Die Fighting, 2nd Edition by Bob Jones - Pre-publication Discount

    Die Fighting II is the latest set of innovative wargames rules to be released under the author ship of Bob Jones. In a way, my association with Bob goes back over 40 years, when he first started writing articles in the old NEWA Courier. Three of those articles stand out off the top of my head:
1) "Deci, rather than Sexy", about the use of dodecahedral (20 sided) dice to generate random number, % style. IIRC, at that time, a set of 3 cost about $5 from a specialty firm - equivalent to over $25 now.  This was before Dungeons and Dragons made polyhedral dice familiar to us all!
2) "Delaying Terrain Effects: The Forgotten Variable", in which Mr. Jones argued that the conventional practice of fixed terrain effects was greatly at odds with real life.  Difficult terrain might take far more or even far less time to traverse than anticipated, due to troop, weather, map and reconnaissance variables, and indeed this unpredictability increased the friction factor imposed by terrain upon nthe plans of military leaders.
3) "Gad Robineau, what where you thinking?" about the impact that good (and poor) leaders had upon the execution of military operations. This was very much an argument against the all powerful, all seeing "100 foot tall general" of conventional miniatures rules, this time focusing on the human factors as they effect leadership at all levels of command, and, of course, how to model them in our games.

    I think I own a copy of virtually all of the wargames rules that Bob has written over the years - Le Jeu de la Guerre (Napoleonic), Rebel Yell (ACW), Piquet and most of its period supplements, Zouave, and most recently, "Die Fighting". Each of these designs is innovative, and each shows the influence of the issues Bob was grappling with in his articles of 40 years ago. Each design explores new and different ways to adequately model effects of chance, each places significant constraints upon the commander's ability to direct the action of his troops with certainty, and each design highlights the key role that leadership plays in warfare. Bob has also been an innovator in tools to be used with his rules, including the use of chits and a logarithmic, circular slide rule melee calculator in Le Jeu, Card decks and the infamous Combat Caliper in Piquet, and the Rondel in Zouave 2. In Die Fighting, Bob returned to the the time honored tool of our hobby, six sided die. But of course, being a Bob Jones design, this was no tired, uninspired,Warhammer style "Buckets of Dice" D6 game!  It was six sided dice on steroids!!!  The key concept in the original Die Fighting was that the army had a certain amount of "energy" that it could expend in the course of combat, and that once that energy was expended, the army's ability to carry on was so compromised that withdrawal was the only feasible option. Unlike Piquet, where this energy was to some degree represented by Morale Chips, it was represented by actual dice! Each army started with a set number of (red) resource dice. Every time a unit was to move, shoot, or fight, it would involve throwing one or two of these Red Dice per unit. The twist was that once the dice were thrown, they were discarded and lost for the rest of the game!  Red dice were also lost when your units suffered adverse effects from combat; the worse the result, the more Red dice you had to discard! Command Group leaders contributed their own stock of Officer Dice (Yellow) each turn, which could be added to the Red dice of units under their command, provided they were sufficiently close to the Leader who was passing the dice. Finally, "Free Dice" (Green) were used for tactical advantages in combat where other sets might have used die roll modifiers, such as the effects of heavy cavalry charging. The "Rule of Six" was applied in many situations where a certain score was needed, as was re rolling of certain numbers or multiples based upon the quality of the particular unit. I did a detailed review and walk through of the original Die Fighting here on the blog (use the Die Fighting label). Bob had plans to add a really fascinating campaign concept to all of this, a set of rules tentatively titled "Die Marching"!

    In the process of developing the initial concepts for Die Marching, which Bob regaled Tim Couper and I with over breakfast at Historicon 2011, Bob gradually concluded that the base rules themselves needed further refinement and evolution before he could proceed much further with a campaign set. Much of that evolution in chronicled on the "Repique Blog" on his Repique Rules website; recommended reading if you want to know more about what DF2 is about! While I am eagerly awaiting my own copy of Die Fighting II, I can tell you that one of the key changes is that the starting allotment of Resource Dice is much lower, is command specific (with some  modification by the C-in-C), and rather than being generated by a process based upon the number and quality of units in the command, it is now driven primarily by the quality of the group's commander. The Red Dice are (usually) replenished to a degree each turn, the amount being most heavily influenced again by the commander's ability. Bob has also experimented further with a very short (6-8 cards) sequence deck used in Die Fighting, used to randomize and limit the actions of each side independently. This means that there is no guarantee that this replenishment will in fact take place on a given turn, or when, though!

    The Leadership (Yellow) Dice and Free (Green) Dice are handled similarly to the original, although doubtless there will be some tweaks and refinements. The other key new element is the Black Dice!  Black dice SUBTRACT their pips from a unit's score (rather than add to them like all the other types). Black dice are given to units that were very poor historically (or in previous games), thus acting as a drag to their movement, fire, melee and morale! Black Dice may also be "awarded" to a unit as a penalty after a particularly bad combat result. Bob also has expanded upon his ideas about Leader quality and quirks, and includes new ways of generating and assigning generals to their commands... just hope you don't draw a Robineau for *your* leader!

    Perhaps the biggest innovation in Die Fighting, however, II is it's format - there are NO printed rules in the ordinary sense!  The rules are presented on a CD, playable in any computer or video disc player. In just under an hour of running time, the video walks you through the entire rules set, step by step, and illustrates the execution of the each of the rules. The presentation is indexed, to allow you to access the segment that you need, should you have questions. There is also a video slideshow summary presentation of the rules. Period Specific printed/pdf "Free Dice Tables" (essentially, a type of QRS) are the only semi conventional aspect of the rules, and are expected to be all that most players will need to refer to after a game or two. Mr. Jones was a Television producer for many years, and the video is professionally done and edited. Piquet (circa 1977) had an embryonic version of this concept in the form of an optional short, inexpensive video cassette demonstration of a few new, key concepts, but never even approached trying to present the entire rules in video format.

   Die Fighting II is available directly from Repique Rules for $26 plus postage (which is expected to be low, as it is much less bulky than a printed book, especially for overseas customers). Until Friday, November 21st, there is a $4 pre-publication discount. My copy is already on order, and I can't wait to watch my first set of wargames rules on video!  Needless to say, a further review here will be forthcoming before too long.