Siege Notes: (3) Leaguer - Starting to Set Up the Game

 

Much of what follows is of my own devising, some is influenced by (or borrowed from) the ideas of many individuals, with or without permission, including Christopher Duffy, Tony Bath, Ron Miles, Stuart Asquith, Henry Hyde, Jock Ramsay, Bill Protz, Allan Gallacher and Eric Burgess. Thank you, gentlemen.

Assuming you have the terrain, figures and artillery equipment you need, here is a checklist of things that you need to prepare for a siege:

1.     Scenario notes, fortress layout and Size Number

2.     Set the Local Support level* for the Garrison

3.     Calculate food supply* for Garrison (and citizens)

4.     Determine the strength of the fortress* (walls; bastions; odd bits)

5.     Set the initial Digging Standard, and decide whether mining is feasible for this siege

6.     Purchase troops, officers, “named individuals” and equipment for each side

7.     Set Resolve number* for each side

8.     Calculate the powder requirements* (and reality) for the Garrison and the Besiegers

9.     Initialise Event Card deck

10.  If appropriate, set up siegeworks for deferred start of play

11.  Deploy Garrison’s forces in permitted areas

12.  Deploy Besiegers’ forces in permitted areas

13.  Play first Siege Turn (usually the Besieger goes first)

* If this is to be a “competitive” game (rather than solo or collaborative), items marked with an asterisk are secret…

I do not propose to wade through this lot in detail, but some quick descriptions will get us started, and in some cases (usually because I found them interesting) I may say a bit more about how these indicators are managed during Siege Turns. If the scenario stipulates it, some of the set-up may be based on historical fact rather than calculated from tables and dice rolls.

1. Scenario notes, fortress layout and Size Number

We need a thorough scenario, with detailed background story. This is vital - the armies must know why they are fighting, why they should keep on, when they should stop. If possible, there should be some criteria which indicate what success looks like; for example, a garrison which is ordered to hold out for 8 weeks might be considered completely successful if it manages to do this; an army which storms an enemy citadel and captures it despite suffering heavy losses may be considered victorious, but less so than if it had persuaded the fortress to surrender without the storm - it all depends on the context, on the scenario notes.

A fortress layout - in most sieges, both commanders would know a lot about the fortress – armies maintained libraries of such knowledge. The Size Number of the fortress is mainly of use in setting the Purchase budgets and the size of the respective forces. It is measured by the number of bastions on the table; if this is not the sort of fortress that has bastions, then some other property - a medium sized medieval fortress with a couple of gun batteries and a big fortified gate might be rated as equivalent to a 3-bastion modern fort. The Size Number implies the number of heavy guns which the garrison may have permanently mounted, so any additional demilune or hornwork, or (part of) a citadel which will support a heavy gun may be regarded as equivalent to a bastion.

A medium sized fort might have a Size Number of 3 or 4; an ECW-type siege of a fortified house might rate 2 or even 1. Some of the smallest sieges may be capable of being completely depicted on the table, but it is more normal for a portion of the town/fortress to be placed on one edge of the table – in which case the Size Number reflects how many bastions are on the table, not how many the place has altogether.

2. Set the Local Support (LS) level for the Garrison

LS is an indicator of the level of support the townspeople provide for Garrison troops. If there is no civilian population, then LS is zero, and any reference to LS in the game thereafter is ignored.

LS counts towards the garrison’s Resolve score (of which more later) – any change in LS will be immediately tracked in the garrison’s Resolve. LS is affected by some Event Cards (whoever draws them), and by the incidence of fires in the town caused by enemy mortar fire.

LS may be increased as part of the Governor’s housekeeping tasks – he may “negotiate” with the citizens by means of a D6 roll; 5 or 6 means increase LS by 1, but a roll of 1 drops LS by 1. [If LS is currently greater than or equal to zero, the town Mayor may carry out this negotiation on behalf of the Governor, which avoids the Governor having to be in two places at once during Housekeeping].

