Might & Reason testing the game flow Part 2

Our second Impulse for Turn 1 occurred as follows;

Du Muy rolls a two dice with an additional +1 (did not have initiative last pulse) and gets a 2, 2 +1 = 5.  Since he rolled doubles he also gets the number on the Average Die of additional command dice this turn (3).

Erbprinz rolls 2,1 = 3

French win and take the initiative.

Musketry segment - No action as all units are out of range still

Artillery simultaneous segment - no hits recorded (pretty poor shooting all around, but you do need a 6 at long range which this is, even with 2 dice per battery instead of 1).

Pulse 2 - Du Muy gives 2 CD to Fischer to make sure he reacts to the flanking movement on a timely basis and gives no CD to any other commander (concerned about needing CDs to react to combat results perhaps?)

Fischer rolls 6, 3, 3, 2 and takes the 6 and 3 for 9 = Active so moves his regular infantry forces to the left flank in March Formation whilst the irregular troops move (and must always move) in Fighting Formation

Segur rolls 4, 4 = 8 so is active and stays put

Lutzelberg rolls 6, 1 = 7 so is active but stays put

Meaupeou rolls 5, 3 = 8 so is active buts stays put

Pulse 2 Erbprinz gives 1 command die to Zastrow to make sure he moves out of the village and engages Meaupeou before then end of the day.

Zastrow rolls 5, 5, 5 takes 10 and is active so advances out in front of the village.

Granby rolls 6, 4 = 10 so Active and advances to keep near to both the infantry wings.

Brunswick rolls 3, 2 = 5 so Inactive (perhaps the Erbprinz should have given him a CD to give the 'flanking movement' some teeth?)

3rd Pulse turn 1 rolls

Du Muy rolls 2, 1 = 3 CD but also rolls the average die for a 3.  Since the Avg Die result is equal to or less than last pulse the turn ends automatically. 

Both commanders are left with extra Command Dice which they must lose once the turn ends.  So part of the command mechanics are set to cause players to think about possible 3 or 4 pulse turns when they actually probably only occur infrequently?

Here is the table at the end of the first turn, 2nd pulse activity:

Turn II

Roll for Command Dice for the turn

Du Muy rolls a 5 (so has rolled a 6 and then a 5 for 11 CD's - far in excess of what could reasonably be expected for a Poor commander per the rules).

Erbprinz rolls 3, 1 = 4 for command dice.

1st Pulse rolls for initiative:

Du Muy rolls 6, 2 = 8 plus an Avg Die of 3

Erbprinz rolls 5, 2, = 7.  Erbprinz then sacrifices 1 CD to re-roll the 2 and try to win the initative, unfortunately he rolls a 1 so ends with 6.

French take the initiative for Pulse 1

Musketry segment - no one is yet in range so no firing

Artillery segment No hits yet made by either side!!!

French action pulse 1:

Du Muy rolls for Fischer with 2 CD added and gets 6, 6, 3, 1 and selects the 6 and 3 for 9 = Active and Fischer continues his movement to the flank.

Segur rolls 5, 2 = 7 so is active buts stays put

Lutzelberg rolls 6, 5 = 11 and must Attack so is forced to charge down off the heights and engage some of Granby's horse and some of Zastrow's grenadiers.  He wins none of these combats and as the attacker must fall back 3 Base Widths after taking 2 hits on each unit that was in the various combats.  The allies take 1 hit per combat as they won but did not defeat the French by double.

Meaupeou rolls 4,3 = 7 active buts stands pat.

Allied action pulse 1:

Granby gets 2 CD and rolls 6, 6, 6, 2 and takes the 6 and 2 = 8 and is active.  He adjusts his lines by way of a slight forward advance.  (Seems he does not relish the idea of attacking uphill into the untouched French regulars and heavy cavalry there just yet.)

Zastrow rolls 6, 2 = 8 and is active so advances 2BW towards Meaupeou's line but remains just out of range.

2nd pulse turn 2:

Du Muy rolls 2, 2 = 4 CD but also rolls the average die for a 2.  Since the Avg Die result is equal to or less than last pulse the turn ends automatically.   (Again some CDs are lost as the turn is over after only a single pulse occurs).

