I have tried everything, from going without command and control altogether (Neil Thomas's preference), to Bob Cordery's card-based system from The Portable Wargame, which is essentially a stripped-down version of Brent Oman's Piquet set-up.
But in the end I found that what works best is Phil Barker and the Wargames Research Group's pips, or action points as I like to call them.
How it works in Game Of Kings is that an army is divided into three sectors - typically a centre composed of foot, the general and probably guns; and two flanks, each composed of horse and possibly light infantry (but the exact composition of each sector will partly depend on the particulars of the battlefield).
Players move alternately. When on turn, a player rolls a 10-sided die - this is the only time a die other than a six-sided one is used - to see how many action points the centre gets, and two distinguishable, eg differently coloured, ordinary dice to see how many action points each flank receives.
For each sector, use action points in the following order, the player choosing which sector goes first.
1. Try to rally retreating units (this is the only compulsory use of action points).
2. Fire guns.
3. Move units (a gun that has been fired cannot also be pivoted, limbered or otherwise moved).
4. Fire muskets, carbines and any other missile weapons.
5. Resolve melees.
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| Two battalions of Bavarian Kurprinz Foot flank a 9pdr gun. Behind them a half-battalion of Kurprinz Grenadiers is beside a horse-and-limber team, illustrating why I no longer use limbers (the space they take up is disproportionate) |
Foot in firing order and so able to fire volleys: 6cm
Other foot: 8cm
Limbered guns: 6cm
Heavy and medium horse: 10cm
Light horse and generals: 12cm
But see The Variation below
As mentioned in the caption to the picture above, I no longer use limbers for my guns as I think they look out of proportion to other troops, but a marker can be used to show if a gun is limbered.
It takes a pip for a foot battalion to adopt firing order, and it may not otherwise move or fire that turn. However, a battalion can fire even when not in firing order, but, as will be seen under Musketry, the chances of it being effective are much reduced.
Heavy-cavalry troopers carried more equipment than their medium-cavalry brethren, but had better mounts, hence their movement rates are identical.
A gun needs an action point to limber or unlimber, but the gun may be pivoted as part of unlimbering.
Foot and horse can make a 180-degree about-face without loss of movement, although it does cost an action point, but a second about-face in the same turn reduces movement by half as well as costing a second action point.
All troops can pass through friendly light foot without penalty to either group, provided they have enough movement to take them beyond the light foot. Similarly, light infantry can pass through any friendly troops.
There is no bonus for charging, either in terms of movement or melee effectiveness - such matters are deemed to be at a tactical level far below the immediate concern of the general.
When a unit wheels, measure the distance from the front-centre of the unit.
The Variation
Dice are generally used to help decide the effectiveness of musketry, artillery fire, hand-to-hand fighting and morale, but in most rules movement distances are fixed.
I believe this is unrealistic - a general can order a squadron of dragoons to try to seize a hill, but he cannot know exactly how long they will take to reach the hill. Perhaps an unsuspected feature of the terrain will hold them up, or maybe they will be inspired to gallop faster than an enemy squadron trying to take the same hill.
Accordingly, uncertainty is added by rolling a die if a unit is moving three-quarters or more of its maximum move distance. If 6 is thrown, add 25 percent to the distance covered; if 1 is thrown, subtract 25 percent.
Exception: if a unit has been ordered, say, to line a river bank, it would be absurd to make it overshoot and enter the water thanks to The Variation rule.
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| My regular wargaming opponent is a huge Francophile, and his hero is Maurice de Saxe, shown here with the Picardie Foot and Gendarmes de la Garde |
A unit can fire within a 45-degree arc of its front.
Musket range: 8cm
Carbine range: 6cm
Roll a die for each 25 percent of effectiveness that is remaining and is in a single line of bases.
Minimum score for a hit: regular foot in firing order, 4; light foot, 5; regular foot not in firing order, and dismounted horse, 6.
-1 if unit moved this turn.
ARTILLERY
A gun can fire within a 45-degree arc of its front.
Canister: 0-6cm. Roll a die and halve the score to get the potential number of hits.
Roundshot: up to 24cm. Roll a die and quarter the score to get the potential number of hits.
(Separate rules for howitzers are unnecessary as they were a small part of any army, and Game Of Kings is not at the low tactical level where their different performance might become relevant.)
Halve the number of potential hits if the gun's effectiveness is 50 percent or less.
If the final result is a fraction, round the number of potential hits to the nearest whole number, but if the fraction is exactly a half, roll a die with a 50:50 chance of the half becoming a potential hit.
For each potential hit, roll a die. A 4 or more means a hit on foot or horse, but a 6 is needed if the target is a gun.
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| Artillery was often sited on a hill |
A melee occurs when bases of rival units come in contact.
Foot cannot initiate contact against horse.
Guns and light infantry never initiate contact and never inflict melee casualties (exception: light foot in a wood or built-up area can melee as regular foot).
