The Nuts and Bolts of Action and Reaction

Since I devoted the last entry to artillery, I thought I would start this one with a more in depth explanation of how I developed the different tokens used in the game.



Field artillery, both rifled and smoothbore, fired four types of projectiles: canister (red-4 per gun), case (green- 4 per gun), common shell (blue - 8 per gun), and shot (yellow - 16 per gun). canister is used at a maximum  of 27 inches (450 yards) against massed formations. Case, an explosive round filled with musket balls can be used from the muzzle of the gun (0 inches) to 105 inches (1750) yards because the fuses could be set to burst from .5 seconds to 5.5 seconds.

Gun generated a lot of smoke which is when when firing a second round without halting for a turn the player has to estimate the range for case, shot, and shell and roll a D3 deduction when firing canister through smoke.

To facilitate quicker die rolls, I suggest organizing the  players' dice before the game and that they keep the dice with them throughout the game.

The 9 D10s are for canister; 7 D10s for case, and 5 D10s for common shells. Referring to the blog  with  the firing and deduction charts will explain the others.

Infantry dice consist of 10 or more D10s to use when firing where each piece rolls 1 D10 and compares it to the range less deductions to score hits. 

The 2 D6s (red and white numbered 1-2) with the hand written labels. Use 1  to determine deductions for firing in reaction, ascending a hill, and advancing beyond a wall or fence which the unit has crossed and the other is added to movement when descending a hill.

The remaining D6s are used to decide the following:
When a unit suffers casualties, roll 1 D6 per officer with the regiment and 1 D20 per officer. "Even" on the D6 indicates the officer is hit and the number on the D20 determines how many wounds he received and whether he should be removed from the game.

Note: each player has a red and a blue D10 to rally troops and prevent undesirable reactions to small arms and artillery fire.

Poker chips make great hit markers. I use them for officer and artillery crews. Officers can sustain 3 hits, with the 3rd one being the last one. Red = 1, white = 2, blue = 3, green = 4. Artillery crews consist of 2 pieces, each standing for 5 men on the guns and the limber. They can sustain 5 hits prior to removal. Each pair of guns have 1 officer, a lieutenant and each battery has a captain.

Ten hits remove an infantry piece (50 men) and requires the regiment to roll the green reaction D6. The officer(s) each roll an non-red D10 and 1 red D10 to see if the regiment panics.  If the number of the red die is larger than the officer(s) die (dice) the regiment panics. When an artillery crew loses one piece, the player follows the same procedure.

This is an infantry line with a colonel, lieutenant colonel, and a major. The regiment has suffered 3 hits and rolled the big D12 to see how it would react, The "N" indicates nothing and the player has decided not to counter that by ordering it to react with the rolls of 3 non-red D10s against 1 red D10.

The player has rolled 3 D6s to see of the officers were hit. The left officer as indicated by the "10" on the D20 has gotten wounded once.

This regiment' having been hit by an artillery round and incurred 3 hits has rolled 3 D6s (for the officers) a green panic die (for the reaction to the artillery) and 3 non red and 1 red D10 to see if the reaction takes effect.

The even D6 with the "1" on the D20 means the officer was either not hit or just nicked. The red "8" on the D10 is higher than the other 3 dice, there for the regiment will retreat 9 inched  ("R" on green D6).

These homemade markers stand for "Retreat" - 9 inches; "Withdraw" - 3 inches; "Prone." The Yellow marker shows that it is a panic which has to be rallied by an officer.

Units in panic may not return fire or defend from an attack.  They are routed.

When in retreat, a regiment faces to the rear and moves 9 inches without terrain deductions. It will continue to retreat until rallied 

The officers have managed to rally the regiment at the end of the turn because one of the non-ref dice is higher than the red die and if it had not been higher, the matching number would have stopped the retreat.

Once a regiment has rallied the player puts a small red marker on the regiment which it cannot move during the next furn but it can defend and return fire.  The results of that fire require a minus D3 and the results get halved. 

I will describe hand to hand combat, charges and reaction to small arms fire in the next blog entry.

Thank you for reading this and as always I welcome your constructive questions and suggestions.  

Chaos, Confusion, and Casualties - Artillery Fire

One of the hardest thing to do when developing a war game is to determine the effectiveness of artillery fire. From what I have been told, in most ACW battles, the artillery accounted for 5% to 10% of the casualties. In this entry I will break down the mechanics of using artillery in this rules set.

A Federal gun crew has zeroed in on a small Confederate infantry regiment of 200 men. The green disc indicates that the gun is loaded with spherical case - an explosive round filled with 72 .58 caliber musket balls.

