TEST Re: (TFT) TFT Wargame 4

[Joe Hartley <jh@brainiac.com>]

Completely lame, no new stuff here, just trying to generate a digest

On Wed, 19 Apr 2006 12:36:13 -0700
Rick Smith <rsmith@lightspeed.ca> wrote:

>   I have made a list of things that are important
> for modeling the strength of military unit using
> modern military science thought.
> 
>   I will assume that these values or measures are
> "true" as I believe that most medieval commanders 
> lacked our history of thought behind military 
> science.  (Also I work with what we know...)
> 
>   However, I started thinking about how this 
> would be used by players (the mini-maxing beings 
> so many of them are) and realized that if we made
> how the unit's strength calculated then it would
> act as a road map to improving their forces.
> 
>   This is fine unless you want them to be in 
> character and not have modern knowledge.  Hmmmm,
> I'll leave that up to the GM, lets see where 
> this takes us for now.
> 
>   *********************************************
> 
>   Let us say that the PC's are the leaders of
> a company of 30 to 100 men.  We have them write
> up a card that organizes the important info 
> about their company.  They crank thru some 
> calculations and come up with values to draw 
> onto the counter that represents their company.
> 
>   A similar process applies to each wizard &
> his apprentices and to each leader & his body
> guard.  These are treated as specialty squads
> which will have special rules for handling 
> them.
> 
>   (Basic game is very straight forward, with 
> all rules for specialty squads being advanced 
> rules.)
> 
>   So PC's can show up in the TFT game in two
> ways: Their adventuring party can either be a 
> wizard / lord squad OR they can train & outfit 
> a full company.  In both cases the complex 
> calculations happen BEFORE the game.  The 
> wargame should play fast and clean.
> 
>   I think this should work.
> 
>   *******************************************
> 
>   Here are some things that the game should 
> capture.  Odd facts, my biases and some thoughts
> in a not very organized way...
> 
> 
>   THE PRINCIPLES OF WAR:
> - Maintenance of the Objective.
> - Economy of Force.
> - Security (kill the spies!!!)
> - Flexibility.
> - Entropy.
> 
> 
>   TYPES OF ACTIVITIES:
> - Reserve.  Out of combat perhaps resting.
> Ready to be moved to the front at short 
> notice.
> 
> - Movement.
> 
> - Meeting Engagements.  Two forces advancing
> on each other will try to find and ambush
> each other.  Ambushes cause the highest %
> of enemy casualties so this should not be
> ignored.
> 
> - Construction.  Building forts, castles,
> roads, siege weapons, etc.
> 
> - Patrol. Going into enemy territory and
> scouting around.  Very dangerous & very
> important.
> 
> - Defense.  
> 
> - Attacking.  Two basic varieties, an 
> assault with heavy casualties on both sides
> and attrition / sniping which takes a lot
> longer but reduces the risk to the attacker.
> 
> - Pursuit (chasing down a retreating force.)
> Dangerous for the pursuer.  However the 
> retreating force can take a LOT of damage in
> the retreat if the pursuit is aggressive.  
> Cavalry excel at this of course.
> 
> 
>   SUPPORT UNITS:
>   As armies become larger and more specialized
> these tasks are broken out of companies and 
> placed into separate units.  An advantage of 
> having them in separate units is that we don't
> have to record the expertise of each company
> for the following specialties.  The disadvantage
> is that PC skills don't show up unless they are
> placed in a special unit.  
> 
>   Let us consider a specialty unit for healers.
> We could build a special squad like a leader
> squad that holds a dozen or so physickers and
> assistants.  This would keep the company 
> counters simple.  If they have lots of physickers
> they get a healer squad.  If they have LOTS, they
> get TWO healer squads.
> 
>   Use this system on all the support units below.
> 
>   Ok, all specialty units are SQUADS.  We allow
> unlimited stacking of squads in a hex so a 
> company with many specialties has a basic 
> counter and a cluster of squads with it.  This 
> is a nuisance, especially if we allow two or 
> three companies to stack in one hex.  
> 
>   The basic rules stay simple for the game.
> 
>   One problem with this idea is that the other
> player can look over your stack and learn a lot
> about its special skills.  Far easier than would
> be realistic.  If we put the special squads off
> map and record which company they are in, this
> adds busy work.  (However if they leave their
> company, then having a squad counter is a
> convenience.
> 
>   Anyway, here are some possible specialties... 
