SAEaE - Possible Changes

I have been reading exchanges various recent posts on Bob Cordery's 'Wargaming Miscellany'  and David Crook's 'A Wargaming Odyssey' about how to better reflect both quality and numbers in the simple 'Memoir of Battle' games they have been pioneering. I have some reservations at present about the effects being too extreme in a game with low granularity in terms of the ability to change factors, but I shall follow the discussion and read the playtests and see what comes out of it.

It got me thinking about my own 'Struggle Against Everything and Everybody' (SAEaE) rules for the Mexican Revolution. These are based on one of Bob's sets, so changes and ideas proposed for them are potentially applicable. Having a few games of it under my belt (or bandolier) now I wondered if it could stand a few tweaks on similar lines to those proposed by Bob and David.

One issue I am thinking about at present is the relationship between a unit's strength and its combat capabilities. At present the 'Memoir of Battle' rules that Bob and David are trying use strength to reflect how many 'hits' a unit can take, with adjustments for quality - an infantry unit has a strength of 4, for example, but an elite unit may have a strength of 5 and a poor one a strength of 3. Their combat capability - how many dice they roll to score hits - is, however, unaffected by the strength. An infantry unit always rolls 4 dice, whether it is a full strength elite unit with 6 hits, or a poor unit close to breaking, with only 1 strength left. The Morschauser system, on which SAEaE is based gives units a strength, but that also dictates how many dice they roll when in combat; as a unit takes casualties it's fire-power decreases.

I am beginning to wonder if both methods are a little extreme. The first has units fighting at full strength until they are destroyed. The second has units degrading very rapidly as they take casualties, and their fire-power going down by a significant percentage.

In reality, such as it is, units generally don't fight to the last man; at about 15-20% casualties they are ready to give up. High casualty rates tend to happen when lots of units give up at once and the army routs, but for most games we play that's the aftermath, not part of the game itself. So for an infantry unit with an (arbitrary) strength of 4, each 'hit' doesn't represent 25% of the unit being put out of action; it may only represent a 5% loss. To this end there is something to be said for the Memoir method of fire-power being relatively unaffected by casualties; each hit doesn't represent 25% of a unit's fire-power being lost.

Morale is a different matter. If we assume a 4 strength unit 'breaks', and is lost, when all four points are lost, and that this represents a loss of about 20% of its strength. Each hit could, potentially, be degrading its morale by 25%.

So, how can I apply this theoretical (and probably inaccurate) rambling in SAEaE? When cobbling it together I pondered which method to go for - Memoir or Morschauser. I went for Morschauser, partially because the saving roll mechanism gave me more flexibility in terms of applying terrain and range factors in the game. The discussion above leads me to the idea that I could use a mix of both systems.

In SAEaE I differentiate between shooting and close combat., using slightly different mechanisms. Even at one square range a unit can choose to sit tight and shoot, or charge in with sabre, machete or bayonet*. The former is a low risk strategy, which may take time to bear fruit, whilst the latter offers a big win at the risk that you could suffer if things go badly. My assumption is that shooting is based very much on the actual strength of a unit - how many guns it can bring to bear - whereas close combat is based on morale - a unit's willingness to charge against its target's willingness to stand in the face of a determined attack.

So here's what I will try.

Units still have a base strength value. This directly equates to their fire-power - the number of dice they roll when shooting. This doesn't vary significantly with casualties. It's also used as an initial measure of the unit's willingness to fight. This value does go down as the unit takes 'hits'.

So instead of Strength units will have Firepower and Morale. These start with the same base values; 4 for Infantry, 3 for Cavalry, Artillery and Machine Guns. Elite units add 1 to Morale (only), Poor units subtract 1.

Firing: A unit rolls dice equal to its Firepower. If a unit has taken any hits, subtract one from the number of dice.

Close combat: A unit rolls dice equal to its Morale value.

Hits: Hits are taken on the units Morale value only. When it reaches zero the unit is removed.

