Saturday, March 24, 2018

Season of Battle - play test campaign - Set Up

   Brent Oman sent me the semi final draft of his new, simple short, if somewhat abstract campaign rules, titled, "Season of Battle" for some final play testing. While intended for use with his own  Field of Battle rules, they should be fairly easy to adapt to use many other rules sets More about that as things go along.

    I have, of course, chosen to set mine in 1809, in the Spring "Landshut" phase of the Danube campaign. I chose to model my forces on those of Massena's Corps for the French, and Hohenzollern-Hechingen's Corps for the Austrians. I gave the Austrians a 10% advantage in troop points, to help compensate for their poorer commander quality. I actually set the forces up first, and then added up the points, and I was amazingly close just by Gestalt - only a unit or two needed to be changed to make it work out right!

The forces I set up were as follows:

French National Will  78
Marshal Massena  LD 12


1st Division, GD Legrand  LD 12
Unit Name
DD  
CD
Notes/Changes
Baden Jagers
D6
12
61
Baden IR #1
D6
10
61
Baden IR #2
D6
10
61
Baden  IR #3
D6
10
61
Baden  IR #4
D6
10
61
8# Foot Artillery
D6
12
64


2nd Division, GD Molitor  LD 12+1 ** Charismatic**
Unit Name
DD  
CD
Notes/Changes
10e Legere
D8
12
95
3e Ligne
D6
12
61
57e Ligne
D6
12
61
72e Ligne
D6
10
61
105e Ligne
D6
10
61
8# Foot Artillery
D6
12
64


3rd  Division, GD St. Cyr  LD 12
Unit Name
DD  
CD
Notes/Changes
13e Legere
D8
12+1
95
173e Ligne
D6
12
61
30e Ligne
D6
12
61
Hesse Liebgarde
D6
10
61
Hesse Lieb
D6
10
61
8# Foot Artillery
D6
10
64


Light Cavalry Division, GD Maraluz  LD 10 ** Heroic**
Unit Name
DD  
CD
Notes/Changes
2e Hussar
D8
10
95
6e Chasseurs
D6
10
68
Bavarian Dragoons
D6
12
71
6# Horse Artillery
D8
12+1
95


Corp Artillery Reserve,  GD Senarmont LD 12+1
Unit Name
DD  
CD
Notes/Changes
12# FA
D6
12
72
12# FA
D6
12
72


Heavy Cavalry Brigade, GB St Sulpice  LD 12
Unit Name
DD  
CD
Notes/Changes
1ier Carabiniers
D8
12
100
10e Cuirassiers
D8
12
100


26 units, Points: 1848


Austrian National Will:  84
FML Hohenzollern - Hechingen  LD 10


Advance Guard, Vukassovich  LD 8
Unit Name
DD  
CD
Notes/Changes
Jager Bn #1
D8
10
95
Grenz Rgt #9
D4
12
38
1st EzH Karl Legion
D4
10
38
1st Vienna Volunteers
D4
10
38
Hussar Rgt #1
D6
12
68
Hussar Rgt #4
D8
12+1
95
6# Cavalry Battery
D6
8
64


1st  Division, FML Lusignan  LD 8
Unit Name
DD  
CD
Notes/Changes
I.R. # 10
D6
10
61
I.R. # 15
D6
10
61
I.R. # 21
D6
8
61
I.R. # 59
D6
8
61
6# FA
D6
8
64


2nd  Division, FML St. Julien  LD 10 ** Aggressive**
Unit Name
DD  
CD
Notes/Changes
I.R. # 31
D6
12
61
I.R. # 34
D6
10
61
I.R. # 48
D6
10
61
I.R. # 53
D6
8
61
6# FA
D6
10
64


3rd  Division, GM Bieber  LD 8
Unit Name
DD  
CD
Notes/Changes
I.R. # 18
D6
10
61
I.R. # 24
D6
10
61
I.R. # 38
D6
10
61
I.R. # 42
D6
8
61
6# FA
D6
10
64


Corps Artillery, Oberst Smola LD 8
Unit Name
DD  
CD
Notes/Changes
12# FA
D6
12+1
72
12# FA
D6
121+1
72


Reserve Division,   GM Mayer LD 10 **Poltroon**
Unit Name
DD  
CD
Notes/Changes
Grenadier #2
D10
12+1
123
Grenadier #4
D10
12
123
Cuirassier #5
D10
12
127
Cuirassier #8
D10
12
127
6# FA
D6
10
64


29 units, Points: 2038





National Will are essentially campaign level morale points, and are set to be roughly equal to three battle's worth for each side. If a side runs out of National Will points after a battle, they lose. The other way to lose is to lose a battle in your home zone.

