A Square River Crossing.

Having spent a few hours on getting the revised Square Brigadier ready for another test this seemed like as good a time as any to try it out. Rather than do the encounter again I looked around for an attack/defense that would work with the terrain I had to hand. The result was a simple assault on a bridge.  I set the game in the early 1860's again so used the ACW chart.

Since Red lost the last game they got to defend. I gave them 4 units of infantry, 1 battery, 1 squadron of cavalry and a unit of riflemen. Blue got everything in the box which turned out to be 6 units of infantry, 2 of riflemen, 2 batteries and 2 squadrons of cavalry. The force seemed small so I restored the Blue Guards to Elite status, able to suck up an extra hit.  Blue units were allowed to scout 1 area of river bank each turn, discovering a ford on a roll of 6. It took most of the game but eventually the cavalry found one on the far right and crossed over. 

After an exchange of fire with losses but no clear winners, Blue charged across the bridge with one unit supported by another. The lead unit withered away but was replaced by a unit of Guards, a Brigadier went down but still troops were fed into the meat grinder. Counter battery fire backed by rifle fire pounded the lone Red battery. It was when I went to apply the Give Ground"  to extract the gun that I realized that I had boxed it in between troops and terrain and it wasn't going to be easy to get the gun out. By the time I cleared a retreat path, the battery had been shot to pieces. (It now occurs for me that I could have done retreated the guns through the infantry using the Passage of Lines rule. Oh well)

With heavy casualties in the melee, Blue's artillery advancing and cavalry coming around the flank it was time to pull back and defend the town and block the road. Too late, a counter attack by Larsen's Lancers was met and defeated, the company of Victoria rifles cut down and finally a second unit of infantry was broken and it was time to concede defeat and try to save someone.  

The game was as simple as it gets with an average number of units over all, perhaps a little small but took just a little over an hour to set up, play and put away. It also had enough tension to maintain my interest. Red's army was nearly destroyed with 5 out of 7 units being broken but while Blue suffered more hits, they were able to cycle most units out of the frontline and only lost 2 units in total. (The table would look less empty if I didn't remove figures as a way of tracking hits)  I was a little surprised at how effective the infantry fire was until I remembered that these were  Minie rifles not smoothbore muskets. Even so, I must note that Red rolled high all game while Blue brought the overall numbers back to average.    

Now I want to get some ancient or medieval troops onto the table. Hopefully that'll happen upstairs this weekend.

The rules as played are available here but I am including the ACW chart as an example..

Basic Unit Chart for the ACW
Army Commander may have ADC

UNIT	MORALE	MOVE		SHOOTING Range/To Hit	MELEE	SPECIAL
Infantry	4	2		2 / 5,6	4,5,6
Inf with smoothbores	4	2		2 / 6	4,5,6
Elite Infantry	5	2		2 / 5,6	4,5,6
Wilder’s Lightning Brigade Infantry	4	3		2 / 4,5,6	3,4,5,6
Sharpshooters	2	3		3 / 5,6	5,6	Skirmishers,
Mounted Cavalry	3	4			4,5,6	Shock
Dismounted Cavalry  smoothbore carbines	3	2		2 / 6	5,6
Dismounted Cavalry breechloading carbines	3	2		2 / 5,6	4,5,6
Foot Artillery Mixed battery	3	2	2 / 3,4,5,6		3,4,5,6
			6 / 5,6
Foot Artillery Rifled battery	3	2	2 / 4,5,6		4,5,6
			9 / 5,6
HorseArtillery Mixed battery	2	4	2 / 3,4,5,6		3,4,5,6	May give ground if attacked.
			6 / 4,5,6
Siege Battery	2	1	2 / 3,4,5,6		3,4,5,6	May not give ground.
			9 / 4,5,6
Light Artillery	3	3	2 / 4,5,6		4,5,6	May move 1 area in/out of woods
			4 / 5,6

Weeding, Pruning and Grafting - Wargame Style

Another run through of the meeting engagement but with double the number of units.

I really didn't feel like working yesterday. The smart thing would have been to run another play test and that's what I meant to do. Instead I spent several hours updating the Square Brigadier, pruning fiddly rules that I would probably never use or which could be added for a specific game.

