While I was at Wally's in April, he offered me access to his "box-o'-back-issues". In it, I found nearly every issue of the REVIEW from 1981 to 1991. 1 flew home with a three inch stack of REVIEWs in my backpack. All during the flight home and for weeks afterward, I feasted on them. I read till my eyes hurt.
Several articles that caught my attention described rules that provided for unit reactions in battle. For instance, a unit receiving enemy fire would require a reaction dice roll. Depending on how the roll compared to its "reaction number", the unit might return fire, withdraw, or attempt to advance into melee.
What interested me about this system was that battles often departed from the normal sequence of action as units reacted and counter-reacted to each other. The action escaped player control as units took matters into their own hands. In many instances, all a player had to do was point his units in the right direction and they did the rest.
While the examples given included Napoleonic battles and a few skirmishes in the French and Indian War, I thought such a technique would be ideal for WWII games. Not only that, but it could benefit the solo player who must constantly confront tactical decisions for both sides. So, armed with pencil, paper, and several REVIEWS, I set about designing a system to work for a WWII solo game. The result I titled "STURM".
The REVIEW examples illustrated reactions controlled by dice roll, and limited reactions to one unit at a time. I wanted a quicker, diceless method wherein the reactions of several units to an event could be determined simultaneously. For this, I drew upon another of Wally's ideas - the attack deck.
In his ancients games, Wally uses a deck of cards for determining the outcome of melees. Each card has a grid with unit types listed along the top and side. In melee, a card is drawn, and the attacking unit's type (i.e., light, medium, heavy, infantry, cavalry, etc.) is crossreferenced with the target unit's type to get a resulting number of hits. The effects vary from card to card, but the ranges of variation are determined by the relative capabilities of the units involved. Heavy units generally deal out more hits to light units than they receive, but the precise number is unknown until a card is drawn.
I thought I could use the same technique for a "Reaction Deck". A unit's quality (green, veteran, or crack) would be cross-referenced with the type of event to which it was reacting. The range of reactions would be defined such that the more experienced units were more likely to react favorably than green ones. After some experimentation, I arrived at a deck of twenty cards that looked like the example in Table #1.
The unit quality was listed along the top row with green being the worst and crack the best. I also included a column for hidden units, since my solo game would be of the pop-up variety. Various events that caused a unit to react were listed in the left-hand column from highest potential threat to lowest. When one of these events occurred, I drew a reaction card for it.
For instance, if a veteran tank unit were to see an enemy tank move to within 20 inches of its position, a card would be drawn and the event cross-referenced on the "veteran" column.
Typical REACTION CARD:
| Die Roll/Event | TARGET TYPE | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green | Veteran | Crack | Hidden | |
| 1 Close Assault | Retire 5 inches | Engage | Engage | NA |
| 2. Fired Upon | Retire 5 inches | Fire | (A) Advance 5 inches (I) Retire 5 inches | NA |
| 3. Friendly Unit within 5" retires | No reaction | No reaction | Retire 5" | No reaction |
| 4. Enemy moves within 20 inches | Fire | Fire | Fire | Fire |
| 5. Enemy retreat within 10 inches | Fire | Advance 5 inches | Advance 5 inches | No reaction |
If the card shown above were the one drawn, it would indicate that the veteran unit must fire on the enemy tank. If two or more actions occurred that would cause a unit to react, it would only react to the greatest threat.
The possible reactions included: no action, fire, advance 5 inches, retreat 5 inches, or rout (which meant the entire unit was sent to the infamous Rally Zone, abandoning its vehicles and heavy weapons). Units involved in a close assault would either engage, retreat 5 inches, or rout. If units on opposing sides got "engage" results, then the close combat was resolved.
The reactions for each unit type were statistically controlled. Fifty-five percent of the results (11 cards out of 20) for a veteran unit taking enemy fire would stipulate that it return fire. A green unit would return fire only 30 percent of the time, while a crack unit had a 70 percent chance. I set up similar spreads for the other reactions.
I also mixed up the results between cards, so that a player couldn't easily predict what was coming next. This had the peculiar effect of some cards listing better results for a green unit than a veteran or crack unit. However, since the total number of results was controlled, good things were more likely to occur for crack and veteran units overall, than for green ones.
Some results have the notations "(A)" and "(I)" before a reaction. These specify differing results depending on whether the unit is on the active or inactive side. The example card above shows such a result for a crack unit being fired upon. If the unit is on the active side (i.e., it is the turn of the owning player), then it will advance 5 inches toward the unit that fired upon it. If the crack unit is on the inactive side (i.e., it's the enemy's turn), it will just return fire. This ploy is intended to prevent defending units from abandoning their positions while still allowing attacking units to close with the enemy.
