Friday, March 11, 2022

Battle in a Box Played (link to rules fixed 24 Mar 22)

This game was a simple clash of advanced guards with equal forces (2 cavalry, 2 guns, 5 infantry inc 1 elite) on a 9x9 grid. Both sides were tasked with securing the crossroad within 12 moves. An army that lost 1/2 of its units would be forced to concede and retreat. The armies were the newly painted 1/76th (or 1/80th) Red (Dominion of Faraway) and Blue (Oregawn Free State or Rebels). 

Turn 2: The Dominion cavalry have seized the crossroad (imagine them dismounting). 
btw, the walls at the crossroads are actually Marx sandbag entrenchments from my WWI set. 

The rules used for the first game were the 2021 version of the Square Brigadier which was meant for larger armies on a bigger table for 3-4 hour games. That didn't really work so I went back to the original idea of rules for a small game on a grid, tested a rough version, tweaked them a little and finally they were back working the way they were originally intended to work. The revived  Square Brigadier rules can be found here.   (See 2012 Draft for comparison).

Essentially, the active player rolls to see how many groups of units he may move that turn. Units may move OR shoot then both sides resolve combat between adjacent units. With unusual firmness, I resisted the temptation to add more details with formations etc. All that 'stuff' is supposed to be handled by unit commanders, not the general (ie player). Combat, whether long range fire or point blank fire or assaults with cold steel, is resolved by rolling dice to achieve the appropriate score, with a minimum of modifiers.  I dislike removing figures without reducing a unit's combat ability but the goal was a simple game without rosters or markers and, in any case, removing 1 figure from a 4 man unit is not meant to imply 25% casualties! 

As the remaining units arrived and deployed, each side's plan developed. For the Dominion, it was easy, just hang tight and don't get flanked. For the Rebels, a frontal assault would have been difficult so it was either a  matter of roll up one flank while pinning the rest or else bombard the crossroad while  threatening both flanks and keeping a strong reserve with the hope that a last minute, well prepared, charge could take the weakened enemy position before the Dominion could react. Seemed like a long shot to me but.... that's actually how they won the 2nd test game. 


The Rebel's plan of weakening the defense by fire while massing to overwhelm one flank was hampered by rolling low for several turns both for orders and in combat!  


Eventually the dice evened out, but the Dominion had troops under cover and on the objective. 


As the day started to run out, the Rebels launched a desperate attack on both flanks but judging by the dice, their soldiers were exhausted while the Domion troops were exalted! There was nothing to do but retreat. 


Today I went back over the bases, inc the bottoms. Once I add a little bit more terrain, 1 more Red infantry unit, find or make a small, but not flimsy, box to hold all this, and decorate it like a playset with a photo of the figures in action etc, I can call this "a Wrap".







25 comments:

  1. Fantastic little battle. How much fun did you have compared to anything else you do? i. e. For the minimal investment, how much bang for the buck did you experience?

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    1. Hard to say. It was a short game and sometimes that's what is wanted or needed but they don't have the depth of a larger, longer, more complex game.

      Over all, since the investment was smaller, the bang per buck was probably the same.

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    2. This seems like the key question. How did you like the more "enclosed" gaming space?

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  2. I was thinking it might be nice to have a few multi-square hills, and a building or two, in addition to a few trees.

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    1. I contemplated some multi-square hills but since I will need maximum flexibility in the smallest container, I decided to stick with adjacent one square hills for larger hill areas. I will need a few more though. Haven't decided what to do yet about fitting buildings and trees into the box yet but I have a few ideas to explore.

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  3. >make a small, but not flimsy, box...

    (Just make sure any & all handles hold firmly.)

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    1. Handles? Nope, but the loosely imagined box will be thin enough to hold in the grasp of one smallish hand.

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  4. This has worked out really nicely and as a mini project is within the reach of most of us for easing the path to getting a game onto the table.

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  5. Looks great , good for a quick 'on the side' game .

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  6. Does the Flagbearer (color Sgt) have any bearing on the game (other than to add color)?

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  7. How many turns do you use in a game of this size (for card pulling purposes)?

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    1. I think I had half forgotten that a small quick game can be enjoyable.

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  9. As usual, Ross, your battlefields look attractive and involving. I was thinking, though, that there might be something to the 'Memoir '44-ish' approach of figure removal with 4-figure units. I have experimented with reducing the firepower commensurately (this about 4-5 years back) but that has a tendency to prolong battles as firepower becomes less effectual on both sides. The reduced numbers of figures more signifies a unit's ability to stand up to further punishment, rather than percentage losses of personnel.

    Cheers,
    Ion

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    1. Exactly Ion, and in a small area with small figures, its more practical than markers.

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  10. I like the idea! This has got me thinking about a similar thing for games night at the club now.

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    1. Its been in my head for a while but the early versions were games that would fit in a plastic tool box.

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  11. Ross Mac,

    Your smaller version of your game seems to have the same 'feel' and 'look', but just occupies less space ... which makes it very versatile and portable! Will everything fit inside a large file box or something of a similar size? That is what I am aiming for with my 15mm version of FP3X3PW.

    All the best,

    Bob

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    1. Thanks Bob, that was a top priority for me. I'm striving very hard to reduce the number of rules that I have to remember at the same time as I reduce the number of period/settings and scales etc..

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  12. Ross, I just tried the Square Brigadier rules, since I'm in my ACW campaign frame of mine. I really like the way you incorporated the DBA approach for unit activation and the definite feel of PW rules and combat resolution. And the sapper/engineering part is so simple and clever. I have not used engineering much in the past because the rules that I had were awkward, but these are just right. For me, it seems to work best for smaller battles (6-8 units) rather than larger ones, and I since like to be able to manoeuver around a bit, the size of the battlefield and the smaller number of units do that. Finally, I've been following the FP3X3PW rules development over in the Portable Wargame Group and the idea of taking what would have been one large battle, and battling it out in the smaller battles, with the ultimate victor being the winner of 2 out of 3 battles (or something like that). Thanks for the inspiration.

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    1. Thanks Dale, I've been periodically been adopting and adapting the DBA command system since a prepublication article in Slingshot back in the 80's. Both random AND able to be affected by the player's decisions.

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