An example would be facing and the ability to change it, especially for poorly  trained troops. Yes they did have a hard time maneuvering but was it that they couldn't maneuver at all or that they fell into disorder more easily while doing so and took longer? If the latter, a simple reduction in the number of hits they can take relative to better trained troops is not the same thing but just might be sufficient since the goals is to show that better trained troops are more likely to defeat poorly trained ones. If both sides are poorly trained, does it matter so much? It really means that each turn takes more time since I've never found any non-game examples of opposing units not being able to find some way to get to grips with each other.

Time and interaction is of course the  essence, especially with alternate turns and a possible flip of initiative.  The actions of the General come with significant delay between making a decision and executing it but the reactions of a unit commander to what is happening on the spot would tend to come much faster. One option is to have complex reaction rules which cross the rapidly changing situation with the training and experience of the troops and officers involved and their need to conform to orders. Another is to let the General decide on an overall plan and let the dice decide if his troops managed their part properly or not. There were lots of these clumsy attempts to include as many minor bits as possible and make players work for it but like weeds in a garden and old growth, they choke the good bits. Its a struggle to keep them in check but doing so puts the focus back on the contest between General's plans and wills and away from the details and processes and encourages a more exciting game.

Scale is another issue that I am struggling with when using a Grid. I do keep trying to remember that things are an abstraction but its way too easy to get hung up. Its easier as you go down levels. If each  grid area was 50 yards, I could pretty much handle things though I would still need to be more clever at handling the nuances simply. The trick is that many units then would occupy 2 or 3 grid areas which is a no-no or have to be split into sub units with rules to allow them to act together and anyway, the resulting battlefield wouldn't be big enough theoretically for some of the battles I want to fight.

If I bump the grid up to 200 or so yards that works better but oh gosh, all musket fire is between adjacent areas! I did play with having attacking units cross the border between areas and move into contact. Works ok with some basing and large areas but not so well where a base pretty much fills a grid area.  It also awakens another issue, We all know that rifled muskets had a longer effective range than smoothbore muskets but I'm having trouble finding an examples where troops with rifles stood and shot down musket armed troops without any return fire. The trick seems to be that rifles were rarely used at extreme ranges by massed troops and that  muskets had a range much greater than their accuracy encouraged them to be used at so troops just blazed back anyway. In game terms, with one range band and a grid, it seems better to make the rifles more effective rather than longer ranged. It all levels out at decisive or melee ranges any way. Chassepots vs Needle Guns may be a different issue.

The original Morschauser Meets MacDuff  did actually handle it this way and while I was looking for something more systematic, I think its probably the route to go so I've been looking back and grafting the older system back into the gridded game as well as the reduction of hits against cover such as used in last weeks simple game rather than the in the chance to hit.

 A later shot, just before things got a little bit better and then very much worse for the Queen's troops.

The diagonals are still being a problem for me. I am seriously thinking about admitting defeat and following Bob Cordery's foot steps and rule that all measurement and movement be through the sides. It would also be easier if I dealt only with squares or only with hexes, especially when it comes to adjacent units and melee but I have both and want to use both so I will persevere. The resulting games won't be precisely the same but as long as they both work in their own way I'll be satisfied.

So, more juggling to merge old choices in new ways and then another test.

** Square Brigadier is now updated and is available at left. **

Apparently last night's game wasn't exciting enough to keep Spinner (Whippet) and Aunt Delilah (or Diedi for short, eldest and smallest of the Italian Greyhounds) awake. She's what they call "Blue" so you think she'd be cheering. 

Rounding Off the Square Brigadier.

 Oberhilse and Faraway clash yet again, this time in the late 1850's.

My interest in using my 40mm 19thC toy soldiers in a more Morschauser-ly fashion does not seem to be waning with practice. When I get a chance I intend to try it on the existing 4" hex grid upstairs but for now, the ease of fitting 1/72nd terrain on the card table does not seem to balance the enjoyment I get from the bigger toy soldiers, even if the units are smaller and the whole look much more abstract and toyish. I also want to try the game grid free using my measuring stick  marked with 3" bands without any smaller gradation.

Rather than maintain two gridded games, I am in the process of taking what I like best from the improvised Toy Soldier Game and the Square Brigadier crossed with the test games of the SB and will just update the SB. I haven't updated the SB and all of its period charts yet but the rules as played tonight are posted below in Back of a Postcard fashion.

There are three main differences from the Square Brigadier as last played.