I set up a game to test my new reaction concept using British and German forces. A small British force would attempt to advance up a road defended by various pop-up defenders. Bailey's South Irish Borderers consisted of the following units:
- 1 Stuart light tank unit (veteran)
3 Sherman medium tank units (veteran)
1 Firefly improved medium tank unit (veteran)
3 veteran infantry units (one with a light machine gun team)
1 crack infantry unit (Dunbar's Rifles)
For the Germans, I made a deck of cards each listing a tank unit, infantry unit, or a fake position. I shuffled it, drew only half of the cards, and distributed these among various defensive positions as shown on the map below. In this way, I had a vague idea of what forces were possible, but no idea at all of those actually deployed.
Don't ask me what the units represented - platoons? companies? I don't know. A tank unit consisted of a single 20mm model while an infantry unit contained up to 4 singly-mounted 20mm figures. This gave the feel of a squad or platoon level skirmish. The quality rating (green, etc) determined the number of figures in an infantry unit or the number of damage points a vehicle could take before being destroyed. These would range from 2 for a green unit to 4 for a crack unit.
Since I was using the reaction deck, I kept the normal turn sequence down to a simple "I go, you go" affair (I guess in a solo game that's "I go, I go"). But here I adopted another of Wally's ploys - the turn clock. During my visit in April, Wally used some sort of clock technique for nearly every game we played. During his turn, a player would roll a ten-sided die, adding the result to the clock value. When the clock totaled 15 or more, the bound was over, the clock was reset to zero, and end-of-bound functions such as Rally Zone checks were performed.
In my game, I combined this clock idea with a technique for determining how many units could act and the number of actions each could take - henceforth to be known as "Bailey's Universal Activation-Clock Table" or BUACT (pronounced "Bwacett" by the Bwitish twoops).
First, each side distributes a total of 15 points between two values: Command (C) and Supply (S). For my test game, the values were:
| Unit | Command (C) | Supply (S) |
|---|---|---|
| British | 7 | 8 |
| Germans | 9 | 6 |
At the beginning of a players turn, he rolls two ten-sided dice, one vs Command, the other vs Supply. The results are referenced on an activation table as shown below:
ACTIVATION TABLE (cross reference Supply roll and Command roll)
| Command Roll | Supply Roll (actions per unit) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| . | S | . | 1/2 S | . | |
| 1 per Unit | | | 2 per unit | | | 3 per unit | |
| 1/4 of units may act (min of 1 unit) | Add 2
to clock | | | Add 3 to clock | | | Add 5
to clock |
| C | =============================================== | ||||
| 1/2 of units may act (min of 1 unit) | Add 4
to clock | | | Add 6 to clock | | | Add 8
to clock |
| 1/2 C | =============================================== | ||||
| All units may act | Add 7
to clock | | | Add 9 to clock | | | Add 10
to clock |
The result of the Command roll determines how many of the player's units may act: 1/4, 1/2, or all. The result of the Supply roll determines how many actions each acting unit may take - one, two, or three. This provides a dilemma for the player in assigning points. Should he make sure most of his units can act, or ensure those that do act get to take more actions?
Each result on the activation table is cross-referenced with the other to determine how much to bump the clock value. A player who does well on both Supply and Command rolls gets to act with all his units spending 3 actions with each, but also expends more clock time. This ploy saves time over having a separate clock roll each turn. When the clock value advances to 15 or beyond, the bound is over, and end-of-bound functions are performed.
Note that, for the Brits, I opted for a fairly balanced Command-Supply distribution. They could be fairly certain that, on any particular turn, half their force would get to act - usually with 2 or 3 actions per unit. The Germans, on the other hand, had a superior command capability of 9, thus ensuring that their entire force (the units that had popped up, that is) was likely to act each turn. Their drawback was limited supply. Each unit averaged only 1 or 2 actions per turn.
The Brits took the first turn and began advancing toward Madame Chartreuse's house. I rolled 2 dice for the Command and Supply checks and got an 8 and a 4 respectively. The result: one fourth of the units used 3 actions each and bumped the clock up to 5.
One action could be used to do any one of the following.
- Move 5 inches (70% chance to move into or through rough terrain)
Fire once at an enemy unit
Mount or dismount a vehicle
Limber or unlimber a towed gun
The Stuart moved 15 inches up the Rue Montage. As it rounded the corner of Hill 101, it caused a reaction from the two hidden units in Madame Chartreuse's house. I drew a reaction card for each unit and referenced the "Enemy unit moves within 20 inches" event against the "Hidden unit" column. The first result was "No action" - the unit remained hidden. However, the second unit got a "Fire" result. I turned over the hidden unit marker to find it was a light tank - a Lynx. It fired at the Stuart, missing. This prompted a reaction from the Stuart. 1 drew a card for it and got a result of "Fire". The British light tank crew returned fire on the Lynx and also missed.
