One of the more difficult aspects of warfare to simulate on the table top is the lack of information available to commanders on the field. As tabletop generals, we have an omnipotent view of the terrain, and god-like control of our own armies and their reactions. Several rules systems have tried to address this (with varying degrees of success), but most seem to resort to arbitrary or illogical restrictions on a player's options.

Our Friday night wargames group recently experimented with a new scenario form which attempted to address this problem. It resulted in an enjoyable evening of gaming which included two Federal brigades engaging each other in a thirty minute firefight, and two Confederate units fighting over a farmstead that one of them had recently set light to!

The game started with each commander (we had four on each side) receiving a set of written orders which laid out his objectives for the evening's battle. These orders were quite varied, and not part of an overall "battle plan." For example, the commanders on both sides received one of the following orders:

Brigade 1: You are surrounded by the enemy. Take and hold the nearest defensible position until reinforced.

Brigade 2: You are about to be relieved unless you show yourself to be more aggressive. Find the enemy and destroy at least one enemy brigade immediately.

Brigade 3: The enemy is believed to be bivouacking in this valley. You are to destroy all food stocks and farms, so as to deprive them to the opposition. Put all to the torch.

Brigade 4: The commissary has been raided by the enemy and a large portion of our foodstuffs has been destroyed. Secure the local farmsteads and food stocks and defend them until relieved.

Fog of War

To provide the fog of war, all figures initially deployed on the table were Federal, regardless of their actual affiliation. They could have been randomly determined, but this helped to drive home to the players that all was not as it seemed. Thus, while each commander knew what his own command was, he had no idea what any of the seven were. In fact, since I had set up the scenario before the group meeting, none of the players even knew how many brigades of each side were fighting!

Simple "spotting rules" were used, and the game order was modified somewhat. We were using the Fire & Fury rule system, modified as follows. Each player was assigned a suit from a pack of playing cards. That is, two players were "clubs", two were "diamonds", etc. At the start of each move I drew a card from the pack and the two players of that suit moved their forces.

After the movement phase, "spotting" was carried out by any and all commands in line of sight with one another. After spotting, all non-moving commands could fire at any of the moving commands in range (regardless of whether they had been correctly identified or not.) This was defensive fire. Then all moving commands could fire at any other commands in range (offensive fire). Finally, all melees were resolved. Then, another card was drawn from the pack, and the process was repeated.

Spotting was resolved in one of two situations: a moving player could spot or be spotted. First the range between commands was measured. and a D10 was rolled; the result was then read from the spotting table and the result applied to the spotting unit.

Spotting Chart

D10	0" - 2"	2" - 8"	8" - 16"	16" - 24"
1	Fire!	Fire!	Incorrect	Incorrect
2	Incorrect	Fire!	Incorrect	Incorrect
3	Unknown	Incorrect	Incorrect	Incorrect
4	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Incorrect
5	Correct	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
6	Correct	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
7	Correct	Correct	Unknown	Unknown
8	Correct	Correct	Unknown	Unknown
9	Correct	Correct	Correct	Unknown
10	Correct	Correct	Correct	Correct

Since our games are usually umpired, the umpire (secretly) rolls the D10, and the spotting unit's commander is handed a slip of paper with one of three words on it: "Fire!", "Friend", or "Foe." Only the umpire knew if this was correct or not. An "Unknown" result was randomly picked by the umpire and could be any of the three results.

The "Fire!" result was mandatory, and represented the local regimental/brigade commanders taking it on themselves to fight without waiting for order. Once this result is given, the firing unit must do so at every opportunity until it can correctly identify its enemy in accordance with the spotting rules. The Union fire fight referred to previously was only stopped by one of the commanders riding through the "enemy" lines. (He had correctly identified his "opponent"), getting into base-to-base contact with the other general, and getting him to stop firing!

Try this as an alternative to historical refights sometime. I guarantee that a lot of fun will be had by all participants.