Play-thru: One-Hour Skirmish Wargames - Green v. Tan!

The rules, with summary and weapon QRS.

Choices for 1950s Green vs. Tan Civil War:

- default weapon M1 Garand, Rate of Fire 1 infinite, RoF 2 @<18"

- BAR, RoF 2 infinite, RoF 3@<18"

- Bazooka, RoF 1 @<18" but Blast Radius of 2" with High Explosive rocket.

Forces:

Tan has 1 BAR, 6 Garands - 1 is a Leader [2]

Green has 2 BAR, 1 Sniper, 6 Garands - 1 is a Leader [1]

Green has more men 9-7, and 25-20 point advantage, same ratios as original scenario. This shows how easy it is to duplicate the parameters of the 6 presented scenarios into another era with about the same numerical advantages. Tan has a slight leader advantage, probably trained by a Harvard infiltrator!

The Playing Space - a 48" x 20" marble coffee table in my study.

The Napoleonic scenario. "Capture the cannon" is a seize terrain and clear it of the enemy mission. Defending Tan has secured objective in table center. They may set up halfway across the board [from the objective back]. Attacking Green may set up 6" onto the board. Notes:

   1. The net result of 18" between forces is intentional - 18" being the "range band" of significantly greater Firepower, Tan may set up aggressively at table center, then leave Green the option to set up at 18" without knowing who will have first Player Turn! 

   2. Tan has the advantage of sitting on the objective, thus not needing to spend Action Points to move - this can be a significant advantage as each AP is a 6" infantry move or 1 Shot, so a moving force has to carefully spend a portion of its precious AP to move. 

   3. Note that this also gives Tan a Firepower advantage, being able to spend AP almost exclusively on Fire as they already own the objective.

   4. The average AP draw is exactly 7, with 1-6 and 8-13 being the lows and highs.

For this genre, I made it a Recovery and Rescue Combat Patrol. Lt. Drab and Pvt. Plastic are driving their jeep to establish an Observation Post, when they are ambushed by a dastardly sneaky Commie patrol! They are both wounded and out of the fight, but the shooting attracts a nearby Reaction Patrol, who arrive on the scene just as the Commies are about to make off with their wounded comrades and valuable intelligence in the form of maps and radio code books and such, plus lots of bazooka bubble gum.

This translates to "Green has to capture the jeep and clear it of the enemy [occupy it and no Tans within 6"] by the end of Turn 5, or break Tan's force". Same victory conditions as original scenario.

The materials needed. Blue [friendly] v. Red [unfriendly] decks, with green d10 turn counter. The d12 are to count down Action Points used.

Turn 1: The Fight Begins! 

Impulse 1.

Tan Player Phase. Commies win Initiative and draw a King for AP! 13 Action Points - will this end before it begins? This is enough to Fire all men and even maneuver a bit aggressively if desired.

Interesting development - perfect tie requiring complete re-draw.

On re-draw, a Tan Queen beats both Green cards drawn...

...and the BAR gunner goes down.

More shooting - to break same value different suit draws, one uses the priorities from Bridge: Spades > Hearts > Diamonds > Clubs. So Green wins this final card draw, like several before. Overall, Tan has 7 Fires and only Downs one Target - a bit below average Firing with 8 Cards v. 14 Target cards, should've been 2 Down by my reckoning. It helps that Green chose to set up outside of 18", halving Tan's Firepower from 15 cards to 8 Cards. Green's caution is well rewarded!

As Tan decided not to maneuver they Fire with 7 AP and lose the remaining 6 [so in effect, a 7 was just as good as an 8-King]. It is true Tan could've advanced a few men and gained some Fire cards by moving to within 18". But this could result in a man or two being exposed alone against a mob of advancing Greens if a Joker turns up, ending the Turn - believe me, I know!

Turn 1, Impulse 1.

Second Player Phase, Green. Green also draws well, a '10' for plenty of Action Points. However, at least a few must be spend to advance a portion of the team towards the objective - not all can be spent on firepower!

