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!