If a little is good....

Contrary to my expectations, I found a little time to playtest yesterday. The table was still set  up from the last game but I thought the armies and Oberhilse & Faraway needed a rest. This was mostly for the sake of narrative, I didn't have the energy to invent a reason for them to refight the battle and am increasingly reluctant to bring them out if I can't fit the battle into the over all narrative. My ACW armies are free of all compunction, after all ACW battles are still happening! You can go see them. OK so the armies are smaller and they don't use live ammo but then neither do my "boys".

 Anyway, after about 1/2 hour I found myself think "ahhh 1/72nd ACW, a near perfect mix of figure size, game size, look and style, I could do just this and be happy". I had exactly the same feeling when playing with the 40mm 1840's toy soldiers, and with the 16thC ones, and the 25mm ancients. Good thing I have no philosophical problem with diversity!


Back to the rules, at first I was quite happy with the looser restrictions on who can shoot when. Used right it can feel quite natural. Soon though I found that it circumvented the maneuver rules and that it seemed odd to have a unit charge into melee, beat their opponent then fire a parting shot at them. The fact that I have read memoirs of troops that did just that makes it feel no less odd. The current rules have also re-opened the door to the cheesy tactic of waves of troops passing through each other and firing, like the British in the movie "Zulu". That needs to be fixed.

I see 2 possible paths  before me. Loosen up,  get rid of some of the admittedly artificial maneuver penalties, (going back to the tried and true distance penalties instead and don't worry about it or add a bunch more restrictions. Adding restrictions just seems to add to the gaminess and leads to more contradictions so I am leaning more towards loosening up.

I had gotten rid of drawn melees for a while but then brought them back. They made sense to me when units standing 3" away were "in melee" since it meant a prolonged firefight. Now units an inch away are having a firefight but those in contact are supposedly resolving something even more intense. I think I may give another try at the charger backing up 1" when there is a draw.

I liked dropping the break point restriction, stands seemed to disappear quickly enough without it but the other changes meant troops didn't have to  stop shooting to rally, of course it was harder to rally under fire but there is no penalty to trying. Not sure that's bad, as I said stands were dropping quickly where there was lots of fighting. Still, reintroducing a straggler result might encourage troops to wait until they're safe.

Flank attacks are still a problem. Why do troops making flank attacks always seem to roll a disproportionate number of 1's? I didn't like the fixed automatic 1 hit per stand but its better than the +1 to the die roll. I may experiment with using the new panic test with flank attacks and broken squares.

Sorry folks. Stay tuned.There'll be something tonight.

"Odd" Numbers

Its probably all this chatter about ship models and naval wargaming that put the thought in my head but today I dug out an old video tape of the Battle of the River Plate. Excellent movie btw and with real ships, including the HMS Cumberland playing herself along with other veterans of battles with Pocket Battleships..

The battle was fought in 1939. The movie was made in 1956, 17 years later.

In 1973, 17 years after the movie was made, I was standing watches on HMCS Mackenzie as part of my MARSII training. That makes it 34 years after the actual Battle.

When I was a kid, WWII had happened a lonnnnng time ago. Its been 39 years since that 1st cruise. that younbg officer cadet was closer in time to the start of WWII than he was to my current self. How odd is that? No wonder I sometimes feel like I was born in another century.   (I was)

Ok back to laying out an ACW game.

Of Babies and Bathwater

I was looking over the Reaction and the Break Point rules and thinking of various small issues (like the 1 stand regular units not being able to ever rally) and I could feel my brain secretly beginning to compile increasingly complicated modifiers, exemptions and restrictions and put the brakes on. I went back and had a look at the essentials of what had been working over the years and which formed the core of the reaction, break point, shooting and melee rules and looked at why I thought various bits had to change when I dropped the melee distance from 3" to contact.  

Right!. Most of the new extras didn't start out as new rule ideas, they started out as me trying to clean up and clarify the wording of existing rules. So I went back, looked at the older versions and looked to see what hadn't  needed changing. (You  will understand that given the number of drafts that have sped by, that is not as straight forward as it sounds!)


To summarize the changes which are mostly in wording with only small changes in effect and even smaller changes in intent. :

1. Movement distance penalties for crossing broken ground reinstated
2. Limbering and unlimbering put back in for artillery, just for the look and feel of it. 
3. A unit may shoot at any time during the turn, regardless of if it is active or not but may only fire once per turn. (replaces shooting reaction)
4. Some units may counter charge, change formation or evade  when charged. (as it was but replaces various of the reaction options)
5. Cavalry may opportunity charge 1/2 move if they did not move more than 1/2 their move yet. (replaces a reaction)
6. Shooting chart modified. The point blank cannister +1 intended primarily for pre melee fire has been replaced by a + in melee, other modifiers have been returned to what I have been used to and which have worked well. Some nuances may be lost as well as some gotchas.
7. Melee and shooting have been separated again. Removing the 3" zone wasn't meant to change that melee represents  close range fire fights as well as charges.
8. The elite/melee modifiers have been taken out again with the difference being reflected in the hits per stand. A double jeopardy issue which I am in 2 minds on..
9. The melee charge modifier has been adjusted again. The aim has always been to reward the initial punch of some charging units as well as the defensive punch of cannister and infantry volleys. I have also periodically tried to fit in first volley  and fresh unit bonuses and have gone back there. The other modifiers have been shuffled to harmonize and optimize.
10. Morale. Odd how giving some thing a name can twist it and give it new life. The term break point has been dropped in favour of just explaining how I work the accumulation of casualties and removals of stands. This has removed the gotchas. This means that in some circumstances, some units can actually fight to the last man a la Camerone but in general they will be increasingly ineffective and vulnerable and armies as a whole cannot.   

The new draft labeled 5th Edition has been uploaded.