Green moves four Figs up including the Leader [4 AP] and Fires three [3 AP]. He Fires with three men [3 AP]. He concentrates Fire on the Figs in the path to the objective, as over-running each will also result in Close Combat opportunities if needed. Results are excellent, with the three Tans along the axis of advance all going Down! Note, this is a bit above average shooting in a largely 50-50 combat result game. Closing to under 18" gave the Garands 2 Fire cards and the Targets all had 2 cards to oppose: 1 you always get, and 1 was for light cover.

First impulse, Green outfought Tan by 3-1 with very close AP card draw.

Turn 1, Impulse 2.

First Player Phase, Tan. Well, this Player Phase disappeared quickly, with only 1 AP drawn! Tan Fired and missed.

Second Player Phase, Green. This Player Phase could be decisive, as a Jack was drawn for 11 AP!  Green advanced as rapidly as possible, removing one 

Tan Soldier through Close Combat, and doing some shooting that put Down the last Tan Soldier still standing at the jeep. 

The axis of advance is around the hill to the tree to the jeep.

Turn 1 Second Impulse [Green] end is that after correctly prioritizing the rapid advance [4 AP] against the Downed Tan Soldiers, then two Move and Fires [4 AP], Green drew a Joker which ended Turn 1.  

Results going into Morale and Casualty adjudication is 1 Removed Tan Fig, and a significant threat against the objective by Green!

Turn 1 end means that Morale must be drawn - only Tan could possibly fail with their 1 Removed Soldier, but they draw an Ace needing to beat the number of Figs Removed, which is 1! Fortunately, their Leader allows drawing another card which is a 9, so the force is safe for now.

After Morale is drawn at Turn End, Casualties are drawn [most games adjudicate casualties then force morale, but not OHSW - JL says it "flows better that way"] by drawing a card for each - Red is Dead / Fled and Black is Back. Interestingly, all cards are Red! This puts Tan at a significant disadvantage, over 50% or 4/7 are removed while Green has only lost 1/11.

Final of Turn 1: the path is cleared to the objective for Green!

Turn 2: The Fight Continues! 

Impulse 1.

Tan Player Phase. Commies again win Initiative and again draw well for AP - a Jack for 11 AP! Question: Can they retrieve defeat from the jaws of victory??

Note: the 4 red, and the 9-10-2 red are the Casualty Cards...all Dead or Fled!

Answer: it doesn't matter! The first Tan shot is a Joker - Turn over!

Morale Cards are drawn and both easily pass. Casualty cards are not drawn as there are none to be adjudicated.

Turn 3, the Initiative cards were both Jokers. No, can't make this up. I'm guessing this at a 1/2916 chance. Bye-bye Turn 3! Note, I actually have no problem with this, and use a similar mechanic in my rules where if the Initiative rolls are identical there is a "respite" and all Units may rally or dig-in and the Turn ends. Think of it as the unexplainable "Battlefield Lull" phenomenon so often described...

Morale cards are drawn, and both sides easily pass, even Tan.

There are no additional casualties to adjudicate, obviously, so the only effect is that Green has lost a turn with a 5-turn limit! 

Well, on to Turn 4...

Turn 4: The Fight Continues but Green is running out of time! 

Impulse 1.

Player Phase1, Green. Good guys finally win Initiative 10-2 and draw a 7 for AP, dead average, but will it be enough? Green has to take and clear the objective - this means that all Tan has to do is contest it by being within 6" of it to win. And the Mission ends on Turn 5!  Worth noting is that turns can be very long or very short in this game - it is the Player Phases that are more regulated by available AP.

Green has to spend all 7 AP on Firepower, but successfully puts Down the three last Tan Soldiers!

Turn 4, Impulse 1.

Player Phase 2, Tan. Drawing a '6' is not a help - Tan is stuck doing nothing until a Joker is pulled and the Turn ends, and then passing Morale, and then having some of the three casualties that are Down survive to fight on!

Turn 4,Impulse 1.

Player Phase1, Green. A King drawn for 13 AP results in the Forces of Freedom engaging the Cowering Enemy in Close Combat. Altho two cards must be drawn for each CC, unless a Joker is drawn Down Figs are automatically Removed which is what happens here. The Tan force is entirely Dead or Fled - "Game Over, Man"!

Well, that was a heart-stopper, that's for sure!  Or was it?

GAME ANALYSIS

The game resulted in 4 Game Turns, with 12 Player Phases.

