Combat example with step-reduction counters

Instead of using a Combat Results Table (CRT), as in many wargames, you roll a handful of dice, one die per strength point.  Each six means one hit.

The combat sequence below is in a sort of outline form.  At any level, if the lines are numbered, that means to do all of them in order.  If the lines have ring-bullets, choose one of them.  If the lines have dot-bullets, each of them is an option:  chose any, all, or none.

Combat sequence:

1. The attacker attacks
1. Choose a stack of attacking units, and the defending stack to be attacked
2. Total the combat strengths of the units in the attacking stack, and roll that many dice
3. Each six means one hit on the defender
2. The defender has the choice of taking the total hits, or retreating and taking reduced hits
• Accept the total hits and counter-attack
1. Total the original combat strengths of the units in the defending stack, and roll that many dice
2. Each six means one hit on the attacker
3. The attacker now has the choice of taking the total hits, or retreating and taking reduced hits
• Accept the total hits
• Retreat to an adjacent hex, and accept reduced[1] hits
• The defending stack moves into the hex vacated by the attacker
• Retreat to an adjacent hex, accept reduced[1] hits, and counter-attack
1. Halve[2] the original defending strength, and roll that many dice
2. Each six means one hit on the attacker
3. The attacker now has the choice of taking the total hits, or retreating and taking reduced hits
• Accept the total hits
• The attacking stack moves into the hex vacated by the defender
• Retreat to an adjacent hex, and accept reduced[1] hits

Notes:

[1] When reducing hits, reduce by one for every two retreating units, so if six or seven strength points are to take five hits, divide the strength by two and drop any fraction, and thus ignore three of the required hits.

[2] When counter-attacking while retreating, divide the original strength of the defending stack by two and round up, so seven or eight retreating strength points counter-attack with a strength of 4.

Dice:

Instead of regular dice, you may want to use Flying Buffalo’s “death dice”; a death’s-head indicates a hit.

Adjustments

Re-rolls:

The attacker or counter-attacker may have an advantage because of the terrain or other circumstance, and there may be multiple advantages applicable.  For each such advantage, re-roll all misses for an extra chance for hits.

Example:  Gamer Garry has a strength-six stack with two attacker’s advantages, so he rolls six dice.  There are two hits, so he re-rolls the other four dice, and gets another hit.  He re-rolls the remaining three misses for the second advangage and gets one more:  four hits with six strength points; not bad.

Example:  Lucky Larry has a strength-six stack with two attacker’s advantages, so he rolls six dice, and gets six hits.  There’s nothing to re-roll, so the advantages do nothing this time.

Example:  Loser Luigi has a strength-six stack with two attacker’s advantages, so he rolls six dice, and gets no hits.  He re-rolls all of them, and still gets none.  He re-rolls one more time and still gets no hits.  Not good, but that’s the fortunes of war for you.

Extra attack strength:

Redoubts and other earthworks may work to the advantage of a player by adding strength to his attacks and counter-attacks.

Example:  Ivan has a strength-six stack in a redoubt with an intrinsic strength of five, and is attacked by François with a strength-eight stack.  François attacks with eight dice, and Ivan counter-attacks with eleven.

Since François may have multiple stacks adjacent to the redoubt, he may be able to attack multiple times, enough to eventually eliminate the units.  In this case, additional hits reduce the intrinsic strength of the redoubt, in case Ivan manages to sneak back in later.

Extra defense:

Units may have intrinsic or positional defensive advantages, allowing them to withstand attacks, without making them stronger on their offense.

Example:  Armor may require two hits to reduce their strength, so Rölf’s strength-four armor may come up against Nigel’s strength-twelve infantry.  Nigel manages to roll three hits in the battle, and Rölf gets only one.  Nigel has to take that one hit (or retreat), but Rölf takes only half the hits, fraction dropped, so he loses only one strength point from his stack.

Example:  A city may give an infantry or other unit the same advantage that an armor unit has by itself.

Example:  A redoubt may not only add to the occupier’s combat strength, but may also absorb its intrinsic strength in hits (without being damaged) before the remainder are applied to the defending units.

Soft units:

Some units may be easier to damage than others.  This is reflected in the design of the counter.

Example:  The strength marking is such that a rotation or flipping of the counter reduces the combat strength by two, rather than the usual one, so a strength-eight unit is reduced to a six, a four, and finally a two before being eliminated by one more hit.

Additional rules

Stacking:

Stacking limits may be given as units, such as three units per hex, or as strength points, such has twelve strength points per hex (three strength-four units, or the one-strength leftovers of twelve units, etc.).  Either way, this limits the number of dice needed for the game.

Stacking limits may depend on the terrain, so that if a stack approaches hard-to-traverse terrain, it may have to break down and go through single-file, or spread out.  Either way, it will have combat disadvantages.

Taking hits:

The selection of which units in a stack are to take hits can be done in three ways:

1. The attacker or counter-attacker chooses which defending units take the hits.
2. The defender chooses which of his units take the hits.
3. The stacking order of the defending units determines which units take the hits.
• Each unit in turn, from the top of the stack downwards, takes a hit, until all hits are applied.
• If a unit has extra defense, it takes two hits, but is reduced in strength by only one.
• If a unit has extra defense, but there is only one hit left to apply, that hit has no effect.
• After the bottom unit takes a hit, start over at the top.

Retreating:

There are multiple possibilites for rules governing retreats:

1. A unit may retreat only to a vacant, adjacent hex not in an enemy zone of control.
2. A unit may retreat across friendly stacks not in enemy zones of control.
3. A unit may retreat across friendly stacks, even if in enemy zones of control.
4. A unit may retreat onto friendly stacks, within stacking limits.
5. A unit may retreat onto friendly stacks, even violating stacking limits, but must unstack at the first opportunity.
6. A stack must stay together in retreating.
7. A stack may split up, retreating to multiple hexes.

Advancing:

There are two possible rules here:

1. The attacker or counter-attacker advances only when the defender retreats.
2. Advance is allowed also if the defender is eliminated in place.