> 
> - Engineers (Used for building forts putting up 
> stakes, digging ditches, digging holes to trip up 
> horses and building palisades.  Engineers are also 
> used for building and using siege weapons.)
> 
> - Signal.  (Sending battlefield communications, 
> flags, horns, whistling arrows, drums, couriers 
> on foot or horses.)
> 
> - Transport. (Mules and wagons.)
> 
> - Military Police. (We can likely dispense with.)
> 
> - Medical.
> 
> - Headquarters.  (Maps and orders.)
> 
> - Intelligence. 
> 
> - Magic.  Can be used for all of the above in
> addition to their direct combat utility.  
> 
> 
>   NAVAL: (NOT COVERED IN THIS ESSAY, NOT LIKELY
> TO BE USED IN THE BASIC GAME.)
> 
> 
>   MORAL FACTORS:  
>   Moral is key and must be represented.
> 
> - Conviction that soldier should be fighting.
> 
> - Modified by Leadership, training, situation,
> politics, weather, etc.
> 
> 
>   LEADERSHIP FACTORS:
> - Nations with a long & systematic system of 
> preserving military knowledge have an advantage.  
> They tend to think that this wisdom is eternal
> truth and not just a passing solution to a
> problem. 
> 
> - Scientific training.  How easily available
> are correct military texts and how many leaders 
> learn from them (directly from reading them or 
> indirectly by being taught by people who know 
> the same thing.) 
> 
> - Understanding the enemies weaknesses.
> 
> - Picking leaders: 
> --> Gentleman Officer (poor)
> --> Aspirant (good for small unit leaders)
> --> Exams (poor, but enforces text book knowledge)
> --> Seniority (poor unless mixed with the above.)
> 
> INTELLIGENCE:
> - Strategic Intl. (1 report per month fine.)
> - Operational Intl. (1 per week.)
> - Tactical Int. (daily.)
> 
> - Cryptography (based on math).
> 
> - Cavalry Scouting.  This is key and not easy to
> represent.  Cavalry's most important job was to
> act as the eyes of the army.  However in a top 
> down map of the battle, the players can see 
> everything.
> 
> - Spies <-- See art of war for several types 
> of spies and how they are used.
> 
> - Diplomats and vacationers.
> 
> - Analysis. Figuring out what the data means
> and 'selling' it to those who need it.
> 
> - What is chance that allies / mercenaries will
> turn on us.  (Note most games do not do a good
> job of handling unreliability of mercenaries.)
> 
> 
>   ATTRITION:
> - In long campaigns, more men die of disease
> than fighting.  We can likely ignore this as
> our game is operational level.  So problems 
> with disease would be scenario specific rules.
> 
> - Step losses and gradual damage to units.
> Block games do this well for up to 4 steps.
> If we include attrition and low intensity 
> combat (and I would like to) then this becomes
> more important.  Also if you can take less
> than total damage, physickers could reduce
> or eliminate some of this damage which would
> give them something to do.  For now assume
> that there are a few damage states that are
> shown with counters.  Maybe put a die on the
> company to show how much damage it has.  This
> gives us 7 states (no damage = no die, and
> then 6 levels of damage before unit dissolves.)
> 
> - Observation: this design seems to be going
> to a low counter density (good) but has many
> specialty counters to show game state and 
> specialty squads (bad).
> 
>   
>   MODIFIERS TO COMBAT:
>   According to my books, the following are how 
> strongly the following situations affect the 
> strength of military units (assuming competent 
> generalship).  This is based on modern warfare but 
> can act as a base for our game.  
> 
> Factor:                Minimum Multiplier:
> --------------------------------------
> -- Terrain:                
> Mountains             * 0.75 to * 0.5 
> Swamps                 * 0.80 to * 0.6
> Hills                  * 1.0 to * 0.8
> Sand or soft         * 1.0 to * 0.8
> Buildings             * 0.9 to * 0.8
> 
> Above with forest   Defensive bonus to above.
> 
> -- Weather:                
> Wet                     *1.0 to *0.8 
>                          Wet kills bows.
>                          Wet slows movement.
> 
> Fog / mist           Helps attacker as less time to be shot.
> 
> Extreme heat / cold   Increases attrition.
> 
> 
> -- Command Factors:
> Leadership 1           * 0.75  Superior small unit leaders
> Leadership 2           * 0.75  Superior NCO's
>                            Note good leaders speed training.
