Watching several games of PIQUET this past year started me thinking about instituting 'clocking procedures' in the gaming sequence. PIQUET's clock is based on a 20-impulse cycle... if I have 12 impulses in which to act (each impulse permits me to fire, draw action cards, etc.) then that leaves a maximum of 8 impulses for the person who next wins the initiative. When the 20 impulses are up, the next set of 20 start anew. One of my first efforts in 'clocking' involved the firing cycle in a set of rules for the ECW. Here, when it was time in the sequence for the active side to fire, the following happened: (a) First, he tossed a 10-sided die. The resulting number was defined to be the 'Elapsed Time' (ET) occurring when his forces fired their weapons. (b) Second, he drew a single card from the Fire Deck. There were 10 cards in the deck, 5 annotated FIRE, 5 for LOAD. The objective, of course, was to draw a LOAD, then a FIRE, then a LOAD, then another FIRE, etc. (c) Third, he tossed the die again. If the accumulated dice tosses (the total ET) were over 15, the fire phase was over. Otherwise, he drew another card. Whenever he could match a LOAD/FIRE pair of cards, his units blazed away. (d) Another toss of the die, another card... as long as the accumulated total was under 15, LOAD/FIRE cards were accumulated. In this manner, with a series of low dice tosses, and a wee bit of luck, and the total ET keeping below the dreaded threshold of 15, a side could get in several volleys. After experimenting with the above firing cycle in a number of solo efforts, I dropped it. Too time consuming. Digression A variation of the above, suggested by Fred Haub, was to dispense with the ET concept, and simply have the firing side draw a number of cards from the 10-card Fire Deck. He could toss percentage dice for the number drawn: 01 to 33 Draw 6 cards 34 to 66 Draw 5 cards 67 to 100 Draw 4 cards Again, the firing side looked at his cards, matched the FIRE and LOAD cards, and thus had as many volleys as his matches allowed. End of digression. I tried a variation of the clock concept at a PW meeting in a game of ancients. Each side had about 8 missile units, and when the active side fired, he tossed a die, which give him his initial ET value. Here, he could toss his die as many times as possible... each toss which resulted in an accumulated ET of 10 or under permitted all of his missile units to fire. Only when the accumulated ET totaled over 10, was the firing phase over. Note that even if his first toss was a '10', his troops were still permitted one volley. Now, the above procedure has the possibility of opening up one heckuvalot of firing. The firing player, in theory, could toss a continual series of "1's", giving his troops a maximum of 10 volleys in a row! In practice, I've found that a side can get in, perhaps, 4 volleys before the total ET of 10 occurs. The average die toss is around 5, so the system won't get out of hand too often. Another 'safety valve', which can be incorporated, is simply to limit the number of volleys to 5. Even so, due to the possibility of a side firing several times in quick succession, the probability of hit per unit should be lowered, so as not to inflict too many casualties per firing cycle. Part 2 And now we come to Part 2 of the clocking mechanism. Now we deal with a 'clock' giving the ET for an entire turn, not just the fire phase. What I was looking for was a way to end the turn in a manner which could not be predicted by the players. Under this system, the active player, as his very first action, tosses a 10-sided die for the Elapsed Time (ET) for the half-bound. As the half-bounds proceeded, and the sides switched from non-active to active, the ET was totaled... immediately the accumulated total was over 15, the turn was deemed to be ended. Note that the term "half-bound" is misleading, for there could be more than two "half-bounds" in the turn. Perhaps a better term would be a "cycle". Each cycle during the turn, as the sides fired at each other and their troops engaged in melee, the units on the field took casualties, and the casualty markers piled up. It was only when the turn ended that the actual effect of the casualty markers were determined, and transferred to the unit data sheets. Each unit was diced for, and I used the following table: 01 to 33 Each casualty marker yields 1 Loss Point 34 to 66 Each casualty marker yields 2 Loss Points 67 to 100 Each casualty marker yields 3 Loss Points Note that a low percentage dice toss was a good one, resulting in the minimum number of casualties. In one or two games, I tried an alternate method of determining the effect of the casualty markers carried by the units. Instead of recording casualties on the unit data sheets, I devised a table to translate the casualty markers directly into lost stands, which were then immediately removed from the field. Hence it was only at the end of the turn that unit strengths were diminished. The reason for developing this alternate method was that, when I presented a game at a PW meeting, and explained the original method, i.e., that the casualty total for each unit had to be tracked on a data sheet, the immediate response of one of the participants was: "Too much data taking!" Many gamers won't touch a set of rules requiring record keeping. In truth, I agreed with the dissenter. In solo gaming, I have no qualms about having to record data for each and every unit on the table, but when hosting a game with several participants, data recording definitely slows down the proceedings and interferes with the flow of the sequence. Not to mention the fact that the data sheets are strewn all over the table. Despite this, I still went ahead with the data sheets at the PW meeting, 2 participants per side, each commanding a number of 15mm ancient-type units... cavalry, archers, javelineers, heavy infantry, etc. Due to time restraints, we played only 3 turns, before we added up the resultant losses. But note that when I refer to a "turn", it's not the usual wargaming "turn", which consists of two half-bounds, in each of which one side is active. Here, the "turns" consisted of a number of cycles, and the full turn ended only when the accumulated ET for each cycle totaled more than 15. Clock Game ACW The next 'clock' game was for