Uneven Wargame Armies And Battles
For the sake of making everyone happy most wargames involve two armies of similar 'points' which might mean mirror armies opposing each other or different forces but estimated as being of approximate equal power.
Campaign games can lead to uneven battles where a smaller army may wish to damage a bigger one and, hopefully, escape or it might be defending a castle and relying on walls to neutralize the more powerful enemy.
Mat and I are currently between fantasy campaigns and instead we are playing ACW games. So far, we have used armies of similar power. The next game will be different as we will dice for each military wing to see how many infantry, cavalry and cannon are on each side. A D6 will be rolled for each.
There is a potential of having not only very different armies but a very small one versus a much larger one.
This could lead to an outright slaughter, or we could modify circumstances to even things up a bit. For the smaller army we could make its units elite, manning fortifications or having deployment advantages. The bigger army may have to deploy all forces from reserve. It could be all militia. The smaller army could be given the choice of deploying second so it can see the enemy positions in advance and also to have the first move. Also, a small army (raiders, for example) might be hidden for ambush. It might also have objectives short of a mass battle such as hit and run, moving treasure, civilians or livestock off the table. then there is the Alamo scenario of selling their lives deadly. X-number of the enemy destroyed compensate for its own destruction and leads to a 'victory'.
Just like real life. It's not that ofte 2 equal armies face each other in battle. More often one side is larger or have other strategic advances than the other, trying to force the minor forces to step down and give up their goals with less fighting.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very typical situation when defending/attacking where the 3:1 rule of combat come to use; Traditionally it is accepted that a defending force has a 3:1 advantage over an attacker. In other words, a defending force can hold off three times its own number of attackers.
And you can give stationary defenders tactical advantages the superior attacking force don't have, like fortified positions, stationary and heavy support weapons (which are too heavy for a mobile attack force), and obstacles to slow down foe forces, making them attacking another way or expose them self for fire.
This made me thinking of watching 'The Siege of Jadottville' again.
That is a great movie.
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