1. Game Turn 1, 4 Player Phases: Tan went first, Fired at long Range while holding position, resulting in below average Downed enemy of 1 [should've been 2]. Green fares better, advancing across the range band and Firing at effective range, also rolling a bit above average for 3 Down enemy. On Casualty card draws, Tan draws badly, losing 3/3 [on 50-50 chance] while green loses 1/1.
2. Game Turn 2, 1 Player Phase: Tan goes first, but is very limited on Action Points, achieving only a missed Shot. Green gets 8 AP before drawing a Joker, which result in 1 Down Fig, 1 Fig removed by Close Combat.
3. Game Turn 3 No Player Phases: Was a combat lull, a lost turn putting more pressure on Green which had the burden to win within 5 Turns or lose the game.
4. Game Turn 4, 7 Player Phases: Tan couldn't act as all Figs were Down and no Jokers were drawn so the Turn did not end for the three Player Phases Tan got. Green drew average AP of 7, 6, 7 and King [but using only 1 AP of the King's 13] and moved up over his four Player Phases to Remove the last three Tan Soldiers through Close Combat.

So to summarize, over four turns, Green managed to out-shoot Tan, establish Fire Superiority, pinning most of the opposition then Moving into Close Combat to kill or drive off all opposition. Was this really any different from an IGO-UGO game with a more predictable player turn? Well, it was a bit.

If we imagine the game as 6 Player Phases that really mattered, we come up with what would be 3 Game Turns in a typical IGO-UGO game.

1. Game Turn 1. Green outshoots Tan a lot 4-1. This was greatly helped by Tan drawing 1 AP second impulse and Green 11, nearly the equal of the dreaded 6-1 dice roll in DBA. Plus Tan drew 3/3 on a 50-50 chance for Casualties Removed.
2. Game Turn 2. No significant results.
3. Game Turn 3. Green Downs last 3 Tan Soldiers pretty easily having 3-1 Firepower. As turn doesn't "end" Green is also able to close and remove all remaining Tan Soldiers through Close Combat since they were Pinned.

Overall, the Turns don't play out very differently from any skirmish game with few Units and a fortunate couple of first turns for one player [rolling well to get hits] and an unfortunately couple of turns for the other player [rolling badly to hit]. Once pinned, the attacker charged over about double to triple move distance and destroyed the pinned enemy. The main difference is that there would have been more opportunities for Tan to rally his pinned Soldiers. The only way to rectify this - if you don't like it - is for there to be Casualty Adjudication at the end of Player Phases.

The interesting thing is that altho this would be a pretty typical short, small game for any skirmish set of rules, Sword and the Flame or whatever, it didn't FEEL like one!  The main issue is the nail-biting suspense of every card draw and the shock of a Joker turning up to interrupt a well-conceived plan [or terminate a terrible plan!]. In most skirmish games, you have the comfort of the bell curve presenting attritional results in all areas of combat. Here, you don't!

Overall, I did nothing that wasn't obvious with Green's force - I established a base of Fire, and after effectively shooting using my small advantage in men [9-7] and force points [25-20] I managed to pin the enemy in two stages of attack, after which I closed with and over-ran the pinned enemy. Lots of games may deliver the same results, just usually over fewer Impulses / Player Turns, and few would disagree with my Course of Action.

The main difference is that there are a lot of possibilities that DIDN'T HAPPEN with this game, including some improbable ones that did. For example, lots of Jokers were drawn at the start, leaving only one left. Then even after a re-shuffle of the Tan deck, another Joker wasn't drawn - instead, the Green force successfully drew about 10 cards to adjudicate Close Combat without drawing a Joker. Had a Joker been drawn, some Tan Soldiers could have come Back and they could have Fired at the now-close Green enemy, Downing THEM for a narrow win - all they had to do was have one fig within 6" of the objective at end of Turn 5!

So the game delivered quite realistic results, results that would occur in lots of other games as long as those games involve dice for combat / morale and variable movement.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable game, much more dramatic than a typical IGO-UGO. This was also the 6th or 7th playtest with these dollar-store Figs on the coffee table, including an enjoyable round with Mr. Winkie. Interestingly, Green generally drew better cards and won a majority of the games, say 5-2 or so. My plan never deviated.

My final verdict is still "Buy this book!