--------------------------------------------------------------------------- C O N S I M C O N N E C T I O N S "THE internet resource for consim news" Premiere Issue #1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8/------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMPANY NEWS CLASH OF ARMS GAMES mailto:clashofarm@aol.com http:.//www.manzana.com/kranz/consim/coa --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following amends rules X.F; XII.2C; and XV.15.5 in the "Regulations of the Year XXII" MELEE AND THE GRANDE CARRE A Grande Carre is square that, because of the stacking limitations, does not permit an equal number of enemy increments to enter its hex with the intent to initiate assault upon it. (In other words, if the stacking limit is X, and the carre contains increments greater than X x .5, it is a Grande Carre.) A Grande Carre may still be the target of assault by treating it as if it were an enemy column (with a really poor fire defense; See XIV.7). Procedure: Units that wish to assault a Grande Carre must have rolled to close with it. They must be adjacent to it and they and the Grande Carre marked with a mutual "Assault" marker. The Grande Carre must roll to stand (this dice roll will be modified by +6 for being in carre, but will not be subject to any other modifiers on the Assault Odds Morale Check Modifier Table). If the Grande Carre successfully rolls to stand melee does not ensue; instead, exchange a round of feu de chance. I had some questions the other day from some fellows who found it difficult to reconcile the abilities of line and column to perform both assault and defense. Their being of the opinion that line was essentially a defensive formation, whereas column was a formation for offense, and that though there were exceptions to the above these were the basic way these formations were employed. How else, they queried, would one be able to show the benefits of mixed order? First of all, I think the problem lies with a misconception regarding the area contained within what we call a hexagon; i.e.; exactly what can go on in the space provided by one of them. When you have a single battalion of between 500 and 1,000 men in a hex ample space is provided for that unit to do just about anything it wants to do with regard to column given the parameters of two and three ranks per company and a standard interval of just less than a meter per file. Whether this be with a single company frontage or a column of divisions on a two company frontage. However, as we know, six hundred men in a two rank line will spill over into the adjacent hex. Thus, when more than five increments are deployed in line in a single hex the formation implies that more than two ranks are in use. In other words, a very big battalion of more than five hundred men, with no companies detached from it and regardless of the fact that they may be deployed in two or three rank lines, when deployed in a single hex implies that that battalion is now deployed in seried ranks of two lines, one behind the other, or as Wellington employed when fighting on restricted fronts such as at Waterloo and Quatre Bras, a four rank line (which was essentially two, two rank lines deployed one behind the other). The rules accommodate this by essentially stating that, yes, they are in line but at the same time their depth has increased such that they are now a column for fire defense purposes. Now consider several battalions within the same hex, either as several counters under a leader counter, or as deployed in a regimental counter. One cannot picture this as several separate columns in some neat checkerboard pattern all contained within a single hex. This is simply not possible. What you have instead is one big column with either a single or double company frontage. Whether 18 increments are deployed in column or line in a single hex when one applies the razor of practicality, they are exactly the same, otherwise neither formation would fit within the hex. In this case the column would be called a column of companies at closed intervals, which means they would be a series of lines separated by only a few meters. Thus they are, technically also in a type of line formation. Rather than create informational counters depicting different formations that are essentially identical, the system goes beyond this technicality and reduces it to something useful. Therefore, mixed order is not something that occurs in a single one hundred meter hex. But is employed in several adjacent hexes. It is not something that will effect a single enemy battalion, but something that effects an enemy formation with at least a brigade frontage. An informational counter stating that the unit is in mixed order would not be appropriate in a game unless the counters, themselves, were brigade or divisional in size. At the battalion "la Bataille" simulation level, the player articulates the separate units of the division; literally deploying them in a mixed order. By way of analogy, one articulates the use of combined arms in these games by threatening with cavalry, forcing the enemy units into compact formations, then takes advantage of this reaction by playing upon the formation with artillery. When the artillery has had its effect the softened units are then assaulted by infantry; thereafter pursued by the cavalry. At the brigade scale or greater, yes, there should be some modifier effecting the outcome of a combat wherein cavalry, artillery and infantry coordinated and combined their efforts on an enemy force that did not also contain these same elements. But at the battalion level these things become literal in their execution. One can see the potential effects of mixed order attacking a single enemy battalion, however, if one envisions an enemy formation deployed with three front hexes from which it is attacked by a unit in a two hex line and another unit in column. If the unit stands before the assault, the combat immediately proceeding to an exchange of feu de chance, the assaulting units will at least have the benefit of two thirds of their formation firing from line. And, whence play proceeds to the next half of the turn, their fire will not be halved when executing combat a feu. Thus the once defending unit now faces one unit (the column) that fires poorly, but the other fully deployed to give fire (the line). E.W. To summarize: In the "la Bataille" system, a unit is in line in the conventional sense, if it has four or less increments deployed as such, per hex. Any more than this and the unit gains an extra line behind the first (becoming a four or six rank formation), and thus, for all intents and purposes, becomes a column. So one might have, as I stated, eighteen increments in a single hex, deployed in line (technically) but it really is not a line, but a column of lines; ergo, a column. The benefits of being in line; i.e., fire defense and fire effectiveness, are both only available to the unit with less than six increments per hex. The unit with more than these has at its disposal the benefit of the line's fire effectiveness commensurate with its multiple company frontage, but suffers from the fire defense of a column and the movement rate of a line. While the third infantry formation, (there being six voluntary formations offered to infantry in the system; line, column of lines, column, tiraillerur, general order and carre) the column, benefits from neither the line's fire effectiveness nor defense, but has the advantage of greater manoeuvre potential. - Ed Wimble