'March Attack' Rules

Started by Chad, 09 July 2011, 04:13:54 PM

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Chad

Should finish our first game with these rules next week. Excellent for large Napoleonic games. Will let you have further details next week.

Recommended.

Chad

Chad

OK, the following is an outline of these rules following a test game.

The rules are intended to fight battles of one Corps per side and upwards with basic units of infantry battalions, cavalry regiments and artillery batteries. First an outline of the rules.

Scales
Time scale â€" 1 turn taken to be equivalent of 20 minutes
Ground scale â€" 1”=60 yards
Figure scale â€" There is no specific figure scale.

Basing
Infantry battalion â€" 2 bases each 40mm x 30mm
Cavalry regiment â€" 2 bases each 40mm x 30mm
Artillery battery- 1 or 2 bases each 40mm x 40mm depending on battery size.

Combat Value
Each unit has a Combat Value (CV) applied to it from a table that cross references its actual manpower/number of cannon with its quality. The CV is the basic factor for combat calculation.

Major Force
All units are grouped into a Major Force (MF), which may be a division, brigade, grand battery or mixed formation.

Calculations are made to establish the overall strength of the MF, its quality and its skirmish capability.

Game Turn
This consists of two phases, the Strategic phase and the Tactical phase. Without going into detail, the Strategic phase is concerned with the actions of the MF as a complete body. The Tactical phase deals with the individual actions of the units making up the MF. The tactical phase comes into operation when any unit of an MF comes within 9” of an enemy MF.

Skirmish Combat
This is an interesting part of the Strategic phase which is clearly one of the elements that helps the speed of the game. Each MF has a skirmish rating establish and combat takes place on an area basis and not by individual unit. Opposing MFs compare their skirmish rating and the difference in the ratings gives an advantage to one of the combatants, hits are determined according to a chart and applied to the losing MF.

Movement
Movement tables are pretty standard and the show the strategic and tactical movement rates.

Combat
All combat, fire and melee, is decided using the current CV at the time of the action.

Fire combat hits are determined by rolling equal or less than the adjusted CV using 1d6. So a CV value of 8 gives 1 automatic hit and a chance of a 2nd on a roll of 2 or 1. Lines fight at double CV value. This makes lines powerful if these are not first softened up and their CV reduced.


Melee combat again uses CV values, but this time by comparing the opposing values. The unit with the advantage is the winner and the size of the advantage and the type of combat (Infantry vs infantry, cavalry vs infantry) determines the outcome, with CV loss and level of disorder.

Disorder is applied simply by use of D2 and D1 counters. D2 normally applies at first and at the end of the current turn is exchanged for a D1 and at the end of the next turn is removed. The markers are applied not just to combat situations by also to movement in rough terrain, etc.

Morale
Again reinforcing the scale of the game, Morale checks are carried out on the MF and not individual units

There are rules for terrain and built up areas, but our test game did not cover these.

Overall we enjoyed the game. Although the game has infantry battalions as its smallest unit, it appears to have been well thought out so as not to slow the game down as a result. The following areas do need some attention I think:

Commander / Army ratings â€" I would suggest that players use these as guidelines only and agree such things before the game. For the test we were playing a ‘Saalfield’ scenario and used the unit ratings as per the rules. Prussian infantry of 1806 is classified as Veteran, which is strange for an army that hadn’t fought a battle for 10 years. Given that the unit rating influences the CV of a unit, too high a rating can influence the game.

Grand batteries/Bombardment â€" Although the rules provide for the use of grand batteries, there are no specific rules for bombardment by such batteries. The rules rely on gamers not to apply concentrated fire by a grand battery on single units, which I think is a mistake. We are looking at a ‘house’ rule using the area fire idea of the skirmish combat.