Example. A Poor infantry unit has a base strength of 4. It's Firepower is 4 and its Morale value is 3. When it shoots it rolls 4 dice, but in close combat it only rolls 3. It takes 2 hits. When firing it now rolls 3 dice - a base of 4 with a -1 modifier for having taken hits. In close combat, though, it only rolls 1 dice; a base morale of 3, -2 for the hits. One more hit will destroy the unit.

I will try this out in the next couple of games, and see how it works.
*But not lance. Apparently the Mexican Revolution didn't see much in the way of lancers.

The Battle Of Cuautla

In May 1911 Mexico was aflame with revolution. In the north troops under Madero and Villa were winning a series of victories that were forcing the president and dictator of Mexico, Porfirio Diaz, to consider his position. In the south Emilio Zapata was also in rebellion. He realised that unless he held major towns in the area he would have little to bargain with at the end of the fighting, so attacked the fortified and garrisoned city of Cuautla. He had 4,000 troops, ill-equipped and unused to the kind of fighting required to take a city by assault. The city was defended by between 350-400 men of the elite Fifth Regiment of the Federal army.

The stage was set for six days of terrible battle, which left the Fifth Regiment decimated and Zapata in control of the city. The battle was fought at close range, with machete and bayonet in many cases, and saw the use of gasoline to burn the Federal troops out of their positions.

I decided to base a  game of 'Struggle Against Everything And Everybody' around this battle, pitting a force of Zapatista rebels against a series of Federal defence lines in the close confines of a city. Rather than fire I decided to allow the attackers to use dynamite; Pancho Villa's troops used this weapon in a similar assault at Ciudad Juarez, blasting from house to house to avoid artillery fire.

I used a very small grid for this game, 5 squares wide by 10 deep (so 15cm x 30cm), with an 11th row holding two objective squares - The Plaza. Ten Zapatista infantry units, with inferior firearms, had twelve turns to take both objectives at the other end of the board. The Federal defenders were determined randomly; the first time a Zapatista unit came within view of each of rows three, five, seven and nine, their occupancy would be determined, with most of the defenders being infantry but the option for machine guns or even artillery. The Plaza was defended by two infantry units, with an artillery unit in the gap between the two objectives.

This was the setup. The first five Zapatista units started on row one, with their places being taken by the remaining five units as they advanced:

Buildings were from the Junior General site. The two buildings with pink roofs were the result of a printer ink malfunction, but it seemed a shame to waste them.

Here's a close-up of the Zapatistas about to begin their assault:

And here's the Plaza. The buildings in front of it are almost certainly defended by Federal troops:

The position at the end of the second turn. The Zapatistas had captured some of the third row by this point, and were starting to fire upon troops defending the next line:

Zapatistas use dynamite to remove a troublesome machine-gun position:

The third line of Federal defence was under attack by the end of the fourth turn:

Not long afterwards the first Zapatista unit reached a position where they could attack the Plaza:

Meanwhile a single Federal unit was still holding out on their first defence line, delaying a couple of Zapatista units:

The high-water mark of the Zapatista attack. Their units were attacking the last line that stood between them and the Plaza, but mounting casualties took their toll and blunted the assault. Any units which broke through and got within range of the Plaza itself were picked off by concentrated fire from the defenders and the artillery. The left flank had done well, having met little resistance, and the centre hadn't had too bad a fight, but the right flank had been held up by two particularly stubborn defenders:

Some of the stubborn defenders on the right - the uniforms are those of the Rurales; I used them because I'd run out of Federals:

The final assaults break on the Federal defences; there were still a few Zapatista units by this stage, but most of them only had one hit left:

The end. The last Zapatista unit made a stand under heavy Federal fire until it was wiped out:

The Zapatista casualty pile at the end of turn 11. Their surviving unit had one hit left and had only advanced as far as the third row:

This was a tense, vicious game, made all the more interesting by the tight, restricted board. The rules held up well.

