Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Friday 18 November 2011

Solo Campaign Rules - resolving off-table combat

Another requirement for my solo campaign rules is some means of settling battles which are too small, or otherwise unsuitable, for a tabletop game. One of the attractions of a campaign is the scope for variety – fighting skirmishes between scouting parties, for example (in fact, such instances form my entire experience of skirmish wargaming), but there will frequently be situations where pragmatism must win over self-indulgence! This is, once again, something of a sad cop-out – absolute zero-spectacle wargaming, but these things will crop up, and it is necessary to have some available means of resolving them – much less awkward than having to improvise something to order.

My requirement – as for the sieges – is that it should be simple, reasonable and broadly consistent with what would have happened if a “proper” miniatures game had taken place.

Mr Duckenfield’s system, published in Practical Wargaming for March/April 1992 (I think), is well established as a way of doing this. What follows is primarily a re-hash of his method, with a few small tweaks to suit myself, and some smoothing of the numbers. If you don’t agree with my numbers, feel free to substitute your own.

For each army, identify the relevant modifiers in Table 1, and add 1D6. Subtract the Allied total from the French total, ignoring fractions, and get the result from Table 2.

Situation
French
British & Portuguese
Spanish Regulars
Militia & Irregulars
General present (most senior only)
+ General’s rating (1,2 or 3)
Troops mostly elite/veterans
+1
0
Troops mostly inexperienced or despondent
0
-1
-2
Troops tired
-1
-2
Forced march into battle
-1
-2
Encounter battle in rough terrain (brown)
0
+1
Defender in rough terrain (brown)
+1
+2
+1
+2
Defender in open terrain (green)
+1
0
-1
For each 25% numerical advantage
+1
Out of supply
-1
-2
-1
0

Table 1 – dice modifiers

French score minus
Allied score
French vs British/Portuguese
French vs Spanish or irregular
Result
French loss %
Br/Port loss %
Result
French loss %
Sp/irreg loss %
6 or more
Br/Port routed
5
30
Sp/Irreg routed
1
60
5
7
25
1
55
4
Br/Port defeated
8
20
2.5
50
3
10
17.5
5
40
2
Drawn – Br/Port withdraw
12.5
15
6
30
1
Drawn – attackers withdraw
15
12.5
Sp/Irreg defeated
7
25
0
Drawn – French withdraw
17.5
10
8
20
-1
French defeated
20
8
9
17.5
-2
22.5
7
10
15
-3
25
6
Drawn – attackers withdraw
12.5
12.5
-4
30
5
French defeated
15
10
-5
French routed
35
5
20
7.5
-6 or less
40
4
French routed
25
5

Table 2 – outcomes


3 comments:

  1. An enterprising chap could also use these for adjudicating small combats in a kriegspiel.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another good post about an obscure topics. Keep the good work!
    Regards
    Rafa

    ReplyDelete
  3. When it comes to obscure topics, I am your man. My wife will tell you. MSF

    ReplyDelete