Units with full skirmish capability â€" In determining the skirmish capability of the MF the rules distinguish units that do and do not have full skirmish ability, with those that do having the largest effect on calculating this skirmish ability as you might expect. However, when moving from the Strategic phase to the Tactical, no account appears to be taken of the fact that such units would appear to be in skirmish order. As a result they fire and melee exactly as a formed unit. In terms of the mechanics they appear to continually switch from skirmish to formed within a turn and from turn to turn. We are working on a ‘house’ modification to deal with this.

I hope these notes help others in deciding whether or not to try these rules and I would recommend you try them. As I said we enjoyed the game and it appears that a lot of thought has gone into ensuring that the basic unit sizes used do not create a log jam.

Chad


Leon

Thanks for the info on these Chad, I'll make a note of this for anyone else who asks.
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nikharwood

Interesting Chad - thanks for your thoughts; I'll be interested to see what you do about the skirmishers / unit transition: as you say - does seem a bit odd.

Chad

Nik

Mark (the author) is a local guy and we mentioned the "problem" to him.

His view was that given the turn length of 20 minutes he felt it was feasible that this formation switch was possible. While I do not disagree with him in principle, I question whether or not it would happen. I do not think you can tinker with the way the skirmishing combat works in the strategic phase without possibly ruining what I think is a very neat game mechanism. So you have to look at skirmish units when you move into the tactical phase. My thoughts at this stage (and they are untested) are simply to have units with full skirmish ability restricted to their base CV in the tactical phase, instead of the doubling for a formed unit in line. Would appreciate your views.

On the bombardment front, Mark apparently did have some rules in draft but did not include them. He is going to let me have a copy, which I can post as a possible house rule.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Chad

nikharwood

Quote from: Chad on 13 August 2011, 12:34:18 PM
I do not think you can tinker with the way the skirmishing combat works in the strategic phase without possibly ruining what I think is a very neat game mechanism. So you have to look at skirmish units when you move into the tactical phase. My thoughts at this stage (and they are untested) are simply to have units with full skirmish ability restricted to their base CV in the tactical phase, instead of the doubling for a formed unit in line. Would appreciate your views.

On the bombardment front, Mark apparently did have some rules in draft but did not include them. He is going to let me have a copy, which I can post as a possible house rule.

That sounds reasonable to me Chad; like you, I never want to muck about too much - and certainly not to do things that end up throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. I guess this'll need testing - it's the not-doubling that might not 'work' as this sounds like a major modifier - and doesn't leave much room for tweaking.

If you can post bombardment rules I'd be interested: you can't beat a good bombardment if you ask me!

Chad

Nik

Thanks.

I don't think it is such a major modifier as it first appears. The skirmish combat factor of a major force is calculated using the basic unit cv and so, if you consider that a fully skirmish capable unit is going to be in a skirmish line for that calculation, then by not doubling the cv as for a formed line would mean that the assumed skirmish formation would remain unchanged.

I suppose the question is that in the tactical phase do such units suddenly abandon their skirmish formation and reform and then revert to skirmish order for the strategic phase?

The background to my question arose when we were trying out the rules for an 1806 scenario. I had Prusian Fusilier battalions as part of my major force and so had  a reasonable skirmish factor. However, in the tactical phase, I felt they became overly strong in fire when their CV was doubled. Given that they were deployed in the front line of my force, I felt they would not switch between formations when in engagement range. The skirmish aspect of the strategic phase still operates even when major forces become engaged, so in that context I saw little difference between the two as far as such units were concerned.

Would welcome your further views.

Regards

Chad



nikharwood

Hmm - I see...I'm with you, I think, on your take on your Prussian Fusilier example.

Tell you what: I'm going to have a proper read of the blurb here: http://www.crusaderpublishing.com/MarchAttack.php and the downloads here: http://www.crusaderpublishing.com/MarchAttackDownloads.php then (probably) buy them for a bargain £6 PDF, bung some dice at them & then see...

Howzat?  :)

After all - I've had great fun with other Crusader rulesets, so why not these?  8)

Chad

Nik

Look forward to your views when you have had a chance to try them.

Cheers

Chad