Ben Pecson has a neat-looking army of 25mm American Revolutionary War figures. They're mounted 2 to a stand, except for artillery, which has several crewmen on the stand.
Ben wanted a very simple set of ARW rules, which would result in a fairly fast-moving game. Together, one Sunday afternoon, we worked out the sequence and procedures, played two quickie games and, in general, were satisfied with the initial results.
Infantry units - termed regiments - were composed of 5 stands. Two such regiments were defined as a brigade.
The '70 percent solution' in the title comes from the employment of a 'standard' 70 percent mandate in several of the procedures.
- (a) All regiments started with a 70 percent morale factor. Each lost stand reduced the 70 by 10 percent
(b) A change of formation required the unit to pass a 70 percent 'control' test.
(c) When crossing rough terrain, all units, regardless of formation, tested. There was 70 percent chance that the unit proceeded unimpeded. If it failed the test, it immediately stopped. Note, therefore, that if a column entered the woods and wished to deploy, it had to pass two 70 percent tests... one for entering the woods, and one from item (b) above, to change formation.
(d) A unit could move straight ahead with no problem. If, however, it was to deviate from 'straight ahead', and wheel and then go forward, it had to pass the 70 percent 'control' test. If it failed, it remained immobile. The only exception to this deviation rule was a unit in column. It was assumed that a column could wind and twist its way across the field with no problem.
(e) During the fire phase, a unit had to fire straight ahead. If it needed to pivot and face its target and then fire, it had to pass the 70 percent 'control' test. If it passed, it could then fire, but its firing percentage was decreased a wee bit to account for the additional movement.
(f) When a stand was hit, it was placed in the Rally Zone. During the bound, a rally phase occurred, and each stand in the Rally Zone was diced for. There was a 70 percent chance that it rejoined its unit. If it failed, it was removed form the field. Each subsequent stand that attempted to rally cumulatively decreased the rally percentage by 10 percent. This meant that after two stands had successfully rallied, and the rally percentage was down to 50 percent, a side might choose not to rally any other stands that phase.
From the above six listings, you'll note that the 70 percent factor was the end-all and the be-all in the rules. Easy to remember, easy to implement. Use of the term 'control' for several of the tests was introduced to indicate whether or not a unit received its orders to perform as its officers wanted.
In our battles, each of us had two brigades of infantry (2 regiments, each of 5 stands), one regiment of cavalry (4 stands), and an artillery battery (1 stand).
In the middle of the field was the small village of Crumpton, and I, as the American commander, was permitted to place one regiment of five stands in one of the houses of the village. Ben's British forces appeared at his baseline and marched forward.
In the sequence, cavalry, per bound, could move a grand total of 40 inches, as opposed to the mere 10 inches of the infantry units. This was because the cavalry moved twice per bound, each time advancing for 20 inches. Note in the listing below, that the active side's cavalry move 20 inches (Phase a, below), and then, on the next half-bound, when they belong to the non-active side (Phase b, below), they move again. There were 5 phases per half-bound.
- (a) Active Side moves infantry 10 inches, cavalry 20 inches.
(b) Non-Active Side's cavalry move 20 inches
(c) Simultaneous fire from both sides. Each time a unit was hit, one of its stands was placed in the Rally Zone. I should note that if I had my druthers, I would have knocked out the simultaneous firing phase and permitted, first, only the Non-Active Side's units to fire, and second, a few of the Active Side's units to return fire.
(d) Resolve melee, which resulted from the contacts made during the previous movement phases. Here, too, casualty stands were placed in the Rally Zone.
(e) Rally. Here, all casualty stands resulting from the firing and melee phases, which had been placed in the Rally Zone, tested to see if they came back on the field.
I moved my American cavalry regiment in a huge sweeping movement, clockwise around the field. At 40 inches per bound, it took my horsemen 2 full bounds to reach the other side of the field. And there, unsurprisingly, were the British cavalry.
Each unit had 4 stands, and we paired off the stands, tossing a 10-sided die for each. If the cavalry had faced infantry, its stands would have received a +1 to their die toss. Here, with cavalry versus cavalry, it was simply 'high die wins'. Almost, that is.
Each half-bound, each side was dealt, at random, one 'melee card'. This came from a deck of 8 cards, consisting of four "1's" and 4 zeroes. The side could play its card in one melee during the half-bound. If its card was a +1, that added to the die roll, if it was a zero, it added nothing.
On this bound, my card was zero, and I couldn't augment my cavalry's die tossing. Ben, however, had a +1 on his card, and so, on every toss, he added his +1.
Despite his +1 advantage, my boys beat up on his boys... the result was that, as the loser, he lost two of his stands to the Rally Zone., and I lost nothing.
The regimental stands that I had placed in the town didn't do too much, in fact, they did so little that I took them out of the village to get them into the battle. This particular unit proved a poor one... they failed to obey their orders to deploy (70 percent chance), they failed to run into the woods (70 percent chance) and they failed to pivot to face the target when firing.
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© Copyright 1999 Wally Simon
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