LS will also be impacted by changes in the management of the Food Supply (of which more below).

Values of LS may range from +3 (which, in effect, means that the townspeople are prepared to endure hardships and fight on the battlements, alongside the soldiers) to -3 (which means that the townspeople wish to overthrow the garrison and open the gates). Descriptions are given in the table below. LS levels of zero or less will require the garrison to divert manpower and effort into policing the populace. There is also a theoretical level of -4 for LS, but if this is reached the garrison must surrender.

+3 is extreme – an example might be Sarragossa. If not specified in the scenario, initial LS is set by rolling 2D6 of different colours – say white is positive, red negative. For each die, half the score and round, half up [I’ll call this ½D6 in these rules – if you have a better name, you call it that]. Subtract the red ½D6 from the white ½D6, and the answer is the LS.

Example:  2D6 turn up 5 (white) and 2 (red); ½D6s are 3 and 1 respectively; LS = 3 – 1 = +2.
If the Garrison Governor is not happy with the result, he may re-roll, but he must keep the re-roll result.

LS	Description	Policing Requirement
+3	completely supportive; will require no policing effort; if necessary, will be prepared to help man the defences or volunteer as replacement sappers	None
+2	actively supportive; as +3 but will not fight – can still volunteer as sappers	None
+1	generally favourable; as +2 but no new volunteers for sapping work	None
0	docile; some resentment of garrison; policing the civilians now needs…	½ a battalion
-1	sullenly hostile; policing needs…	1 battalion
-2	openly hostile;  policing needs…	1½ battalions
-3	violently hostile; likely to collaborate with the enemy, given the chance. Population is held in check only by policing by…	2 battalions
-4	this level exists only on a theoretical basis; if the LS level falls below -3, the garrison is defeated, since either they will be forced to surrender, or the townsfolk will implement a Coup de Main, or simply open the gates.

For solo games I use an oversized D6 and a “fudge” die (marked + or -) to indicate the current LS.

3. Calculate Food supply for Garrison (and citizens)

This is done very simply; we do not care how many citizens there are, the Governor requires that there should be sufficient provisions for troops and civilians for a number of turns (Siege Turns are half-weeks). Provisions means food and drink and fodder and any other non-ammunition consumables, but we shall call everything Food, for simplicity.

At this point, we introduce a simple device called The Randomizer, which requires a roll of 2D6 to calculate a value between 75% and 125% of what was required. This is used to give a randomised figure for the supply of Food and Powder.

2D6>>	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
%>>	75%	80%	85%	90%	95%	100%	105%	110%	115%	120%	125%

Percentage results are rounded to the nearer unit, with an exact half being rounded up.

Example: our scenario requires the Governor to hold out for 8 weeks (16 turns); he is informed that the Food store in the fortress is maintained at 16 turns supply. When he knows that a siege is about to start (and the fortress is cut off), he requests a definitive audit of what is actually is in store. He rolls 2D6 for the Randomizer…

The number of turns of Food required is 16; the 2D6 roll gives 5; the Randomizer gives a factor of 90%; the actual amount in store is thus 90% of 16, which is 14 turns.
If the 2D6 roll had been 11, the result would have been 120% of 16 = 19 turns.

If the Governor is unhappy with the audit result, he may re-roll, but he must accept the re-roll value.

This gets us started; the further progress of Food stores will be considered in the Housekeeping rules, later.

4. Determine the strength of the fortress (walls; bastions; odd bits)

This is an assessment of how many points of damage (denoted by stone chips of 3 different sizes – 1, 5 and 10) must be inflicted to breach a component of the fortress.

The fortress strength may be specified by the scanario

Typical values might be:

Feature	Pts for Breach
“Modern” Vauban-style walls, backed with earth embankments and concealed behind a glacis	40pts
Medieval stone wall (targeted at base / targeted at higher level to collapse and fill ditch)	30pts / 35pts
Bastion, gatehouse, tower	50pts
Masonry hornwork, ravelin	45pts
Earthen “fausse braye” embankment or turf wall	20pts

Note that walls can only be breached by artillery if the gunners can see the base of the wall, apart from the option given for medieval structures.

