BATTLE THE FIRST Way, way in the back of one of my closets, I discovered a quantity of figures that I had forgotten I had acquired. These were little, 20mm scale, plastic figures, red and blue, and from the number of boxes of figures I drew out, it appeared I had about a cubic foot of them. None of the figures were painted... in effect, I had a huge red army and an equally large blue army. The infantry all had 3-cornered tricornes on, and the cavalry had some sort of weird polo-looking kepi on... from the tricornes, I dubbed the men to be of the Seven Years War variety. Some were mounted, 4 or 5 cavalry to a stand, or 8 to 12 infantry per stand, the stands just slightly smaller than 2 inches square. Having discovered that I owned the little guys, it was time to actually set them out on the table and play with them. During the week, I drew up a table-size map of areas each about 6 x 6 inches in size, and mandated that each area could contain no more than 2 stands of troops. When I had originally mounted the troops, I had set out several horse and limber stands for the artillery. The artillerists I found in the box were as weird-looking as the cavalry... each crewman's pose had him with arms outstretched straight out to either side so that he resembled a cross. He was holding, in the horizontal position, a long tamp to run down the barrel of the cannon. I couldn't see a number of sets of artillery crewmen in two opposing armies, manning their guns, and all holding their arms stretched out horizontally to the side... my sense of historical propriety was offended. And so I mounted other little guys to act as the crewmen. One 'surprise' I included in the procedures concerned the number of artillery pieces that were being transported by the limber, i.e., in the artillery train. Here, whenever a limber stopped and the guns were brought to bear, I diced for the number of cannons that popped up... a single limber could produce either 1, 2, or 3 guns, making for a potential mass battery. Fred Haub arrived to play a game, and I placed 6 towns on the table, and we determined the tactical importance of each site. Each town had a 2 cards in a deck of 12. We drew 4 cards from the deck. The first draw was for the town of Gritz, and therefore, Gritz was deemed of importance to the High Commands of both sides. So important, that we took up the deck anew, added 2 more 'Gritz' cards to it to make 14, shuffled it, and went for the second draw. Each time we drew a town's card, this meant that someone at Headquarters thought this town of great importance, and we added 2 more cards for that particular town to the deck, and reshuffled. Note that the more 'important' a town was, the more cards it would have in the deck as the draws continued, therefore, the greater the probability that a subsequent draw would produce that town's card. When all draws were completed, we then counted the cards for each town. It turned out that both Gritz and the town of Shtetburg were, by far, the two most important sites. Accordingly, the commanders of both sides, knowing their geographical objectives, made their tactical plans to suit. Incidentally, I asked Fred if he remembered where and how I had purchased the figures. He said I had done so at some flea-market. Fred also said that the figures originally were available via comic books... there were coupons in the comics, and you'd send in a buck to the publisher, and he'd send you a couple of hundred fighting men. I was the defensive player, and I had 3 divisions to defend both Gritz and Shtetburg. I couldn't ignore the other towns completely... although of lesser value, they still were worth victory points. Fred, as the attacker, also had 3 divisions, and both of us were given a reserve of about 3 stands of troops. Fred's troops came on the field, and after a couple of moves, were within firing range. Muskets could fire into adjacent areas, while artillery had a 2-area range. The firing procedures were fairly simple, guaranteed to result in lottsa casualties... casualties were marked by casualty figures, and after the firing and melee phases of the bound, the field was littered with the poor li'l fellas. When a unit fired, it took note of 3 parameters: a First, the number of men, N, on a stand. Multiply this number by 5 to get 5xN. b. Second, each area had a defensive terrain value of either zero or -10, or -20. Deduct this defense factor from the product 5xN c. Third, toss percentage dice and add the throw to the sum of (a) and (b), above. There were three possible results to the above. a. If the total was under 80, no casualties. b. If the total was anywhere from 80 to 100, 1 casualty on the target c. If the total was over 100, 2 casualties to the target. As an example, consider an 8-man stand, which first has the 5xN product of 40, firing into an area which has a defense of -10. The sum is now 40-10, or 30, which is