At the present time, I'm now playing two, perhaps three, solo games a month. Saturday used to be a busy wargames day... I'd set up the table, and around 2 to 3 o'clock, several people would show up, and we'd game until midnight. The bottom has dropped out of the market, however... Fred Haub is still a regular, but if Fred doesn't appear, since I hate to 'waste' all the terrain I laid out, I use the scenario set up on the table to run through a solo game.
As I get more and more solo games under my belt, I'm getting smarter in generating solo procedures. The basic principle that governs is "less work for mother". There are several guidelines that I try to follow to adhere to this principle.
- a. First of all, if I'm playing out a battle, I prefer to use an entire table for the scenario. I note in the current magazines that authors who write about solo battles seem to set up teeny-weeny table top encounters... many of them use DBA derivatives in 15mm, with about 12 stands per side on the field, and the field itself restricted to a 2-foot by 2-foot area. To me, this is a pretty chintzy-sized game... but I can understand the desire to remain seated while the battle goes on, instead of having to run from one side of the table to the other to move troops. On a 2-foot by 2-foot table, everything is within easy reach.
b. When I use an entire ping-pong table for the battle, it's almost impossible not to have to run from side to side... to move the troops, to change a unit's formation, to unlimber a battery and set up the guns, to form square, and so on. One way to limit the number of 'run-arounds' needed is to reduce the number of phases within the bound during which a run-around is required. In the rules discussed in this article, for example, within each half bound, the active side moves. For this one phase, therefore, the gamer may have to move to the active side's half of the table and push troops.
c. Another way to reduce movement requirements is to use data sheets for each unit on which to note casualties. Marking off casualties, or noting a decrease in unit strength, negates the need to physically reach to the unit in question and remove figures. All the data sheets can be kept in a single pile and referred to only when necessary.
d. In similar fashion, the phases during which data sheets need to be up-dated should be kept to a minimum. In the battle described below, for example, there are fire and melee phases within which I toss out casualty figures to the units involved, but there's one final phase in which all units, both sides, are examined, casualty figures counted, and the data sheets brought up to date.
The attack across the River Drou was carried out by four French divisions, while the bridges across the Drou, three of them, were defended by three British divisions. In this 15mm scale, one stand was defined to be a battalion, and from 3 to 6 battalions (stands) a brigade. The brigades were then grouped into divisions... a division contained, perhaps, 4 brigades. The attacking French division on the French left flank, for example, consisting of 4 brigades, had a total of 19 stands in it.
The battle, therefore, could be considered a small corps-vs-corps encounter.
Half Bound
The half-bound had 7 phases to it:
- a. The active side, Side A, moved his troops. All troops, both infantry and cavalry, moved 10 inches. Each battalion stand measured about 1-inch by 1-inch. Assuming that a battalion frontage is around 100 yards, a 10-inch move carries units about 1000 yards, a fairly hefty move distance.
b. The active side, Side A, gets 'opportunity fire'. It dices for the number of units that can fire: This number can vary from 2 units per division down to a single unit for the entire corps. Each time one of B's units is hit, it tests morale, and I toss from 1 to 3 casualty figures down next to it.
c. Now it's B's turn, the non-active side's turn, to fire... all units blast away. I toss from 1 to 3 casualty figures down next to A's units.
d. It's now time for Side B, the non-active side's cavalry to move. They advance 10 inches. On the preceding half-bound, on the first phase, when Side B was active, his cavalry moved its 10 inch distance... now they get an additional 10 inches in the middle of Side A's half of the bound. This permits them to react to Side A's movement.
e. Close Assault is resolved. Again, the involved units receive from 1 to 3 casualty markers on them. Units that lose a melee move back 10 inches. Again, more casualty figures are tossed out.
f. Simultaneous artillery fire. Here, the batteries of both sides blast away. Each battery, prior to the battle, is assigned only a limited number of rounds. If the guns fire during the previous fire phases (phases (b) and (c)), the effect on the target is 'nominal'... but if they save their ammunition and wait for this simultaneous fire phase, the effect is all the more horrific. I think I saw this 'hold your fire' ploy in one of the early EMPIRE gaming systems by Scotty Bowden. The thought behind this was that the firing on this phase 'sums up' the effect of a constant artillery barrage that's been going on since the start of the bound. In any event, more casualty figures are distributed.
g. The last phase in the half-bound is an 'administrative' one. By this time, with three fire phases (phases (b), (c), and (f)), and one melee phase (phase (e)), there are a lot of casualty figures strewn around the field, and it's time to assess their permanent impact. Here's where the data sheet of each unit is up-dated, and 'boxes' crossed out to indicate a decrease in unit efficiency.
