's side (his two allies, plus Walte himself) contributed one 'formation point' to give Walte a total of 3 points. (b) Then he diced to see how many points were required to bind two units together: 01 to 33 1 point 34 to 66 2 points 67 to 100 3 points Walte's dice indicated that 2 points were required, hence he could only combine two units. (c) Walte chose to 'brigade' a unit of foot-knights with one of men@arms on his left flank. (d) This left him with one Formation Point in the kitty. Shortly thereafter, the Earl Of Corth's "Form up" card appeared. Corth decided to combine two of his mounted-knight units, which proved to be a formidable block. Combat Combat was fought between blocks, between blocks and independent units, or between independent units. The outcome depended upon the total Combat Points (CP) amassed by each side. Each mounted-knight stand had a CP of 20; foot-knight stands were valued at 15, men@arms were 10, and so on. Each fresh unit had three stands in it, so that a 2-unit block of mounted-knights netted 6x20 or 120 CP. In contrast, Walte's brigade of foot-knights (15 CP per stand) and men@arms (10 CP per stand), produced 75 CP. Melees between blocks proved decisive in the battle, as each side added a toss of percentage dice to its net CP, with higher total winning. Each time a block won, however, it lost one stand to the Rally Zone, so that after winning a series of victories, even a block was radically reduced in strength. Stands consigned to the Rally Zone remained there until a "Rally" card was drawn. At that time, it tried to rejoin its parent unit... there was a 50 percent chance to do so. A failure removed the stand from the game. Both sides proved unlucky. They never had enough Formation Points to brigade three units together, the most they could combine was two. Lord Walte's demise began when a single unit of his, foot-knights, contacted a unit of Corth's untrained bowmen, defending the ramp to the castle. The three foot-knight stands, at 15 CP each, totaled 45, while the three bowmen stands, at 10 each, totaled 30 points. It appeared that the foot-knights had an advantage, however, the CP of the two engaged units was modified. (a) Each tried to call on a nearby (within 10 inches) unit for support. The support unit had to pass a morale test (level of 80 percent). The bowmen's support passed, while the foot-knight's support failed. (b) The bowmen benefited by their placement on higher ground than the attackers. The final tallies were: Archers 3 stands @ 10 30 CP Support 30 High ground 30 . Total: 90 Foot-knights 3 stands at 15 45 . Total: 45 When adding percentage dice to their totals, the bowmen had a +45 advantage. No surprise... they won. Note that another unit of attacking foot-knights would have evened things out, despite the defending unit's advantages. This was the reason that brigading units was so important a function. A similar situation occurred when another of Baron Chargg's units, foot-knights, managed to erect a scaling ladder (70 percent chance of success) at the castle wall, clamber up (70 percent chance of success), and began to smash away at the defending crossbowmen. Here, too, the defenders brought in a supporting unit, while the attackers did not. And the defending missile unit received another 30 CP for their advantageous position on the wall. Same set of points as before, same result... the attackers lost and went to the Rally Zone. When a unit lost a melee, all three of its stands, i.e., the entire unit, zipped into the Rally Zone. When a block lost a melee, one of its component units went to the Rally Zone. A winning unit or block lost only one stand in the melee. Lord Walte was now down two units of foot-knights, but the final coup de grace occurred when the Earl of Corth's two-unit block of mounted-knights ran down a single, independent unit of Walte's. Attacking mounted-knights 6 stands @ 20 120 CP Support 30 . Total: 150 Defending mounted-knights 3 stands @ 20 60 CP Support 30 . Total: 90 Here, Corth's block outnumbered that of Walte's by 60 points. A bias of 60 points, added to a percentage dice throw, is difficult to beat. Off went Walte's mounted-knights to the Rally Zone. Having lost the above three key combats, Walte's chances of success appeared nil. I threw in the towel for a despondent Lord Walte, who said, in Schwarzernegger fashion: "I'll be back." and trotted off the field. All the above occurred during the first bound, i.e, during the first complete draw of the 10 card sequence decks possessed by the sides. One run-through, and the battle was over. I should note that the battle was played in solo fashion... I ran the cards and the actions for both sides. The system proved almost optimum for a solo game: (a). First, a one-bound battle, reaching a decisive conclusion within that time frame, makes the system quite efficient for a gamer who's continually running back and forth between both sides of the table. (b) Second, the card sequence deck controls unit actions, stating which units can move or fire, and when. I've played about 4 games with these rules, trying to assess game balance, and it's probably time to tinker with the controlling parameters... for example, the mounted-knight CP value of 20 points per stand. A block of 2 units goes up to 120 points, and a block of 3 units (the maximum permitted) reaches to 180 points. The only counter to a block totaling 180 points is another block of 180 points, resulting in a battle of behemoths. Since the sides in a melee add a percentage dice throw to their total CP, it's important not to have the Combat Point value completely swamp the dice roll. Conversely, the dice toss can't swamp the CP total, so the CP's can't be reduced too much. Somewhere, there's a middle ground... Back to PW Review October 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. 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