THIS project began as an experiment in using 10mm figures for old-school wargaming on a kitchen table.
Together with my regular wargames opponent, I refought the Action at Blasthof Bridge, aka the Battle of Blasthof Heath, from Young & Lawford's celebrated 1967 book Charge!
We had a lot of fun - me especially as I won with the supposedly weaker Imperialists - but there was no doubting that 10mm infantry are too fiddly for such use, being particularly susceptible to domino-style toppling.
Fortunately, at about the same time as this was going on I was reading Neil Thomas's inspiring wargaming books, which contain rules with an old-school feel but using multiple figures on bases.
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| Two of Neil Thomas's inspiring books |
The list is almost endless and I am lucky enough to own all these books, many in first editions.
ORGANISING AN ARMY
I want my forces to be describable in the same way as a real 18th-century army, ie consisting of so many battalions of foot, squadrons of horse and guns of artillery.
Accordingly the basic units in my rules are battalions, squadrons and guns, but each taking the place of several such real-life formations.
One of my pet peeves is when a wargamer goes to tremendous efforts to paint his figures but ruins the effect by mounting them on bases that act as obtrusive pedestals rather than a barely noticeable balancing aid.
Now, I accept no one could accuse me of going the extra mile in my painting efforts - I am satisfied if the effect from a distance is good - but I do spend that little bit of extra cash to get the thinnest possible bases.
That's why my figures, which are from Pendraken, are mounted on 1mm-thick galvanised steel bases from Products For Wargamers. Each base is 40mm by 20mm, apart from a general's base, which is 20mm square.
Infantry battalions have 16 muskets arranged in two ranks on two bases, plus an officer figure. I write "officer" but it could be a drummer or a sergeant with a halberd. Light infantry have six muskets in loose formation on two bases, plus an officer.
Cavalry squadrons have six troopers in one rank on two bases, plus an officer. Light horse are distinguished from heavy by being in a more ragged formation as well as having smaller mounts.
An infantry battalion's bases are set in a single row, while cavalry are usually placed one behind the other to reflect, as Thomas points out, the tendency of mounted units to keep a reserve. Light horse, however, may deploy in a single line to screen other troops from fire.
A battalion or squadron at full effectiveness will have its officer directly behind the centre of the unit.
When a unit suffers a hit from firing or meleeing, move the officer to the right to show that the unit has lost 25 percent effectiveness. This does not mean it has lost a quarter of its numerical strength but rather that its effectiveness has been reduced by a quarter.
When a second hit is suffered, remove one base and place the officer directly behind the centre of the remaining base. A third hit cuts the unit's effectiveness to 25 percent and is shown by removing the officer. A fourth hit removes the remaining base.
An artillery piece and its crew also use a 40x20mm base, but with one of the shorter sides as the front. I originally added horses and limber on a further base, but came to the conclusion that they take up a disproportionate amount of space. A gun's lost of effectiveness through hits can be shown by adding discreet markers.
If all this sounds a little complicated, I hope the photo below of French foot and horse, together with allied Bavarian artillery, will shed more light on the subject.
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| In the front line, reading left to right from the trees, the Touraine foot are at full strength, the Champagne have lost 25% effectiveness, the Alsace have lost 50% and the Wittmer 75%. In the second line, again scanning from the left, the Dragoons du Roi are at full effectiveness, the Colonel General Cavalerie have lost 25%, the Cuirassiers du Roi 50% and the Royal-Cravate Cavalerie 75%. On the hill is a Bavarian 9pdr gun without a team of horses and limber, and a 6pdr with. |
TURN SEQUENCE (but see COMMAND & CONTROL below for an intriguing alternative system)
1. Dice for the right to move first. The winner moves a unit, then the opponent moves a unit, and so on alternately until both players have moved as many units as desired. I call this semi-simultaneous movement, and it might mean one player moving several units in succession if the opponent has fewer to move.
2. Calculate musketry and artillery fire, all of which is considered simultaneous.
3. Calculate the result of hand-to-hand fighting.
MOVEMENT
Regular foot in firing order, ie in line in good order and so able to fire volleys: 6cm
All other foot: 8cm
Limbered guns: 6cm
Heavy horse: 10cm
Light horse and generals: 12cm
It takes a complete turn for foot to adopt firing order, and they may not fire that turn.
Guns take a turn to limber or unlimber. Pivoting a gun counts as movement (artillery may not move and fire), but can be done as part of unlimbering. If limbers are on the table, they are there for aesthetic reasons only and cannot be fired at or used as cover. They should be moved out of the way if other troops want to use the space they are occupying.
Troops may wheel up to 45 degrees without penalty. More than 45 degrees usually requires half a turn. However, an about-turn of 180 degrees is free, but a second in the same turn is penalised as for a wheel of more then 45 degrees.
All troops can pass through friendly light infantry without penalty providing they have enough movement to take them beyond the light infantry. Similarly, light infantry can interpenetrate any friendly troops.
Charging, ie movement intended to result in a melee, must not involve a wheel of more than 45 degrees, and any such wheel must occur in the first half of the distance covered. Only one unit can contact each face of an enemy unit.