The accuracy of the shot depends upon the roll of the dice as established in the firing chart on the previous blog entry. The artillerists have a clear line of sight with no obstructions and the round, with the fuse set is ready to fire.

The  D20 determines whether the round is short, long or on target. In this case, the "19" indicates that it has gone long 5 inches, according to the D6. Had it been on target ("3" - "18"), the player would have ignored the D6.

The D12 indicates with the "11" that it has burst on center as shown with the black circle on the white D6. The red D3 does not matter because the whit die did not show an "L" or an "R". Otherwise the round would have burst 1 inch in the direction indicated.

The small D6 marks where the projectile exploded, above and behind the officer, therefore he remains uninjured.

The crew fires a second case round as shown by the second green disc. Note the smoke at the muzzle. The gun recoils and is rolled back into the line and the gunner has  decided to fire fast rather then wait a turn to let the smoke clear. That decision will affect the piece's accuracy.

He has to estimate the range and roll a different group of dice to reflect the difficulty in hitting the target through the smoke. He has estimates the range at 30 inches.

The "12" on the D12 indicates a burst. The "S" on the green D6  shows that is has exploded short, 2 inches (white D6). The black dot on the white D6 is on target and the red D3 gets ignored.

With exploding rounds all "0"s and the high numbers (8s on D10) get set aside. The remaining three D10s are three hits for a loss of 15 men to the regiment as indicated by the Sudoku number.. The smaller D6 was left in the photo by mistake.

Upon measuring the shot the player discovers it has burst 2 inches short of 30 and above the Confederates. With a blast range of 2 inches, the line has come under fire. A "30" would also have put it just in front of the line.

The opposing player rolls a D20 to see if the officer got hit. 1 - 5 is a miss. 6-10 is 1 hit. 11-15 is 2 hits. 16 -20 the officer is removed. If he gets eliminated the regiment must follow the artillery reaction die unless the officer gets replaced, which I shall explain later. In this case the 5 saved the officer.

The green D6 is marked with 1 - "P" for prone. 1 - "N" for no reaction. 2 -"R"s for retreat and 2 "W"s for withdraw. In this case the regiment will go prone and stay that way unless the officer rallies them. 
The officer rolls a red and a blue D10. The red represents the men and the blue the officer. The higher number settles the matter. In this case the men will not go prone and the green D6 gets removed.

The following entries will concern infantry reaction fire, charges and hand to hand combat, panics, officer recovery and other miscellaneous topics.

I would appreciate any constructive comments.

Chaos, Confusion, and Casualties - Movement, Firing, Formations

Ranges, Movement, and Firing

This entry contains charts for firing and movement and illustrations of three basic formations. The details of how to conduct initial fire artillery and subsequent firing without ceasefires will be in the following blog.

The Measuring Stick 

The measuring stick is used for small arms and canister fire.

Each 3 inch section represents 150 feet.

When firing, the player places the “9” at the shooting piece and the opposite end at the target. The number at the target is the range to the target without deductions.

Take the deductions for smoke and intervening cover between the shooter and the target and subtract that number from the original range. The resulting number is the number or lower which each piece in the firing line must roll on D10s to score hits.

For instance: The target is at number “5”. The target is behind a rail fence which has a deduction of  “1”. The shooter deducts that”1” from the “5” and therefore must roll a “4” or lower to score a hit. The shooter has 5 pieces on line and rolls 5 D10s. Each die with a 4 or lower scores a hit.

10s are automatic misses.

Deductions on Measuring Stick

  -1 Trees, fences, tall grass, stumps, rocks, downhill/ uphill, smoke/side,

  skirmishers.dismounted cavalry/     

      -D3 prone target, stone wall, trenches, reaction fire (None for ordered  

      Firing).

      +D3 prone shooter, shooter behind cover (Only with ordered firing.)

      Deductions/additions are cumulative.

      First Fire/Artillery: SB D20 short:1 -2 Long: 19-20 On target: 3-18

      Rifle D20 short: 1  Long: 20 On target: 2-19

      Overshoot/Short: D6

      Burst D12  Union: 1-2 dud  Confederate: 1-3 dud

      Burst radius forward 2 in.

      Solid Shot/Bolt: D6: even bounces 2 in. 1D6 for non bounce/

      2 D6 for bounce     Odd # are hits   

      Shell 5 D10 Remove all “0” and the highest number. Remaining die are

      Hits.

      Case 7 D10 – same as above

      Canister Use Firing Stick (deductions for smoke and reaction fire apply

      After first fire. Roll 9 D10 for measured distance. Any number equal to or

      Less than the number on the stick is a hit.

