Siege Notes: (5) Leaguer - Siege Turns – [1] Housekeeping

   

Before I get to the Siege Turn rules, it would be useful to have a quick reprise of some of the key indicators and systems that run through the game.

Resolve 

Resolve is a biggie; the armies each start with a Resolve Pts total which gradually runs down. For every hit suffered (and hits are recorded by adding “loss counters” to the units), Resolve is reduced by 1. Resolve may also be impacted by Event Cards, by the loss of senior personnel, by the creation of breaches in the walls, and for the Garrison it is also altered to reflect changes in Local Support (LS), which in practical terms reflects the morale of the civilian population. It’s worth mentioning that, though hits erode the Resolve score, the process of rallying away those hits does not add points back onto Resolve. Hits will be discussed in detail in the Artillery and Combat phases.

Resolve is a measure of the commitment to carry on fighting, which is why there is no overt morale system in the Siege Turns. Units may be forced to retire, even to a designated Safe Place, but they do not rout from the field in the familiar manner of miniatures wargames. There is nowhere to go; units will stay on the field if not eliminated, even if they are reduced to a state where they can no longer achieve very much.

Victory Conditions

Either army may choose to give up at any time for their own reasons, especially if they consider their position hopeless. More formally, the game should end as soon as Victory Conditions are met. These can be:

·      Some specific requirement of the scenario note is fulfilled (these may be time-related, or may refer to specific objectives – “capture of the citadel of Santa Maria”, “substantial enemy penetration of the fortress walls”, etc).

·      Either army runs out of Resolve or gunpowder.

·      The Garrison runs out of Food.

·      Local Support for the Garrison drops below -3 (at which point the citizens will open the gates…).

The Besiegers may abandon the siege at any stage, or they may offer the Garrison terms of surrender at any stage. There is no set Diplomacy section in the rules. The Garrison may also ask for terms at any stage. Whether terms are accepted is up to the players. Negotiations may be undertaken. Beyond any guidelines in the scenario, the Commanders should respect the importance of their future reputation – this is a game for gentlemen!

The Housekeeping Rules

Let’s step through the Housekeeping Phase of the Siege Turn, which differs a little, depending which side’s turn it is; in an attempt to set this out consistently, keeping the sections in order and avoiding too much jumping about, items which apply to both sides will be in black text, things which only happen if it is the Besiegers’ turn will be in red, and things which only apply during the Garrison’s turn will be in blue.

(a) Odd Jobs

[Besiegers only:] The Digging Standard. Review the Digging Standard (DS). This is a number between 1 and 6, which is displayed on an oversized die on the edge of the table. The Commander rolls 1D6; if it is lower than the current DS, DS is reduced by 1; if it is higher, DS is increased by 1. If the initial DS has not been set during game preparation, the Commander sets it during his first turn: roll 2D6 and set DS to the lower of the two dice-scores.

In use, the DS has to be beaten (with D6 rolls) by troops (on either side) doing Sapping, Digging or Repair work. The lower DS is, the easier it will be to complete such work; when DS is 6, no-one can beat it, but it also has a special meaning – Torrential Rain. DS = 6 means that no-one can do any work on the surface, all current fires are extinguished, artillery may not move and all artillery fire halves the number of dice used (round ½ down).

[Garrison only:] Fire fighting. Check progress of any fires currently burning in the town. Fires are represented by small puffs of cotton-wool – they are not attached to any particular building or part of the town – they are just there to be counted. Fires are started by indirect fire from mortar shells (or carcasses, if in use), and sometimes by Event Cards, and they may spread.

Garrison roll 1D6 for each ongoing fire

5 or 6                           Fire extinguished (4, 5 or 6 if sappers on fire duty in the town)

1                                  Fire spreads – add a new fire

Anything else              Fire burns on

After the Fire Fighting, Local Support (LS) is reduced by 1 for each complete 5 fires still burning (eg: if there are now 8 fires burning in the town, reduce LS by 1; if the same 8 fires are still burning on the Garrison’s next turn, LS reduces by 1 again). Remember to adjust the Garrison’s Resolve in real time for all LS changes.