Turn 3 Command Phase

Du Muy rolls a 6 (really that's a 6, 5, and 6 for 17 CDs already, either this guy is misrepresented as Poor or is incredibly lucky so far in this game)

Erbprinz rolls a 1, 3 = 4

1st Impulse Initiative rolls:

Du Muy rolls 1, 2 = 3 with a Avg Die of 4 (so again likely a one impulse turn ahead for us)

Erbprinz rolls 4, 4 +2 (not having the initiative for 2 turns now) = 10.  He also gets 4 extra CDs from rolling doubles.

Erbprinz naturally takes the initiative for the turn.

Musketry Segment - allies with initiative fire first and cause casualties:

Brunswick scores 2 hits on Segur's line troops and they return fire causing 1 hit.

Zastrow scores five hits on Lutzelberg's cavalry which is still trying to recover from last turn's unexpected charge.  This almost destroys the 2 Dragoon units in Lutzelberg's force as they only start with a strength point value of 4 instead of the 6 for regular horse.  (Maybe they should have remained a supporting line instead of trying to match frontages with Granby's forces?)

Artillery segment - no hits scored again.  (seriously need more training)...

1st Pulse turn 3 - Allies with initiative move first

Brunswick gets 2 CD and rolls 2, 2, 3, 4 = 7 and is active by taking the 4 and 3 together (had he not been given both extra CDs he would have been inactive.  His dragoons charge the french irregular troops and one unit evades but one is caught and must fight on the Heimberg. 

Brunswick has one stand of Dragoons with SP 6 plus 2 dice (one for combat and one for regulars fighting irregulars) and rolls 6, 6, 4 = 14

Fischer fights one stand of lights with SP 4 plus 1 die for combat and rolls 6 = 10 loses but not doubled so takes 2 hits while the Dragoons take 1 hit and fall back 3BW

Granby gets 2 CDs and rolls 6, 4, 2, 1 = 8 taking the 6 and 2 and is active so attacks at his leisure some of Lutzelberg's cavalry to his front.  (Had he taken the 6, 4 and made 10 he would have had to attack with all his troops). 

Granby fights the two French cavalry stands and loses both combats so both his stands take 2 hots and fall back 3 BW while Lutzelberg's horse take 1 hit each.

Zastrow is not given any CDs so rolls 3, 1 and is inactive this turn.


French impulse 1 actions:

Fischer gets 2 CDs and rolls 6, 6, 6, 6 and must take 12 = attack so he must deploy his regulars out of March Formation and try to engage along Brunswick's front but is just out of range to do so.

Segur gets 2 CDs and rolls 6, 4, 3, 1 and takes 6, 3 = 9 and is active.  He repositions his line a bit to avoid being outflanked by Brunswick and to engage more of Granby's cavalry in the coming pulse.

Lutlelberg gets 2 CDs and rolls 6, 5, 2, 2 and chooses to take the 6, 5 for 11 = attack.  He destroys a cavalry stand of Granby that was damaged before but is repulsed from Zastrow's grenadiers easily.  (Given the start SPs for both troops types the 6 for the French horse plus a 6 on the combat roll amounts to only 12 - and is the best they could do while the Grenadiers start at 7 so can't be doubled)

Meoupeou also gets 2 CDs and rolls 1, 3, 3, 4 and takes the 3 and 4 to = 7 for Active but can't reach Zastrow's troops to attack them without leaving the hill so he adjusts his line and waits developments...

Here is a final view of the table prior to the end of the test match:

French Left flank

French Right flank

Comments to follow upon suitable reflections about these rules.....

Might & Reason testing the game flow

Our group has been playing a Horse and Musket homegrown set of rules for several years based loosely around the DBX system and the more we changed it, added to it, tried to make it better the more we came to realize that it had some flaws in basic design. 

After looking around a bit we decided to try out Might & Reason, an older Sam Mustafa game that looked like it might adapt to a 'battalion on a base' playing and allow us to use realistic OBs in largish sized games (40-50 battalions and squadrons per side) with 2 to 3 players per side.

This post records a solo effort at working through the game mechanics using the Warburg scenario included in the rules as a test case.  After reading the rules the actual combat mechanism seemed clear (you shoot and need high dice to cause hits and then you fight and need to double the opponents score to win, otherwise someone bounces back). 

Our only changes were to adopt the policy that one stand was a basic unit, not two, and that brigades would contain several basic units.  By effectively doubling the infantry firing power over one base frontage we added that artillery would fire with 2 dice instead of one, thereby evening up the rate between infantry and guns.  Since we also doubled the cavalry strength by going to single stands as well we thought we should be okay in that regard as well. 

