Colonial Campaigns Club (CCC)

"7:30am May 10th, 1758 *Hypothetical* Nearly 50,000 men supported by 80 cannon congregate for a day long battle. The armies are the nearly theoretically full-strength units that fought for both the French and the British during the French & Indian War. The orders of battle and officer assignments are purely fantasy. 1 VP per infantryman, 50 VPs per cannon, and 1 VP per Supply Point. First Player: British."

Yep, you guessed it, another scenario. This one for French and Indian War. Inspired by a comment from Glyn, I sat down and made this day long (159 turns) battle.

Both armies are organized along the lines of Seven Years War armies, at least my interpretation. (No cavalry, sorry.) I compiled a list of nearly every unit engaged in North America during the F&I War. Organizing those 160 companies of Milice was particularly fun [;)]. Both armies have approximately 40 bns and 40 cannons.

I used the unit type 'H', horse artillery, for the battalion guns and the unit type 'A', artillery, for the position cannons to reflect the mobility difference between the two and to allow players to use each type of gun in a more appropriate historical role.

The battle is set on a sub_map of my Big Map. The ground is open with many farms and very, very rolling. Although presented as a set-piece battle, I think this scenario will allow both players a few different operational options and will offer many, many unique tactical situations.

Regular units from Europe for both countries are C rated while the Milice and Provincials are rated D. Most generally the European officers are rated better than their North American counterparts, unforetunately some of the more inept NA commanders hold high positions. This should make the handing down of leader bonuses a bit more iffy. [:D]

I won't have any Ai scripting for it, and it may lend itself well to multi-player games.

The pdt file is of my own taste, deadly firepower, limited visibility, etc, etc. [:)] Company strength range from 36 to 98 (or so) making battalion strengths range from 432 to over 1,000 (men in skirts [:0] hehehe...)

Drop me a line if you would like to try it out.

albert_amos@yahoo.com

"This should make the handing down of leader bonuses a bit more iffy."

Al,

Forgive my ignorance but can you explain this for me?

Also, I would be interested in trying out this scenario. Thanks for your efforts [:)]

Michael,

As I understand the system ...

At the beginning of each turn the overall army leader takes a 'morale' check needing to get his leadership number or below.

(BTW the scale is A=6, B=5, C=4, D=3, E=2 & F=1.)

If he passes his test then he gives the next set of officers in the chain of command a +1 when they test. Then the next tier of leaders check, if the two levels above them have passed then they get a +2. This continues to the units. If anyone in the chain breaks then the bous goes to 0 and starts over. Let's see if I can set up an example to illustrate without srewing it all up. hehehe....

Army Leader - Garry rated B.
Division Leader is - Nik rated C.
Brigade Leader is - Al rated E.
Regimental Leader is - Dierk rated A.
Company A is rated D.

Garry needs a 1,2,3,4 or 5 to pass.
Nik needs a 1,2,3 or 4 to pass his.
Al needs a 1 or 2 to pass his check.
Dierk needs a 1,2,3,4,5 or 6.
Company A needs a 1,2 or 3.

Example #1

Garry checks and 'rolls' a 2 he passes, therefore he hands down a +1 bonus to Nik.

Nik checks and 'rolls' a 5. He needed a 1-4 normally but the bonus Garry gave him raised him to a 5, so he passes. The bonus handed down to Al is +2.

Al checks and 'rolls' a 1. He passed. He now hands Dierk a +3 bonus.

Dierk can't fail his check, and passes. He hands Company A a +4 bonus.

Company A is now needs 7 or less on a D6, so they pass.

Example #2

Garry checks and passes, he hands Nik a +1.

Nik passes. He hands Al a +2.

Al needs a 1,2,3 or 4 to pass and 'rolls' a 6. He fails. NO BONUS is passed to Dierk.

Dierk passes since he needs a 1,2,3,4,5 or 6 from a D6 'roll'. He passes a +1 to Company A.

Company A is normally a D quality unit, but the bonus handed down makes it a C for this morale check which means it needs a 1,2,3 or 4. It 'rolls' a 2 and passes. By passing it could mean that it UNDISORDERS if it was DISORDERED, or that it does NOT ROUT if it was checking morale due to taking a casualty during the enemy's previous OFFENSIVE COMBAT PHASES (melee or fire.) If the unit does pass, thereby not routing, then it will only become DISORDERED.
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Again that is the way I understand the system. So you can see that in many of the stock scenarios where leaders and units are rated A's or B's they will not have morale problems until leaders are eliminated and replaced by that ANON guy, or the unit has HIGH or MAX fatigue.

It would be better if the die used for the morale check was a D10 with the current quality levels thereby giving high quality units and leaders to fail occasionally. That would require an engine change, so in my home made stuff I have lowered the quality of units and leaders to compensate.

This is also why when using OPTIONAL RULES such as ROUT LIMITING units stay forever. While using that option leaders are not needed as most units become defacto A's and B's, and will stay around all by themselves.

The OPTIONAL RULE of FLANK MODIFIER is good as it promotes proper tactics of forming the bns in lines with the companies in adjacent hexes, instead of every-other hex style. With FM, especially with the British and French, a player can see the benefit of the higher quality 'flank companies.' As they won't get the FM bonus, but the lower quality 'line or hat companies' do, since both of their flanks are covered.

Hope this helped. [;)]