The Variation
Wargamers are happy to use dice to help determine the outcome of firing, meleeing and morale tests, but movement is usually treated with a precision more suitable to chess.
I think this is unrealistic. A general could order troops to advance but he could not exactly calculate how long a regiment would take to follow his instructions.
Accordingly, roll a die every time a unit is moving 75 percent or more of its movement distance for that turn.
6: add 25% to the distance covered
2-5: no change
1: subtract 25% from the distance covered
This simulates terrain fluctuations and other unexpected matters that affect movement but are out of a general's control. It should be ignored if the result would be ridiculous, eg a unit advancing to defend a river bank being forced to enter the water.
Terrain
Players should decide before a game how hills, woods, rivers, etc affect movement. Alternatively, the effect of, say, a river can be determined by dicing when a unit reaches the river's banks.
MUSKETRY
All foot and light horse, except for lancers, can fire within a 45-degree arc of the front of their base.
Musket range: 8cm
Carbine range: 6cm
Roll one die for each 25 percent of a unit's effectiveness remaining and in a single line of bases, ie the rear base of cavalry in a normal two-deep formation cannot fire.
Scores needed for a hit:
Regular foot in firing order: 4-6
Light foot: 5-6
Horse, and regular foot not in firing order: 6
Subtract 1 from the score if the unit moved this turn.
ARTILLERY
Canister range: 0-6cm. Roll one die (halve the score if the unit's effectiveness has been reduced to 50% or lower).
Roundshot range: up to 24cm. Roll one die and halve the score (halve again if unit effectiveness is 50% or lower).
Halve the final score to get the potential number of hits. Fractions are rounded to the nearest whole number, but an exact half is diced for with a 50-50 chance of being a hit.
Dice for each potential hit, needing a 4-6 to score a hit on foot or horse, a 6 if the target is a gun.
A gun on a hill can fire roundshot over the heads of friendly troops who are at least two contours lower and are nearer the gun than the gun's target.
MELEES
A melee happens when the bases of enemy units come in contact.
There is no bonus for charging (the precise details of how units came to clash is considered a tactical detail below the control of an army's commanding general) but there are restrictions on who can charge whom.
Foot may not charge horse.
Artillery and light infantry never charge and never inflict casualties in a melee. The one exception to this rule is that light infantry in a wood or built-up area melee as regular foot.
Artillery may only be charged if it has no loose-order foot within 4cm. Artillery is automatically eliminated in a melee.
To resolve a melee, roll the following number of dice per 25 percent of a unit's effectiveness remaining.
Enemy unit
Hvy Cav...Lance...Other Lt Cav...Cl Ord Inf*...Cl Ord Inf#...Lt Inf
Own unit
Heavy Cav 1 2 2 1 3 2
Lancers 1 1 1 1.5 4 4
Other Lt Cav 1 2 1 1 2 3
Close Order Inf 1 1 1 1 1 1
*in firing order and attacked frontally.
#all other close-order infantry.
Frontally-charged foot may always fire before the melee starts.
Throw an extra die per 25 percent effectiveness when attacking in flank or rear, on higher ground, defending a river bank or defending a built-up area from troops outside the built-up area. These bonuses are cumulative. Round up or down as for artillery fire.
Each potential hit becomes an actual hit on a throw of 4-6.
After a round of meleeing, the side suffering more hits that turn, including any inflicted by firing, retreats a full move, with the usual possible distance-variation adjustment, and ends with its back to the enemy.
If the number of hits is equal, there will be another round of meleeing on the next turn.
A retreating unit is eliminated if its retreat is obstructed by another unit that is not light infantry or artillery. If the obstructing unit is of the same side, it must take a morale test unless it is a mounted unit retreated into a by a foot unit.
SAVING THROWS
A hit suffered from firing or meleeing usually reduces a unit's effectiveness by 25 percent, but some troops get a saving throw.
Roll a die for troops behind cover, cancelling a hit on 4-6.
Cuirassiers get an extra saving throw thanks to their armour, cancelling a hit on a 6.
MORALE
Test when a unit loses 25 percent effectiveness or more from firing, or loses a melee.
Roll a die. If the following score is not made, remove a further 25 per cent effectiveness.
Elite: 3-6.
Regular: 4-6.
Poor, militia: 5-6.
A general may be attached to any unit. Such a unit adds 1 to a morale throw. The general may switch units but is eliminated if the unit he is with is eliminated.
A unit adds 1 to its morale throw if it has a friendly unit directly behind and able to reach it in two turns by normal movement (such a friendly unit can only give support to one unit). Exception: light infantry and artillery units cannot give support in this way.
A unit that loses 25 percent or more effectiveness from firing, and fails the resulting morale test, retreats a full move - with the usual possible distance-variation adjustment - and ends the move with its back to the enemy. Exception: not applicable if an enemy unit with which fire has been exchanged also loses effectiveness and fails a morale test.
A retreating unit is eliminated if its retreat is obstructed by another unit that is not light infantry or artillery.
If the blocking unit is friendly, it must take a morale test, unless it is cavalry retreated into by infantry.
