Action/Reaction in Miniature Wargaming (Part 4)

The preceding entries provide the background to Chaos, Confusion, and Casualties. This blog and the following are the rough draft of the rules as I have organized them. On a cautionary note, as a teacher, I had an horrible time trying to construct lesson plans as prescribed, making sure I placed every "dot and tittle" in its prescribed location. It drove me nuts. I could not teach by a prescribed, rote plan and inevitably, I had to rewrite my plans over and over again because I did not format the plan the way the administration wanted it.  I failed First Grade because I could not handle flash cards and knuckle head math.

I am going to err in this construction. That is just the way it is. I never specialized in perfection. Should this ever get published, a very patient editor will have to diligently guide me to work the kinks out of this ball of twine. That being said, I know that this system works and plays better than I thought it would. Early playtesting and continual feedback have brought its development to this point.

The opening statements are going to be repetitive. Skip them if you need to do so. I would but I had to include them in this draft.

Chaos, Confusion and Casualties

by 

John Michael Priest
November 2019

I.                   Chaos, Confusion, and Casualties represents years of developing home grown rules in an attempt to simulate the actual combat conditions on a Civil War battlefield, or almost any black powder engagement, on the battalion and regimental level. Scaled to 54mm, it can easily be converted to other scales. In many games, the generals are almost omniscient. They issue orders which the men actually heard. The skies are clear and lingering smoke seldom creates a problem.  A lot of games are based upon traditional, ”You move. I move.”  Having been raised around World War II combat veterans, I grew up on their stories of what really happened down on the ground. Their stories wove tapestries of battles which did not appear in the textbooks. Erich Maria Remarque, Bill Mauldin, Arthur Guy Empey, John Hersey, Ernie Pyle brought the war home and made it more personal than afteraction reports.

II.                Chaos, Confusion, and Casualties actually dissects the various actions which can and do occur simultaneously upon the field. It also removes 54mm wargaming from skirmishing to battalion, regimental and battery level where the players have to deal with unexpected circumstances over which they have no control. Officers have to control their own men and their unanticipated reactions to combat. The turns are based upon a relatively simple concept of action/reaction /counter reaction. Every action could result in disproportionate and/or unexpected reactions or no reaction at all. It requires the players employ actual tactics to protect themselves from surprises.

III.             What I want to do is introduce a game system where, players, regardless of scale, can implement a basic system not only to table top gaming but possibly to board gaming also. The most important part to miniature gaming is to make the game fun, fast, and unpredictable. The scale of the game depends upon the player as does the number of pieces upon a stand. The number of hits a piece can sustain before being removed is at the player’s discretion.

IV.             These rules deal more with the mechanics of the game to facilitate play and the elimination of  charts. This game is designed for 54mm pieces on a regimental and battalion level but not restricted to that scale.

V.                Scale

A.                Infantry: 1/48 (12 hits).    Cavalry: 1/24 (6 hits).     Artillery: Crew 1/4 -   3 man crew  (4 hits/ crew piece).  Artillery pieces:1/1 (1 hit by dud or solid shot. Roll off to decide if disabled or not).      Skirmishers: 1/4 (4 hits).   All officers: 1/1 ( 4 hits).

B.                 50 feet/1 inch. 

VI.             Bases

A.                Rectangular base: Both pieces facing the long side are in line of battle. Pieces facing the narrow side are in column of 4’s.

VII.          Playing Pieces

A.                The number of soldiers needed depends upon what the individual players have available. The strength of forces literally depended upon the number of men present for duty.

B.                 The number of infantry officers is very important. The ideal situation is to have 3 officers per infantry regiment, which enables the player to divide the unit into several segments, each with its own officer. No officer on the line stalls the unit, making only able to react if attacked.

C.                 Officers

1.                  rally troops.

2.                  stop undesirable reactions.

3.                  downed officers.

