This was fought at Robin Peck's house, using his 15mm ECW collection. It was a simple affair, lasting perhaps two hours. We each had two cavalry regiments (2 squadrons each) and four pike-and-shot regiments.
Unit sizes were small... 3 stands to a cavalry squadron, and 4-pike and 2-musket stands to a foot regiment. Usually, when I generate a small scale game, with so few stands per unit, I track damage on a data sheet. Here, however, no data sheets were used to record the losses of the forces.
When a unit was hit by fire, or failed a morale test, or lost a hand-to-hand combat, it sent one of its stands to the Rally Zone. The stand remained there, in this off-board limbo, until the rally phase at the end of the half-bound. Each stand in the zone had a 70 percent chance to rejoin its unit. If it failed to rally, it simply stayed in the zone.
What this meant was that, during the battle, stands were constantly being "recycled" back and forth, between the Rally Zone and the battle field. Looking at the units on the field, bound after bound, there was no obvious diminution in force strength. In other words, no one "died" on the battlefield.
But there was one significant parameter that was recorded for each side... a parameter that was independent of unit losses. This might be termed a "loss threshold (LT)" When a unit failed a morale test and retreated, the LT went up by 1 point, and when a unit lost a melee, the LT increased by 2 points.
Prior to the battle, we set the maximum LT at 12 points... when a side accumulated 12 LT points, the battle was over. In effect, the commanding officer, seeing so many of his units losing in hand-to-hand combats, or failing a morale test and falling back when hit, simply lost heart, called it a day, and left the field.
On the very first turn, Robin, having won the initiative, took his forces and entered the grounds of Lennard Manor. The Manor was defined to be able to hold only one infantry regiment. The active side moved 6 inches per turn, and the sequence was quite straight-forward:
- (a) Side A moves all his units, infantry and cavalry, 6 inches. In this phase, cavalry do not move any faster than infantry.
(b) Side B, the non-active side, fires.
(c) Side B cavalry now move 6 inches. This is the phase in which cavalry receive additional movement. Note that it occurs on the opponent's half of the bound, permitting the cavalry to react to the opponent's movement.
(d) Resolve melees
(e) Both sides rally troops in the Rally Zone.
With the enemy in Lennard Manor, it became my duty to drive him out.
My main problem was that the ground in front of Lennard Manor was quite broken up, causing difficulty as my units deployed. When I finally got my infantry in order, ready to do battle, I found that I had blocked both of my artillery pieces... I think the guns fired twice during the entire battle.
What caused most of the difficulty in sorting out my units was the 'Control Factor'. Units could move straight ahead with no difficulty, but if they tried to oblique, or wheel, or change formation, or go anywhere off-center, they had to pass a Control test. In effect, this replicated the difficulty in maneuvering units on the field. To pass a Control test, a toss of 70 or less on percentage dice was necessary. One might say that 70 percent of the time, the regimental commanding officer had his orders successfully understood and obeyed.
If the Control test was failed, the unit could either hold position or move directly forward.
My right flank infantry division, three regiments strong, was assigned the task of storming the Manor. In mid-field, I held a reserve cavalry division which never got a chance to deploy, as Robin's heavy cavalry raced across the field and contacted the unprepared units.
In melee, each side received combat points for the stands involved, plus whatever other points we deemed appropriate for an advantage. After totaling the points of each side, we then took the difference between the totals, and applied it to the attacker's dice throw. For example, as Robin's cavalry contacted mine, the combat point values were:
| Defending Cavalry | Attacking Cavalry |
|---|---|
| (a) 3 stands, each worth 10 points totaling 30 points | 3 stands, each worth 10 points totaling 30 points |
| (b) -0- | 10 points for catching the enemy undeployed, in column |
| (c) -0- | 10 points for a supporting unit present |
| (d) -0- | 20 points for 'aggressiveness' |
Looking at the above, the attacking cavalry had 40 points more than mine. This 40 point increment was added to a percentage dice throw, and the following chart referenced:
------------------------------------------------------------
Defender takes 2 hits
90 ------------------------------------------------------------
Defender takes 1 hit
70 ------------------------------------------------------------
Attacker takes 1 hit
50 ------------------------------------------------------------
Attacker takes 2 hits
01 ------------------------------------------------------------
Note that in a combat with both sides' forces equal, the attacker receives 20 points for aggressiveness. Since he has to reach a total of 70 to successfully strike the defender, and he already has 20 points, the combat is even-up, i.e., the attacker has a 50 percent chance to score on the defender. The determination of who won the fight was a function of
- S The number of your stands left in the melee, and
H The number of hits you inflicted on the opponent
Each side computed the following product, P:
The higher product won, and the losing unit sent one stand to the Rally Zone. The winning side had a 30 percent chance to lose one stand to the Rally Zone.
With his initial 40 point advantage, Robin's heavy cavalry won the first set of melees, and quickly started off with 4 LT points.
But he failed to follow up, as he held his cavalry back to see if they could directly help at the Manor.
My infantry charged the regiment holding the Manor grounds, and my 'aggressiveness' points, plus a supporting unit, gave me enough combat points to successfully win the melee, and occupy the grounds myself. Once in, never out, and despite Robin's counterattacks, my troops held the Manor. I managed to accumulate the necessary 12 LT points for him to take his troops off the field.
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© Copyright 1998 Wally Simon
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