> 
> Training                * 1.0 to * 0.3
> 
> -- Posture:
> Retreat                 * 1.0 (multiply by attacker's force.)
> Hasty defense         * 0.9
> Prepared defense     * 0.8
> Fortified defense    * 0.6
> 
> -- Air Superiority (Magic superiority?)
> Slight superiority   * 0.95
> Decisive "              * 0.8
>                            Note the side with out air 
>   superiority will move more slowly in addition to 
>   the above force multiplier.
>                            Also if air superiority persists
>   the other side is likely to develop supply problems.
> 
> -- Surprise            * 1.0 to * 0.6
>                           Surprise can locally  help either 
>   side but generally favors the attacker. 
> 
> -- Supply / Sanitation problems (Combine in this game)
>                            * 0.8 to * 0.5
> 
> --  Command, Control, Command & Intelligence:
> C^3I                      * 1.0 to 0.3
> 
> -- Moral:               * 1.0 to 0.2
> 
> 
>   The 'resolve' of troops can be considered to be 
> the willingness to keep fighting when outnumbered.
> (Where outnumbered is the number of troops times
> the equipment bonuses times the factors listed 
> above.)
>   When the odds ratio approaches 10 even extremely
> determined troops start to fall apart.  Some
> fanatics may fight to the death but other units 
> will surrender or melt away.  Advanced Squad Leader
> handles this with their ERL values but this takes
> a bunch of accounting.
> 
>   Note that many of the strongest factors (moral, 
> C^3I, supply / sanitation & surprise) are generally
> not handled well in wargames. 
> 
> --> Moral
>   Squad leader system where moral is on counter,
> and units make saving throws vs. it in various
> situations.
>   Some games rate units with moral and they must
> do a saving throw to DO actions. 
>   In strategic games, often the moral is included
> in the combat or defense factors for the unit.
>   A miniature game I played had units roll for
> moral any time they took damage.  They had 3 levels
> (elite, regular, green).  Elite units rolled with 
> an averaging die to show they were immune to 
> extreme reactions.
> 
> --> C^3I
>   In Memoir '44 / Battle Cry this is handled by 
> having to play cards to do things.  The side with 
> a better Command Group gets more cards --> usually 
> better & more flexible choices.
>   In ASL, some scenarios have you roll dice to
> tell you how many of your units can move.
>   Striker uses an initiative rating for units.
> High initiative units do things on their own with
> out orders, lower initiative units must be ordered
> or personally lead.
>   Several games use distance from the commander to
> rate how units move and fight.
> 
> --> Supply and Sanitation
>   I think this is best handled with scenario 
> specific rules.
> 
> --> Surprise / Fog of War
>   Block games do a nice job of this.
>   ASL uses hidden initial placement (pre recording
> some units starting locations) and ? counters to
> prevent looking thru stacks of units.
>   Some games (e.g. Invasion America) use upside 
> down counters to hide values.  (In Inv. Am. the 
> value is hidden from BOTH players!)
>   Various games roll vs. stealth and ambush 
> values on units.
>   
>   
>   Thoughts on magic.  Perhaps magic can be a 
> general talent that can do anything that needs to
> be done.  Need signaling but don't have a special
> signals squad.  Fly an image of a gargoyle over
> there to give an order!  Need intelligence?  Fly
> a dragon above enemy and see what he is up to.
> This captures the flexibility of magic with out 
> magicians having a giant combat effect which seems
> right for TFT wizards.
>  
>   
> 
>   ODD FACTS:
> - Personal losses of a few percent per day / division.  
> (And losses include wounded not just the killed.  
> Usually 3 people are wounded per death.)
> 
> - Infantry.  Only 100 to 200 days before combat stress 
> causes a break down.  Casualty rates of 2% / day.
> 
> - Preparation.  (If an army thinks it is well prepared 
> this improves moral.)
> 
> - Friends. The 'primary group' squad or platoon, is key 
> to moral.  Must work together for a few months before 
> combat to mesh.  Don't add new people while fight is 
> going on.  Wait until unit is recovering in reserve.
> 
> - Men need 3 kg of food &  10 kg of water per day.
> 
> 
>   SUMMARY:
>   Sorry the above is not better organized.  This is
> largely intended as a survey of things I would like
> to include in the TFT game & to spark some discussion.
> Command and control was a huge problem for ancient
> armies, I think it is really important that it be
> handled some how in our game.
> =====
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