[Garrison only:] Issue Food Rations. Deduct 1 from Food store. If Food store is causing concern, the Governor may take steps to eke out food for the Garrison. Each of these measures may be done only once per game, and only one of them may be used in a single turn:

·      Reduce rations for everyone (add 10% to no of turns in store, but -3 to Resolve)

·      Requisition food from citizens (add 10% to no of turns, but -1 to LS)

·      Slaughter all horses (add 3 turns, but -1 to LS)

·      Slaughter domestic animals and pets (add 1 turn, but -1 to LS)

·      Eject unproductive citizens from town (add 33% to store, but -2 to LS)

Scenario may make further suggestions, but no cannibalism in the Age of Reason, please.

[Either side:] Draw Event Card. If it is a court card, or a 2 (Scenario Special), check out instructions. Place card on discard stack after use. If the card is a Joker, shuffle and re-start the Event Deck.

 

(b) Espionage

[Either side:] Each army may have up to 2 spies at any moment; spies may be recruited (costs 1 Resolve Pt), or sacked (costs nothing, but replacing him will), may be lost in action and may even be captured and forced to reveal information about their own side.
Spies should have names (for identification and entertainment!), but quality is not known until their 1^st assignment is ordered (at which point, roll a D6 to determine quality, which is half of number rolled (rounded up): 1 (poor); 2 (competent); 3 (exceptional) – keep a (secret) note. Spying missions must be attempted, even if quality is not up to the job.

Armies may also opt to purchase a Security Officer (Provost or Chief of Police) to give them extra protection against enemy spies (costs 1 Resolve Pt to replace him).

Spies (disappointingly?) do not have representative figures – they are somewhere in the enemy army – we don’t know where. If you wish to have your Security Officer as a figure then please do so – only advantage is that you can see if he is still active.

The possible espionage missions are of two types: Information and Sabotage. They will have difficulty ratings of 1 to 5, 1 being easy. This table gives the permitted missions (which may be amended according to scenario), which side may attempt each, the difficulty rating and the potential result:

Mission	Who?	Diff	Effect	Notes
Obtain Information:			Reveal:	“Extra”:
Current Local Support (LS)	Besgr	1
Current Resolve Pts (RP)	Both	2
Garrison food store	Besgr	2	Turns in store
Enemy powder store	Both	2	“Loads”/tons
Strength of walls etc [pick 3 sections]	Besgr	3	Strength pts
Mining & countermining status	Both	3	Full details
Carry out Sabotage:
Contaminate or damage Garrison’s food/water	Besgr	2	-½D6 from Food	-D6 from Food
Encourage desertion among enemy	Both	2	Hit (dice for unit)	½ D6 hits
Damage powder store	Both	3	D6 Loads	2D6 Loads
Decrease Local Support for Garrison	Besgr	3	LS and RS -1	Fail badly LS, RS both +1
Start fire in town	Besgr	3	1 fire	2 fires
Kill  officer (not CinC) or Named Indiv	Both	4	Success
Kill CinC	Both	5	Success

Procedure:

When a spy attempts an espionage project, the spying side adds the spy’s quality rating (which will have to be established if this is his 1^st mission) to 1D6; the side being spied on adds the difficulty of the selected task to 1D6, and then adds a further 1 if they have a Security Officer in place. Comparison of these totals gives outcome.

Outcomes:

·      Spy total greater by 2 or more: mission is extra-successful; spy remains active

·      Spy total greater by 1: mission successful; spy remains active

·      Totals equal, or Spy total 1 less: mission fails, but spy remains active

·      Spy total 2-3 less: mission fails and spy is lost; this, and anything worse is a bad failure

·      Spy total less by 4 or more: mission fails, spy is executed, but first is forced to reveal one information item from the table above about his own army.

Example:
Spy Grammaticus is new (and thus has unknown quality), he is sent to assassinate one of the enemy’s Senior Officers (mission difficulty 4). Since he is untried, must roll D6 to check his quality: roll of 4 reveals that he has quality rating of 2 (competent). The enemy does not have a Security Officer in place at the moment.