added to the percentage dice. If the dice toss is 56, then 56+30 equals 86, and one casualty figure is placed in the target area. The casualty figures resulting from firing were left in place for use during the melee phase. Thus an artillery battery or batteries could fire on an enemy occupied area, inflicting many, many casualties on the occupying forces, softening them up for the assault phase. In melee, once again the number of men on a stand was of prime importance. All the men in the area were counted, and the number multiplied by 5. And again, the area defense factor provided a negative... but the big negative was the number of casualties placed in the area during the previous fire phase. Each casualty figure in the area counted for 5 points for the opposition. In the melee procedure, the defender merely looked on. The attacker totaled his points, subtracted those of the defenders, and added a percentage dice throw, paralleling the firing procedure. The total was then applied to a graduated scale... if the attacker's result was low, under 60, then it was hard times for the attacker... he lost... indeed, if his total was under 25, his entire force would be wiped out. In contrast, if the attacker's total was high, he'd force the defender back, or eliminate a stand or two, or wipe out the defending force completely. And whether the attacker won or lost, there'd be even more casualty markers placed on the field. Casualties, Casualties And now, after the firing and melee phases were finished, what to do with the vast numbers of casualty figures strewn about the field? These casualties were now translated into the victory conditions. a. First, they were evaluated. Each area was diced for, and the markers therein were valued at either 2, or 3, or 4 points. b. We then totaled all the casualty points for a side, and for every 25 points, took off one stand. Excess casualty points were carried over from turn to turn. Note that this evaluation phase was the true "casualty" phase, wherein stands were actually removed. c. Prior to the battle, each army had been given an 'elan factor' of 30 points. Every 25 casualty points reduced this factor by 1. When your army's 'elan' reached zero, the battle was over. When my army gave up the ghost, my elan factor was down to a "3"... Fred's elan wasn't much higher, but it was obvious that I'd reach zero before he did. And I had also lost an appreciable portion of my force, but, most important of all, Fred's army had captured both geographical objectives, Shtetburg and Gritz, and he was ripe for a Field Marshall's baton. BATTLE THE SECOND Fred and I each chose 7 individually mounted Samurai figures. These men are a 'teensy' larger than 30mm, and quite colorful. In my Samurai force, there are, in order of battle prowess: Mounted Knights most powerful of all Samurai excellent fighting men Clan Chieftan good fighting men, but not quite up to Samurai standards Warriors not-so-excellent fighting men Wanna-bees in training for greater things Archers good for firing arrows and not much else. Several conventions ago, I purchased a quantity of figures manufactured by FLINTLOQ, some 35mm tall. What's unique about the FLINTLOQ products is that they're of the Napoleonic era, and dressed in the appropriate uniform, but they consist of orcs and elves and other fantasy horrors... all well sculpted and uniformed as Napoleonic Brits and Frenchmen. At the time of this writing, someone out there is painting a quantity of FLINTLOQ people for me, and I'm developing a set of rules for them. I've read FLINTLOQ's own skirmish rules, and they appear to be nothing special... aside from being published in booklet form on slick, glossy paper, they have no redeeming qualities. With my rules half-developed, I thought I'd try what I had, and Fred Haub volunteered to assist. Now, I ask you, what better setting could there be to test out a set of Napoleonic skirmish rules than one for a group of Samurai? In place of the FLINTLOQ elite rifles, we have the Samurai; in place of the French, we have the elves, and so on. The logic is inescapable. A card-driven movement system was used. When a side drew its card, either 2, 3, or 4 actions were given to each man. An action allowed a man to move 5 inches, or fire, while 2 full actions were required to place an arrow on the bow. The Napoleonic version requires 2 full actions to reload a weapon... this encompasses a variety of actions... placing the powder down the barrel, tamping, next the bullet, more tamping, priming, and finally, the man is ready to fire. By allowing the same number of relative time increments for bowmen to 'reload', I realize that I was penalizing them for this scenario, but a test is a test. Each man was given a data sheet, something I had 'borrowed' years ago from an unknown author, and used for a set of ACW skirmish rules. The data sheet looked like: Firing and