Variant Playtest

Let me make perfectly clear right away, that PB: Brandywine is excellent right out of the box. That being said, those of us working on Pub Battles development are always open to trying new ideas. The one great caveat is always, "Does this make the game more fun, or does it just slow it down with endless minutia?" This is because coming up with rules is easy. Coming up with elegant and intuitive rules that make for a more satisfying gaming experience is much trickier.

The practical reason I am looking at variants is because the Pub Battles concept is an ongoing process. Many games and battles are under development. I am using Brandywine as a testing vehicle for ideas and design concepts for games that are under current and future development.

The underlying philosophy for Pub Battles is designing for effect over specific simulation. That is why one shouldn't read to much into the specific moves that are made as the chits are drawn. The test is whether or not at the end of the turn if the final positions of the various units and results of any combats are a close approximation of what would have likely been the result of all the maneuvers and combats. In this case, I believe Pub Battles does a better job than many more complex and "detailed" simulations. Remember that the primary goal in a Pub Battles game is to capture the feel of command.

Now that I have disclaimed myself, here are the variant rules I am testing in this post:

Command variant

Setup: The British set up their command first.

1)  A unit that starts its turn in contact with an enemy piece can only move by declaring a voluntary retreat. Flip the unit to its spent side if not already spent. 

2) A side can only roll for one HQ per chit pull.  A player could roll for an HQ and its CinC if applicable. 

3)  Ending with 0 points is a Colonial win and a British lead of 1 point is considered a draw.

4) Cavalry is not required to be within command range to contact an enemy unit.

5) A command may react after any move by flipping its command block and moving any one of its blocks within 1/3 move again on a roll of 4 or less, or automatically if adjacent, before the next chit draw. Exception, a command may not react to its own move.

To summarize; A command may be flipped once per turn, either to alter the turn order or to react.

Setup:

The British have had Knyphausen set up with a more aggressive stance upstream, to give the impression of a historical flank. Rather than fortify for that, the Colonial player decides to keep the option of hitting hard across Pyle's and Chadd's fords.

Turn 1 ends with Howe and co. flanking from the downstream direction. As always, turn order is hotly contested on turn 1. Knyphausen was drawn first and elected to return to the cup, making his roll. Before he was added to the cup another draw was made and this time Greene was drawn. Green did not want to go first and made his roll, so Knypshn went into the cup before another draw was made and then Greene's chit was added to the cup. At this point, both commands had rolled so whoever was drawn next would be moving first. As it turns out, that was Cornwallis. I had forgotten about the only one roll per side per draw, but I failed the roll so it turned out as it should have.

 After all commands had moved, I remembered the react rule and Howe reacted and sent in the Grenadiers to hit Greene, coordinating with an attack by Knyphausen across Chadd's ford. The colonials could not retreat since they were hit front and back, they lost two blocks and Green's command became ineffective.

Wow, end of turn one and the colonials already have one command ineffective!

On turn two the chit draw saw the first three HQs trying to jump ahead and move first. Again, I forgot to limit the rolls to one per side. The final order was CKGSW. This was critical on the Colonial right because it allowed Sterling to rally on his activation, and then after Washington's activation, Sullivan was able to react by committing Sterling to retaking Wistar's ford (Knyphausens artillery had driven Sterling away, which was why he was spent in the first place.

This combat was quite dramatic. The lead British block was the dragoons who decided to voluntarily retreat. This allowed the British infantry to step forward, only to be eliminated by Stirling, though Sterling was spent and fell back with the effort.

However well the colonials were faring upstream, down at Chadd's ford they were suffering an ignoble catastrophe. Cornwallis got to move first and completely overwhelmed Wayne's division. This meant by the end of turn 2 Sterling's command was completely annihilated! Designer's note: I decided to remove Greene's chit and counter as it had no purpose left, but could be used to alter turn order for very "gamey" purposes!

                     At the end of turn 2 things are looking pretty hopeless for the colonials.

Turn 3 saw no combat as the Colonials fell back and rebuilt their lines and the British solidified their hold on what they had gained.

At this point I called the game. The British had one road that the colonials couldn't take back and a three point lead in casualties. 7 points British and 1 point Colonial. Had this been real history, Washington would have retreated with a good chunk of his army intact and the British would have captured a road to Philadelphia, but the complete loss of Greene's Wing would have been a disaster. Greene would be a footnote in history and Sullivan would be heralded as Washington's greatest asset at Brandywine.