I will probably try it again with the same set-up, but it's possible that I had the frequency with which Federal units appeared too high, making their numbers a little high. Technically the Zapatistas should be able to concentrate their forces against each defence line, defeating the Federals in detail, but the ticking clock means they can't rely on this as a tactic; they have to push forward with speed.

The Federal defence was helped by two stubborn units on one flank who refused to die, and also their good fortune with initiative; they won it on the majority of turns, allowing them to inflict heavy casualties before that turn's assaults came in.

I'll probably use the dynamite rules again (the Zapatistas had four tokens each of which would give them a bonus in a single close-range firefight or a close assault against a building or allow them to ignore the movement effects of a building). If I wanted to simulate their use of gasoline I might allow them to, once per game, attack every unit in a given row of the board with, say, four dice, ignoring cover. We'll see.

The Battle Of Tijuana

It's my birthday today. I've had a good present haul, of course, some of it in useful hard-cash form and some of it of relevance to this blog. Here's the items of relevance:

Two new games (courtesy of my brother) - one a RPG and another a set of miniatures rules I've been keen to try for a while. The small black object in the corner is a lens attachment for my iPhone; it gives me wide-angle, macro and fish-eye capability, all of which I will find useful.

This afternoon I played through another Mexican Revolution game, using the latest draft of my 'Struggle Against Everything And Everybody' rules. I based my game around the 1911 battle for Tijuana. Tijuana is in Baja California, right against the border with the USA. In 1911 the Federal garrison of about 200 was attacked by a force of 200 Magonistas, followers of the anarchist Flores-Magon brothers. The Magonista force was, in fact, mostly Anglo-American - only ten of them were Mexicans - and there were accusations that their campaign was less about revolution and more about good honest US filibustering. They were commanded by a British soldier of fortune, General Caryl ap Rhys Price, who claimed descent from Owain Glendwr.

In 1911 the Magonistas captured the town of Tijuana, although they only held it for a month. Could they repeat the feat?

I set up the town on the edge of the board, representing the fact that beyond it was the US. Troops retreating off that edge would not be coming back. Although in the actual battle the forces were equal I went for the following OOB to create a 'balanced' game:

Federals: Three Infantry (Strength 4), one Artillery (Strength 3), one Machine Gun (Strength 3), one Cavalry (Strength 3) (6 Units total)

Magonistas: Six Infantry (Strength 4), two Cavalry (Strength 3), one Machine Gun (Strength 3) (9 Units total)

The forces represent the chronic lack of artillery the early revolutionaries had. But they were otherwise assumed to be well supplied with arms from the US.

The Federal forces obviously had the cover of buildings, and could also make use of barricades in the gaps between them.

The Federals deployed by placing counters where they wanted a unit to be. the Magonistas then rolled a D6, and the Federals had to actually deploy that many units in place of the blank counters. The Magonistas then chose how to split their forces; they could start on any board edge except the US border. The Federals then got to deploy their remaining troops.

I won't bore you with details, but it ended up with this Federal deploymant - the Artillery and Machine Gun were covering the western approaches, with Infantry covering the east. The Cavalry and a unit of Infantry were held in reserve:

The Magonistas were split to the east and west. The western force was a screen consisting of the two Cavalry, one Infantry and the Machine Gun. Their aim was to prevent the Federals from pulling troops away from that side of the town by threatening it with a lightning cavalry attack. the Machine Gun would be sited to provide long-range covering fire as well. The eastern force, of five Infantry was the main attack; their orders were to rush the town - nothing subtle:

The western diversion moves into position:

The Magonistas attack the town under heavy Federal fire:

Showing off my birthday present - a fish-eye view of the battle from the US side of the border:

The Magonista forces charge hard, but the Federals get the initiative a couple of turn in a row and cause heavy casualties:

With the eastern attack faltering the diversionary force is thrown into the battle to try and relieve the pressure:

Magonista cavalry charges the Federal artillery:

And against the odds it pushes it back:

The other cavalry unit tries the same trick against the Federal machine gun, but is mown down:

The Federal cavalry gets in on the action, charging out of the town to scatter the stalled Magonista infantry assault:

Although the Magonistas have a couple of units in the town, the Federals are still in a strong position:

After this photo was taken a Magonista infantry unit was destroyed by Federal cavalry, and their machine gun came of worse in a duel with their Federal counterpart.