melee used the same procedure: a. First, draw a 'Hit Card' from a deck containing cards numbering 2 though 6. b. Second, multiply the 'Hit Card' number by 5. c. Third, add a percentage dice throw to the product to get a total, T. d. Fourth, cross out a box on the target's data sheet at the T level. An example is Eeno the archer firing at an enemy Samurai named Aku. Eeno draws a "5" card, multiplies it by 5 to get 25 points, Then he tosses percentage dice, say, a toss of 63. Adding the 25 and the 63 gives him a total, T, of 88. He goes to the Aku's sheet, looks at the left hand column and crosses out a box at the 88 level, thusly: Note that not only was the box at the 88 level crossed out, but so were all the boxes in the triangle below it. This means that with a high dice roll, and a total, T, of over 100, you'd cross out the topmost box plus all boxes below it, i.e., the entire chart,.. and the target, having no boxes left, was shot through the heart, and is dead. In our example, Eeno, having hit Aku, forces the wounded Aku to take a morale test. Looking at Aku's sheet, we see that Aku still has boxes left on the bottom line, which, when referred to the right hand column, gives Aku a Morale Level of 80. Aku then tests at 80 percent. As more and more boxes are crossed out, the lowest line with at least one box remaining is used as the reference for the morale test. Halfway through the engagement, my archers seemed extremely lucky, i.e., each time they fired, they had continually tossed high on their dice throws, producing a total, T, well above 100, knocking the target out of the battle. This brought forth a round of discussion. Perhaps the "kill level", the "over 100" requirement, was too low. Never hesitant to experiment, we set a new "kill level" to be "over 120", and adjusted the entire chart to suit. It now became much more difficult to score an immediate kill, but the 'plus' factor was that, in our small skirmish encounter, the men lasted that much longer. Toward the end, my Clan Chieftan, Janni, already wounded quite severely, charged one of Fred's archers... in fact, I think it was Eeno, himself. Janni had nearly all of his boxes crossed out, and his thought was that, before he went to that great Imperial Castle in the sky, he'd try to score one more time for the Emperor. In fact, Janni called on his friend Kobi to try to get a 2-on-1 attack on Eeno, and together, these fierce warriors advanced. As Janni ran up to Eeno, he discovered that Eeno had an arrow ready to fire. I forgot to mention that on each archer's data sheet, there was a record looking like this: F L L F L L F L L F L F "F" indicates fire, while "L" indicates load. Note that 2 actions are required to 'reload'. Eeno had reloaded a turn before, and he now let loose at the charging Janni. Eeno drew his Hit Card, which turned out to be a "2"... this gave him 5 x 2, or 10 points to add to his hit dice throw. Eeno tossed a 47... 47 plus 10 equals 57, below the 61 required to hit Janni. Obviously Eeno had panicked at the last minute. Eeno, however, had another ace up his sleeve. Eeno, faced with an attack by two men, called on a nearby friend, within 3 inches, to assist him. The friend successfully passed a morale test, and was brought into the combat, "soaking off" Kobi. There were now two simultaneous combats. But Eeno wasn't through yet. Fred and I discussed Eeno's latest theory. Fred argued for Eeno, stating that there was another of Eeno's friends nearby, a Samurai named Obu, and it was only logical that Obu, great warrior and seeker of glory, wouldn't stand by and see an allied archer attacked by a charging enemy Samurai without trying to enter the combat himself. My thought on this was that once you opened the door to have friends coming in to assist, there'd be no lack of friends present, for if carried out to its logical conclusion, both sides would simply clump all their men, and everyone and his brother would want to join in the fight. The result would be that instead of an individual melee in a skirmish game, we'd have to adjudicate a series of riots. My original version called for one "soak off", as Eeno had done here, and I argued that one was enough... but Eeno and Fred out-argued me, and in came Eeno's other buddy. Evidently, Eeno was a rather popular fellow, for it seemed that all of his friends wanted to rush in to defend him. In his melee, poor Janni got whomped... all of his boxes were crossed out, and he was carried off the field on his shield. Before he went down, however, he made the Emperor proud, for he managed to score enough points on his opponent to send him to the Happy Hunting Ground. At this point in the game, with my Clan Leader no longer on the field, I handed my sword to Fred Haub, and surrendered. Back to PW Review June 1998 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 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