Divisions on a Dime

Introduction I've always had a fleeting interest in the American Revolution, so as part of an effort to be more familiar with local history, I recently read John Buchanan's excellent book on the AWI's Southern Campaign titled The Road to Guilford Courthouse . It has rekindled a strong interest in the American Revolution and I've recently made trips to the battlefields of King's Mountain, Cowpens, and Guilford Courthouse. In tandem with my reading and tourism, I decided to put together some armies representative of the Southern Campaign to play around with on the tabletop. I find the Southern Campaign especially compelling due to the small size of the armies involved, the personalities (Morgan, Tarleton, Greene, Cornwallis, Marion, etc.), and the attrition-based nature of the campaign. Neither of the armies are representative of any singular battle, but are rather an amalgamation of units involved in the campaign.  Basic Conventions I've made these armies compati...

(Part 1) Guilford Courthouse-Inspired Engagement - Battle Report A demonstration of a work-in-progress Morale-Cohesion Wargame. At the moment they are designed for Horse and Musket engagements. Although these rules are written with a square grid in mind, I opted to play using inches for movement and range instead. This allowed for a more free-form experience while keeping the core mechanics intact. The game focuses on unit morale and cohesion, with each unit assigned a Resolve rating representing its discipline and fighting spirit. As units take Stress either from disorganization (Disorder) or fear (Panic), their effectiveness degrades. Too much Stress triggers Rout Tests, which can lead to retreat or collapse. Combat is resolved with opposed 2d6 rolls plus Resolve, modified by existing Stress and situational advantages like flanking. Artillery, movement penalties, rallying, and cascading morale failures all contribute to a battlefield that feels both tense and historically grounded. ...

Whether I’m reading through rules, revisiting homebrews, or battling it out on the tabletop, I find myself asking the same question: “Well, that seems like it works alright, but what about...?” What about the effect of one unit’s retreat on the morale of the unit next to it? Shouldn’t that be modeled? What about using different dice (d6, d8, d10) instead of just stacking modifiers? Would that mechanically represent outcomes better? What about modifiers for long-range musket fire? Shouldn’t I factor that in somehow? What about elite units? Shouldn’t their melee ability be reflected with an additional modifier? What about the fact that this rule doesn’t account for this one specific but plausible situation? And so on. And so on. This kind of thinking especially creeps in when I’m working on a rule of my own. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. There are an infinite number of variables to account for and an equally infinite number of ways to model those variables. That’s where ...

Introduction As my first post to this blog, I thought it would be best to hit the ground running with a battle report. This is a fictional engagement between American and British forces sometime in an early 19th century North American setting using a homebrew version of  The Portable Napoleonic Wargame brigade-level rules by Bob Cordery. I've posted my homebrew version of the rules here . My miniatures for this battle are replacement Risk! figures procured from Amazon. I've mostly finished painting up the infantry, but the cavalry, artillery and commanders have yet to receive proper uniforms. The Map This is a 9x9 square grid map using 2" painted wooden tiles. The woods are store-bought miniature trees based on 1" wooden bases with clay. The hills are just additional tiles laid on top of the base layer. The cottage is from the Lilliput Lane line of miniature English cottages. I've collected quite a few of these over the years and though it is a bit large for the ...