Tuesday, June 21, 2011

First Look: Union army at Shiloh

Here are the 1st run of the cards for the Union Shiloh forces (Grant's Army of the Tennessee and Buell's Army of Ohio).

Army of Tennessee (Click to Enlarge)

Army of Ohio (Click to Enlarge)

I've got to come up with some graphics for the gunboats Tyler and Lextington, but in game terms they work like supporting artillery (in the appropriate battle-zones of course :D).

Monday, June 20, 2011

First Look: DSROHG Shiloh Confederate Unit Cards

I've tentatively gotten the Confederate Shiloh cards completed.

Click To enlarge

There are some rules that will have to be tested (detachments such as the cavalry and artillery) like some special rules to handle the wierd Confederate command structure.

Next up: The Union cards.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Play example of DSROHG Bull Run

Here is a play example for the historical scenario for my DSR On Hallowed Ground Bull Run (rules version 6-16-2011) :

I'll detail how one of the attacks is resolved as well in this example.

It uses the basic DSROHG rules with a few modifiers to them, mostly to account for the CSA command structure. In addition, all artillery and cavalry on both sides are attached to the brigades.

Click on the picture to get a bigger image.


Setup

Initial Union setup is with Hunter at Sudley Ford, Heintzleman in reserve and Tyler spread between Ball Ford and the Stone Bridge. All brigades except for Sherman are in their Division's Active zones. Sherman is in the Front zone of the adjacent battle-zone B (Spindle Farm for his side of the board).

Initial Confederate setup is with Evans at the Stone Bridge and Cocke at Ball's Ford. All Confederate units are individual brigades, nominally commanded by their army leader.

The big difference between the Union structure and the Confederate structures is the fact that the CSA has a harder time keeping brigades in a battle-zone. When they cower or panic, they will be moved behind their army leader which is in the Reserve, taking more effort to get them back to the battle-zones again.

Both players need to keep in mind that Zone D (Blackburn's Ford, along with reinforcements for both sides) will not show up until sometime at midday, which is the battle-turn (as opposed to player turns described below) after the current one. A battle-turn elapses when a deck of action cards has been run through.

Both sides draw 4 cards and discard unuseable ones (e.g. the CS move (1) cards held by the US).

Turn 1 (US)
 Turn 1:
The US player draws a US Move(1) card. He decides to attack Mathew's Hill with Hunter's brigades by playing a Move and a Supply card (both are required to initiate an attack). The CS player decides to block the move by reacting with Evans (in the Stone Bridge area of zone B) to Mathew's Hill (in zone A) by playing a supply card.

The CSA can at most perform 1 adjacent blocking move per turn, and the unit performing that move must have at least a nominal cavalry contingent available to do so.

Evans slides over and battle is fought. Since the terrain is a Hill, the attacker is modified down and the defender modified up.

Evans takes a hit and cowers. He is moved behind his Army leader (Beauregard) to indicate that he cowered. If he had panicked, he would be tilted 90 degrees to indicate this (Panic is harder to come back from that Cowering).

In addition, since he cowered, he has to check to see if he lost his cavalry contingent (depletion) while falling back. He fails the depletion roll, so he can no longer perform a blocking move to an adjacent battle-zone and suffers another -1 to his combat strength (for a total of -2 taking into consideration the other hit he took).

Porter took a hit and cowers (so is placed behind his Division leader). Burnside doesn't take a hit, but fails his morale check so badly that he Panicks anyways ! In addition, he loses his artillery contigent, weakening him for the rest of the game.

If any unit card had routed for either side, their parent would have to take an Integrity Check, which could force that whole unit to rout. In addition, if a division has no units in its Front or Active zones and the enemy does, it has to take an integrity check (which may rout that division).

Since the US player did not leave any units in the Front zone of that battle-zone (they all cowered or panicked), control does not change even though the CS player has no one there. Both players dodge a bullet.

With the last movement card in his hand, the US player decides to move Heintzelman up from the Reserve to Spindle Farm, opposite the Stone Bridge.

Turn 2 (CS)

Turn 2:
The CS player draws a CSA Move card, which he needs badly so he can rush the troops currently in his reserve to the fronts of  Zones A and B.

Bartow moves to the Stone Bridge and Bee moves to Mathew's Hill. They brace for the expected attacks soon to come. Although, since the US player has burned all his cards, he is a few turns from having the opportunity to do so.


Turn 3 (US)
Turn 3:
The US player draws a Supply card. He decides to rally all the Hunter's troops by playing a movement card (if he had played a supply card, he could only attempt to rally one unit card). Porter automatically moves to his division's Active zone, while Burnside must pass a rally check. Poor old Burnside fails, but at least does not rout, so he is now in the parent's Cower zone.
 
