PBEM Campaign Combat

Battle of Ulzen cavalry combat

Its interesting how one thing leads to another.

I recently changed the PBEM campaign from one move per day of three map squares, to three moves per day of one map square each. I did it as a result of some complaint or other; I can’t even remember what it was now.

Having done so, it was immediately obvious that it would work better for the campaign. It’s fine to do one campaign day for each move when you control all of the movement and can manipulate the campaign at will. But with half a dozen players it becomes much more difficult.

However as the campaign progressed it became obvious that other adjustments would be required. The campaign rules had been written to accommodate one move one day. But it would now mean that there would be a long delay between battles, and this would mean the players would have to submit two or three sets of orders when nothing would be changing.

So I have been busy amending the campaign rules.

Because the players can react much more quickly, it is not necessary to arrange battles so far apart. They can, if they wish, also withdraw from a battle much more easily.

I have always allowed cavalry detachments, and used the wargame rules to fight any contacts without setting up the table. But the wargame rules are designed to have a convincing result, and can mean the destruction of the whole cavalry brigade. I wanted to achieve a less drastic result, and have added a new rule to the campaign orders which will allow a cavalry skirmish, with a maximum of one casualty per side.

This in turn prompted me to allow infantry detachments up to one square from the corps, and to write a simplified campaign rule based on the more complicated wargame rules.

Not sure how the players will take it. Some don’t like changes mid campaign. But these should be an improvement, and should make their role much more interesting.

No doubt time will tell!