Disorder, Casualties, and Rallying in "The Far Side of the World"

 In reading/playing wargame rules, one of the key abstractions is how to handle unit cohesion and casualties.  For me striking a balance between providing some degradation as casualties increase and keeping the amount of bookkeeping down is key.  A unit that has been fighting for its life in a long melee should be disadvantaged against a fresh unit from the reserves, but a pile of wound markers following around the unit or an accountant's ledger for a roster aren't appealing solutions to me.  I wanted to implement something that could provide players with a sense of their forces withering away but isn't too fiddley.

The other end of the spectrum for handling morale/unit cohesion/casualties by implementing an all or nothing mindset.  The unit is either on the field fighting or it has quit. This is an abstraction that allows games to be very compact.  No additional markers are needed.  Its downside is that the game can't show the very real effects of fatigue, disorder, and casualties.  It also provides the players no sense of how much longer they can expect their forces to stick around.  

I wanted a system in "The Far Side of the World" that used the best of granular system of hit/strength points and the simplicity of the all-or-nothing alternative.  What I developed was a system by which units can have two statuses applied to them to represent the chaos (disorder) and casualties (bloodied).  Disorder reduces a units resolve by 1.  It is applied to every time the unit attempts an action that would compare its resolve to a baseline (activation & rally) or compares its resolve to a hostile unit (attacked from range).  Luckily, the player's leader can rally away disorder.  The elite/inferior unit traits impact resolve.  Elite troops are expected to have a tougher mindset and better training to withstand the chaos around them.  The bloodied status, however, is permanent.  It is applied after the unit has been in significant combat and experienced casualties.  With fewer men still capable of carrying on, it makes sense that their combat ability is reduced.

If three different marker colors are available disordered, bloodied, or the combination of both can easily be represented by a unique marker.  Ordered and unbloodied units would have no marker following them.  Of course if players prefer an even-less cluttered board, they could still very easily create a roster for their units and mark bloodied/disordered boxes with markers or pen as appropriate.  I think this is a suitable solution for what can be a complicated problem.

How to Perform a Rally:

For the sake of this explanation let's assume that blue's regular infantry in the open (in front of the brown-horsed cavalry) is disordered.  It has taken fire from red's artillery in prior turns.  Blue has the initiative and successfully activates his leader's unit, the black-horsed cavalry.  He checks that the disordered infantry is in command radius.  It is (command radius default is 2. Distance between the two units in question is 2).  Because no enemy units are adjacent to the disordered unit, and the leader is not adjacent to the disordered unit, no modifiers can be applied. The leader's unit rolls 2D6 (leadership dice only apply to combat) and subtract the baseline modifier 3 from the regular infantry's resolve 2 (reduced due to disorder).  The result is 8.  The disorder state is removed.  The leader's activation ends and blue selects his next unit for activation.

Melee Combat in The Far Side of the World (Theory)

In "The Far Side of the World", every dice roll is determined by rolling 2D6.  From there baseline and situational modifiers may apply.  Baseline modifiers advantage handicap the base unit based on its opponent.  For example, a unit of cavalry charging an artillery crew should have a significant advantage.  In melee combat this is accomplished by giving the active unit an advantage (or disadvantage) of the difference in melee combat rating between the units involved.  For actions like activations and rallies where there is no enemy to compare to, a value of 3 is used.  Situational modifiers exist to advantage/disadvantage the active unit based on the terrain, disorder/casualties, nearby commanders, and other situations. Results always fall into one of three categories.  Modified of 0-6 indicate that something bad has happened.  Modified results 7-9 are successes, and results of 10 or more indicate a resounding success.  In some situations the 0-6 result category is split to indicate something very bad happening. Melee is one of the few action ins "The Far Side of the World" which has a 4th result category for something very bad.  For melee actions where the modified roll is less than 5, the attacker becomes disordered.  If they were already disordered the attacker becomes bloodied.  Self damaging results are designed to be uncommon but they do happen. 

After reading many rulesets, my favorite mechanisms involve; risk to both attacker and defender, uncertain length, and pinning both units in place until the melee is resolved.  Having risk to both units  encourages players to mimic the historical tendency for equally skilled regular infantry to fire volleys until the enemy is wavering and charge only as a last resort.  Bayonet charges did occur but were uncommon. Melee focused units do exist in "The Far Side of the World" and have a higher base melee rating to give them an advantage when they close with the enemy.  

Melees lasting uncertain duration is partially driven by historic flavor and partially driven by game design preferences. From the historical perspective, melee was often quick and decisive, but could also last for a considerable amount of time with both sides temporarily holding momentum.  By continuing melee until it is resolved in casualty or disengaging, players will have to adapt their plans to account for the units in the melee being unavailable for other actions. In some cases sacrificing a player's unit to tie up a strong enemy unit for a few turns may be strategically valuable.

Units did not have freedom of movement while engaged in melee.  Historically,  most casualties were taken when a unit's cohesion failed and the unit fled.  Successfully disengaging from melee did happen, but it often took a mismatch in professionalism, or a talented officer to disengage and preserve order.  In "The Far Side of the World", units with high morale or units boosted by a nearby commander are more likely to successfully activate with the opportunity to perform a difficult action. 

Blue's cavalry prepares to charge the flank

In the image above, Blue is the active player and has rolled a difficult activation for the cavalry.  They will charge the black-cuffed infantry's flank.  They receive no baseline modifier (both have melee combat rating of 3).  They receive situational modifier for a flank attack (+1) and a charge bonus (+2).  The modified result causes Red's infantry to become disordered.  Blue fails its next activation attempt.  At turnover, the infantry turns to face the cavalry.  Because the charge occurred in this activation, no further melee is required at turnover. In continuations of this engagement, the cavalry will not receive its charge bonus.