At this stage I got called away by a delicious meal of halloumi and beetroot (plus beer), as well as a birthday phone call from my parents in the UK, so I called it a day. The Magonistas had forced an entry into the town, but they weren't going to be able to hold onto it; the Federal forces had won the day. The key to their victory was partially down to good initiative rolls, in that they got to act first on a couple of turn just as the Magonistas reached the town, causing heavy casualties before the attack could be properly launched. But the Magonsitas probably had too many troops tied up merely threatening the western side of the town rather than supporting the main attack; the machine gun may have been better deployed adding covering fire.

As with other games using these rules it played quickly and with no fuss. There are a couple of small changes I will feed back into the rules, but they are mostly working well.

Struggle Against Everything And Everybody

I have posted the first draft of my Mexican Revolution rules. There are still bits of them waiting to be written, and bits that are written which need to be properly tested, but I thought that they were at a stage where I am happy to share them. I freely admit that I nicked great swathes of them from Bob Cordery, and thank him for the inspiration his rules and blog have provided me. Anyway, here they are:

Struggle Against Everything And Everybody (Draft 0.1)

Update: About 30 minutes after I posted this, this blog hit 10,000 views. Thank you, everybody!

Guns For Pancho Villa!

And with that title I reveal the subject of yesterday's teaser. Read on ...

Introduction

It's strange how one thing leads to another sometimes. As I posted last week, I was browsing The Junior General  looking for some figures for a project I've had rattling around inside my head for the last couple of years. It's one of those things I'd like to try out before I invest in any figures, so I was looking for some top-down bases I could use just to try out concepts with. At the same time I was reading archived posts on Bob Cordery's blog Wargaming Miscellany and was impressed with his use of simple (and very retro) rules, often using a square or hex grid. My project needed some rules and it came to me that some of the ones he used, and makes available, might work. The advantage of simple rules is that they can be tweaked and adapted to fit particular conflicts.

So I had my figures, and I possibly had some rules. But I wanted to try out the rules and, since this project is what we shall charitably call 'alternate history' I decided to try whatever set I selected on an historical conflict first. And the thing with The Junior General is that there are paper figures for more conflicts than you can shake a stick at.

I selected one I'd had on my To Do list for about ten years - The Mexican Revolution of 1910-20. It has some elements in common with the project I'm working on, and similar technology, so would give me a test-bed. But since it was a conflict I'd always wanted to game, I would get satisfaction just from the testing. The Junior General has a comprehensive selection of figures available for it - you can find then HERE.

During the week I set about constructing two forces, firstly importing figures into Photoshop for rescaling to 15mm, then printing them out, cutting them up and basing them. I had settled on the idea of using a set of rules based on a square grid, so I marked up some cork bathroom tiles accordingly to give me a battlefield 20 squares by 15. I felt that this would be adequate for my games. Terrain was either sourced from my existing collection or manufactured from more cork tiles. You can see the results in the previous post to this one.

I also immersed myself in some of the history via the obligatory Osprey book, plus a number of magazine and journal articles I have printed off over the years. I have started rereading Frank McLynn's 'Villa and Zapata'.

The Rules

The rules used were Bob Cordery's adaptation of Morschauser's modern rules - they can be found at the bottom of this page - in fact here they are. However after trying a few test combats and sample turns I fiddled with them somewhat. Here's what I did:

(i) I changed the initiative system, as I didn't want to mess around with cards. Each turn both sides roll a dice, and the highest has initiative. They can choose if they want to go first or second. The player with initiative can activate one unit. They then roll a dice. On a 4 or more they must activate another unit. They keep activating units until they fail to roll a 4 or more, at which point play shifts to the other player. They activate one unit for free, then roll to activate another, doing so until they fail activation. Once that happens play passes back to the first player, and so on. Activation swaps backwards and forwards between the players until all units have been activated. If a player runs out of units, initiative passes to the other player, who activates the remainder of their units in any order they choose.

