[This is a long post with all the math broken down in detail]
As always, nothing is final and “may change without notice”. This tutorial may look a bit heavy, but it’s like a full scenario in Bloody Mohawk or the whole Vae Victis game Batailles pour le Canada. I also realized, it’s not really that far away from the “July 8th” scenario I have in my to do list. The idea for this is obviously to demonstrate how to perform a major assault against an entrenched enemy.
Assaults: Quick summary
Normally, an attack is a single hex action against another hex. There are limited number of assaults available that allow two adjacent stacks to attack. A combat is quite typical for a hex and counter game: Add up the strength points on both sides, throw in some modifiers when needed, and calculate the odds. Then you’ll have die roll modifiers (DRMs) that will adjust the roll. Look up a table and see what happens!
In the assault, a few more things come into play: you must have a stack of regulars with a regular infantry leader who must pass the leader roll (to see if he was able to coordinate the assault). With the same odds, both attacking stacks roll their own die thus there is a bit more random in play.
Assaults: The details
In this tutorial, the British army makes two head-on assaults against a well-fortified French line – just like on July 8th, 1758! The British had committed to two assaults at the start of the day. They have a powerful composite grenadier battalion (supported by the 46th Regiment), the famous 42nd Highlander Regiment – the single most powerful unit in the game – and many other troops. Provincials, light infantry and rangers are thrown in to add more complexity and demonstrate more game features in the tutorial. On the Heights of Carillon, we have three regular French regiments and one small group of Canadian militia, lead by the military leader of New France, Marquis de Montcalm. I actually placed him behind the lines and soon realized it wasn’t a good idea!
As mentioned above, an assault is something one has to commit to already at the start of the day during the maintenance segment. How many times a side can assault depends on a few of factors: morale and the army leader’s ability. In the tutorial, there are two assaults, and only for the British (ignore the French below).
I have set up skirmishers between both armies to protect the main forces. There are two maxed out British assault forces (each assault will have two stacks of 10 strength points) with some regiments set as “2nd wave” to make an additional effort, if needed. And even if they are not needed, they will come in anyway!
Game board gets a little cluttered as more and more special movement modes are used. My protos don’t even have a marker for the assault mode. This is the cost of trying to replicate 18th century tactics, but also forces the player to plan ahead and set up the troops for the main effort.
(There is one “error” in my setup that I only noticed later – one of the units is too far away)
There are multiple types of troops going forward. Light infantry provides cover by skirmishing with the enemy. Regular infantry with the required regular infantry leader will lead both assaults. As each hex can hold max. 10 strength points (SPs), I have added smaller units to top up each assault.
The first move is made by Bradstreet’s Battoemen to push away the Canadians lurking inside the abatis, who, in the tutorial, are not in the mood to engage the whole approaching British army. Instead, they choose to make a “skirmish retreat” and pull back to the main line. This is a reaction a unit in skirmish mode can perform and basically refers to light infantry patrolling the woods and … delaying and skirmishing with the enemy.
Without the skirmishers leading the way, Canadians could ambush the forward elements. Also, the Battoemen will stay a few hexes away from the French as they do not want to engage the main line.
Through the thick forests more and more green, brown and red coats appear as the last Canadians climb over the log wall.
Having the troops in position, we have to perform leader rolls for both British assault leaders – if the roll fails, there is no cohesive assault but each of the two stacks has to attack individually. Howe’s rating is 8 so the player has to get an eight or less to pass (90% chance of success!). Normally you want to roll high, but in this case, rolling low is just simple and straightforward.
No issues here, both rolls were very low and thus each leader passed the check easily.
Assault #1 (Grenadiers, 42nd and 46th Regiments)
We’ll play through one engagement at a time. The right-wing assault with two stacks comprises of (1 SP is ~100 men):
- Colonel Frederick Haldimand, the right assault leader with a rating of 6 and a +1 leader bonus DRM.
- Stack 1
- Composite grenadier battalion with 6 SP. They also provide +2 unit bonus DRM.
- 46th Regiment with 4 SP. No unit bonus.
- Stack 2
- 42nd Regiment (Highlanders) with 9 SP and +1 DRM unit bonus.
