Full Contact Pub Battles

This is a variant for the Field of Engagement (FoE) rules that is currently part of the PubBattles game system. They are actually the original rules for the game. Full Contact simply means that you may move out of contact with an opposing block, so that it is no longer in contact with your block, and thus unable to attack you.
Why Field of Engagement?
These rules were put in place because many felt that the original (Full Contact) rules yielded unrealistic results wherein opposing units could be left "almost adjacent" and be oblivious to the enemy in so close a proximity.

There is no right or wrong way to do it, as long as everyone agrees on the rules beforehand. Obviously, the FoE rules are the official rules and should be considered the rules being used unless otherwise agreed upon.

Well then, why Full Contact?
I prefer this variant because I don't like limiting player's options with arbitrary "you can't because" rules. It feels a little awkward to have to adjust your play based on some arbitrary rule. Again, this comes down to what "feels right" for each player's style.

It may seem that making a unit end its move 1/3 move away from the enemy if they do not intend to attack, seems reasonable. Otherwise, the player moves to attack and the enemy backs up a hair and gives his opponent raspberries! That just seems wrong.

Except, that is a linear description of the action. It is "I Move/You Move" thinking. PubBattle's Chit draw system is supposed to simulate simultaneous movement. It did this brilliantly by allowing the command that's drawn last to move with the same freedom of movement as the player who moved earlier. I prefer it played this way.
In Full Contact PubBattles, denying combat by moving just out of contact does not imply no combat occurred, far from it! What it is saying is that the commander who moved last had the tactical initiative and denied the opposing commander the decisive engagement he desired. There may have been all kinds of fighting, the attacker was just not able to come to grips with the defender (think 'skillful delaying action').
True to PBs philosophy of concentrating on command and effect, and less concern over what and why things fell out the way they did, the system allows one to imagine what might have happened.

The Full Contact variant plays more smoothly, because one is not checking distances and determining where the FoE extends. This can be difficult on a crowded map with many LOS blocking terrain features obscured underneath blocks. Again, I wish to be fair. If you prefer the FoE rules, this extra bit of trouble is worth it.


So, for me, the Full Contact rules play faster and better simulate the chaos of combat. It is a credit to the elegance of the System system, that it is robust enough to play well and balanced with or without this variant.

Feel free to comment below and let me know how you feel about this variant. There is no right or wrong, but I may be able to explain my preference if I can understand why somebody might not prefer it.

Mike's Pub Battles Rules Introduction

It seems there is some confusion with the rules for the Pub Battles system. Some people feel the rules are incomplete. I usually find that this is because they are assuming it is more complicated than it is, and that the designer left something out.

This is simply not true. The design goal for Pub Battles was to create a short one page rules set. It was felt that rules were getting way too bloated. The one page rules aren't complete, but the complete set is only eight pages, and that includes diagrams!

The problem this can create for some people is that they are used to rules explaining every little thing. They are used to having every specific question addressed. If you believe something isn't addressed in Pub Battles, it is often clearly explained in general terms, but you can't find it because your looking for a specific rule.

I want to clear up some common concerns with a few remarks, and demonstrate how the rules DO address many of these concerns:

When your command is drawn you can move units even if they have already been contacted by an enemy unit. The chit draw mechanic simulates simultaneous movement, and often times the command moving later is considered to have the advantage. This represents the commander having out thought and out maneuvered the opposition. So while in linear game terms the opponent moved first, in non-linear simulation terms, the friendly commander got the upper hand and the contest resolved in terms favorable to him. 

Sometimes you'd rather move first, Alter Turn Order mechanic works both ways.

What happens if I attack an opponent who is uphill, in woods, and across a river? As explained on the Terrain Effects Chart, uphill and woods are -1 not -2. Attacking across a river is treated as being outflanked for the first round only, so for the first round the attacker is at -2 and the defender is at +1, on any subsequent rounds the attacker is at -1.

HQ's are immune to the enemy. As stated in the rules, HQs cannot be attacked, overrun, and do not block movement. The enemy simply ignores them when moving. Move them as little as necessary if they are in the way. It is assumed that the nimble HQ can avoid large formations.

HQ range Hqs can not be in two places at once. Before a unit moves to attack (moves into contact with the an enemy unit) it must be within HQ range. I usually move HQs first so I don't forget, but that isn't required. Most of the time, the HQ can easily be within command range of its entire Corps. For larger Corps or Corps with far ranging cavalry, this can be an issue and must be managed carefully.

Artillery does not need to be within HQ range to bombard. Only units moving into contact with enemy units need to be within HQ range.

Occupying Terrain The Authentic maps look very cool, but there are some features that have no in- game functions other than window dressing. The rules state that a unit is considered to be occupying the terrain that the majority of the piece is in. This means small farmsteads and towns, as well as small bits of woods, have no game function if they cannot contain half a unit block. It is good gamesmanship to announce whether or not your unit is occupying a terrain feature if it seems questionable. Remember that if you are occupying a town or city, your unit must become spent! 

Artillery The way the designer intends artillery range to be calculated is by majority of piece to majority of piece. I just measure from front center to any point on the defender. Use whatever method makes sense to you! The reason for this imprecision is because much of the artillery that is represented by the blocks is a mix of different types and functions. The range specification is a generalization of the whole. Pub Battles is a quick play system that doesn't bog you down in ballistics issues and ammo supply concerns.