Example: Player 1 has units A, B and C. Player 2 has units X, Y and Z. Player 1 wins initiative and decides to act first. They choose to move unit A, then roll a dice. They get a 3, so initiative passes to Player 2. Player 2 moves unit X, then rolls a dice getting a 5. Player 2 now activates unit Y. Rolling again they get a 1, so initiative passes back to Player 1, who can activate either B or C. This continues until all six units have been activated.

(ii) I reversed Close Combat Power, so higher numbers are better. This seemed more intuitive. To score a hit you roll equal to or less than your Power. Anything with a Power of 3 is now 4, whereas those units with Power of 5 now have a Power of 2.

I also gave cavalry the ability to fire - 1 square range, hitting on a 6.

(iii) I limited what a unit could do when activated. When a unit is activated it may move then fire, fire then move, or move then initiate close combat. You may not fire and initiate close combat in the same activation. Artillery and Machine Guns cannot initiate close combat. You also can't initiate close combat on a unit in terrain you can't enter.

(iv) I ran fire combat saves as a modified die roll rather than a table. For each hit roll a dice - on a 6 or more you save, on a 5 you must retreat one space from the firer. If you can't retreat take a kill. If a friendly unit is in the way of a retreat you pass through it to the first vacant square beyond.

The roll is modified - +1 if you are in soft cover, +2 if you are in hard cover and +1 if the firer is firing at over half range.

(v) I altere close combat as described above. The number of close combat dice rolled is determined as in the rules, but you roll equal to or less than your Combat Power to score a kill. Subtract 1 from your power if the target is uphill and subtract 1 if the target is in hard cover. Soft cover doesn't affect close combat - it generally just makes the target harder to see, and in close combat that's irrelevant.

If the defender (the unit that didn't initiate the combat) takes more casualties than the attacker, then they must retreat one space away from the attacker. The attacker is allowed to occupy the space the defended vacated.

The Figures

I decided to start my foray into the Mexican Revolution by starting at the beginning, so I used figures from the Maderista and Porfirista sheets, which cover the battles of 1910-11. The size of my tile-based playing area limited the size of my grid; to maximise its use I went for 3cm squares. This meant basing all of the figures on 3cm square bases or smaller. Junior General figures are, usually, about 25mm in size, which would be too big, so I used Photoshop Elements to rescale the ones I was using to about 15mm in height. This allowed me to use a standard 25mm square base with four infantry figures, two cavalry or one gun/machine gun and crew. Officers would be on smaller bases which allowed me to use them as bases in their own right or attach them to other bases - since I wasn't sure at this stage precisely which rules I would be using I wanted some flexibility.

The results are rough and ready, but usable. In under a week, with minimal effort and virtually no financial outlay I have produced about six cavalry and ten infantry bases for both sides, plus supporting artillery and machine-guns; more than enough to try some basic games.

Here are some of them. Firstly the Maderista revolutionaries:

And the Federal troops of Porfirio Diaz:

The Scenario

It is 1911. Maderista revolutionaries are fighting the forces of Porfirio Diaz across northern Mexico. They are enthusiastic, but always short of good quality arms and ammunition. Word reaches one group that a local hacienda is well stocked with weapons, so a force is sent to capture them. However the owners of the hacienda get wind of what is afoot, and telegraph for assistance from the Federal forces.

The board was set up as follows:

The buildings are the hacienda, and are hard cover. The fields slow movement and do not block line of sight, but the ditches and fences in them count as soft cover to infantry and machine guns. The hills slow movement if entering them from a lower elevation, and give a bonus in close combat. The chaparral counts as soft cover, blocks line of sight and is impassable to cavalry.

