Sunday 6 November 2011

A Punitive Expedition....Part 1 A

Before I get into the action for the forthcoming Battle of Keder Sirt I need to clarify a few rules related points. I will be using Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame rules on a playing area of 12 x 8 hexes. Instead of Hexon I will be using the Axis and Allies maps - by happy coincidence one of these is absolutely perfect for use with this scenario - and will also give my blocks an outing. You may recall that I originally intended to run this scenario as a straight Balkan wars action but the pressing affairs of Fezia and Rusland have overshadowed this somewhat!

I will be using a variant of Ross Mac's strength point system with these rules - with a dash of Volley and Bayonet thrown in. In a nutshell I have taken units sizes as follows - Infantry 4, Cavalry and loose order Infantry 3, Artillery and skirmishers 2. Units rated as 'Elite' or of larger than usual size will add one strength point whilst units of poor quality or under will strength deduct one. This will serve to extend the length of the action somewhat though.

The other idea I want to incorporate is the notion of an army exhaustion level. Basically when an army has sustained hits equal to or more than its exhaustion level then it is incapable of any further offensive action and must break off if able to.

The exhaustion level will typically between forty and sixty percent of the armies strength point total and will usually be scenario or campaign specific although with provision for one off games as well.

The action I will be fighting is small enough for this experiment to not be too fiddly to implement. I need to finalise the details around how I want this to work and will of course discuss the outcome  in the after action report in due course.

4 comments:

Robert (Bob) Cordery said...

David,

This sounds very interesting, and I look forward to hearing how the amended rules work.

I am also interested to hear that you are going to use the hexed sheets from the Axis & Allies Miniatures game. I thought that you might have used the ones from the Art of Tactic – Barbarossa game, but I think that the hexes might just be a bit on the small side.

All the best,

Bob

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said...

What a great start to things! Great lead up (the opening had a rather familiar ring.....but none the worse for that ) and the rules should make for an interesting game.

The A&A maps are quite attractive. I'm looking forward to the battle report.
-Ross

David Crook said...

Hi Bob,

The Art of Tactic maps are fractionally too small hence the use of the A and A versions. the only possible problem I have is that as they laminated they are very glossy which means photography may be a slight problem with flash bounce.

I will experiment though and hope to get something out for posterity.

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi Ross,

Many thanks! I couldn't resist the opening - especially as I had been dipping into the said tome a short while beforehand!

The rules addition is merely an extension of the idea I had for my own set and reinforced by the concept that you had tried out.

I hope it will work out OK and should it do so then I can factor this into a campaign setting as well for overall troop strengths, full and undermanned units etc.

We shall see but the first order of business is the battle itself and I hope to start this evening.

All the best,

DC