I have been slowly working on the draft of my Portable Belle Epoque Wargame rules ... and have adapted a previously designed grading system for each side's generals and a playing card activation mechanism.
Grading generals
In these rules, generals are a player’s tabletop alter ego. However, if we want them to perform realistically during a wargame, they should not be regarded as being infallible super-heroes and should have some limits placed on what they can do each turn. This can be done by:
- Grading each general as either good, average, or poor.
- Placing restrictions on the number of units they can activate each turn.
To determine a general’s grading, two D6 dice are thrown and the combined dice score determines the general’s grading.
This grading helps to determine how many units they can activate each turn.
How many units can a general activate each turn?
Before the battle begins, each side is allocated a playing card colour (i.e. red or black). The number of units they command is totalled, divided by 2, and rounded up. This gives the median value of the playing cards that commander will be allocated. The median value of the playing cards is then adjusted according to the general’s competence:
- Good: Increase the median value of the playing cards by 1.
- Average: No adjustment is made to the median value of the playing cards.
- Poor: Reduce the median value of the playing cards by 1.
The players extract the red and black playing cards from two packs of playing cards and place them in separate piles.
The red general removes the red playing cards that have their modified median playing card value from their pile plus the red playing cards that have their modified median playing card value plus 1 and minus 1.
The black general removes the black playing cards that have their modified median playing card value from their pile plus the black playing cards that have their modified median playing card value plus 1 and minus 1.
Example 1
A red general commands a force of 9 units and has been allocated a grading of good. They therefore have a basic median value of playing card of 5 (9 ÷ 2 = 4.5, which when rounded up equals 5). Their modified median playing card value is 6 (5 + 1), and they select from the pile of red playing cards the 5, 6, and 7 of Hearts and Diamonds. The rest of the red playing cards are discarded
The red general's activation cards.
Example 2
A black general commands a force of 11 units and has been allocated a grading of poor. They therefore have a basic median value of playing card of 6 (11 ÷ 2 = 5.5, which when rounded up equals 6). Their modified median playing card value is 5 (6 – 1), and they select from the pile of black playing cards the 4, 5, and 6 of Clubs and Spades. The rest of the black playing cards are discarded.
The black general's activation cards.
The red and black activation cards are combined together along with two Jokers to form the pack of activation cards. The pack is then shuffled and placed face down.
At the start of the battle, the top card of the activation pack is turned over, and the colour and value of that card determines which side activates its units and how many of them can be activated. Once all the units that side can activate have been activated, the playing card is discarded and placed face up next to the pack of activation cards.
The next card of the activation pack is then turned over, and the colour and value of that card determines which side activates its units and how many of them can be activated. Once all the units that side can activate have been activated, the playing card is discarded and placed face up next to the pack of activation cards.
This process continues until a Joker is turned over, at which point the discarded activation cards are returned to the pack of activation cards and the whole pack is re-shuffled, and the process begins again.
During the turn sequence, the artillery and machine gun fire phases take place before a side activates its other units. Both sides can activate their artillery and machine gun units each time one of their side’s activation cards is turned over. If they do this, these count as one of that side’s unit activations.
Example 3
A side can activate 6 units. It chooses to activate an artillery unit and a machine gun unit during the artillery and machine gun fire phases. Once these phases have taken place, that side can then activate 4 other units.
It may well be that one side can have a run of activation cards, but this is part of the randomness generated by this mechanism. Experience shows that over time this apparent unfairness tends to even itself out.
I have also added a YouTube video that covers these mechanisms to the Wargaming Miscellany channel.
It can be found here.
Bob
ReplyDeleteI remember reading one of your blog posts about this and liking it. Always interested in C&C restrictionbsystems.
One point - you can't roll 1 with 2D6, so, as presented, the probability of a poor general appearing is half (8.33%) of that of a good general (16.67%).
If, as I suspect, that you wanted them to be equally likely then poor generals should appear on 2, 3 and 4. Alternatively the same probabilities can be represented by the simpler 1 on 1D6 and 6 on 1D6 representing poor and good respectively.
Cheers
Andrew
Rumblestrip (Andrew),
DeleteThanks for pointing this error out. I missed it when writing the draft and now it has been included in this blog post and my video.
When I originally designed this mechanism, I wanted the majority of the generals to be good or average, with fewer poor generals as I thought that this might make the wargame less off putting for the player who got lumbered with a poor general. I think that I’ll stick with the current 2D6 system … but without the impossible dice score of 1 on the table!