But wait, since the Lynx was fired upon, it reacted again - yet another card was drawn from the reaction deck. Again, the result dictated that the Lynx fire at the Stuart. The German tank crew cheered as the round hit. Once more, I drew a card for the Stuart's reaction. This time, the card said that the Stuart should retreat 5 inches - the Brits in the light tank had had enough of this business.
I should make a brief note of the firing procedures at this point. I opted for relative simplicity here. I gave each unit type a range factor, R. For instance, the Lynx had an R value of 15 inches. If a target was within this range, the base probability of hit, POH, was 70%. if the target was within half R, the POH was 90%. For targets beyond R, the POH was 30%. Maximum range for any weapon was 2 x R. The Lynx's maximum range was 30 inches (15 x 2), while it was at its most effective against targets within 8 inches (15 / 2, rounded up). .
Once the range to target and POH were determined, the POH was modified for cover. I then rolled percentage dice vs the POH and consulted my modified version of Simon's Standard Attack Table.
ATTACK TABLE d 100 Roll Result
-----------------------------------------
- No Effect
- 1 hit
- 2 hits
- 4 hits plus damage check
-----------------------------------------
The Lynx's attacks were made at a range of 18 inches, thus, the POH was 30%. I rolled a 27 on the second attack, resulting in 1 hit.
After the Stuart retreated, I moved a few other units, but they remained out of sight of the Germans thus prompting no reactions. On the German turn, I left the units in their defensive positions. The command/supply roll bumped the clock by another 8 to 13.
As the next British turn began, before any actions were taken, I checked for damage on the Stuart. The base defensive factor, D, was 50% plus a unit's armor value, if any, minus 5% per hit. The Stuart's armor value of 10 made for a total of 60%. Subtracting 5% for one hit resulted in a D of 55%. I rolled a 72 and referenced the table below:
DAMAGE CHECK TABLE d100 Roll Result
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- All hits effective
- Remove 1/2 of hits (round up). Remaining hits effective
- Remove all hits
------------------------------------------------------------------
The hit was effective so I immediately crossed off one damage level on the Stuart. Being a veteran unit, the Stuart had two more levels to go before it was destroyed.
As a unit's number of personnel or a vehicle's strength level was reduced, I treated it as if its quality level had also gone down. Thus, the veteran Stuart, having been reduced to 2 strength, was now treated as the equivalent of a green unit. If, later on, the Stuart repaired its damage, it would be back to veteran status.
My reasoning here was that there should be some morale impact on units that have taken casualties. With this method, the impact was simply integrated into a unit's reactions. This also meant that I didn't have to do so much bookkeeping. A unit with two or fewer figures was treated as green regardless of how it started.
On the next British turn, I made a new Command/Supply roll for the Brits, getting an 8, and a 5, one-fourth of units could act with 2 actions each. I moved up a Sherman on the left and immediately ran into crack S.S. infantry defending the woods to the west of the Chartreuse cottage. The infantry's R equaled 10 for anti-personnel fire and 5 for antitank fire. Firing at the Sherman at 17 inches meant the tank was out of range of the infantry's anti-tank weapons.
I decided to draw a reaction card for the Sherman anyway. It dictated that the tank should advance 5 inches, prompting another reaction from the infantry. The S.S. troopers' second reaction card again indicated they would fire at too long a range for their weapons - something would have to be done about this. The next reaction card for the Sherman caused it to fire at the Germans, causing a few hits. The S.S. reacted by pulling back across the Rue de Chartreuse.
In the meantime, a crack unit of British infantry. Captain Dunbars company, was moving into the woods on Hill 101. As they-advanced to the edge of the woods overlooking the Chartreuse residence, crack S.S. troops in the house opened up with a heavy machine gun. Seeing discretion as the better part of valor, the Brits immediately withdrew back into the woods. This was getting good!
The Germans' turn, I rolled on the Command/Supply table and got a result of 'all units act with 2 actions each'. Before the game, I had decided that, if the Germans got an "all units act" result, I could turn over a couple of hidden unit markers.
In other words, activate the units to get them into the fight more quickly. I turned over the two markers in the woods to the west of Hill 103. One was an infantry unit, the other a Panzer IVh.
The Germans had some real firepower now, but no targets. I decided to move the Lynx to the west side of the Chartreuse house to get a shot at the Sherman. Immediately, the veteran Sherman crew reacted by firing on the Lynx. The Lynx crew thought better of this action and retreated toward the woods containing the Panzer IV.