Turn 4 (CS)
 Turn 4:
The CS player draws a supply card, so he decides to rally Evans, which is moved to his parent's Active zone. Since he is in the Reserve, it will take a movement card to get him back into a battle-zone.


Turn 5-6-7 (US-CS-US)
 Turn 5:
The US player draws a US Move(1) card. He decides to hold it to build up for the next attack. No activity occurs.

Turn 6:
The CS player draws a US Move(1) card and must discard it.

Turn 7:
The US player draws a Supply card so decides to attack the Stone Bridge using Heintzleman. This costs a movement and supply card. If he had another supply card, he could have included Sherman in the attack, or if he'd had another movement card (or a Move(2) card instead of just a Move(1) card) he could've ordered Sherman and one other of Tyler's brigades into the attack (there is a limit to 1 move between adjacent battle-zones allowed per turn.) As it is, he can only include Hentzleman's brigades.

The CS player has no ability to react from Zone C (Zone A cannot react because that brigade has no cavalry contingent) because he has no cards to use.

The battle is fought. Since the terrain had been a ford, Ford, all attackers have to pass a task check (TC) to be able to fight fully. Those that fail can only use their artillery component. Franklin fails while Howard passes. Howard attacks at full strength (he is only infantry) while Franklin can only attack with his artillery.

Bartow defends 1st with all his components and rolls a twenty sided die. He needs to roll less than or equal to his combat strength (7) rolls a 7. This is enough to inflict one hit which is randomly distributed amongst all those attacking. Howard takes the hit.

Since the attackers took at least 1 hit, all must take Morale Checks. A Morale Check (MC) is a 2 six sided dice roll added together. A roll of less than or equal to its morale and it is OK. If the roll is greater than its morale, but less than its Panic number, it cowers. Otherwise it Panics. If "boxcars" is rolled, the unit routs.

Howard goes 1st with a +1 modifier due to the hit inflicted this turn.  He rolls a 7, which is modified to an 8, so passes.

Franklin did not take a hit, but still must pass an MC. He rolls a 5 and passes easily.

Sherman does not have to check, since he did not participate in the attack. He would have to check, however, if any of the attackers panicked or routed.

The attackers now get to roll against the defender. Howard rolls a 10, failing miserably.  Franklin rolls. If he had passed his TC, his combat strength would have been 8 (6 infantry plus 2 artillery as indicated on his card) but instead it is only a 2. He rolls a 2, inflicting one hit on Bartow.

Bartow has to take an MC, which he rolls an 8, modified to a 9 (because of the hit he took this turn). He cowers and is placed behind his parent commander (Johnston, in the reserve).

The US player has captured the Stone Bridge and appears to have a clean shot at Henry House hill ! He is only 3 battle-zones from winning the battle (the 1st side to get to their opponent's baseline automatically wins, or he can win by causing the enemy army leaders to rout by failing integrity rolls of their own).

The control marker is changed to indicate control of the Stone Bridge, and the Henry House hill terrain card (B5) is played on the Confederate side. However, there is no one there to defend it at the moment.


Turn 6 (CS)

Turn 6: The CS player draws Jackson as a reinforcement. Usually a reinforcement card must be placed in the Reserve (so it would take at least 2 turns to get into a battle-zone), but since he is Stonewall Jackson and this is the historical scenario, he can deploy directly into a battle-zone by special rule.

The CS player deploys Jackson into battle-zone B (Henry Hill).

Since both sides lack the cards, the next few turns will be a time to hopefully stock up for the next series of actions, depending on the cards drawn. Can the Union player muster and win enough attacks to beat the Confederates before the Confederate reserves (they start coming in starting with battle-turn 2) start making an impact ? Or does Jackson again stand like a stone wall ?

Friday, June 10, 2011

Miniature maps for DSROHG Bull Run

Work progresses on my DSR OHG card game.


I've completed the 1st in a series of maps for the battle-zone cards for my DSR OHG Bull Run supplement.

The Terrain Map card for Centerville (A1)
 The card shows the center (setup area) for the owner of that piece of terrain, while the whole map is shown below:

The full map (click to enlarge)
I intend to eventually create these large maps in 3" hexes (its a sheet about 40" x 60" in size) in the same style as my geomorphic squares 


For Bull Run, I need 28 distinct maps to fight the battle. Now that I've got a system in place to make these maps (icons, style etc) I hope I can complete them all by the 150th Anniversary of the battle next month :D

I've posted the latest Rules and latest Bull Run Supplement to the Yahoo group.

I've got the OBs worked worked up for my Shiloh supplement as well.