Homemade rules - Design Notes for "Rhythm of War Drums" Part II

Despite having a slight painter's block the past week or two, aside from the fact that GTA V has been released for PC and been playing that with colleagues, I managed to decide on how to approach leadership and command for the ruleset.

In Black Powder, the system is very "Warhammer", that is to say, roll 2D6, add subtract modifiers, compare to the leadership stat, and see if it has succeeded or not. In Lasalle, orders are automatically carried out, since you are pushing the units around.

While there is nothing wrong per se with those rulesets, I find them rather dull. Mainly because in the former, rolling a 2D6 and then considering the plethora of modifiers to be time consuming and very book keeping / stat-reading laborious. It also feels bizarre that orders would automatically be obeyed... what happened to the Fog of War that Clauswitz talked about? Even with modern communication, war is chaotic.

I have instead, gone for the command dice idea.

Each GdB would have a certain command value (higher the better), and the command value would equal the number of dice rolled. On a 4+ (or 3+, havent decided), it would constitute a 'success' that can be transferred into orders : movement, rallying, formation changes, attacking, etc.

The successful dices are 'assigned' to individual battalions (any number) and rerolls are made if the battalion has any disorder points (1 disorder = 1 reroll). Any successful dices remaining will allow the battalion to conduct orders (up to 3). If we have multiple successful dice, but the battalion has a disorder point, we might assign it 4 dice, so that even if there is a reroll, and the roll is under 4 (ie, failure), the battalion will still execute those 3 orders.

 

Say for example, we have the General de Brigade Jean-Luc de Brie-Compté (a rather decent general who commands a large brigade with 6 battalions) with a command value of 16, we would roll 16D6.

But that's a lot of successes you say? Let us assume there are 10 successes.

But hold on, he also commands a brigade with six battalions, that means some battalions wont be able to execute more then 1 order. In fact, of those six battalions, four battalions would be able to execute two orders, and the two other battalions only one if we equally spread out the dice. Or, should we wish, we could have two battalions execute three orders, two other battalions execute one order, and the rest none - or any combination of that sort.

Not very efficient? Well, would commanding a large brigade (almost the size of a division) be any easy? I don't think so, we'd need help - and hence I think that ADC (Aide-de-Camps) can be assigned by the player/GdD to give an additional D6 to roll, making commanding large brigades doable.

Alright, so let's give him a smaller brigade of four battalions so that they can execute many orders.

Assuming each disorder (system I'm still working on) forces rerolls, suddenly a brigade that has seen combat and is getting worn out (ie, all four battalions have been engaged and have 2 disorder points each), we're talking 16D6 to be rolled, the successes assigned to the battalions, and then rerolls are executed. This means that some battalions will have a harder time executing orders.

This also means that if there is a critical battalion that must be moved at all costs, we'd assign more dice to that battalion, so that even if there are rerolls and subsequent failures, we'd have atleast one or two orders going through. This would represent extra effort, concentration, staff management and underlings trying to organize the lines as per high command.

So 16D6, we have 8 successes. All four of my battalions are in march column, but I fear the enemy will attempt to attack me from the front. So I need the lead battalion, and perhaps the 2nd to form up together in line to prepare for a fight. Thats 2 orders each (movement, movement (formations must be changed prior to movement) -> move in column, formation change line/movement. While technically that would only require 4 dice (2 orders each for 2 battalions), we also have 2 disorder per battalion.

And now we have a dilemma.

Do I assign 2 dice per battalion and hope for the best and hope the rerolls are successful and allow me to form up on the hill in line to counter the enemy that might get activated right after me before I manage to activate a cavalry brigade to cut them off... or do I spend more dice, meaning my 3rd and 4th battalion will most likely stay still?

I choose a compromise - I decide to assign 3 dice each to battalions 1 and 2 (the lead battalions) and 1 dice each to battalions 3 and 4.

Battalions 1 and 2, despite two rerolls, have allowed me to form up on the hill in line. Battalion 3, despite having 1 dice and two rerolls, managed to move up in column behind battalion 1 in support. Battalion 4, with 1 dice and two rerolls, failed to execute any orders and are now standing still.

All my order dice are spent, and now its my opponent's turn to activate a battalion.



I feel that this form of "resource management" in the form of order dice will mean there are meaningful choices to make with consequences, and the fog of war (disorder) will mean that some battalions might not execute those orders.

Do we choose to heap dice on that one battalion with disorder to desperately make it move at the cost of the others, or do we move up the others knowing that the one battalion has turned into a disordered chaotic mess?

Decisions decisions.