One test game is not much to go on but this one was promising.
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| After a lengthy approach march with several delays, the British force of 6 infantry, 1 light infantry, and 1 gun, are now engaging the French force of 4 infantry, 3 light infantry, and 1 gun. At least those were the starting numbers. Having pulled 15 cards from an ordinary deck of 54 (inc Jokers) I drew all 4!! Aces, each adding an extra unit to the appropriate side. |
It didn't take long to remember how much I hate halving casualties when the hits are few. Rounding down seems too harsh while rounding off generally means that half a hit as as good as a whole one. I decided to switch to halving the dice instead. Other than that, I was quite pleased with the game. It was fast and easy with my focus on battle plans rather than details, and just enough friction to make life interesting.
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| I'm afraid the British had a hard day, the infantry stopped several times to adjust their dressing or something, The artillery's powder took a while to dry out and their light infantry obviously hadn't gotten the bit about hiding behind trees and were wiped out early on. |
After the game, it struck me that it lacked any possibility of drastic results, everything was the long slog. Now as far as I can tell the long slog was common at this time and place but there were instances of sudden panic. Its taken some thought and exploration, including some of possibilities that I don't want to embrace, from morale checks to more complexity. In the end. I've chosen an old familiar, simple, option.
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| Still, it became a hard fight with heavy losses on both sides. At the end, the British retreated with heavier casualties and having lost 3 units broken , 2 of them line infantry, compared to 1 broken unit of French light infantry. |
The original draft included a version of my usual Rally rules but casualties didn't seem high enough to warrant it so I had taken it out. I have now upped the potential lethality of close range combat and brought back a rally rule which will allow broken units to retreat, attempt to rally and, if successful, come back somewhat weakened for another go or a last stand.
Oh wait! Does this mean I have to fight another game? Oh well, if I must.....
Here is today's updated version (click). (I'm still struggling to come up with a name. )
There is a system used in marking exam papers that could be useful here - if there is a doubt, you mark it with a D, accept it, and move on. Next time there is a doubt you give it a D and it doesn't count. In your case, simply say first time you round up (or down!), second time do the reverse.
ReplyDeleteI've settled for halving the number of dice.
DeleteOr you could play another game :)
ReplyDeleteWell, I had to test the modifications...
DeleteDon't you just hate it when a playtest reveals the need for another playtest? Terrible pesky thing, all this researching and testing and validating. Someone has to do it... sadly, it's not me...
ReplyDeleteLooks lovely. Cannot believe you pulled all four Aces... What are the odds? Wait...don't answer that...
Cheers;
Eric
Brave men don't count the odds :)
Delete(and neither do those who are great at doing arithmetic in their head!)
Good looking and thoughtful games as always. I think an advantage of a (simple) morale test is the possibility of troops falling back suddenly then possibly rallying just as quickly which helps break up what the 'hard slog'. My current exercise in simplicity is to just roll the morale dice, no factors, on the basis that the randomness of the dice roll covers the multitude of possible pluses and minuses.
ReplyDeleteThey used to be a standard for me. The problem came when I tried to match games to detailed histories and memoirs from the sorts of actions I tend to game, when I could get them, and the morale tests rarely if ever seem to give results which matched the history. So, recently I've been beating down the instincts built up over the decades (primarily from reading published rules) and going for the end result without "showing my work" as it were.
DeleteLove those figures Ross. Just superb.
ReplyDeleteHaving not read the rules despite you providing the link (naughty me), could you use a percentage chance of converting a part casualty, perhaps?
Regards, James
I could. I debated going back to using a saving throw or similar. If you are throwing lots of dice it usually evens out but as I adjust to small games with a small number of units, its often too arbitrary. I've settled on reducing the number of dice and that seems to do the trick and come closest to the sort of 1/2 effect used by the old Prussian Kriegspiel and Lawford & Young.
DeleteI also use a Rally rule which allows troops not engaged in a close fight to try and remove some hits. (the hits being supposed to represent fatigue, fear, ammo shortages, leader casualties etc as well as dead, wounded and stragglers.