RETREATING UNITS
A retreating unit will be diced for at the start of each subsequent turn, needing a 5 or better to return to normal action. A general present with the unit adds 1 to the die throw.
Note that elite units are treated the same as other units - if they broke in the first place, something very serious must have happened to them.
NATIONAL/ARMY CHARACTERISTICS
Decide these on a battle-by-battle basis.
For example, Prussian foot at the Mollwitz refight added 1 to musketry throws and suffered no penalty for wheeling. Prussian horse in melees inflicated a hit on a throw of 5-6 instead of 4-6, and all wheeling cost half a turn.
RANDOM TERRAIN GENERATOR
For battles that are not historic refights, I like to use a random terrain generator to set the battlefield.
Because my figures are 10mm scale, and the move distances and firing ranges are suitably small, my 6ft by 2ft 6in table might seem overkill.
In fact I deliberately went for an oversize table to prevent the flanking edge-of-the-world effect that in my opinion spoils too many wargame set-ups.
Anyway, here is how the random gterrain generator works for battles set in central Europe.
1. Mentally divide the board into 12 sectors (two rows of six) each 1ft by 1ft 3in.
2. Roll a die for each sector, a 4-6 indicating a terrain piece.
3. If a terrain piece is indicated, roll again: 1-hill, 2-water (stream, river, lake or marsh, etc), 3-wood, 4-built-up area (anything from a farmstead to a walled town), 5-Player A's choice, 6-Player B's choice.
If the exact nature and size of the feature cannot be agreed by the players, more dicing will be necessary. This is also a good way to decide the route a river takes across the board.
Note that on average a battlefield generated under this system will have six terrain features but a stream or river might well run through several sectors while still counting as a single feature.
COMMAND & CONTROL
Old-school wargames traditionally featured no restrictions on the number of units that could move in a turn.
Then Phil Barker and the Wargames Research Group pioneered the use of pips (Player Initiatve Points). These limited the number of actions a player's army could perform in any given turn, and it is a system still popular today, although it is not favoured by Neil Thomas.
I sympathise with both sides of the argument, and I also very much like the thinking behind Bob Jones' Piquet set of rules. They use packs of special cards to govern how units move and fire.
However, Piquet in my view is unecessarily complicated and it has long been my plan to simplify the process as part of devising a wargame in which as many actions as possible are automated while the player (or players) sits back and watches history unfold.
I am still working on that project, but meanwhile Bob Cordery in his recently published The Portable Wargame has devised a Piquet-like system using ordinary playing cards.
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| Bob Cordery's The Portable Wargame is the latest addition to my wargaming library |
Here is the system, which I have slightly adapted to suit my circumstances.
Begin by allocating one player's army the red cards and the other the black ones.
1. Take the number of units, including the general, that the red army has, and divide by two, rounding up if not a whole number. The result is the army's median playing-card value.
2. Remove from two packs of ordinary playing cards the red median cards and the ones imediately higher and lower.
For example, if the red army has eight battalions of regular foot, six squadrons of horse, three guns, a light infantry unit and a general, it has 19 units, giving a median value of 10 (9.5 rounded up). Accordingly, remove the red 10s, 9s and jacks, giving 12 cards in all (remember, we are using two packs).
3. Repeat the process for the black army, giving a further 12 cards. Add two jokers, and shuffle well.
4. At the start of each turn, reveal the top card. The colour and number indicate who gets to activate how many units. For example, a red jack would mean the red player can activate 11 units.
Ignoring the usual TURN SEQUENCE, the player first fires any guns, each firing counting as one activation. Once the artillery has finished, he uses the remaining activation points to move units. Note that he must first move units that are retreating. Once he has used his activation points, or runs out of useful moves, musketry fire is calculated for any of his units that want to fire, and then any melees are resolved (neither musketry fire nor meleeing requires activation points).
5. Turn over the next card, repeating until a joker is revealed. A joker ends the turn, after which all the cards are shuffled and the next turn starts.
Here is an example.
Red has 19 units, as detailed above. Black has a similar army, but without the light infantry, and so has 18 units, giving a median value of nine. Accordingly, the black 9s, 10s and 8s are used, along with two jokers.
Turn One.
After the cards are shuffled, a black 8 is revealed, giving the black player eight activation points. He fires one gun, which can just reach the red light infantry, but inflicts no casulaties. He then orders six infantry battalions and a squadron of dragoons to advance,
The next card is a red 10, giving the red player 10 activation points.This is followed by a red jack, giving him a further 11 activation points. Another red jack follows, giving the red player a further 11 activation points, and then a joker, ending the turn.
Note that a general attached to a unit does not need to be separately activated - it can move with the unit.
One modification, suggested by Bob Cordery, is to take into account the skill of an army's general. For example. if the red army above had been a Prussian one led by Frederick the Great, its median value could be raised from 10 to 11.
Clearly the system can, like Piquet, lead to wild fluctuations in fortune. Bob Jones, and presumably Bob Cordery, would argue that this might seem unfair, but that the end result is more like what happens in a real batttle.
We shall see ...
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