In total contrast to the very complicated ‘By Sword & Bayonet’ boardgame that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, today I put this ‘Quick Play’ system on the table.
This is one of the mini folio games from Decision Games in their Musket & Saber series and it has the advantage of carrying the latest rules version, which offer an appreciated 'tidy up' over the previous version (and these are backwards compatible - good!), which also includes the Combat Result Table operating as the designer intended.
The series folios have 6 pages of none illustrated rules, an 11” x 17” map, 40 counters and come in at an attractive price of around £11 plus postage (at Second Chance Games in the UK). The latest four folio releases including his title, are The Hornet’s Nest (Shiloh), Balaclava and Hougoumont.
The photo here shows the map with the armies in their starting positions. The Confederates clearly look like they are about to overwhelm the Union positions, but in this 5 turn game, Union reinforcements come on early and their line becomes steadily stronger, so the Confederates must do what they can early, before they get contained.
There are two interesting aspects to these short rules.
1 - You don’t have to attack a unit that is next to you (i.e. Combat is not mandatory) ….. but, if you don’t, at the end of the combat phase, those ‘not attacked’ units can each launch a counter-attack and they have their strength double - so there are some nuanced choices to be made here.
2 - The combat system is unusual. There are 5 potential results on the Combat Result Table (one being no effect), but whichever side suffers the effect, it has to also take a morale check. If passed you check the result on the first column, but if failed, you check in the second column - the differences can bring a nice narrative and passing your morale might not always be the result that you want!
So a result of 'Dr' means the defender (D) suffers an ‘r’ result. If they fail their morale they will disrupt and retreat, but if they pass their morale, they stand in place and both sides take a loss (the good old 'Exchange' result) .... obviously they have put up stiff resistance and heavier casualties to both sides flow from that.
On first sight, with just 40 counters in play (6 of which are game markers) and a frontal assault, you might be forgiven for thinking there isn’t much opportunity for dynamism here, but you quickly get drawn into the game down at the individual hex level, looking for local advantage.
There are 9 victory points to gain from occupying locations - The Wheatfield, Devils Den, Little Round Top (but not Big Round Top) and the various road entry points that reinforcements arrive at. To win, the Confederates must score at least 5 VP’s ….. getting 4 seems straight forward, but you have to work for that 5th point and this I think is where the game tension sits.
It plays quickly. They say 60 - 90 minutes, that is probably about right in a face-to-face game, but my solo games have been coming in at around the one hour mark.
The scale for this battle is 176 yards to the hex and 45 minutes to the turn. Generally a brigade is represented with a pair of counters, for example Semmes ‘A’ and Semmes ‘B’.
There are no command and control rules, but I feel compelled to keep the A & B counters of each brigade operating together (adjacent or stacked), rather than doing fancy footwork to ‘count and perfect’ odd ratios in attack. Applying that discipline does bring some naturally occurring moments of frustrations and opportunities - nice!
I used to have a lot of these folio games, but they were thrown away in the big and unforgiving clear-out last year! I can see myself buying back a few of those titles and having a more enjoyable game using these updated rules. They would make very good vacation games.
I also run a separate web space called COMMANDERS, which is a bit more magaziney than here, with shorter reads that often return to subjects mentioned here.
LINK
