Re: PBeM Help - From Paper/Pencil/Dice to Wargames

From: "David Bolton" <david@4pbm.com>

Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Here my view on it as a 25 year experienced wargamer and PBM designer. feel
free
to ignore it!

From a military view point, the 10,000 army may a couple of advantages:

1. Its together. It has a plan. It can possibly defeat the smaller elements
of a large
force. (napoleon tried this at waterloos- splitting the British and Prussian
forces).
2. Does the Large army country know of the smaller invading force? How long
would
it take messengers to get the varous Generals to move their forces to react.
How far
apart are the armies. How quick can they move?
In a war, 'Fog of War' is a crucial element. Look at the effort made to
mislead the
Germans about the Normandy Landing place, or Saddam about the Allid Forces
point of attacks.

Of course, an invading army has many problems- supply? Foraging? The
harrassment
may be enough to stop scouts getting out and seeing the very big enemy force
ahead and the three that are approaching from behind!

Mechanics
=======
Has teh invading force sent out scouts? Has the reacting force? Has the
reacting force
enough troops in place to slow down the movement or can they fall back (like
the Russians
in WW2 when the Germans invaded or the Allies in the Ardennes battle when
the Germans attacked)
to a place where they can halt the motion of the invading force.

Movement and Morale
-----------------------
Work out a morale figure for the invading army as a whole. Recalculate it
each day based
on food availability, distance covered, fatigue level and casualties
sustained. 100% is total Elan- under 30%
is probably on the verge of deserters running away.

To do calculations like this isn't easy - its approcimate at best-but try
this

Food availability : plenty- is 100%, half rations is 75%, occasional hunger
is 50%, constant hunger is 25%

Distance covered (each day). Work out the maximum they can go. If they make
this each day the value is 100% and scale down to 25% if they don't move at
all.

Start the fatigue factor at 100%.  If they move a full day's distance deduct
10%. When it gets to 50% slow down the distance moved to 5)5 of the maximum
possible. They must rest a day to get fatigue up by
25%.

Multiply the Food availability * Distance covered % * fatigue . Ie 90%*
90%*100% = 81%

Thsi will give a figure between 1% and 100%. This is a morale figure- the
higher the better. If they win any major battles add 25%

Work out a defector rate - with morale levels above 80% say there will be no
defection, while at lower morale values up to 5% of the army will get fed up
and leave.

I know it sounds a bit methodical. You should include dice throws so that
say at 20% morale 1d4% of the army defects.

As each day progresses, the invading player should be informed of the state
of the army and whether he wishes to press on or go back (if at all
possible).  Of course the nearer they get, you could reduce the defection
rate. Its probably safer to try and press on than run away so deep in enemy
territory!

David Bolton

Trevor Wood <burwood@primenet.com> wrote in message
news:i8ltescphpskm8h0pumvqlbbv5mkln6ctl@4ax.com...
> Hello all,
>
> Forgive me if I post off topic or do something wrong.  I'm a newbie to
> this particular newsgroup.  I am not a newbie to PBeM though and have
> both participated and run them over the last five years.  I have run
> into one minor problem though and have come to this fine and wonderful
> group for assistance.
>
> My standard brand of game is good old fashion pencil/paper/dice
> roleplay, and I have GMed that arena for nearly 15 years now.  I am
> currently running an extended campaign that has progressed into its
> second and a half year and my players decided that they all wanted to
> split up and do their own thing.  I allowed it to happen so I could
> take a break for a time.  My mistake.  The online work I've been
> putting in is just as extensive as what I did when we all got
> together.  I didn't expect my regular paper/pencil/dice campaign to
> turn into a PBeM, but it has, and it has  turned out much better than
> I expected.  Now, after my longwindedness, to the heart of the matter.
>
> One player of mine has amassed a significant sized army (10,000 est.)
> and is marching it northward in a nation controlled by a much larger
> army (250,000 est. total).  Of course the opposing army is spread out
> into many smaller groups that will stand against the much smaller
> rebellion army.  If the rebellion army can drive through the
> resistance though and make it to a northern area that is some six
> weeks march to the north, under constant harassment, they will be able
> to gain the backing of a much larger army.  Not having been a big
> wargammer (participating in tabletop usually only at CONs), not having
> any good rulebooks handy (other than D&D Battlesystem - ugh!), and
> doing it via email has kinda got me stumped.  I don't really want to
> just say, 'your army is defeated, you are captured, tried for treason,
> and hung and quartered' or 'you make it to the north gaining their
> backing and defeat the evil army'.  I'd like to actually give the
> player a chance to battle the odds and to play this out with
> mechanics, tactics, and luck.  I've downloaded the rules for Atlantis
> 4.0 (haven't snagged the binaries yet), but it looks like a bit of
> overkill for what I'm looking for.  I've already made the character
> start tracking and organizing supplies, the encampments, and marching
> results.
>
> Anyone have any comments or suggestions on how I could resolve this
> and still play it out with some sort of mechanics and strategy backing
> it?  I've never participated in a wargame PBeM, so I'm green in that
> arena.  Are there specific wargame mechanics out there designed for
> PBeM?  Is this type of PBeM wargaming going to take longer than I
> anticipate (a month or two at 3 mails a week)?  Is there somewhere on
> the net that I should be looking for this type of information?  Am I
> getting in over my head?  Are there good quick-resolve (or slow if
> thats all there is) rules out there somewhere?  Are the fantastical
> components (magic, aerial combatants, priestly powers) going to hinder
> me from doing this?  What about siege warfare?
>
> The characters have vowed to rendevouz at a Tavern in X amount of time
> for real RP.  I'd like to know if one of them is now a General, or if
> he just doesn't happen to be there when everyone orders drinks.
>
> Thanks in advance for listening to me babble, and any help, it is most
> appreciated.
>
> Trevor Wood
> burwood@primenet.com
>

References

PBeM Help - From Paper/Pencil/Dice to Wargames
Trevor Wood <burwood@primenet.com>
Sat, 08 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000