Command Control/ Sequence of Play.
Rather than a fixed turn sequence and PIPS I am reverting to the Initiative roll to see who goes first each turn crossed with a die roll for units beyond command control. The PIPs work fairly well when the number of units is strictly controlled but works less well when games end up with too high or too low a ratio of Generals to units. The other system has served me well for years and adds a nice bit of uncertainty and at times tension as well as a decision point.

Attrition vs  Degradation.
While the results of the OK/Disordered/Destroyed progression were fine over all, it just didn't feel satisfying to me  and the resultant seesaw didn't feel right either. I've gone back to the system used in the original Hearts of Tin where units take hits until removed. The twist is that I have beat my self down and removed the rally roll so that the attrition is one way which drastically shortens games or allows more units. Rather than rallying, players will need to pull out battered units before they break and keep a reserve to plug the gaps.Generals can still risk themselves to try to cancel hits as they come in.

Die Modifiers vs Hit/Dice adjustment
There is a lot to be said for a system that limits the absolute number of hits on units in cover etc rather than just the average number but there are issues as well, especially when the number of dice are low. Since the hit number is easier to adjust I've gone back to that and kept the number of dice low. Given the lack of rallying, the low number of dice should help prevent a too frequent occurrence of units being swept away in a single turn by lucky rolls.

A closer though not clearer shot of the new experimental Faraway Service uniform with the 1856 tunic and sun helmet being worn by the Royal Fusiliers along side the old shell jacket and forage caps or shakos of the other units. 

________________________________________________________________________________

A Game of Toy Soldiers v2
aka short form of The Square Brigadier v3.

4 Apr 2013
*** Please Note that this is only a partial draft with new ideas
for play testing**

Game Units: General, Reg Infantry: 4 SP, Irregular Inf, Militia, Arty, Cav 3 SP, Skirmishers, Machine Guns: 2SP  (SP may equal figures or be tracked)

Measuring. Diagonal counts as 2 squares. Front is an arc 45 degrees either side. (60 if hexes)

Sequence

Toss for initiative each turn. Winner chooses to move first or second. Ties repeat.

1st player moves or shoots any and all of his units, If not within 3 squares of general roll to move: 1,2, no move 3-6 obey orders. Fight Melees.
Repeat reversing roles.

Moves.

Infantry/Militia/Artillery 2,  Irregular/Skirmisher 3, Cavalry 4

+1 in column on road but may not move adjacent to enemy. Inf in square move 1. 

Artillery may not enter woods or town except on road. Cavalry, Infantry and Militia may only move 1 square into or out of woods. Lose 1 square to cross stream. Turns are free when moving.
Passage of lines: to move through a friendly unit, the moving unit must begin adjacent and must stop adjacent to the other unit. 

Must stop when moving into a square adjacent to enemy.

Shooting:
Target must be in front but if adjacent to direct front then fight melee. 

1 die per unit if small arms or shot/shell, 2 dice if MG or canister

  6 hits: Fortification or bow/jav vs heavy armour,

 5,6 hits Cover or skirmisher or arty or cavalry or bow/jav vs armour,
4,5,6 vs Other

+1 per die if arty vs dense or if sharpshooter or if superior firepower.


ACW Weapons:  Ranges: Musket, carbine:2, Rifled Musket:3, Sharpshooter 4, Mixed battery: Cannister: 3, Shot/Shell: 6   Breechloading small arms are superior.

Melee:

If adjacent to enemy to direct front. 2 dice per unit except 1 die for militia or skirmisher,

+1 die each supporting unit to flank or rear +1 die if cavalry attcking
-1 die if attacking over an obstacle or any but irregular or skirmisher attacking through difficult terrain.

The inactive player rolls 1st and hits are applied then active player rolls.

  6 hits: vs Fortification or vs heavy armour, or cavalry vs square

 5,6 hits vs Cover or skirmisher or arty or cavalry or vs armour
4,5,6 vs Other

Elite + 1 per die

Morale.

When a unit takes hits = SP it is removed. Units which are elite, fanatic, stubborn etc get 1 extra SP. Units which are demoralized, disaffected etc get 1 less SP than normal.

General with unit must try to steady troops if hit by shooting or melee. Decision to join may be taken after hits inflicted.  1=General hit, 4,5,6 = cancel 1 hit.

General in melee may roll. 1=General hit, 4,5,6 = 1 hit inflicted.

If general hit all units are out of command next turn. Replacement cannot join units.

(For things not covered, check Square Brigadier at left, most of it applies and all will once updated to V3.)