The German Command/Supply roll had bumped the clock past the 15 mark, so the bound was now over. I reshuffled the reaction deck, did a hit check on units with hits, and then checked for units that had been sent to the Rally Zone to see if they returned. For those of you unfamiliar with the Rally Zone, this is another of Wally's inventions. It's a temporary holding area off-table for units whose fate is undetermined.
The reasoning here is, due to the confusion inherent in battle, commanders don't immediately get to know the fate of troops that have taken hits. Each effective hit removed a figure to the Rally Zone where it awaited its fate until the end of the bound. At this point, I gave a 50% chance for each token to return to its unit. Failure meant it was gone for the rest of the battle.
The result of the rally checks was that German infantry units were gradually being bled while the Brits seemed okay. Over the next several bounds, this trend continued. The S.S. infantry tried desperately to stop the British tank advance around Madame Chartreuse's. The crack crew of the Panzer IV met an early death, when, in reaction to being fired upon by a Sherman, it advanced out of the woods. The Sherman blew it up, but not before the Panzer had dispatched the Stuart.
Heroes
The heroes of the day were the Lynx crew. All during the fight, they snuck in close range attacks at the Shermans, eventually knocking out two. But the weight of British numbers finally forced the German front line back. Captain Dunbar and his men worked their way back to the edge of the woods overlooking the Chartreuse house, this time supported by the Firefly. The heavy gun fire from the Firefly forced the Germans out of the house. Dunbars men, being within 10 inches of a retreating enemy unit, reacted by advancing to occupy the Chartreuse house.
Now this was stirring stuff! Throughout nearly the whole game, all I was doing was moving units up to within 20 inches of the enemy, or, on occasion, firing at a known target. The little pewter guys with their plastic tanks were doing the rest!
The Allied advance finally stopped when a good command roll on the part of the Germans allowed me to turn over a hidden unit marker in Villers Montage. It was a Panther tank. With only one Sherman, a Firefly, and various infantry, I didn't think I could hack it against both the Lynx and the Panther, not to mention the remaining S.S. infantry. The Irish Borderers halted, brewed up some tea, and waited for reinforcements.
All I could think was, "WOW!" This was among the most entertaining solo games I'd ever played! The troops on the game table did seem to come to life and take matters into their own hands. Also, use of "range" values and standard POHs for units made attack calculations easy and quick.
The rules were not without problems. There were numerous occasions when infantry units fired at tanks that were clearly out of effective range of their light AT weapons. I think this will require some sort of modification to the reaction cards to straighten out.
This test also included no provision for artillery or air attacks - something to be added in a later revision.
One point of interest about the Command/Supply activation table; since the command roll stipulates a fraction of a player's force that can act (1/4, 1/2, or all), the table works for any size force. A battalion of 20 units can be commanded as easily as a company of 4. It's not necessary to take the DBXX approach of requiring units to group together into larger "elements" (I'm not sure I'm using the terminology correctly here) to allow a larger force to act coherently.
For larger scale battles, perhaps using 15mm or micro-armor, vehicle units could be represented with 2 to 4 vehicles (again depending on unit quality) while infantry units could have 2 to 4 multi-figure stands.
On a final note, I did limit the number of times a unit could react in a single turn. After 3 reactions (other than "No Act"), a unit was deemed to be exhausted. It would no longer react to the enemy except to retreat and take an extra hit if fired on, or rout if close assaulted. Once its owner became the active player, the unit's exhaustion token was removed.
Readers with questions about STURM can email me at deltaveell@aol.com.
EDITOR'S NOTE
I can remember being as excited as Don, years ago, when we first tried this and the little guys on the field took matters into their own hands. Our reaction charts were not as extensive as Don's... he seems to have covered all bases.
The kicker, of course, in ginning up the charts is to ensure that the reaction tables don't have the troops do silly things, but keep their responses within the bounds of believability.
Although the reaction game is just about optimum for solo play, a lot of fellas don't like it when the reaction ploy is inserted into a 'regular' 2-player game. Many players want to have complete control of their troops all the time. They don't want the troops moving off on a frolic of their own... only when they say "Charge!" do they want their little people to charge, and only when they say "Fire!" will their troops fire.
But, to my mind, a wee bit of a surprise 'reaction' is fine... it's part of the fog of war, and it's just as logical to have something unexpected occur via a unit reaction roll as it is to toss the dice and find your unit didn't pass its morale test, and must fall back 10 inches.
Our group hasn't yet playtested STURM, and I have no doubt we'll run it through the wringer and then up the flagpole and see how it waves (I'm not sure who speaks like that... it certainly isn't me ... ) More on STURM later.
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