I have a seldom-used collection of 20mm Napoleonics figures. I recently set them out on the table for a solo affair. This occurred on a miserable, winter weekend... the weather was freezing, the Washington, D.C., area had 2 feet of snow on it, and no one was going to show up for a game. As usual, the French were attacking the Brits. Each stand represented a battalion, and 4 stands a regiment. I grouped the regiments into brigades, and gave each brigade a battery. On the French left flank, the brigade commander was General Rochemar. His task was to keep the enemy right flank brigade occupied, while the main attack went in up the middle of the field. Rochemar's assets were: 11th Regiment 4 stands 17th Regiment 4 stands 112th Regiment 4 stands Captain Ronce's Battery 1 stand Rochemar also possessed two important parameters: (a) I diced for his units' Vulnerability Factor (VF). This turned out o be 30 (other possibilities were 25, and 20). The VF of 30 meant that every time 30 casualty points were scored on one of Rochemar's regiments, I'd cross out one of the regiment's efficiency boxes. When 6 boxes wee crossed out, the regiment was destroyed. Note that, in essence, a regiment with a VF of 20 was much more 'brittle' than one with 30. (b) Initially, Rochemar was assigned 4 Reaction Points (RP). The benefit bestowed by RP was that Rochemar could use them to perform an out-of-sequence function, such as change formation or fire. If we look at the first half of Bound 3 of the battle, we can see how these parameters came into play. Phase (1) I diced for the number of RP required to perform an out-of-sequence action. When the RP came into play, the commander first allocated the required number of points. In effect, the availability of points represented the fact that the commander sent out an order via one of his adjutants. A lack of RP simply meant that there were no messengers around to carry the order to the recipient. On this turn, 3 RP were required to send out an order. Phase (2) The active side was the French, and I diced to see how many actions the active side had... either 2, 3, or 4. They were given 3 actions. An action could be used for moving, changing formation, firing, etc. Rochemar's 112th Regiment moved up for 1 action (an action permitted a move of 5 inches), and fired for 2, i.e., 2 volleys. The 112th's 4 stands were arrayed in two ranks, a 2 by 2 formation... only the front stands fired. I then diced for the 112th's firing effectiveness (E): Table #1 01 to 20 E = 3 21 to 80 E = 2 81 to 100 E = 1 Note that I had deviated from my "standard" method of dicing... I usually use an equal distribution of 33 percent (01-33, 34-66, 67-100)... but here I employed a 'bell curve' distribution, as suggested in another article in this issue. The 112th's firing efficiency, E, turned out to be 2. Now I put three parameters together to obtain the points lost by the target unit: Points = (2, number of stands firing) x (2, volleys) x (E, 2) Points = 8 I marked the 8 point loss on the data sheet of the target unit, the British 1st. This regiment was commanded by General Brithaven... and Brithaven's regiments were, as I termed it, slightly more 'brittle' than those of Rochemar's. Remember that a Rochemar regiment lost an efficiency box when 30 points were scored on it. Brithaven's units lost a box when only 20 points were scored. In this volley by the French 112th, the British 1st lost only 8 points, so nothing exciting occurred. Phase (3) This 3rd phase of the sequence permits the non-active side (in this case, the Brits) to fire. Each unit is given 3 volleys, and here, the British 1st and its accompanying battery, opened up on the French 112th. The British 1st had 2 stands firing, 3 volleys, and when I diced for its firing efficiency, E, it turned out to be 3. The British battery fired with the equivalent of 4 stands, also had 3 volleys, and after dicing, had an E of 2. Putting these together: For the British 1st 2 stands x 3 volleys x E of 3 = 18 points For the British Battery 4 stands x 3 volleys x E of 2 = 24 points The total number of points scored against the 112th was 42... this was bad for the 112th... since 30 points eliminates one efficiency box, I crossed off a box, carried over the residue of 12 points, and gave the 112th a casualty marker. The 112th then took a morale test. A basic 80 percent Morale Grade, less 10 points for the casualty marker, giving a morale level of 70 percent. The 112th failed... the dice toss was over 70... and it received another casualty marker. It now had two options... (1) it could fall back, or (2) it could hold position with a 70 percent chance of yet another casualty marker and another 10 point loss on its data sheet. The 112th chose discretion over valor, and fell back. Phase (4) This phase permits the non-active side's cavalry to advance for 2 actions (a total of 10 inches). Here, the non-active side was the British, and their cavalry moved out. Note that on Phase (1), all troops of the active side move the same. Cavalry wait for the half-bound on which their side is non-active, and on Phase (4), they get their additional movement. This permits them to respond to the opposition's movement. Phase (5) On this phase, the active side gets a chance to react to enemy fire and enemy cavalry movement. Here, General Rochemar, seeing his 112th fall back, decided to have his battery react and fire to cover the fall back. Note that on Phase (1), I had diced for the number of Reaction Points, RP, required to give an order... it was 3. And so Rochemar allocated 3 RP, and sent out an out-of-sequence order to fire to his battery. Having sent the messenger... did the order arrive successfully? There was an 80 percent chance of success... and the battery got the message and fired. It received 3 volleys for this phase. Phase (6) This is the phase for resolution of close assault. In mid-field, one of the British defending regiments, the 8th, had been contacted. Unfortunately for the 8th, it was in march column formation. The British brigade commander allocated 3 RP to have the 8th react, in an out-of-sequence fashion, and deploy to meet the attack. The evolution was successful, and the 8th actually beat back the French unit. In melee, the stands are paired off, and each throws a modified 10-sided die. The losing stand falls back, and will not participate further, while the winning stand fights on. Both loser and winner suffer appropriate losses on their data sheets. Phase (7) This is the last phase in the sequence... it's sort of a logistics phase in which RP are replenished. There is a 70 percent chance this occurs. Here, a high dice toss said no logistics phase took place. This meant that (a) the two opposing division commanders couldn't distribute the RP they already had in the kitty, (b) the division commanders couldn't dice for additional RP, and (c) all casualty markers remained on the units. Rochemar was down to 1 RP, as were several other division commanders. On the next half-bound, therefore, there was an inability to react in an out-of-sequence manner with RP, for when Phase (1) took place, and I diced for the RP required to react, the "cost" per reaction was 4 RP. As a secondary effect, since the units retained their casualty markers, their morale levels were down when morale checks wee called for. Normally, when a logistics phase appeared in the sequence, all casualty markers were removed. Although it appeared that the units started afresh, their data sheets still recorded their past losses. Note that in the above description, the 4 stands of all of the infantry units were in a 2 x 2 array, and thus only had 2 stands firing. A regiment with a full second rank was given a 'plus' in melee, and this was found preferable to having a regiment fire with all four of its stands in a single rank. When four stands fired, it was possible to issue forth with quite a number of loss points on the target. For example, suppose the active side, when dicing for its actions, received 4 actions, and chose to volley. Then when dicing for its firing efficiency, E, if it received an E of 3, we'd have: Points = (4 stands) x (4 volleys) x (E = 3) Points = 48 This would put quite a crimp in the target unit. It would lose at least one box, receive a casualty marker and take a morale test. Note that only when sufficient loss points were recorded to lose a box did a unit receive a marker and have to take a test. Back to PW Review December 1999 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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