Movement 

Infantry a. line of battle           9 in.     Charge: + 1 D6     + deductions

                b. in column of 4’s  12 in.     Charge: + 1 D10   + deductions

Skirmishers 12 in. (No deductions)

Dismounted Cavalry 12 in. (No deductions)

Artillerymen 9 in. (No deductions)

Mounted Cavalry/Officers a. in line 26 in. Charge + 1 D12  + deductions

                          b. in column/officer   36in.  Charge + D20     + deductions 

Limbered Artillery 26 in.  Charge + D12  + deductions

To Unlimber/Unlimber/Fix Prolonge 14 in. movement 

Into/From Battery 12 in. movement

Unlimbered Artillery – By Hand 1 in.  By Prolonge 7 in.

Deductions: Uphill – D3  Down hill +D3 Over Fence -2 D3 move balance of inches.  Over Works/Stonewalls  -D6 –D3 move balance of inches.

Woods, stumps, boulders -1 in.

Destroy rail fences/abatis  D10 roll off. Uses all movement.

Change of Facing – 1 in./90 degree

Quarter Wheel/Line to Column– entire movement (no deductions)

    Line of Battle

    Column of 4s

    Double Column of 4s

Chaos, Confusion, and Casualties

This is a break from the work I am doing on the wounding and death of General Joseph F, Mansfield at Antietam. Over the past several weeks I have had an annoying bout of writer’s block, coupled with severe episodes with my asthma, general fatigue, and lots of tours at Antietam. Things have calmed down a bit and I made myself get engaged in working on my Gettysburg book and the miniature wargame I am developing for Fall-In, the November wargaming convention by HMGS-East. I am also anticipating a possible live interview on an UK radio station. [It would be difficult to conduct were I deceased.]

While trying to piece together the roll of Captain James Hall’s 2^nd Maine Battery in conjunction with the route of Cutler’s Brigade north of the railroad cut at Gettysburg, I noticed a similarity between my game, Chaos, Confusion, and Casualties, and what was occurring on the field at Gettysburg or any battlefield for that matter.

No one had control anywhere, except in their isolated part of the battle. Generals and field officers, for that matter, had little control over how the battle played out. I realized I have to change my narrative technique differently than I had before and that it could frustrate or confuse the readers but, if done correctly, they will understand the battle better from the soldiers’ perspectives.

How does this relate to my game system? Imagine a game, which once it gets started, runs itself.

The playing area is divided into at least 8 sections which do not have to be uniform in size.

Only 6 of the sections will be used for deployment.

Each player commands an infantry brigade of 5 regiments of varied sizes. (The sizes of the regiments are decided by cards.

Each side has one battery (Confederates – 4 guns: Union 2 guns). Artillery may deploy by sections in the assigned areas with or without infantry supports.

Each brigade has a brigadier with two mounted ADCs and each side has one major general with 2 – 3 mounted ADCs. 

Players with enter the table at randomly assigned locations and at randomly appointed times, should the individual team decide to follow that route. They could also enter the board at the same time.

Brigadiers do not have to commit their entire brigade in one turn. (They might not have room to deploy the entire command.)

The basic turn sequence for each section of the board runs as follows:

1.      Players deploy their troops in their sectors simultaneously at the distance allotted for their type of formation: battle line, column of 4’s, skirmishers, column of piece, column of section, battery front. Change of facing may be done on the first deployment without deductions.

2.      Once everyone is done moving, the players will determine whether or not they can identify their opponent’s forces to fire upon them or to charge them. If the proposed target is within 24 inches (400 yards) it can be seen and identified.

3.      Players place “Charge “markers as desired.

4.      Defenders react to the charge as determined by a die roll – to be explained later.

5.      Players execute the charge, resolve hand-to-hand combat, and place stalled markers if the charges did not connect or if one side or the other withdraws to reorganize.

6.      Place smoke on the pieces which they intend to fire. (With artillery, they will also place a colored chit to determine what kind of round the gun will fire: red- canister; green – case; blue – shell; yellow – shot).

7.      Starting with skirmishers, artillery, then infantry, the players resolve fire and mark casualties to be explained later.

8.      Struck targets on both sides will react to the fire by panic, returning fire, withdrawing or doing nothing, which are determined by die rolls to be explained later.

9.      Turn ends.

Officers can get hit during any action and might not be able to be replaced.  Infantry respond differently to artillery fire than to small arms fire. Flank fire causes more casualties than frontal assault. Units panic at the most inappropriate time. Officers can stop their men from responding to incoming fire. Hand-to-hand is brief and nasty.

This is a very basic explanation of a different kind of game. Based upon action and reaction. Easier to play then explain, it is very similar to trying to dissect the sequence of actions upon a battlefield.

As always, I am always open to questions and constructive observations.  Thanks for reading this.  Mike Priest