Parliament's orders to Sir William Brudge were to take Crum Manor from the Royalists. A number of dice throws had decided that the Manor was already occupied by the Royalist forces of Lord Flamm, whose troops were slightly outnumbered by Brudge's men.
In the first battle on the grounds of Crum Manor, I ran both sides in solo fashion. The sequence was fairly simple, with the half-bound consisting of a sort of a basic "A move, B fire, Resolve melee" affair. But as described below, additional phases were set in so that the sides each had the capability of reacting to what the enemy was doing.
For example, after the active side moved its men, there was a fire phase for the opposition. And after this fire phase occurred, the active side got a chance to fire back with certain selected units.
I set out my 54mm ECW figures for the battle. There were 6 men per unit, which I termed a 'regiment'. A battle between 54mm figures always looks like a huge skirmish affair, no matter what the designation of the units.
I also employed a 'clock' to indicate the end-of-turn phase, at which time casualties on the units were assessed, and victory points tallied. Looking at the sequence, we find a series of 9 phases within the cycle of a turn: There are no 'half-bounds', since there may be several cycles (Side A is active, then Side B is active) within a turn. If, for example, we examine the last cycle of Turn #4, when Lord Flamm was the active side, we see:
- (1) a. A 10-sided 'clock die' was tossed for the Elapsed Time (ET). When the accumulated ET total reached 12, this was defined as the last cycle in the turn, and victory points assessed. In this case, the accumulated ET (after 3 previous cycles) reached 18, and after the following procedures in the cycle were carried out, the turn was over.
(2) a. The active side moved all his troops 10 inches. Lord Flamm's side was active, and one of his units attempted to erect a ladder to scale the walls of the Manor (70 percent chance). The unit was successful, but it failed the toss (70 percent chance) to climb the ladder which it had just erected. Another of Lord Flamm's cavalry units slammed into one of Brudge's slightly depleted halbardier units (it had only 4 men, having lost 2 men previously). And a third of Lord Flamm's units, a pike unit, had managed to cross over the hedge surrounding Crum Manor and was now on the Manor grounds.
(3)
- a. The non-active side, that of Sir William's, fired. Here, he drew 5 cards from a Fire Deck which consists of 12 cards (2 cards annotated 'Misfire', 5 as 'Fire', and 5 as 'Load'). The idea is to match up pairs of 'Load' and 'Fire' cards... each match-up permits one volley to be fired... every missile unit on the side can fire once. On this phase, Sir William, as the non-active side commander, drew 5 Fire Deck cards from the 12-card deck. He managed to get 2 match-ups of 'Fire' and 'Load' cards, giving his musket units 2 volleys.
b. Brudge's musket units each had a 60 percent probability of hit (POH). Each unit of Flamm's that was hit took a morale test, deducting from its basic 80 percent Morale Level, a negative factor of -10 for each hit (a casualty figure on the unit).
c. After the first volley, each of Flamm's units took a morale test. All of Flamm's units passed their first morale test, but two of them, having been hit in both volleys, fell back, due to the required morale test from the second volley. Note that there are two separate morale tests, one for the first volley, and one for the second. Each fall-back gave victory points to Brudge's side, to be used at the end of the turn.
(4) a. In this phase, the active side, that of Lord Flamm, got a single volley for each unit that was bearing loaded muskets. This loading procedure was carried out on the previous cycle as noted in Phase 8 below, when Lord Flamm's side was the non-active one.. Note that the Fire Deck is not used for this phase.
(5) a. The non-active side's cavalry units, those of Sir William Brudge, moved to react to the movements and actions of the active side taken in Phase (2), above. I should have said "would have moved", since Lord Flamm had, one or two cycles previous, eliminated both of Brudge's cavalry units.
(6)
- a. All combat is resolved. If we examine the charge of Flamm's cavalry against Brudge's halbardiers, we see that each unit starts out with a probability-of-hit, POH, of 50 percent to produce an impact on the enemy. Then we add, or subtract, a series of plus and minus "10's" to each unit's POH. If one side gets a "+10", the opposing unit gets a corresponding "-10". Thus as one side goes down, the opposing side goes up, with the total of the two always keeping at 100 percent.
b. The cavalry got a +10 just for being cavalry, and they got another +20 since the halbardiers had 2 men missing from their ranks (+10 for each man), and yet another +10 for a casualty figure on the halbardiers. This increased the cavalry's basic 50 percent POH to a total of +90%, and reduced the halbardiers' total to a POH of 10%. Not good for the halbardiers.
c. Both sides tossed percentage dice, attempting to throw below their POH. Each toss below the POH causes one man in the opposing enemy unit to fall back and not be counted in the final tally. The cavalry succeeded in their dice throw, and one halbardier fell back, while the halbardiers were unsuccessful, which was not surprising, since they only had a 10 percent chance of success. As a result of the dice tosses, the cavalry still had their 6 men, but now the halbardiers had only 3 men out of their original 6.
d. Add the surviving men in the two units, with enemy losses, and toss in a 10-sided die roll. The high product is declared to be the winner of the melee.
- Cavalry: Die x (6 men surviving + 3 enemy missing) =Die x 9
Halbardiers: Die x (3 men surviving + zero enemy missing) =Die x 3
e. Again there was no surprise as the cavalry were successful. The cavalry won, the halbardiers sent one man to the Rally Zone, and Lord Flamm picked up several victory points.