the ACW. I ran this solo, using my 30mm figures, and placed 5 towns on the field, and via some dice throwing, determined which towns were important (in terms of victory points) to the headquarters of the Confederates and Yanks. A regiment was defined to be 4 stands, and a brigade consisted of 3 regiments, giving a total of 12 stands per brigade. Again, I used two clocking mechanisms... one for the cycles within a turn, and one for the firing sequence. The battle lasted 5 turns... one of them contained 4 cycles, and the other four were composed of four cycles each. The small town of Frett's Farm proved invaluable to both sides, and the forces of both Confederates and Union converged there. Frett's Farm was composed of a square block some 6-inches by 6-inches... only a single regiment was allowed within the town, and it changed hands several times. The sequence I used is one I'm currently employing in several sets of rules: (a) The active side tosses a die, and if the accumulated ET is over 15, the turn is over, and the extent of existing casualties is assessed. (b) The active side moves all his troops, infantry and cavalry, 10 inches (c) The non-active side fires, using a 'clock' to determine the number of volleys he's permitted. A die is tossed, and as long as the accumulated ET for the fire phase is under 15, the firing side can continue to pick a card (FIRE or LOAD) from the fire deck, and hope to get his matched pairs of cards. (d) Both sides now select 2 regiments for a simultaneous 'free' fire, independent of the clock. (e) The non-active side's cavalry move 10 inches, giving them a chance to react to the movements of the active side's entire side. (f) The active side's units close to contact. One Saturday, Fred Haub appeared, and he took over the Union command. As in the former game, we randomly determined which of the 5 towns on the field were important. Once again, Frett's Farm (worth 30 victory points) was a Confederate key objective. We also chose a secondary objective, worth 15 victory points, and it turned out that both sides selected the town of New Hatch as their alternate goal. Key Item Changed One key item we changed in the sequence concerned Phase (c) of the above sequence. Although we still used the fire deck of 10 cards (LOAD and FIRE), no clock was used for the firing phase. Instead, we diced to see how many cards the firing side could draw: 01 to 33 Draw 6 cards 34 to 66 Draw 5 cards 67 to 100 Draw 4 cards You toss percentage dice, draw your cards, and see how many matches of LOAD and FIRE you could get. Each match permitted the side to fire. In the first few cycles, my cavalry galloped to New Hatch, dismounted and defended the 15-point town. Even though Fred's Union troops also had New Hatch as a secondary objective, he didn't seem in any hurry to assault the town. What he did do was to attack the second of my cavalry units, causing it to fall back, leaving the single dismounted unit to defend the town unsupported. He inflicted quite a few casualties on this second unit, and when the full turn was over, and we translated the casualty markers into actual losses, the unit had accumulated 15 points. Since a unit was removed from the table when it reached 20 points, I was reluctant to bring the unit forward again, and it played no further part in the battle. Note that casualty markers were picked up as follows: (a) When a regiment fired, its basic probability of hit (POH) was 30 percent, augmented by +5 percent for every firing stand. With 4 stands per regiment, the maximum POH totaled 50 percent. A toss of under 50, and one casualty marker was placed on the target unit. (b) A targeted unit took a morale test. If it failed to toss under 80 on percentage dice, it received another marker, and the owning player was faced with a crucial decision. He could hold the unit in place, with a 70 percent chance of receiving yet another marker, or he could retreat it 10 inches to the rear. (c) In combat, just prior to the two regiments coming into contact, each received a marker. Then we used a 'pre-melee' deck, the cards of which gave both sides an opportunity to bring in a supporting unit, or to fire, or to have the opposing side take a morale test. After running through the 'pre-melee' deck, the units struck at one another (50 percent chance to hit), and the winner was finally determined. The losing unit took another casualty marker. As a result of (a), (b), and (c) above, there were quite a few opportunities during the turn to inflict casualty markers on the opposition. And then, finally, at the end of a turn, the actual losses were determined as the casualty markers translated into loss points, the casualty markers removed, and losses recorded on data sheets. A total of 20 loss points wiped out a unit, and my dismounted cavalry in New Hatch soon reached this level, disappeared forever, and Fred's Union forces quickly occupied the town. At Frett's Farm (my primary objective), my regiments charged forward several times, but just couldn't hack it. Finally, I got smart... my entire line charged, attempting to contact every Union unit near Frett's Farm. In melee, bringing in a support unit of 4 stands was critical, since the total number of stands in the combat (lead unit plus support) was a multiplying factor in the determination of the winner. And so my intent was to 'soak off' every potential support unit that the Yanks had available near Frett's Farm, and attack Frett's Farm itself. And it worked! In the melee, both sides had only one unit, a 4-stand regiment. The charge took place in the middle of a turn, when both regiments still had a number of casualty markers on them due to previous firing phases, and the 'pre-melee' deck functions. I forget the exact number of markers we both had, but assume it was 6 each. We both multiplied the following by a 10-sided die: (No of stands in combat [4] + No of markers on opposing unit [6]) Note that if either of us had brought in a support, the multiplier for the number of stands in combat would have doubled. Here, however, since the numbers were equal, it was simply 'high die wins all'. And a brilliant victory for the Confederate forces! Back to PW Review February 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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