One Turn of "The Far Side of the World"

In this post and the next, I'll try to walk through a single turn of "The Far Side of the World".  I don't have painted models and terrain yet so this will be a virtual walkthrough.

Situation:

You take the role of Sir Raymond Byrne, an inexperienced Colonel serving your first command tour.  Your Red army is marching through the countryside on when you contact a vanguard of the enemy army preparing to fortify a farmhouse.  You immediately proceed to attack, attempting to prevent the enemy from becoming entrenched.  A few turns into the battle, lines have formed and troops are engaged.

The mostly-barren battlefield

Your Forces:

You command 3 companies of regular infantry, a light infantry company, and a detachment of field artillery. On your left flank, the light infantry company take up a position in the woods.  Although they can still be seen by the enemy, the trees provide cover.  Immediately to your flank is the a regular infantry company with green facings and cuffs.  You are positioned in the middle of the line with your unit of elite regular infantry (white cuffs). The third company (black cuffs) are on your right. The artillery detachment has positioned themselves on the hill where they can shoot at the enemy overhead the black company.

Red's Position

The Enemy Forces:

The enemy commander sits atop his black charger with the a squadron from the first heavy horse regiment.  He has had an illustrious career on horseback and has earned the Equestrian trait.  On his left is a squadron of regular saber cavalry.  Two companies of regular infantry (gold cuff and red cuff) form the center and left of the main line.  A company of militia regular infantry occupy the farmhouse. 

Blue's Position

The Action Continues:

The player must decide which units to activate first.  Due to the leader's "Green" trait, all units with command radius suffer a -1 modifier to all resolve rolls. The skirmish infantry in the woods are outside command radius and therefore have the highest likelihood of successful activation.  The player chooses to attempt to activate them first. 

The player rolls 2D6, resulting in a sum of 8.  From this unmodified sum, baseline and conditional modifiers are added.  The baseline modifier for activation is the difference between the unit's resolve and 3.  The skirmish infantry has a resolve of 3.  Offsetting resolve and no conditional modifiers results in a modified result of 8.  The skirmishers are awarded a simple action.  They move forward 2 cells. 

Skirmishers vacate the woods

The player may now activate another unit.  All line infantry would receive a +1 modifier for being adjacent to the leader.  The artillery being at a diagonal is counted as being 2 cells from the leader. (When counting distances in "The Far Side of the World", every 1st, 3rd, 5th, Nth, diagonal measurements is counted as a distance of 2.) The player nominates the leader's elite regular infantry for activation.

The player rolls 2D6, resulting in a sum of 10. The baseline modifier for activation is the difference between the unit's resolve and 3.  The regular infantry has a resolve of 3.  The regulars receive a +1 bonus for being adjacent to the leader, resulting in a modified result of 11.  They are awarded a difficult or easy action.  Because units are not permitted to move and fire in the same activation, using the "Volley Fire" action is the best course of action.

The yellow-cuffed regular infantry in the forest is determined to be the target.  It is established that there are no Line of Sight obstructions and the target is in range (range is 3).  Because the leader's unit is involved in the combat, the player rolls 2D6 for the unit and 1D6 for the leader. The player must use the leader's dice but chooses the best of the unit's dice, resulting in a sum of 11.  The baseline modifier for shooting combats is the difference between the shooting unit's combat (3) and the target's resolve (3).  The elite regulars receive a +1 modifier for performing the volley fire action, a -1 modifier for shooting at maximum range, and a -1 modifier for the target in cover.  The modified result is 10.  The firing results in the regulars becoming disordered and bloodied.  (Blue may activate its leader unit who can attempt to rally the yellow-cuffed regulars, but the bloodied modifier cannot be removed) 

Elite Regulars fire at regulars in forest

The player may now choose to activate another unit.  They select the green-cuffed regulars between the skirmishers and Sir Byrne's Elite Regulars to maximize volume of fire pouring into the farmstead in subsequent turns, the player attempts to activate the green-cuffed regulars. The player rolls 2D6 resulting in a sum of 2.  No amount of modifiers will result in an activation.  Because there are no ongoing melees to check for resolution, initiative moves to the blue player.

END OF RED'S TURN

NOTES: 

Changes to results table forthcoming.  Results in v1.0 unclear.  Results of 10+ will be "Target bloodied and disordered. If already bloodied and disordered, eliminated."

Rally attempts can be influenced by leader and unit traits.  Probably need to pick one.

"Veteran" and "Green" should apply to all resolve in v1.0.  Consider changing to only impact to activation in v1.1

I'll write up Blue's activation next.  I should be able to demonstrate melee actions and the effects of units being disordered and bloodied.

Introducing "The Far Side of the World"

 Although I haven't posted in a long time, I haven't been completely idle.  I've been developing my own compact, gridded, limited bookkeeping wargame.  My efforts developed into the rules now posted in the pages section of this blog.  

 It is intended to cover the time period 1840-1900.  Each stand of units is intended to represent roughly a company of infantry, squadron of cavalry, and single guns.  However, if players assume the artillery is larger field places or the nations involved preferred to form larger batteries, the scale could easily be upgraded so that infantry represents regiments.  

If you play the game or read through the rules and have feedback, please do not hesitate to reach-out.  

I still have some horses to paint and need to add most of the details to the other units before I’m able to play a game worth photographing. I’ve played it digitally through the software I did the modeling in but it’s supposed to be a tactile game. Right?

I will try to be a little more diligent in getting the painting done and getting games on the the table.