(7)
- a. The non-active side, that's Brudge, tried to rally his men (previous casualties) placed in the Rally Zone. All men within a unit rally together... it's all or nothing. The basic chance to rally is 40 percent, plus a factor of +10 for every man in the unit still remaining on the field.
b. For example, the halbardier unit, with only 2 men still on the field, had its basic 40 plus an additional +20 for the 2 active men, giving it total of 60 percent chance to rally. It was not successful, and the Brudge's 4 halbardiers remained in the Rally Zone.
c. At the end of the turn, all men remaining in the Rally Zone provide victory points to the opposition. Note that men who do not rally, simply remain in the zone, providing victory points to the other side. In this manner, men in combat do not "die"... they simply remain in the zone forever. The only way for a unit to be eliminated is via the procedures at the end of the turn, when the victory points are called into play (see Step (9) below).
(8) a. On this phase, each of the non-active side's missile bearing units had a 60 percent chance to load their weapons. This will ready them for the next cycle when the side becomes active, and Phase (4) above, is reached. Brudge was the non-active side, and most of his missile units reloaded their weapons.
(9)
- a. This was the last cycle in the turn as noted in Phase (1) above, since the Elapsed Time had totaled 18. The effect of casualty figures was assessed, victory points were collected, and the sides attempted to eliminate enemy units. About half the units on both sides had one or two casualty figures on them, the result of firing or melee. The first function was to evaluate the casualty figures.
b. Each casualty figure on a unit yielded 25 points toward further reducing the unit. The halbardier unit previously referenced, had one casualty figure and looked at the following chart, where the Total Casualty Points were 25.
| . | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| . | 1 man to Rally Zone |
| Total Casualty Points | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| . | 1 man to Rally Zone, Unit falls back 5 inches |
| 1/2 Total Cas. Points | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| . | 2 men to Rally Zone, Unit falls back 10 inches |
| . | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
b. Note that if a unit has a casualty figure on it, at least one of its men will always flee the field for the Rally Zone. In the halbardiers' case, they tossed high, and sent another man into the zone... they now had a total of only one man on the field.
c. The second function of this last phase in the cycle was to add up each side's victory points. A side receives 1 point for every man still lingering in the opposing side's Rally Zone. Here, in Brudge's Rally Zone, he had 11 men, giving Lord Flamm 11 points. Flamm had, in addition to this bonus, another 12 points, the result of previous morale test failures on the part of Brudge's men (3 points each), and victories in melee (3 points each). Flamm had, therefore, a total of 23 victory points.
d. Each 10 victory points gives a side the opportunity to point to an enemy unit, and force it to take a morale test. A failure here is not just a fall back, but complete annihilation of a unit. e. In fact, this is the only way to eliminate units on the field. Casualties from firing and melee are placed in the Rally Zone, and even if they don't rally, they still linger there, turn after turn, giving the opposition victory points.
f. The first unit picked on by Lord Flamm was that of the poor halbardiers. With only 1 man on the field, its basic Morale Level of 80 percent was reduced by 10 percent for each missing man (5 of them), producing a final Morale Level of 30 percent. The unfortunate unit failed its test... off the field it went... forever.
At this point in the battle, via several victory point morale checks, Flamm had caused 4 of Brudge's units to flee. A man can bear only so much. Brudge ordered his troops to retire, took out his laptop computer, and composed his letter to Parliament... "My Lords, it is with regret that I must relate the news of a critical defeat of our forces... "
One item of interest in this battle. During the battle, a friend of mine dropped by, a fellow retiree, a fella who had never wargamed, an innocent youth who had never even seen percentage dice before. I explained the dice configuration, and persuaded him to play the part of Lord Flamm for a cycle or two, and move Flamm's troops across the table.
I have to say that he leaped to the occasion, catching on to the rules quickly, and smashing away at Sir William Brudge's men very effectively. And then he asked a question about the casualty figures I used to represent the hits on a unit. Why, said he, why do you use 'regular' figures to mark casualties?
I have no prone casualty figures for my 54mm ECW collection. I do have excess figures, and I had painted a quantity of these 'normal' figures, mounted singly, and each time a unit received a hit, one of these figures was placed with the unit.
I explained what I was doing, and showed him the prone casualty figures I used for my other wargaming sets... 15mm Napoleonics and 30mm ACW and 20mm WW II and 40mm Elastolins and 25mm WW II and 15mm ACW and so on. He was impressed, and fully agreed that use of the 'normal' figures to indicate casualties in this 54mm battle, was much more preferable than simply tipping a figure over on its side. A man after my own heart.
A word on the unit organizations I used. Most of the infantry units were composed of 6 men... a stand with one figure, a stand with two figures, and a stand with three figures. This enabled me to 'make change' as a unit took casualties, and men were sent to the Rally Zone.
Due to lack of cavalry figures, the cavalry units were composed of only three men. But in melee and in the morale tests, I counted each figure as 2 men, bringing them up to snuff. The manufacturer of the infantry figures had never come out with a line of cavalry figures, and at various conventions, I picked up a quantity of 54mm ECW cavalry manufactured by other sources.
Another type of unit which had less than 6 men in it was the 'forlorn hope'. All ECW battles must have forlorn hopes, and my forlorn hopes had 3 men in them. They had little fire power, they meleed ineffectively (that's why they were 'forlorn'), but they were there to give that ring of historical authenticity to the rules.
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© Copyright 1999 Wally Simon
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