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.