All the best,
Bob
Bob -
DeleteThe 2,3,or 4 scores with 2D6 has the same probability as rolling a 1 on 1D6. If only scores of 2 or 3 result in a poor general, you can expect just 1 general in 12 to be 'poor'.
This sort of thing can end up mocking one's best efforts to portray generals' abilities. In my Blacklands war, one of Turcowaz's poor generals won two early victories - one of them against the odds. During the same week, in the battle in Eastern Thrace, the poorer Chervenian commander of III Army not only worked in cooperation with II Army, but actually 'marched to the guns', AND - get this - arrived on the battlefield just as II Army was staring defeat in the face.
As a poor commander, the dice rolls involved were heavily stacked against him - a '6' required for close cooperation. This meant that he would 'march to the guns' arriving before the battle on a roll of '1' on a D6; adding a second roll to other scores for the tun number. The army arrived on turn 9, and turned the tide of battle.
I think that the calibre of the commander comes with the strategic decision making, and there are all sorts of ways one might approach this. I liked to think up at least two, preferably more, options a commander might take, weight them according to what the general is likely to choose, and ... roll the die.
Having said that, I do like the options to be plausible, even for a poor general. So 'Do Nothing' is not likely to feature among the options available!
Cheers,
Ion
Archduke Piccolo (Ion),
DeleteYour are right about the probabilities ... and I think that today's erratum blog post addresses the matter that you raised. My personal opinion is that by the time someone becomes a general, the least able candidates should have been weeded out, hence my desire to have 16.6% being good, 75% being average, and only 8.3% being poor.
I have also experienced poor generals who have actually done well and beaten good generals who were having a bad day. To me, that's more realistic than having seemingly unbeatable super-generals ... and it can make things a bit more challenging for the players!
All the best,
Bob
I like this activation system, but for myself I tweak the extremes with fewer cards.
ReplyDeleteWEK 3,
DeleteNow, that's a variation that I'd not considered. Thanks for sharing it.
All the best,
Bob
I use a basic 11 card deck with 4 of the main value, 2 each of 1 above and below and 1 each of 2 above and below plus the addition of a re-shuffle card. Example: with a base of 6 there are 4x the 6 card, 2x the 5 and 7 cards, 1x the 8 and 4 card. Hope this helps.
DeleteWEK 3,
DeleteVery interesting! It's not something that I had considered ... but it make a lot of sense to have a larger spread of cards.
This has certainly given me pause for thought ... and I can see this whole discussion becoming something that might be worth an article in a PW Compendium.
All the best,
Bob
That's is a very big compliment and you are welcome to do so.
DeleteWEK 3,
DeleteMany thanks. The more I think about it, the more I like your modified version of my original mechanism.
All the best,
Bob
I second the liking of this activation system. I might give it a try...if I ever have a chance to get a game in!
ReplyDeleteChris,
DeleteI do hope the you get the time to give it a go … and please let me know how you get on.
All the best,
Bob
A simple and elegant system. I've done something similar, but dealt each side a hand of five cards, with each side choosing which activation card to play each turn with good generals getting six and poor four cards. After playing a card a player may draw a replacement. I used all the number cards, 1-10. It adds another layer of decision making. Move all of your units now, but maybe not be able to move when you need to later. It worked well for two players, less so for solo play.
ReplyDeleteMark Cordone,
DeleteAnother interesting version of the card-driven activation system. This is more like the mechanism used in games like MEMOIR '44 and BATTLE CRY and turns the activation system into much more of a battle management/tactical decision-making exercise.
Again, this is something that has given me pause for thought.
All the best,
Bob
Nice ideas Bob - limiting the number of units a commander can activate is always an interesting twist to a game.
ReplyDeleteMaudlin Jack Tar,
DeleteThe twist can be very challenging for some players to deal with. I well remember one very aggressive player pushing his troops forward all the time ... but because he was not able to move every unit every move, he lost sight of the fact that he was leaving himself very vulnerable to counter-attacks as his lead units moved further and further away from the rest of his army.
His opponent was a more defensive player, and he spent his time (and activations) creating a defensive line and killing ground in front of it.
The result was almost inevitable. The aggressive player's troops walked straight into the killing ground and began to suffer casualties and once they were on the back foot, a counter-attack destroyed them ... and there were no reserves nearby to intervene and stop the rout.
All the best,
Bob