The design goal of Pub Battles was to simulate the feel of commanding an army from the period represented. IMHO this it does better than any other game system. On the other hand, if you want a study in the small unit tactics of the period with hundred page rule books and requiring many hours to play, or you thrill to the simulation of supply and logistical concerns, there are other titles that offer that in spades.

However, if you want the authentic feel of commanding an army, while only taking up an hour or so of your time, or even a best-of-three series in an evening, welcome to Pub Battles!

Please reply with any further questions that you might have, and I will do my best to answer them promptly and succinctly.

Marengo map clarifications

Coloring Rivers in on the Marengo map.

The double streams with the swamp only cost 1/3 a move to cross!

Here you can see the road I drew in with a #2 pencil, which connects the road from the fort with the bridge across the river. This allows a unit to use the March Column move rate from Alexandrie North and cross back over the rive on the French right flank. This is the intent of the designer. 

Artillery duel on the Brandywine!

 As can be seen from this setup, this game started fairly standard, but then Washington's chit was drawn first and my opponent, Wade, being ever the aggressor, fired his artillery at Prescott's Brigade and eliminated it! He followed that success with a dash across the Brandywine bringing the battle to me.

Conventional wisdom says this is a bad move for the colonials because they are less able to react to a flanking move. Wanting to see how a British attack might fair with both commands battling across the Brandywine, I elected to bring on Cornwallis right behind Knyphausen with the hope that I might destroy him in the center and be done with all his shenanigans.

At the end of turn one you can see that Washington is in a precarious position.

Washington quickly retreats back across the river and attempts to hold the line at the water's edge. Howe's counterattack is a bit costly. Colonial artillery spend the Grenadiers and then the Pennsylvania militia eliminates them, though they too are wiped out.

Looking to make the sacrifice of the Grenadiers not be in vain, Abercromby storms the Brandywine. Nash is able to pin him on the edge of the stream while the First Minnesota makes a flank attack! But even though the odds were in their favor, they are mown down like so much wheat.

Cornwallis' attack stalls with a skillful delaying action by Nash while Knypshausen's artillery drives Sullivan from the river's edge. On the British extreme left the Highlanders cross the river while Bland's Cavalry fall back. At this point much of the battle may seem to be strangely held up, why aren't the British pressing ahead more aggressively? The chit draws, man. The chit draws; and the command rolls.

Just before dark, Knyphausen's artillery eliminates one more unit and the games ends with a one point British edge, which under the latest revision is a draw.

Parting thoughts:
If Cornwallis had not flanked and had attacked completely across the Brandywine as Washington had assumed, then the battle could have begun much earlier. Both commands could have been on the Brandywine to start the battle.
Howe was using local guides and informants much more effectively than Washington.
Knyphausen's job was to "demonstrate" and fix the colonial army to the Brandywine.

Given those three premises, I offer this alternative method for setup.
Setup begins with a British Plan:
If Howe elects to forgo the flank move, then the battle starts three turns earlier. The colonial player sets up first and then the British player sets up BOTH of his commands. Set the turn die to four count down to one and then back up to five, thus giving three extra turns.
If Howe elects to flank, then the British on-board command sets up first, followed by the colonial commands. Play proceeds as normal.

Understanding the chit pull mechanic

Understanding the chit pull and turn order mechanic is the key to understanding and gaining the edge in Pub Battles: Brandywine. Generally, you want to move last because that allows you more control over your combat engagements.

In Pub Battles: Brandywine, when a unit’s command is activated, it may move, even if an enemy unit has moved into contact. This means if you are defending you can move out of contact, and if you are attacking it means you can move into contact without the opponent running away or reinforcing the position. Of course, especially early in the game, a command may want to go first if it is trying to reach important ground or react to events of the previous turn. Washington reacting to the British’s flanking maneuver is a primary example.

Pub Battles: Brandywine focuses on command and one of the ways it simulates this is the HQ’s ability to affect the all-important turn order. For example, if Corwallis' chit is drawn first he may wish to wait until the command he is facing (Sullivan) has moved so he can choose exactly where he wants to attack. Let’s say he makes his roll and his chit is put back in the cup, his HQ is turned over signifying he has used his action this turn. The next draw is Knypshausen and he is fine moving first since he is just biding his time threatening Greene (forcing him to guard the Fords and not fly to Sullivan’s aid) and only fires his artillery. The next draw is Sullivan and the colonial player does not want to move first so he has Greene roll and he makes his roll. Sullivan’s chit is put back in the cup and Greene moves. Cornwallis' chit is drawn next and Cornwallis still does not want to move first so this time Howe rolls for Cornwallis, he fails the roll and Howe must move. He moves but is ever mindful of his attacks as Sullivan will move after him and can just pull back or reinforce any advantageous attacks.

Why do the rules allow a unit to just walk away from an enemy attack? Remember, the rules are simulating a command advantage. This may mean the enemy has been hoodwinked and either has been out maneuvered or perhaps had been uncertain as to the enemy’s disposition. In any event, at the end of the hour and a half they had failed to come to grips with their foe. Things had fallen out such that the units ended up in the positions shown on the map. They may never have even been close, or perhaps the unit had deployed a very effective screen of skirmishers. Even though in game terms a command may move last, what it may be simulating is that command moving first before the enemy can react! Pub Battles: Brandywine dispenses with the pages and pages of rules that would be required to show what really happened (and can never capture all nuances), and focuses on what these multitudes of happenchance result in, which is all the commanders need to know, or care about, at the time.

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.