Over the past few days David Crook and I have been exchanging ideas that should lead to a significant improvement to my MEMOIR OF BATTLE (MOB) rules. He suggested some changes that were intended to give Elite troops the ability to perform better on the battlefield, whilst at the same time penalising Poorer quality troops so that they did not perform as well. I felt that his ideas and intentions had considerable merit as this was one area of the rules where they were rather weak. The mechanisms he suggested certainly worked, but it was my personal opinion that players were likely to forget to use them in the heat of tabletop battle.
Spurred on by the desire to achieve the goal that David had set by using the simplest (and hopefully easiest to remember) mechanisms that I could, I made one or two minor changes to the Combat Dice table, which now looks like this:
I hope to play-test the latest draft of the rules over the weekend, and if I manage to do so, I will certainly write a blog entry about it.
Spurred on by the desire to achieve the goal that David had set by using the simplest (and hopefully easiest to remember) mechanisms that I could, I made one or two minor changes to the Combat Dice table, which now looks like this:
I hope to play-test the latest draft of the rules over the weekend, and if I manage to do so, I will certainly write a blog entry about it.
I'm not sure about Elite units being immune to retreats altogether - even the best units retreated sometimes. Could they not just ignore the first retreat; the same effect hedgehogs/entrenchments give in Memoir '44?
ReplyDeleteI wondered why you felt the mechanism of giving elite/poor units more or less figures or hits wasn't adequate.
Kaptain Kobold,
ReplyDeleteThe proposed changes came about as a result of the discussions that I had with David Crook, who felt that the combat results for Elite, Normal, and Poor Units were too similar. (He also wanted to include the option that Units could put out skirmishers who would not be as easy to hit.) My proposed solutions to his concerns were simpler than the mechanisms he suggested. They are not set in stone; they are merely some proposals that can be tested.
Your suggestion that Elite Units ignore the first 'Retreat' result is probably a better one than mine, where they ignore it altogether ... so don't be surprised if I 'steal' it from you!
All the best,
Bob
Hi Bob (and Kaptain K),
ReplyDeleteI think that makes a lot of sense to have elite/vet units ignore the first flag entirely but that any subsequent flags are taken as either a retreat or a strength point loss. I am thinking that may be a viable work around for units in woods and BUA as well.
Either way I shall be testsing a few variations on a theme myself this weekend so I am sure that something satisfactory will come out in the wash!
All the best,
DC
David Crook,
ReplyDeleteI must admit that Kaptain Kobold's suggestion is a better one than mine, and I will probably use it in preference to my own proposal during any play-tests that I manage to stage this weekend.
As to the woods and BUA ... well all non-Artillery Units firing into woods and BUAs already suffer a penalty of throwing one fewer Combat Dice so I wonder if another change is necessary?
All the best,
Bob
The Memoir '44 terrain rules are worth pinching - lose dice for woods, buildings and so forth, with improved terrain such as fortifications allowing you to ignore a retreat (decide how you want to incorporate that with elite troops :) ) The downside is that the dice reduction effect doesn't have much granularity - 1 dice is OK, but losing 2 is quite a lot, so you can't really differentiate between different levels of terrain protection. You tend to lose the classic Hard Cover/Soft Cover effect.
ReplyDeleteKaptain Kobold,
ReplyDeleteThe rules as they are at the moment incorporate a version of the MEMOIR '44 terrain rules. Units firing into woods etc., reduce the number of Combat Dice they throw by one, and Units in fieldworks ignore the first 'Retreat' and 'loss of strength value' Combat Dice results.
How this will work with Elite and/or Poor Units has yet to be tested!
All the best,
Bob