The damage required for a breach was well understood by the participants, so Strength figures can be taken straight from the table; alternatively, the figure for each relevant feature type may be approximated using the Randomizer (see under #3 above). If the Governor is not happy with any particular Randomized result, he may re-roll (just once, as above).

5. Set the initial Digging Standard (DS), and Decide whether Mining is Feasible

Whether mining as allowed will normally be set out in the scenario. Mining may be impossible if the ground is marshy, or the siege site is next to a river, or (common in Flanders) at or near sea level. The commanders will need to know at the outset whether they must recruit a miner (or two) during the army Purchasing phase (see later).

The DS is displayed on a special die somewhere in view on the edge of the table. The DS is in the range 1 to 6, and is the score which must be beaten by diggers to complete a section of work in that turn – it is, if you like, a simple, rather bovine abstraction of weather and other imponderables which make shovelling earth more or less difficult. The higher the DS, the more difficult and slower will be the spadework. If DS reaches 6 (which means torrential rain), no digging or engineering work is possible until it falls again; DS reaching 6 also has implications for current fires burning in the town, and may result in flooding of existing works

To set the initial value of DS during the preparation work, the Commander of the Besieging force rolls 2D6 and sets DS equal to the lower of the two scores. In subsequent turns, the DS will be reviewed during the Besiegers’ Housekeeping phase; it may also be affected by Event Cards. Management of DS will be described later under the Digging rules.

6. Purchase troops, officers, “named individuals” and equipment for each side

It may well be, especially for a historical siege, that much of the set up information is provided by the scenario notes. Otherwise, the armies are selected by Purchasing units, for which purpose each Commander is given a budget (in Budget Points!). The respective budgets are set by the fortress’s Size Number (see earlier); the Garrison is allowed 15 times the Size Number, the Besieging force is allowed 25 times the Size Number.

Item	Price	Notes
Heavy gun	4	These are “demicannons” or 24pdrs, and only these may damage stone structures. Garrison are allowed a max of 1 “Fortress Gun” per Size No; Besiegers allowed max of 2 “Siege Guns” per Size No. Heavy guns may not be fired during Tactical Turns.
Field gun	2	These are “quarter-cannons” or “sakers” or 12 pdrs. They cannot damage fortress walls or earthworks
Heavy mortar	2	These may fire explosive shells, which are useful for setting fires in a town, for compromising cover for enemy troops, or battering turf or earth walls (see Firing rules, later). They may also be loaded with stones for anti-personnel use. If firing shell, there is a risk of misfires, which (prior to 1730) may involve the catastrophe risk of the shell exploding in the mortar.
Mortar	1
Infantry	1	This is the cost of a battalion.
Elite infantry	2	Each side is only allowed one battalion of these – normally grenadiers. These have advantages in Tactical Rules, and also for carrying out (and opposing) Trench Raids in Siege Turns.
Sapper team	2	The Garrison is allowed max of 1 per Size No (apart from repairing damage and building barricades, they also control fires, and may be brought up to strength with civilians if the LS is above a certain number); the Besiegers are allowed max of 2 x Size No.
Commander	2	Each side is allowed 1; for the Garrison he is referred to as The Governor. Important for rallying troops (removing hits), for encouraging citizens, and he is the only person who can replace, promote or fire Named Individuals
Other Senior Officer	1	Garrison is allowed 1 of these; Besiegers allowed 1 per Size No. These also help with rallying, and are needed to take over if Commander is hit.
Spy	1	Each side may have a max of 2. They should be given code names (important fun ingredient); their ability is unknown until they are sent on a mission. If a second spy is needed once the game is under way (or a replacement for an existing spy sacked or lost in action), he/she may be purchased at the cost of 1 Resolve Pt. Spies may attempt to obtain information about the enemy, or to carry out acts of sabotage. The rule on Espionage will give a lot more detail. [If a spy fails on a mission, he/she may be lost and/or be forced to reveal information about their army].
Miner	3	Each side may have up to 2, if Mining is permitted. A second miner (or a replacement) may be purchased at a cost of 3 Resolve Pts once the game is under way.
Engineer	1	Garrison may have 1, Besiegers may have up to 1 per Size No. Engineers help a lot with getting digging work completed. They may not be replaced if lost.
Named Individuals	1 each	There is a variety of these: Security Officer (Chief of Police or Provost Marshal, who helps limit the effectiveness of enemy Spies); if the fortress has a civilian population then the Garrison will require a Mayor, who can act as an extra Senior Officer if the LS remains high enough. Other odd bods may be nominated by the scenario – preachers, political representatives, specialists in experimental weapons – whatever. If any of these require to be replaced, they may usually be purchased for 1 Resolve Pt each during the Commander’s Housekeeping phase.