   The zones are abstract, but can be superimposed upon a map for more flavor. I named the zones for period flavor, as Brent suggests; Zones 1 - 5 would work as well, but is awfully bland. The first battle of the campaign always takes place in the "Neutral Zone" (middle sector, here named Landshut.



Strasbourg
Abensburg
Landshut
Ebelsberg
Aspern-Essling



I also set up a simple graphic to track National Will points. 
NATIONAL               WILL
FRANCE
AUSTRIA
78
84


The National Will Points were the sum of three rolls on the table included in SoB; the highest roll on the table gives National Will equal to the number of units. hus if one wanted a longer or shorter campaign, one could use 2 rolls, or 4 instead.


French: 26 + 26 + 26 = 78 Austrian: 26 + 29 + 29 = 84


From a deck of 54 Battlefield Map cards, 10 each are dealt to each campaign zone, and the numbers thereupon in each Zone are noted for future reference. The remaining 4 cvards are placed to the side. Here's what it looked like when I set it up:




The 10 cards for the Abensburg Zone turned face up, and the numbers recorded. 


I did the same for each zone, swept the cards into a pile, and wrote the numbers on index cards for each zone. 


A D4 roll has determined that card # 1 (of the 4 "leftover" cards) will be the site of the opening battle of the campaign, which will take place in the Landshut zone (indicated here by the presence of a 54mm Napoleon striding across the "map"!). 


Although not a part of the SoB rules, we had fun with giving our Generals some special characteristics in our LANNES campaign, so I used a variation on that idea here as well:


D20 roll
Special Effects
1
Poltroon: DOWN 1 for all Rally rolls
2
Epileptic: LD roll of 2 also = no move. May re-roll failed leader survival tests
3
Fabian: DOWN 1 die type for MOVE rolls (Can go down to a D6!),
BUT may *always*  expend 1 segment to change facing or formation.
4 - 17
No special effects
18
Aggressive:  UP 1 die type for MOVE rolls.
19
Charismatic: UP 1 for all Rally rolls
20
Heroic: all units in his Command Group get UP 1 in Melee while he is in charge,
but roll for Leader  loss on D8 instead of D12!




Roll for each General lost in action at the end of every battle
D12 Die Roll
Result
1, 2
“He’s Dead, Jean!”Roll a replacement
3, 4
“I’m not Dead Yet” - Serious Wound
5 - 7
“It’s just a Flesh Wound!”
8
Impregnated by Elephant:Concussion
9, 10
Unhorsed
11
Bullet stopped by portrait of Mistress
12
Bullet stopped by brandy flask


Serious wounds in 2 battles of a campaign will also result in loss of the leader for the duration of the campaign, as will 3 light ("flesh") wounds, or a serious wound and 2 light wounds. Oudinot, anyone?
Concussion: LOSE Special Characteristic if present, or Roll for a new chance of acquiring one if the general has has none!

10 comments:

  1. The abstracted 'play zones' are inspired here. I saw this at Sgt Steiner's during one of the playtests...and loved the maps and relative simplicity of ongoing encounters - making you consider saving troops for the next battle rather than sacrificing blindly.

    The zones that I had in mind though were: Walcourt, Fleurus, Steenkirk and Neerwinden. All still works :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The basic idea is excellent and keeps the paperwork to am minimum. I am curious to see how the card play that sets the stages for the battles works out, as well as checking that the language is clear.

      Delete
  2. A nice basic framework to generate battles and one can add as much extra chrome as one desires just like your Commander traits.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, the system, is easy to add extra chrome to!

      Delete
  3. Looking forward to really getting my teeth into this campaign of your Peter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I set up the terrain for the first battle last night; with luck In will play out some or all of it today.

      Delete
  4. It looks like a really intriguing system to establish a workable and enjoyable campaign. I have been thinking of something similar for doing some modern games, perhaps I should crib this idea instead. Looking forward to your updates!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. While there is only "maneuver" in the abstract sense, the system provides for varying maps and setups, limited carry over of results from one battle to the next without ever becoming so overwhelming that there is no point in continuing, and a clear endpoint to the campaign, which should end after 3 -5 battles.

      Delete
  5. Really interesting concept Gonsalvo and brilliant miniatures. Inspirational! I think we share an interest in 1809 too. https://captaincliche1.blogspot.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thankee, Cap'n! I enjoyed perusing your own cliched efforts!

      Delete