I have been working on the next book in the Wargame Book Club series for yootoob and this volume is Rules for Wargames by Arthur Taylor. I’ve not been able to find much about his biography, other than what is in the History of Wargaming Project Volume 5:
After service in the Queen’s Bays and Royal Devon Yeomanry, Arthur Taylor read modern history at Oxford, specializing in Military History. He then went on to teach economic and political history at a grammar school. He wrote several books for the Discovering series and … is most remembered for…a small paperback on wargaming.
Early Wargame Rules Vol 5 Edited by John Curry
His rules are explained fully in the video being edited now, but I wanted to write up a complete evaluation of his rules for Morale and Leadership, which are definitely going to make their way into my own Leader of Men wargame rules.
Explicit Campaign Play
The rules in these two book sections are explicitly about playing a series of games in an ongoing campaign. It is my firm belief (based on my research, reading old books, and viewing a particular documentary) that Campaign Play for wargames was the default for the 1960s to early 70s. Many, many wargames, rulesets, and “the most famous RPG in the world” are based on the premise of an ongoing wargame campaign, with each battle contributing to the political situation in the milieu in a dynamic, living world. Even if this world is purely fictitious!
Morale
The morale rules vary wildly from game to game, genre to genre. In this book they are extremely detailed, and very granular (what some might call ”crunchy”). I have never seen rules this detailed, and I am excited to see how they play out in a campaign setting.
Each unit is assigned a starting Morale Rating, based on four factors, which is then cross-referenced on a chart with battle casualties to determine the unit’s behavior after the check. Taylor was not a fan of dice!
The four factors of Quality, Confidence in Leadership, Physical Condition, and Mental Condition are each given a numerical score and then averaged.
Quality
Confidence
A number of points equal to the Leadership of the commanding officer
Physical Condition
Mental Condition
Add these scores together and average them.
Add 2 points if the Commanding Officer is within 150mm.
Add 1 point if any other officer is within 150mm; if a unit with Morale 4 or 5 is within 150mm; if the unit is behind cover or prepared defenses; or if a unit is fighting under its own standard.
Subtract 1 point if the weather is bad; if the unit is alone or without support.
Morale Checks
A unit will check morale at any of the following points:
When a unit is fired upon
When a unit is attacked
When a unit is ordered to charge or attack an enemy position
When a unit makes a morale check, assess their current casualties in the present Action, and consult the following chart:
I really like the look of this system, and I am going to do some experiments to see how it works!
Leadership
Every commanding officer involved in the battle must have a Leadership rating. This rating is based on the average of his scores in the areas of Experience, Success Rate, Troop Handling, and Casualties.
Experience
New officers begin with a score of 0 and add one point for every battle the officer is involved in, win or lose!
Success Rate
Begin with 0 and add one point for every victory in the past five battles. The rating is calculated fresh after each battle.
Troop Handling
Based on the results of the most recent battle:
Poor - 1 point - giving unclear orders, troops out of place for repelling attacks, etc.
Average - 3
Good - 5
Casualties
Calculated on the results of the last battle:
Troops take less than 10% casualties -5 points
Troops take 10-50% casualties -3
Troops take over 50% casualties -1
I imagine some great house rules could be generated for this process to make fighting your tabletop battles more fun and exciting.
Feedback?
What do you think of these ideas? Or thoughts on wargames without dice in general? Leave a comment below!