Following a pretty busy day yesterday with some friends around for Sunday lunch and so I was unable to get to a play test of the suggested 'tweaks' for Bob Cordery's 'Memoir of Battle' rules. In the end this did not matter though as Bob was able to do so with the results appearing in a rather splendid battle account on his blog -
wargamingmiscellany
The action was based around a small punitive expedition being sent to punish some recalcitrant tribesman - I will not divulge any further information on this so you will have to read Bob's blog! - and as such was a fairly typical 'Colonial' scenario. One of the points he raised was the effect on poorly trained troops and by implication, the ease with which they appear to 'disappear' once the shooting starts. This in turn has made me look at how poor troops function and perhaps the negative impact of a flag result is a little on the harsh side with the additional strength point loss for each flag result.
I am thinking that perhaps allowing for militia/raw units to lose a strength point for each pair of flag results instead may be a viable alternative as I strongly believe that such troops once forced back should have some facility for losing strength simply due to the likelihood of headcount deciding that discretion is the better part of valour!
More testing and much to ponder further methinks!
" I strongly believe that such troops once forced back should have some facility for losing strength simply due to the likelihood of headcount deciding that discretion is the better part of valour!"
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether equating the strength of a unit to a headcount is actually the way to look at things?
I guess one question to ask is this - if a 4 strength unit represents 800 troops, does the loss of 2 strength represent the effective loss of 400 troops?
ReplyDeleteHi Kaptain,
ReplyDeleteI suppose the short answer is yes although how 'effectives' are measured is anybodies guess!
As a game mechanic it works fine although I seem to recall Command Decision used to have a mechanism for campaign purposes whereby the loss of a stand could come back overnight as half a stand IIRC. The theory was that it was not troops that were purely KIA but scattered individuals and groups reforming. I have been giving some further thought to militia and elites and so will see how Bob's additional testing goes as we seem to be playing 'leap blog' with this idea!
All the best,
DC
Following your's and Bob's discussion, I have been looking at some possible changes to my own Mexican Revolution rules. They are roughly based on the points I raised above.
ReplyDeleteHi Kaptain,
ReplyDeleteNow there is a further twist to play around with!
I shall be spending some time this evening going through your blog back catalogue as it were - it looks like a very good source for being 'raided'!
Seriously though, with your hat in the ring as well I am quite sure 'twixt the three of us SOMETHING should work out re quality/quantity!
All the best,
DC