Here are the forces from the scenario - the SP is the strength factor assigned per stand:

French Army:
Du Muy (Poor)

Left Wing: Ségur (-2)
2x Swiss Inf (6SP)
1x French Inf (6SP)
1x French Inf (5SP)

Center: Luetzelbourg (-1)
2x Cuirassiers (6SP)
1x Dragoon (4SP)

Right Wing: Meaupeou (-1)
1x French Inf (6SP)
2x French Inf (5SP)

Reserve: Fischer (+1)
1x Irregular Inf (3SP)
2x French Inf (5SP)



Anglo-Allied Army
Erbprinz von Hessen-Kassel (Average)

Right Wing: Brunswick * (+1)
2x Grenadiers (8SP)
1x Hanoverian Inf (7SP)
1x Hessian Dragoons (5SP)

Left Wing: Zastrow (0)
1x Brunswick Inf (7SP)
1x Hessian Guards (7SP)
1x Hessian Inf (6SP)
1x Hanoverian Dragoons (6SP)

Cavalry: Granby (+1) V
1x Guard Dragoons (8SP)
2x Dragoons (6SP)

So on to the trial.  Here are the troops deployed in the noted deployment areas with the French having four commands.

Deployed in 2 lines of infantry with the reserve in columns behind the hills.  The cavalry is the center command in this scenario and I was curious how that was going to work out as we went forward.

And the Allies deployment opposite:

Again infantry commands separated by a cavalry command.  Must have been the villages on both wings that lead to this?

So before anything you determine how many Command Dice (CD) - a big factor in this game - each side starts with.  Du Muy being an unimaginative dullard is rated Poor so gets one D6 but manages to roll a 6, while the Erbprinz being Average with 2 dice rolls  that total to a 6 also.  These 6 dice are placed behind the respective command figures for the turn coming up.

Next you roll to see who has the Initiative for the coming turn.  Both commanders roll two D6 for this and one also rolls an Average die to determine the starting number of the turn (so a 2, 3, 3, 4 , 4 or 5).  The average die is important since each 'Pulse' you roll the AVG die and if you get the same or a lower number the turn ends at that point.  Apparently some of the tension in the game revolves around how many pulses you will possibly have and how you manage your Command Dice across that number.  Without going into the statistics of it it would seem that most turns would have 2 or maybe 3 impulses and if you roll a 4 on the first roll you aren't likely to have a second impulse, but let's see how it goes...

Du Muy rolls 4, 3 = 7;  Erbprinz rolls 6, 2 = 8 plus the Average Die with a 2

The Allies decide to take the first movement segment.  But before that happens both sides fire muskets and then artillery.  The initiative player gets first shot in musket fire and the opponent takes hits before replying.  This we guess is to simulate the gaining of some advantage in firing but since it occurs each pulse it doesn't have anything to do with better fire discipline or tactics as far as we can see, just a game development issue but we can live with it.

No one is in musket range this pulse so we go to simultaneous artillery fire and here no hits are obtained by either side.

Before the Erbprinz can begin to execute his flawless tactical plan he can assign 1 or 2 Command Dice to his subordinate commanders to use when taking their activity check.  So he assigns Brunswick 2 dice out of his trove of 8 and Brunswick with 4 dice rolls 6, 4, 3, 2 and selects the 6 and 4 to give his command a total of 10 which makes it Active for the pulse.  He promptly advances the lot as a single line 1BW (some of his infantry are in the town and can only move this fast) and breaks off his Dragoons to go for the Heinburg slopes on the French flank.

Granby gets no extra dice and rolls a 3, 2 = 5 so is Inactive this turn and stands pat.

Zastrow with one CD granted rolls his 3 dice and gets 6, 5, 1 takes the 6 and 5 to get 11 and is Active so advances 1 BW (some of his infantry are in the town and can only move this fast).

No combats occur so the Erbprinz pulse is done.

Du Muy Gives his reserve commander Fischer 2 extra dice and Fischer rolls 6, 6, 5, 5 and takes the 6 and 5 to = 11 and is Active (had he taken 12 he would have had to attack instead of maneuver).  He moves the reserve towards the Heinburg reacting to the Erbprinz's detachment there.

Segur gets 1 extra die and rolls 4, 1, 1 = 6 which makes him Inactive for the pulse.

The other 2 commands get no extra dice and roll Active but do not move forward off their hill slope defensive position.

Next posting - 2nd Impulse of Turn 1 where certain themes develop.........