Introducing 20th Century Square Brigadier

Well here we are, the first draft of The 20th Century Square Brigadier hss been posted as a blog page (see tab above). If this works I'll see about migrating other rules to the same format.

The changes to my original concept were a little more drastic than anticipated. Partly this was to harmonize but it was because I wanted the feel of units being shot at as they moved. I actually tried this with the Square Brigadier at one point but stumbled because I was using the same mechanism in melee but I've since found my way around that.

A key concept of the rules series are that things are relative. There are basic troop types which can have various attributes added such as inferior for shooting or superior in melee and so on to add more granularity and flavour. So US infantry would with bazookas might be rated as having superior anti-tank capabilities in 1943, average in 1945 but inferior when facing T34s in Korea unless they had the new 3.5" super bazooka.  So there is a crucial bit missing from the rules as posted, army lists with ratings, ranges etc.. I'll work at adding some samples for what I'll use before long but you can easily make up your own.

The Red Army attacks a hasty White Army trench line.
The lighting downstairs at night is too dim for the tablet camera but hopefully you can at least get an idea of the game set up.

The test game turned out to be Russian Civil War since that was ready to go. This means I didn't really get a chance to test the tank rules very far. What I did test worked well though.

I made up the scenario as I pulled troops and scenery out of the box and started laying things out. This is what I ended up with.
White Army is defending some hastily dug trenches counting as cover and a broken ground obstacle. (It looks like I am going to have to break down and make some simple,  robust,  barbed wire entaglements. Hate that sort of fiddly work.) They have:
White Army
Brigade HQ 2 area radius
Artillery battery with observer connected by telephone.
Battalion HQ 2 area radius
8 units of infantry average shooting, average morale and assault, inferior at
2 units mg
1 mortar direct area fire only, range 4

Red Army.
Brigade HQ 2 area radius
1 slow tank, inferior firepower
2 batteries of artillery, no observers

Cavalry HQ 2 area radius
5 units cavalry, no firepower, superior assault

Battalion HQ
5 units infantry average firepower,
1 mg
1 mortar direct area fire only, range 4.

White had insufficient firepower to even slow down Reds infantry but they did hurt it and repulsed the first attack on the woods. The Red gunners were spot on while they had targets but the Whites held on as long as possible, shifting reserves to hold the attack through the woods which was slowly working around the flank.

A headlong charge by cavalry on the other trench, supported by the tank, was repulsed bloodily. It was supposed to go at the same time as a flank attack over the river but the Red HQ rarely rolled high enough to move everything at once. Neither did White but being on the defense it was ususlly less critical. When that cavalry charge finally went in, it cost a regimental commander and 1/2 the men but they over ran the battery and cracked White's morale just as the last few companies of infantry on the other flank finally took the wood.

Urrah!

PS  I did start a test of a post WWII game but not only do I need a larger playing area (in terms of numbers of squares big enough to hold a tank) I also need to work out troop and equipment stats and army organization as well as building more terrain. The scenario at very least needs to be adapted to the small grid. :)