This second game used essentially the same terrain features as did the Renaissance encounter... two large enclosures, and about 5 smaller areas, termed "towns". Both Bob and Cleo started out with four small units... wherein a unit was composed of three figures and called a company. Four such companies, therefore, was termed a battalion, and the battalion was given one officer figure.
Since a 3-man company is a fairly brittle unit, I didn't want each hit on the unit to denote a kill, as that would lead to pretty short game. And so here, I instituted a 2-phase filter to determine actual casualties to the units:
- a. First, when a unit was hit, we placed a casualty figure beside it. The presence of the casualty lowered the company's morale level and its combat ability.
b. When the company accumulated 3 casualty figures, we removed one man and placed him in the off-board Rally Zone, where he remained until a rally phase occurred in the sequence. At that time, there was a 70 percent chance he'd recover and come back on the field. If he failed his recovery test, he was killed.
Since each side started out with only 4 companies... 12 men in all... I had to make provision for bringing on reinforcements. And this was done via a deck of some 20 cards. Each turn, the players were given two cards, and each card had two annotations on it, one applicable for enemy units in towns, and one for those in the open.
- a. If an enemy unit or units were in a town or built up area, your card might say that 2 of your own companies suddenly appeared and commenced a firefight. These 2 companies now permanently joined your force. Other such annotations devoted to towns were "Booby trap... 60% chance of incurring a casualty", or "One company panics and falls back 12 inches".
b. If an enemy unit or units were in the open... and this included nearby woods... the second annotation might say "Mine field... 70% chance for a casualty", or "Mortar barrage... 2 explosions... one at 50%, the other at 60%". Another card might note that 1 of your companies appeared in the woods, became engaged in a fire fight, and then permanently joined your force.
When a player's fire phase occurred in the sequence, then, just before he went through the 'regular' firing procedures, he was permitted to play one of his cards. He selected a target unit, and, depending upon whether or not the unit was in town or in the open, read off the appropriate section.
Bob was lucky enough to have two separate card draws stating that one of his tanks appeared in the road. On the first card draw, the card also said that the target unit had an anti-tank missile capability, and in the ensuing fire fight, the infantry company got 2 hits on the tank (it eventually blew up), while the tank missed.
In the firing phases, each of the three infantrymen in a company provided 10 Fire Points (FP), giving the company a total of 30 FP. If a light machine gun was attached, another 30 FP was tacked on for the LMG, giving a total of 60.
Looking at the total FP of the firing unit, we'd toss percentage dice and use the following chart:
- a. A toss over the percentage yielded a complete miss. In the above example, a toss exceeding 60 resulted in a miss.
b. A toss under the percentage, but over half... here, in the example, a toss of 30 to 60... resulted in a casualty figure being placed with the target unit, and it took a morale test.
c. A toss less than half the percentage (here, below 30) resulted in one casualty figure placed on the target unit, one of its men sent to the Rally Zone, and a morale test.
What all the above means is that low dice tosses were good... the lower you tossed, the greater the impact on the target unit.
Note in the description of the card draws that not all cards resulted in a side receiving reinforcements. The card might simply be an injury card... "Grenade burst... 60% chance to cause a casualty", or "Booby trap", etc., etc. By the end of the encounter, both Cleo and Bob each had received around 7 or 8 companies via their card selections. In effect, therefore, each had around two battalions on the field despite lots of losses of their men in the Rally Zone.
Cleo was especially unlucky in her attempts to rally her men and get them to rejoin their units... she failed many a 70 percent rally throw.
A series of interesting encounters occurred in the churchyard. This was the same churchyard that Bob had quickly occupied in the previous Renaissance game.
I forget who occupied the churchyard first, but the opponent quickly played a card and brought in 2 companies to drive the occupying men out. This was successful, but not for long... for the other side now counterattacked... and so it went.
There was one other town which I shall call Glotz... which changed hands many times. First one side would occupy it, and the opposition would instantly counterattack Glotz. And this was followed by yet another counterattack.
After the game, Cleo asked where all the pop up units that fought in Glotz had been hiding. It was a small town (an area about 6-inches by 6-inches), and for about four successive turns, more and more units of both sides would instantly pop up in the town via the cards that were played.
At first, I rationalized the situation by saying that Bob's force, for example, denoted on the play of a card, had been hiding in the basements of the houses of the town. Bob played his card, his men dashed out of the basements and the fight with Cleo's men began.
If Bob won the town of Glotz, Cleo then, on the next turn, would play her own card, and her companies, hiding in the sub-basements of town, burrowed to the surface to begin their counterattack.
And then, for a counter-counterattack, Bob would play yet another card, and his men, obviously hiding until now in the sub-sub-basements of the houses of Glotz, would come to the surface and fight. Now this can be rationalized only for so long... there can be only so many basement levels in Glotz.
At our post-battle discussion, we decided that each town could be attacked by the pop up units only twice... that after the first couple of engagements, the town would be declared free of enemy troops. Both Cleo and Bob expressed hesitancy about entering the various towns on the field, so prevalent were the attack cards played on the occupying troops.
I mentioned the rally phase, wherein the sides tried to rally their men and get them to come back on the field. There was also a "remove casualty figures" phase, in which the battalion officers play a part. Each time a battalion officer assisted... in either a morale test or in a rally test... we'd dice for the percentage points he'd contribute to the effort:
- 01 to 33 Contribution of 20 points
34 to 66 Contribution of 15 points
67 to 100 Contribution of 10 points.
If the officer, for example, contributed 15 points, we'd add it to a base of 50, giving a 65 percent chance to remove a casualty figure. A toss below 65, and one casualty figure would be removed. But, having helped, the officer was now at risk... there was a chance he'd go off to the Rally Zone. The chance of doing this was the number of points he contributed.
And if the officer was stationed off-board in the Rally Zone, then, of course, he could neither help in morale tests, nor try to remove casualty figures.
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© Copyright 1998 Wally Simon
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