Wargaming on the Beach

My wife and I own a teardrop camper.  It's not much more than a queen size bed, TV, air conditioner, and a few shelves inside.  Outside there's a galley with a small refrigerator, sink, and propane stove.  It's a mini camper, but so far it's been mega fun.  To see more about the camper and our trips, visit my wife's blog at .minicampermegafun.blogspot.com

Our Mini Camper and Chairs

Morning View:  Ocean Between Campers

We took advantage of the three day weekend, stretched it to a four day weekend, and went camping on the beach.  I thought it might be fun to try to get a short game in one morning.  I generally fish early morning, but I don't have saltwater gear yet so I brought my wargame.  It fit in a shoebox with room to spare.  If that's not the definition of portability, I don't know what is.  On Saturday morning, I set up a "mountain pass" type map and used what I could remember of a One Hour Wargames  scenario.  I clearly didn't have something set up right though.  Blue started with two units and Red started with all six.  Blue's reinforcements arrived at the end of the second turn, but because of where the objectives were placed, Blue still got to the pass before any Red units could get through.  Red did make an attempt to flank around, but was repelled.  After the failed flank attack, Red's fate was sealed.  I did try to play on Sunday, but it was too windy and the felt mat kept blowing around and throwing units to the sand.

Late Game:  Blue Presses the Attack

Things Learned:

I think I made a workable solution to "combined attacks".  In the current rules after being attacked by a singe unit, the attacked unit would roll to resolve any hits.  This could result in that unit retreating, which would put them out of range for melee combat that could have otherwise happened.  To solve this all units who can attack the defending units roll, and hits are tallied.  Then the defending unit rolls one dice for each unit that tallied a hit.  The defender could then take one dice as their result.  This has a tendency to give the defenders a much higher chance of rolling "retreat with -1 hit", but also results in much bloodier combat as it is possible to attack with multiple units.

I need to design a general unit.  I haven't decided if the general would increase dice rolls by one for attackers, or remove hits, or both.  

I need to work some way of locking units into melee if the defending unit does not retreat.  I tried a quick "fighting retreat" scenario, but it was very easy for the retreating army, as they could always move towards their objective, even if they were engaged in melee the prior turn.