4.                  constantly troop the line to maintain order.

a)                  When the line suffers a hit, all of the officers are susceptible to getting injured.

(1)               The player rolls 1D10 for each officer.

(2)               Odd means the officer was missed.

(3)               Even means the officer will probably get wounded or eliminated.

(a)                The player rolls 1 D10 with the “zero” representing a “10.”

(i)                 10, 9, 8 indicates an incapacitating “nick.”

(ii)               7 - 6 is 1 hit noted by placing a red chip under the officer.

(iii)             5 - 4 means 2 hits, using a white chip.

(iv)             3 - 2 indicates 3 hits, a blue chip.

(v)              1 removes the officer from the field.

(vi)             The hits are cumulative.

(b)               This applies to all officers, artillery crew pieces, and skirmishers.

5.                  When an infantry unit loses a piece (suffers 12 hits), the officers on the line must all roll for hits.

6.                  Artillery officers consist of 1 lieutenant for 2 guns (a section) and 1 captain for each battery (4-6 guns).

7.                  Regimental line officers consist of a colonel (mounted), plus a lieutenant colonel and major dismounted.

8.                  Staff officers should be mounted. They include a brigadier general and 2 aides per brigade (5-7 regiments), and a major general with 3 aides and commands a division (2-3 brigades).

9.                  Skirmishers are pulled from the regimental line, which inflicts one hit on the regiment per skirmisher. They may return to the line and remove that hit.

VIII.       Skirmishers

A.                Skirmishers represent 4 men in two ranks, acting as “comrades in battle.”

B.                 They literally are the eyes and ears of the regiment/brigade/Division.

1.                  They go onto the field to cover the front and flanks of the units behind them.

2.                  They initiate fire, to alert the units of impending trouble.

a)                  They fire on other skirmishers.

b)                  They pick off enemy officers too.

(1)               After measuring the distance and taking the deductions, the player rolls 1 D10.

(2)               If it is equal to or lower than the adjusted range number he rolls

(3)               1 D10 and follows the results from VII, C., (a), (i) – (vi).

c)                  It takes 4 hits to remove a skirmisher, just like the officers.

IX.             Dice

A.                As many D10s and D6s as the players can get.

B.                 At least 10 D10s and 6D6s to accommodate artillery firing, small arms firing, and hand-to-hand combat.  An individual can always roll multiple times to accommodate a large number of participants.

C.                 Metric rulers for smaller scales. Standard Rulers for larger scales.

D.                Red, white and blue chits, numbered chits (labeled 1-11) or casualty counters numbered 1-12.

X.                Measuring Sticks

A.                Rifles and Canister

1.                  27 inches long, divided into 9 sections (3 inches each), numbered “1” – “9”.

2.                  (With smaller scales this could be shortened to accommodate centimeters).

3.                  Place the “9” at the target and the opposite end at the shooter.

a)                  The number at the shooter is the range to the target without deductions.

b)                  Take the deductions for smoke, fog, and intervening cover between the shooter and the target and subtract that number from the original range.

c)                  The resulting number (the adjusted range) or lower are the numbers which each the firing line mu must roll on D10s to score hits.           

(1)               For instance: The target is at number “5”.

(a)                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.

(b)               The shooter has 5 pieces on line and rolls 5 D10s. Each die with a 4 or lower scores a hit.

(c)                10s are misses.

B.                 Muskets

1.                  12 inch stick.

a)                  Mark it in 1 inch sections in descending order from 6-1.

b)                  Leave the remaining 6 inches unmarked.

c)                  Number the sections in descending order from 6-1.

2.                  When firing, the “6” is at the target and the lower number at the shooter.

3.                  From the section marker “1” everything up to 12 inches away could get hit with a roll of “1”.

4.                  When firing each shooting piece rolls a D10.

5.                  7s – 10s are misses because muskets could miss at close ranges and, sometimes, the balls did not fit the bore and rolled out the barrel when firing.