 

The budget cannot be exceeded; any surplus remaining in the budget may be added into the army’s initial Resolve calculation. [Resolve is the key attribute, which is gradually whittled away as the siege proceeds – anyone reaching zero Resolve in in big trouble]

Let’s run through an example, hopefully to clarify this procedure, which is (admittedly) fiddly, but only needs to be done during set-up. We’ll look at Purchasing, then proceed to calculate the Resolve figures for each army.

Example: For a Size 3 fortress, the allowed purchase budget is 45 for the Garrison, 75 for the Besiegers. Mining is possible. The Commanders need to spend their budgets wisely, and also need to count the number of combat units (which should be obvious from the table) to produce the Resolve number. In this example, the Local Support (LS) has already been assessed as +2.

Item	Price	Garrison buy	Cost	Units	Besiegers buy	Cost	Units
Heavy gun	4	3 fortress guns	12	3	6 siege guns	24	6
Field gun	2	2	4	2	3	6	3
Mortar	1	2	2	2	4	4	4
Infantry	1	4	4	4	7	7	7
Elite infantry	2	1	2	1	1	2	1
Sapper team	2	3	6	3	6	12	6
Commander	2	1 Governor	2		1 Commander	2
Other Senior Officer	1	1	1		3	3
Spy	1	2	2		2	2
Miner	3	1	3		1	3
Engineer	1	1	1		3	3
Security Officer	1	1 Chief of Police	1		1 Provost Marshal	1
Mayor	1	1	1		n/a	-
TOTAL			41	15		69	27

 

7. Set Resolve number for each side

 

Resolve is what we need. For a solo game, I set up the old billiards scoreboard, and count down to ruin

 Thus the Garrison have 4 unused budget pts, the Besiegers 6; add these to the number of fighting units for each army, then add 2D6 for the Garrison and 3D6 for the Besiegers, and finally add the Local Support score (which may be negative) to the Garrison figure. This gives the raw Resolve Score for each army, now have to roll 2D6 for each army and consult the Randomizer to get initial Resolve – LS is given as +2 at commencement.

Let’s work this through:

For the Garrison, 15 (fighting units) + 4 (budget surplus) +2 + 4 (2D6) + 2 (LS) = 27; for Randomizer (described in #3 above), Governor accepts roll of 2D6 with total 8 gives starting Resolve as 105% x 27 = 28.

For the Besiegers, 27 (fighting units) + 6 (budget surplus) + 1 + 4 + 6 (3D6) = 43;  for Randomizer, 2D6 total is accepted as 10 gives starting Resolve as 115% x 43 = 49.

If this is a non-solo game, the commanders should keep these figures secret; if it’s solo, remember that this is one example of information which the armies do not know about each other (unless the spies find out…)

That’s quite enough to be going on with. In the next Siege Note I hope to push on with the initial set up, then move on to Siege Turns, starting with the Housekeeping routines.