After you have read about many of the battles between the forces of her Imperial Majesty Victoria and those which she meant to control, or about the incursions of the French Legion into North Africa and Indochina; or other similar conflicts you might get the strong urge to conduct your own battles and campaigns using military miniatures and or maps. If you are so inclined, your local hobby store probably carries military miniatures, wargaming magazines, and various map/board games. You may have played some of these games and become fascinated with them. Then low and behold, you wish to develop your own games concerning the history and incidents which you found particularly intriguing. But how does one do it! I have known many battlegamers who have worked off and on for years and never developed a satisfactory game, that is one which could be played by others without constant haggling and ill feelings. GAME DESIGN is a fascinating challenge, especially if you are trying to simulate a particular period of combat. In the following discussion I will try and outline the principles and ideas you can use for your game design and possibly develop a following of other enthusiastic players. The world of game design is almost limitless, but this series of articles will concentrate on small skirmish battlegames and the colonial period between 1840 to 1900. THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES These principles are rather subjective but based upon 35 years of refereeing, playing wargames, and developing miniature armies. Most enthusiasts that I know would embrace these principles. 1) Battlegames should play quickly and be brought to some kind of conclusion in less than three hours. 2) Rules should be straight forward, coherent, free of illogical quirks. and contained in a well organized rule book. 3) Most events should be governed by chance. Very little happened in a lockstep predictable manner in the real world of skirmish warfare. 4) Players should have frequent tactical choices. 5) Risk assessment should also have to be made frequently. 6) Outcome of the battle and winner should be based upon meeting (or not meeting) scenario objectives. 7) Dice (mostly ten sided % dice) are used to for action results. ORGANIZATION OF RULES The game is made up of rule elements such as move, melee, volley, etc. The rule elements have been organized as follows. Each element will be discussed. Various options which you might want to consider will also be reviewed. Then it is up to you to put your game together in a coherent package. RULE ELEMENTS: 1] Sequence of play 2] Turn 3] Commands 4] Moving 5] Melee (hand to hand fighting) 6] Firearms 7] Artillery, Gatling guns 8] Ambush-"fog-of-war" 9] Officers/Khans/Chiefs 10] Tactical Advantages 11] Terrain 12] Morale/Wounded 13] Dice and Chance For ease of reference lets assume we have two armies opposed to each other. Each army has five units. BRITS: [B1]-Squad of 6 guards. [B2]-Squad of 8 Sudanese foot. [B3]-Field gun with crew of 3. [B4]-Lancers, 3. [B5]-Command group with one senior officer and bugler. DERVISHES: [D1]-Party of 10 Beja foot warriors, no firearms. [D2] -Party of 8 Ansar warriors with Jezals. [D3]-Old brass cannon w/crew of 4. [D4]-Party of camel warriors w/sword and spear. [D5]- Khan with 2 chiefs: mounted. 1) Sequence of Play For skirmish type warfare, the concept shown in the original The Sword and the Flame has become very popular. If the two armies shown above were on the table, a playing card would be drawn to determine who moves first. The Dervish army would move if a black card was drawn. The Dervish player would then choose one of his five forces to move. They would execute the move. Another card would be drawn, maybe signifying that the Brits player could choose a unit to move. This continues until each unit has moved including commitment to Melee. The same would be done for volley and cannon fire. Another version would be to have all of one army to move first, the second army countermove. Simultaneous artillery and cannon fire would then take place with simultaneous casualties. The same for rifle and Jezal volleys. A third version would be the one used in my Sudan Battlegame"*. Each unit in an army can take an "action". Which army that can take an action is determined by a roll of a die - even number the Brits have the "action", odds number the Dervishes have the "action". This continues until all units in each army has taken an "action" or declined. An "action" can be: move, fire, attack, move and fire, fire and move, dismount fire,"hold" etc. - anything the unit is allowed to do , or you might say in its repertoire. A note about "hold"- this innovation allows a unit which has an "action" to place a "hold"marker next to the unit. This allows the unit to withhold firing until a target of opportunity presents itself. An unit with "hold" action cannot do anything else during that turn. "Hold marker" can only be removed at end of "turn". 2) Turn During a battlegame there are usually 5 to 10 turns for a complete skirmish and a winner/loser/tie is determined. A " turn" is defined as a complete sequence of actions in which every unit or element of each army had an opportunity to take an action and morale questions have been adjudicated. If cards are used to determine the sequence of play, a drawing of a joker or some other card(s) results in the cancellation of all other actions during the turn. Dave Love has had several skirmish games in which this technique was used. It discourages the temptation to withhold an action to the last so as to gain an advantage. If you are using a campaign overlay to your game, 10 turns is often described as a day of campaigning. Map moves can be described as a 1/2 day of campaigning or 5 table top turns. This keeps the map play and table top play in proper order. In a campaign game the armies are allowed to reenforce each other by moving a token into the table top map area. The Sudan Campaign Wargame* outlines in detail this technique. 3) Commands Commands are given to direct your units. Whenever a player wishes to direct his unit(s) he gives a command to that unit. The commands allowable vary from type unit to type unit. These commands can be given verbally for immediate action, or written down before the turn begins, or checked off on an order card which is placed face down beside the units at the beginning of the turn. The type of commands commonly used are as follows: MOVE [ONLY] MOVE [1/2 DISTANCE] -FIRE FIRE [ @ 1/2 EFFECT]-MOVE ATTACK/MELEE IN PLACE FIRE [ENHANCED EFFECT] AMBUSH/ATTACK DISMOUNT-FIRE FIRE-MOUNT AND MOVE RIDE-FIRE-RIDE [CAVALRY] FIRE ARTILLERY REPOSITION-FIRE ARTILLERY There are many more commands you may use. Make a list for each type of unit and add your own ideas. Back to Table of Contents -- Savage and Soldier Vol. XXIII No. 3 Back to Savage and Soldier List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1992 by Milton Soong. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com