A gun can only be contacted if it has no friendly regular foot within 4cm. Guns so contacted are automatically eliminated.
When a melee occurs, roll the following numbers of dice for each 25 percent of a unit's effectiveness (casualties are inflicted simultaneously by each meleeing unit):
Enemy unit:...……..H/MCav...Lan...LCav...Inf (ff)...Inf (oth)...LInf
Own Unit
H/MCav...…………….1...…….2...…..2...…..1...……..3...…….2
Lan...………………….1...…….1...…..1...…..1½...…...4........…4
LCav………………….1...…….2...…...1...….1...……..2...……..3
Inf...…………………..1...……..1...…..1...…..1...……..1...…….1
H/MCav = Heavy or medium cavalry
Lan = Lancers
LCav = Light cavalry
Inf (ff) = Infantry in firing order and attacked frontally
Inf (oth) = Close-order infantry at other times
LInf = Light infantry
Inf = Close-order infantry (remember, light infantry cannot inflict melee casualties except when in a wood or built-up area)
Add one die per 25 percent effectiveness when attacking in flank or rear, on higher ground, defending a river bank or defending a built-up area against troops outside the built-up area. Bonuses are cumulative. A half die has a 50:50 chance of becoming a full die.
A unit meleed from the rear only rolls half its normal dice.
For each die rolled, a 4 or more is a hit.
If infantry is contacted frontally by an enemy unit that began its move outside of musketry range, the infantry may fire prior to the melee being fought, but have a -1 modifier on each throw for a hit. (this rule was inadvertently omitted from the June 2018 version of the rules)
SAVING THROWS (for hits from firing and in melees)
Cuirassiers suffering a hit roll a die, needing a 6 to cancel it unless the hit was from roundshot. (an addition to the June 2018 edition of the rules)
Troops suffering a hit when behind cover roll a die, needing a 4 or more to cancel it.
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| A large cavalry melee during my 275th anniversary refight of the Battle of Chotusitz |
Test any unit which, during a half-turn (a turn consists of Player A's actions and then Player B's), has lost effectiveness to firing or has lost a melee.
Roll a die, needing the following minimum score to avoid losing a further 25 percent effectiveness: elite, 2; regular, 3; poor, 4. (these numbers are decreased by one from the June 2018 edition of the rules)
+1 if a general is attached to the unit (he is eliminated if the unit is eliminated).
+1 if a friendly unit (not light infantry or a gun) is to the rear and could reach the testing unit in two normal moves (a friendly unit can only add support in this way to one unit per half-turn).
A unit that fails its morale, and a unit that loses more hits in a melee regardless of whether it fails a morale test, immediately retreats one move (with the normal possible Variation), ending with its back to the enemy.
On subsequent turns, action points must first be used to try to rally retreating units. A 5 or better is required to halt the unit so that it can return to normal action on the following turn. A general with the unit gives +1 to the rallying throw.
A retreating unit is eliminated on the first move if a retreat is obstructed by horse or foot (except if the foot are light infantry). If the blocking unit is friendly, it must take a morale test, unless it is horse retreated into by foot.
Formed foot lose their firing order when retreating and so have an 8cm move.
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| Looking from behind the French lines at my refight of the Battle of Sahay |
This, with minor amendments, comes from Charlie Wesencraft's With Pike And Musket.
At the start of the game, roll dice to determine the weather according to the weather gauge below.
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| A simple weather gauge |
3 = light rain
4-10 = fair
11 = light rain
12 = heavy rain
At the start of each subsequent turn, roll one die to determine if the weather has moved down one notch (a throw of 1 or 2), stayed the same (3 or 4) or moved up one notch (5 or 6).
Weather affects units as follows:
Fog = visibility reduced to 6cm (unseen foes cannot be fired at); movement reduced by 50 percent.
Light rain = all musket and carbine firing suffers -1 per die.
Heavy rain = movement reduced by 25 percent; all musket and carbine firing suffers -2 per die.
Fair = no effect, unless the gauge stays on the same fair number for a third turn, in which case extreme heat reduces movement by 25 percent for as long as the gauge does not move.
RANDOM TERRAIN GENERATOR
For non-historic battles, a random terrain generator can be used.
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 a flanking edge-of-the-world effect that in my opinion spoils too many wargame set-ups.
Anyway, here is how the random terrain generator works.
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.
NATIONAL/ARMY CHARACTERISTICS
Decide these on a battle-by-battle basis.
For example, Prussian foot at my Mollwitz refight added 1 to musketry throws, while Prussian horse in melees inflicted a hit on a throw of 5-6 instead of 4-6.
VICTORY
Total each side's army points at the start of a battle using 3pts for a general, 2pts for a foot battalion and 1pt for each other unit (including light infantry).
Unless specific objectives have been agreed, an army loses when its army points fall below half the starting total.
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