Spying side D6 roll is 5, add 2 for his quality, total 7; enemy roll is 4, plus 4 for difficulty; total 8. Result is that spy loses by 1, so mission fails, but Grammaticus remains active. If the side being spied upon had had a Security Officer, the result would have been a loss by 2 for the spy, and Grammaticus would have been lost to history.

(c)  Move Officers and Named Individuals (to assist with Rallying)

[Either side:] Move Officers, Commander and Named Individuals anywhere within permitted limits (this is to assist with Rallying for any unit which has suffered “hits”). For the Besieger, permitted limit is anywhere not in advance of the heads of sap; for the Garrison, permitted limit is not in advance of the edge of the fortress, which may be the Covered Way or some outwork. Officers may help to rally any unit within 1 hex.

[Garrison only:] For the Garrison, if LS is not negative, the Town Mayor may be used to help rally troops and encourage the citizens, so he may be moved appropriately during this phase.

(d) Rallying Troops (and Citizens)

[Either side:] Hits, as recorded by loss markers against each unit, represent a reduction in combat effectiveness. Casualties will contribute some of this, but loss of fighting spirit, fatigue and equipment damage are also implied.

Infantry units are eliminated by 4 hits, artillery by 3 and sappers by 2. A unit which has been eliminated may not be rallied. An artillery unit which has 2 hits marked against it may not fire until it has been rallied/repaired; such artillery repairs must be carried out in the army’s Safe Place.

The active Commander will select a unit which has hits, and roll 1D6 for each hit. Note that losses due to disease or desertion (which use a different colour of counter) may not be rallied. A unit which attempts to rally, regardless of whether it is successful, may not do anything else in this turn, so a Hold marker is attached.

Hits are removed for a roll of 6. The rolls for each rallying unit are helped by

·      +1 if a Senior Officer or the CinC is attached, or within 1 hex [or Mayor if LS not -ve]

·      +1 if the unit is out of immediate danger (concealed, or not within 2 hexes of enemy)

Rallying stops for this turn as soon as a unit has no loss counters removed, so try for the priority units with the most hits first.

Example: It is the Garrison’s turn to rally.

The Governor selects an infantry battalion in the Covered Way which has 3 hits; a Senior Officer is within 1 hex, and the unit is out of immediate danger; thus it has 2 bonuses, and only needs to roll 4+ to rally away each hit. It rolls 4-2-1, one counter is removed, and the unit is given a Hold marker, since it may do nothing else this turn.

The Governor next directs his attention to rallying an artillery unit, which has 2 hit counters (and is thus currently unable to fire) and is in the workshops in the fortress (a Safe Place). There is no Officer present, so the unit has a single bonus (out of immediate danger), and requires 5+ to remove hits. The unit rolls 3-2, no hits are removed; it is given a Hold marker, and rallying must now end for this turn.

Remember that recovering hits does not add anything to the army’s Resolve.

[Either side:] Recruits and Replacements. If the Commander is alive then, subject to the game limits imposed on his army, he may recruit extra (or replacement) Spies, Named Individuals, Sapper Teams (any of which costs 1 Resolve Pt) and Miners (3 Resolve Pts, if relevant). He cannot add extra Senior Officers or Engineers once the game has started. If the Commander is not alive, the only action permitted at this point of the Housekeeping is to promote a Senior Officer or an Engineer to replace him (no cost for this); if none is available the army will no longer be able to rally troops (or, for the Garrison, negotiate with the townspeople or manage the Food supply).

[Garrison only:] Meet with Citizens. The Governor (or the Town Mayor, if LS is not -ve) may be placed in the “town” area, to meet with the townspeople. Roll 1D6 – if it comes up 6, the meeting has gone well, and 1 is added to LS; if it comes up 1, the meeting has been a disaster, and 1 is deducted from LS.

[Garrison only:] Insurrection Control. If LS is zero or less, the Governor must allocate infantry units to the job of keeping the civilians under control.

LS	Policing Requirement
Zero	½ a battalion
-1	1 battalion
-2	1½ battalions
-3	2 battalions

The policing troops must be placed in the “town” area, and may do nothing else. For each ½ battalion which the police force is short, roll 1D6. 5 or 6 means a hit on the garrison – Governor decides which units are affected. Remember to adjust Resolve for these “insurrection” hits.