A typical data sheet looks like:
| MORALE LEVEL: | 85% | 80% | 75% | 70% |
| UNIT STRENGTH: | 55555 | 44444 | 33333 | 22222 |
| UNIT LOSSES: | 22222 | 33333 | 44444 | 55555 |
When a unit takes a hit, one column (the strength and loss numbers) is crossed out. Note that it requires 5 hits to lower the morale level by 5 percent, and that the unit is destroyed after it receives 20 hits. Twenty hits may seem a lot, but as explained below, the hits mount up quickly.
During the administrative phase, the adjusted morale level of a unit is found by taking its current morale level and subtracting 10 percent for every casualty marker accumulated by the unit during the previous phases. Most of the time, the adjusted level is down around 40 percent.
If the unit passes its test, one column is crossed out on the data sheet. If the unit fails, 4 columns are crossed out. In either event, all casualty figures are removed for the start of the next half-bound.
I played the River Drou scenario twice. The first time, the defending British forces couldn't be budged. The map shows that there are two towns on the field, and using these as anchor points, the Brits dug in and failed very few morale tests.
For the second run-through, I decided to use the French cavalry in a do-or-die attempt to clear the middle bridge, while the French infantry focused on the town of Stim. Following the procedures associated with the grand cavalry charge will show the use of the casualty figures.
- a. Fire phase. The defending British unit by the bridge, Colonel Hubig's 2nd Brigade, fired at the oncoming cavalry. The horsemen took a morale test. The unit used its current Morale Level (ML) from the data sheet, and subtracted 2 points for every firing stand. Colonel Hubig's 2nd Brigade had 5 stands, hence the cavalry deducted 10 points from their ML of 85, a net of 75 percent. There are two possible results: fail the test and receive 3 casualty markers, and pass the test and receive only one casualty marker. The cavalry unit passed and received one marker.
b. Fire phase. Also during the fire phase, a nearby French artillery battery fired at the cavalry. Another morale test... an artillery unit deducts 10 points from the ML. Since morale tests are sequential, the casualty marker from the round of fire from the infantry unit now counted. Now we deducted 10 points from the artillery, and another 10 for the existing casualty marker, from the ML, giving a net of 65 percent. This time the cavalry failed... the unit received 3 casualty figures. Note that even though the cavalry flubbed the test, this didn't stop them from completing the charge.
c. Melee phase. Contact is now made. The cavalry unit goes in with 4 casualty markers on it, and the infantry unit (softened up by fire from other French units) has 1 casualty figure. Immediately, another marker is placed on the involved units (there are now 5 on the cavalry, 2 on the infantry), and they strike at one another via a morale test.
d. Both units take a melee morale check. The cavalry looks at its modifiers:
- -50 Each of the 5 casualty markers is worth -10 points
-10 The opposing infantry unit's effect at 2 points per stand
+20 This is the result of the infantry unit failing to form square.
+20 A supporting cavalry unit is present
e. The net for the cavalry is 20 points off its ML of 85, or 65. It tosses the dice and passes. It receives yet another casualty figure (if it failed, it would have received 3 markers)
f. The infantry's modifiers contain a -20 for having been caught before it could form square. The infantry fails, and receives 3 markers... it's up to 5 markers.
g. Note that we haven't made a single mark on any of the data sheets. Looking at the existing data sheets of the involved units, we can determine who has won. The two units each show the following (note that the infantry has been pretty much banged up):
| Unit | Strength | Losses | Current Cas Figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cavalry | 5 | 2 | 6 |
| Infantry | 3 | 4 | 5 |
h. The critical product is:
10-sided die x (Own Strength + Enemy Losses + Enemy Cas Fig))
This means the cavalry multiply their die by 5+4+5, or 14, while the infantry use a multiplier of 3+2+6, or 11. A fairly close melee.
i. In this particular case, the infantry's product was less than the cavalry's, and the infantry fall back and received yet another 3 markers. And, of course, the bridge was now cleared of defending British troops, and the French can pour across.
j. Now we come to the administrative phase... the cavalry has accumulated a total of 6 casualty figures, which, deducting 60 points from their 85 percent ML, yields 25. They fail the test, and 4 columns are crossed off their data sheet. Lots of casualties, but they won the melee. All casualty markers are removed.
k. The infantry have accumulated a total of 8 casualty figures... subtract 80 points off their ML, and they, too, fail and cross off 4 columns. All markers are removed.
If you've followed all the above, there were three basic morale checks: (a) first, during the fire phase, (b) another during the melee phase, and (c) one for the administrative phase. And it was only after the melee was finished that the data sheets were up-dated.
As far as solo-gaming procedures, therefore, most of the time I simply looked at a unit, tossed dice for its morale test for fire and melee, threw out a couple of necessary casualty figures, and finally, for the administrative requirements, up-dated the data sheets.
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© Copyright 1998 Wally Simon
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