The Maderistas have:

Three units of Cavalry (each Strength 3)
Three units of Infantry (each Strength 4, but with firing limited to a range of 4 to reflect their poorer weapons)

They enter on the first turn at the top of the picture.

The hacienda is defended by:

One unit of Infantry (Strength 3)
One Machine Gun (Strength 3)

They may start in any building.

Federal reinforcements consist of:

Four units of Cavalry (each Strength 3)
Three units of Infantry (each Strength 3, representing low morale troops)
One Machine Gun

These enter on the lower edge of the board. At the end of each turn the Federals roll a dice. On a 5 or 6 the cavalry appear, ready to be activated on the next turn. At the end of any turn after that on which the cavalry appear, a 5 or 6 will bring on the infantry and machine gun.

The Maderistas must take the main building of the hacienda. They capture one lot of supplies, up to a maximum of three, for each full turn they are in undisputed possession of the building. They may then withdraw off their starting edge.

The Game

Soundtrack: The second Mariachi El Bronx album.

Here's the initial setup. The hacienda defenders are in position, whilst the Maderista infantry advances using the cover of a hill. The Maderista cavalry covers the flanks (one unit is out of shot to the right):.

Turn 1 - The Maderistas get the initiative, but force the Federals to go first. Their two units are obliged to activate with no targets in sight or range. The Maderistas then advance, but their fire has no effect.

Turn 2 - The Federals get the initiative, and open fire on the Maderista infantry inflicting heavy casualties. Return fire inflicts a hit on the machine gun.

Here's the position at the end of the second turn. The small pieces of cork tile on the bases represent hits.

Turn 3 - The Maderistsa get the initiative. One of their infantry units moves into the fields flanking the hacienda, and their accurate fire at close range wipes out the defending infantry unit. Maderista infantry and the Federal machine gun exchange fire to little effect.

In this picture you can see the Maderista infantry attacking the hacienda from the fields:

Turn 4 - The Maderistas get the initiative, and use it to finish off the machine gun, then occupy the hacienda. There is still no sign of the Federal reinforcements.

Turn 5 - The Maderistas start looting the hacienda.

Turn 6 - The looting continues, but the Federal cavalry arrive:

Turn 7 - The Federals get the initiative, and attack the Maderista cavalry, destroying a unit with a fierce charge. The other Maderista cavalry unit on that flank makes a run for it:

The Maderistas finish looting the hacienda; they can now attempt to withdraw. But the Federal infantry also appear.

Turn 8 - The Maderistas win the initiative, and start to fall back, pursued by the Federal troops:

The Federal infantry - have they arrived too late to save the day?

Turn 9 - The Maderistas win the initiative, and continue their retreat, but their weakened infantry units are seriously threatened by the Federal cavalry:

Turn 10 - The Federals win the initiative, and press home their cavalry advantage:

One Maderista unit is attacked, but manages to retreat to the relative safety of the hill. Other units fall back, but the Federals are pressing them closely. Undamaged units hold back to help the damaged ones get off safely:

Turn 11 - The Federals win initiative again, and get their machine gun into position:

On the other flank the Federal cavalry drives off their Maderista opposite number, but fail to prevent the infantry retreating:

Turn 12 - The Maderistas win initiative, and their last units retreat to safety, ending the game.

The Maderistas lost two cavalry units, and had two infantry units badly shot up. The Federal cavalry took a small number of hits, but otherwise the only Federal losses the defenders of the hacienda. However the hacienda was successfully looted, so the Maderistas could claim a victory.

The Federal infantry remained unblooded, having not managed to fire a shot, but their cavalry did a good job in almost preventing the retreat.

The rules worked well, and were simple to use, giving a quick (under an hour) fun game. I'm not entirely sure I like the close combat mechanism, and may rework it to be something close to the firing process.

Big thank yous to John Gypson for his paper figures, and to Bob Cordery for the simple, but effective rules.