In
my early experience of campaigns I found that the winner of the first battle
often won the campaign. When the
wargame casualties were transferred to the campaign it often left the loser
with an impossible task. In the next
battle the loser would start with more casualties and would be most likely to lose the
subsequent wargame. Few campaigns can
last for long when this happens. In an
historical campaign this may not matter too much. It can be claimed with some justice that
most campaigns are decided by a major battle anyway.
But
if the objective of the campaign is to provide a series of interesting wargames
this type of result is not good. The
first battle provides a good wargame. But
all subsequent battles leave the loser with the prospect of ever more uneven
battles to game.
Setting
up each campaign takes considerable effort, and I wanted them to last a
reasonable period and to provide a series of interesting wargames. The secret lies in battle casualties and how
they are replaced.
I
wanted each battle to have an effect on the subsequent battles. And I wanted the winner to gain some reward
from winning. But I also wanted the
loser to be able to recover sufficiently in order to fight the remaining
wargames with some chance of winning.
The
wargame rules are designed to produce relatively small numbers of
casualties. Each game “hit” results in
10% casualties to the brigade concerned.
For infantry this is 400 men, for cavalry and gunners 100 men. But more important each “hit” reduces the
effectiveness of the brigade by minus 1 on each combat and morale dice throw.
At
the end of the wargame the casualties are transferred to the campaign in terms
of “men” rather than “hits”. It is usual that the loser of the battle will
have to retreat directly away from the winner.
So I had to devise a method which would prevent the winner from
immediate pursuit and the subsequent “steam roller” effect.
Supply,
or rather lack of it, is the main way of doing this. I will explain that in the next blog. In general terms a corps which is out of
supply will suffer attrition casualties and cannot initiate an attack. This
will usually prevent an immediate pursuit.
Having
broken contact both sides will wish to regroup and replace battle casualties as
quickly as possible. To do so they must
be in supply, they must be stationary and they must not be under attack.
During
the first move that they meet these conditions they can regroup. This means that all infantry casualties, less
10% for each brigade, can be transferred to one brigade. In effect one brigade replaces all battle
casualties less the 10%. The result is
usually that one of the four infantry brigades become non-operational. This cannot be done for gunners or cavalry,
because there is only one cavalry brigade and one corps artillery.
In
addition to regrouping each corps received 10% of one brigade as
reinforcements. It is normal for the
first reinforcements to be either gunners or cavalry. When both are up to strength, less 10% for
each, the infantry receive reinforcements.
However every brigade which receives wargame casualties will keep at least
10% for the remainder of the campaign.
This
has the effect of reducing the effectiveness of such a brigade for the duration
of the campaign. If your elite infantry
brigade receives casualties in the first battle, they will become an average
brigade for the remainder of the campaign phase. The same will apply to cavalry and gunners.
As
a consequence each corps starts the campaign as fully operational. But as they receive casualties they become
weaker and more brittle. This is
particularly important from a morale point of view. Because if one brigade lose their morale and
rout, all friendly brigades within supporting distance (4” on the table) also
have to test their morale. And if they
have casualties from earlier battles they are much more likely to join the
rout.
Next
time I will explain campaign supply
You will find my campaign rules here
