The portable wargame: Another play-test … with slightly amended movement rates

After the comparison I made between the Morschauser-based rules I am using with my portable wargame and DBA, I decided to experiment with reducing the movement rates for Units in my rules. With the exception of Cavalry and Command Units (who can move two grid squares per turn) and Fortress/Siege Artillery Units (which cannot move at all), Units may only move one grid square per turn, and that move must be made orthogonally. I did consider allowing diagonal movement as well, but decided in the end that it was not in keeping with Joseph Morschauser’s original design philosophy for his ‘Frontier’ wargames rules.

Both sides set up in their respective Deployment Zones, and were allocated ‘Risk Express’ dice on the basis I outlined in a previous blog entry. Their starting positions looked like this:

Turn 1
The British Field Artillery Unit opened fire on the Mahdist Command Unit. A D6 die was thrown, and the score of 2 meant that the artillery fire overshot and landed in the empty grid square behind the target.

Both sides threw a D6 die to see who would move first. The British threw a 3 and the Mahdists threw a 4. The Mahdists moved first this turn. They threw their four ‘Risk Express’ dice and were able to move 3 Infantry Units, which they did. The British then threw their ‘Risk Express’ dice and could have moved 5 Infantry Units – had they had them – but as they only had 2 on the battlefield, they were only able to move them.

Turn 2
The British Field Artillery Unit opened fire on the Mahdist Command Unit for a second time. A D6 die was thrown, and the score of 4 meant that the artillery fire undershot and landed in the empty grid square in front the target.

Both sides threw a D6 die to see who would move first. The British threw a 1 and the Mahdists threw a 5. The Mahdists moved first again this turn. They threw their four ‘Risk Express’ dice and were able to move 2 Infantry Units, which they did. The British then threw their ‘Risk Express’ dice and could have moved 4 Infantry Units but again they were only able to move the 2 that they had.

Turn 3
The British Field Artillery Unit changed its target and opened fire on the leading Mahdist Infantry Unit. A D6 die was thrown, and the score of 2 meant that the artillery fire overshot and landed in the grid square behind the target … which was occupied by another Mahdist Infantry Unit. A further D6 die was thrown, and the score of 5 ensured that the Mahdist Infantry Unit was destroyed.

Both sides threw a D6 die to see who would move first. The British threw a 5 and the Mahdists threw a 6. The Mahdists moved first again for the third turn. They threw their four ‘Risk Express’ dice and were only able to move their Command Unit! The British then threw their ‘Risk Express’ dice and could have moved 3 Infantry Units and 2 Artillery Units, but only moved their 2 Infantry Units and their Artillery Unit.

This movement brought one of the British Infantry Units into range of a Mahdist Infantry Unit, and they opened fire on them. A D6 die was thrown, and the score of 5 resulted in the destruction of the Mahdist Infantry Unit.

This loss also reduced the number of non-Command Mahdist Units to 8, and this meant that the Mahdists would only be able to throw three ‘Risk Express’ dice next turn.

Turn 4
The British Field Artillery Unit again fired at the leading Mahdist Infantry Unit. A D6 die was thrown, and the score of 6 meant that the artillery fire landed in the target grid square. A further D6 die was thrown, and the score of 5 ensured that the Mahdist Infantry Unit was destroyed.

Both sides threw a D6 die to see who would move first. The British threw a 4 and the Mahdists threw a 3. For the first time, the British moved first this turn. They threw their three ‘Risk Express’ dice and were able to move all their Units except their Cavalry Unit. They did this, and it brought one of the British Infantry Units into range of a Mahdist Infantry Unit, and they opened fire on them. A D6 die was thrown, but the score of 2 was insufficient to destroy the Mahdist Infantry Unit.

The Mahdists then threw their ‘Risk Express’ dice and were able to move forward 6 Infantry Units. This brought 1 of the Mahdist Infantry Units into Close Combat with a British Infantry Unit. Both sides threw a D6 die; the Mahdist scored 5 as did the British. This resulted in the destruction of the Mahdist Infantry Unit because its score was greater than its Close Combat Power whereas the British score equalled the British Infantry Unit’s Close Combat Power.

Turn 5
The British Field Artillery Unit changed its target back to the Mahdist Command Unit. A D6 die was thrown, and the score of 5 meant that the artillery fire landed in the target grid square. A further D6 die was thrown, and the score of 6 ensured that the Mahdist Command Unit was destroyed.

This had the immediate effect of reducing the number of ‘Risk Express’ dice the Mahdists could throw this turn to two.

Both sides threw a D6 die to see who would move first. The British threw a 1 and the Mahdists threw a 4. As a result, the Mahdists moved first this turn. They threw their two ‘Risk Express’ dice and were able to move 5 of their Infantry Units. The British then threw their three ‘Risk Express’ dice and were again able to move all their Units except their seemingly inert Cavalry Unit.

Turn 6
The British Field Artillery Unit opened fire on the leading Mahdist Infantry Unit to its right. A D6 die was thrown, and the score of 6 meant that the artillery fire landed in the target grid square. A further D6 die was thrown, and the score of 5 resulted in the Mahdist Infantry Unit being destroyed.

Both sides threw a D6 die to see who would move first. The British threw a 4 and the Mahdists threw a 3. Therefore, the British moved first this turn. They threw their three ‘Risk Express’ dice and were able to move their 2 Infantry Units and their Command Unit. This brought one of the British Infantry Units into range of a Mahdist Infantry Unit, and they fired upon them. A D6 die was thrown, and the score of 6 meant that the Mahdist Infantry Unit was destroyed.

At this point the Mahdists had been reduced to fifty percent of their original strength, and the battle ended in a British victory.

Comments
The reduced movement rates make for a much more interesting battle as it gives the player (or players) more decisions to make. As happens in chess, you have to try to think ahead a bit more, knowing that your plans could easily come to nothing if the chance element does not favour you.

They also tend to make the battle last longer and make the board seem to have more space. I suppose that this is due to the fact that it takes an Infantry Unit eight turns to move from one end of the board to the other rather than the four turns it would have taken with the original movement rates.

The longer battle also gave the Artillery Unit time to do some quite serious damage to their opposition, although it must be said that their dice scores were very ‘lucky’ at times!

Finally, it does mean that Infantry Units armed with firearms can use them before they become embroiled in Close Combat. As this battle report shows, this can be decisive when combined with accurate Artillery fire.