Playtest observations:
Allowing a unit to react after it has already moved is too powerful. It certainly sealed Greene's fate in this game. It seems to obviate the chit draw mechanic.

Both times I should have been limiting my turn alter rolls, I forgot. That tells me it may not be a good rule as it is not easy to remember. Then again, if I hadn't been playing solitaire and keeping notes for this post, maybe I would have remembered...

The chit draws were a fun component of this particular game. The ability to retreat from an enemy unit that is in contact was never used. I never wanted to pay the price of becoming spent automatically. If a unit doesn't become spent, then there is little advantage to altering the turn order.

This game decided nothing in favor of the variant conclusively, but it was fun and not obviously broken. I am attributing the quick Colonial demise partially to the variant. In the final analysis, this particular variant leaves me underwhelmed and will not be tried again unless I am given a compelling reason to try it again.

Stay tuned, I have another variant to try!

Replay 7

                                Retired guy takes on a 20 something. What could go wrong!

 Well, here at the  end of turn 1 we get to see. Notice in the picture above the militia holding the Colonial left. In the picture below you see what happens when Cornwallis' entire column comes raining down on a bunch of farmers and tradesmen. You also get to see Wayne's division fly to the opposite side of the board in a vain attempt to staunch the crimson tide. This is what happens when you overcommit to one flank. I was trying to psych my opponent into trying to attack from the Northwest, and he just didn't buy it. Note also, in the beginning of turn two, that Cornwallis got to move first and pinched the Virginians at Pyle's ford. Even though Sullivan's troops moved after Cornwallis they couldn't extricate themselves from between two enemy units. They would have needed at least a half unit width to pull that off. So it is possible to move first and trap your opponent between your units so that he can not escape.

 The other Brigade of Virginians does get out of the jaws of death and the colonists are able to form a line on their left.

 However, before turn three is even over the colonial player realizes that he will not be able to recover Nottingham Road on his left, and has already lost two units to the British Zilch, giving the Brits a Major Victory and then some!

Sometimes this game can be very unforgiving. I can blame some of it on chit pulls and some of it on bad dice, but I made two very bad mistakes. The first was in  investing too much in the defense of the upstream approach, and the second was in not getting the Virginians off of Pyle's ford when I had the chance. Wade is a good player who does not allow his opponent to make a mistake without paying for it.

Kriegspiel 1

This is my first post of a "Kriegspiel Style" Replay. I was sitting at The Source, MFLGS, and the two players were miles away, in Stillwater I think. The Colonial player was using IMing on FB, and the British player was using gmail. After receiving his first turn orders, neither he nor I received any gmail messages until they all appeared the next morning! Next time I do a remote game it is going to be all on FB IMing. Otherwise, we could all meet at a local public house, sit apart, and I could pick up orders and deliver reports. That would actually be preferable because it would be more structured. This way left the C in C's barraging me with orders all night long, and it really doesn't work this way.

The way it did work is like this:

They send me their orders for their subordinate commanders.

I read the orders and try to interpret their intention just like the real commanders would have had to do.

I move and fight a turn.

I compose their commander's reports and return them to the players. In the reports I tell them what they see and hear, in addition to what they glean from their reports. If they move adjacent to a sub-commander, they will see what he sees and can give orders directly.


Since the first couple of turns were messed up because of my lost contact with the British player, I'm beginning this on turn 3.

 Around 6:30 in the evening Greene finds the Hessians across Jones' ford ready to attack. Mad Anthony Wayne sweeps them from the river's edge. Meanwhile, at Chadd's ford Fraser's broadsword wielding Highlanders destroy the Pennsylvania militia, but are themselves spent by the effort and retreat.

 By eight 0'clock Wayne's somewhat spent Division crosses back over Jone's ford to help with the colonial left and the rest of Greene's troops form a rearguard. There is heavy skirmishing above Chadds ford, but the British don't risk any units in a serious assault.

And so combat ends and the Battle of the Brandywine is over. The British gain a moderate victory having sustained no serious losses while costing the rebels two units. Bland's dragoons swing around the British right flank and contest Nottingham Road denying the British a major victory. Historically, had the battle ended like this, Washington would have been happy that his army contested the British and managed to live to fight another day.

In the future, I hope to have the pictures preceded by the commanders orders and followed by the sub-commander's reports. But I wanted to get this battle up so the players could get their first glimpse of how the battle actually looked, versus what they thought it looked like. This is where Pub Battles: Brandywine played Kriegspiel style is so different. It is less a contest of tactical skill, and more a study of command and control.