- Putnam’s Connecticut Ranger company with 1 SP (and +1 DRM, which plays no role here*). It is an irregular infantry unit (green bar) thus its SPs are halved in assaults, but as 1 / 2 = 0,5 and rounded up comes back to 1, it’s worth 1 SP here.
* If a unit with +1 DRM bonus is less than half of the stack’s total SP, it won’t contribute the DRM. A unit with +2 will always provide at least +1 DRM, and if its size is half or more of the attacking stack’s size, it will contribute +2 DRM to combat.
Terrain is against the British army. Attacking uphill is -1 DRM and a two-level fortification (redoubt) is two columns shifts left. Attacking out of abatis is another -2 DRM against the attacker.
In defense, we have the 4 SP Languedoc Regiment backed by Montcalm (+1 DRM).
In total, there are 20 SP attacking against 4 SP – that is 5:1 odds. The redoubt shifts the odds two columns left to a final 3:1. In assault, each stack is resolved individually using the same adjusted odds (3:1) and their own attacking stack vs. defending stack DRM modifiers. The stack with the assault leader decides the overall outcome and the second attacking stack just rolls for the effect on the attacker (defender is ignored in the 2nd die roll). It’s really quite simple.
The British stack #1 DRMs are as follows:
+2 DRM from the grenadiers
+1 DRM from Haldimand
-2 DRM attacking out of abatis
-1 DRM attacking uphill
-1 DRM from Montcalm
= total of -1 DRM
I am not fully happy with my current infantry combat table and offline I am working on an improved one with some adjustments to the whole process. For now, I will just use the current table.
The attacker rolls one 10-sided die: it’s a solid “6”. With one DRM against reduces it to “5”, the British manage to breach the French line and push Languedoc back three hexes. Each side suffers one step loss and for the British, it has to be allocated to the grenadiers as it contributed the highest DRM for the attack. A step loss in this case is 1 SP (it depends on the unit size whether the step loss 1 or 2 Strength Points).
The second attacking stack must also roll a die, but the impact on the defender is ignored. Now it was such a low roll that they suffer one step loss with disruption forcing a retreat (no effect on the first stack). The large 42nd has to take the step loss losing 2 SP (one step loss for a large unit is 2 SP). Fortunately, the 42nd can never disrupt – as the only unit in the game – and only the ranger company is disrupted, although both have to retreat three hexes.
Overall, it was still a British victory and the first stack advances in to the French entrenchments. As the assault was a success, the British side gains 2 mitale points. The second attacking stack failed and had to retreat.
This isn’t over yet, but we’ll come back to it shortly.
Assault #2 (44th Regiment, Picquets, and Provincials)
- Brigadier General Lord Howe, “the best soldier in the British Army”, +2 DRM
- Stack 1
- 44th Regiment, 8 SP
- a 2 SP picquet i.e. detachment, from 1st Battalion 60th Regiment (Royal Americans)
- Stack 2
- 3rd Connecticut Regiment, 5 SP
- 4th Connecticut Regiment, 5 SP
After resolving the immediate effect of the first assault, let’s deal with the second one. The skirmishing Canadians beefed up the defense significantly and it’ll be a rough ride for Howe’s group.
The first stack has 10 SP of British regulars with Howe (+2) leading them. The French have 4 + 2 SP on the hex with the adjacent La Sarre regiment. As it is not under attack, it provides the defenders an additional 2 SP (50% of 4 SP). The second British stack contains two Provincial regiments of 5 SP each, but they (irregulars) are halved in assaults or when going against fortifications. Raw odds will be 10 + 5 against 4 + 2 + 2 for a total of only 3:2! Add two column shifts left from the level 2 redoubt and the final odds are on the 2:3 column!! Irregular infantry really weren’t the Stormtroopers of the British army…
Howe provides the only positive DRM and -1 comes from attacking uphill, -2 from abatis and -1 from Montcalm. That’s a net -2 DRM. Let’s see how it goes!
Well, they got bloodied all right: a semi-low roll with DRMs against inflicts two step losses with disruption and a leader hit roll. Each unit takes a step loss on the first stack for a total cost of 3 SP. The leader hit roll was a hit and the British lost Howe in the bloodshed. I am not even keeping track of the Morale hits, but it’s starting to look like General Abercromby will lose his heart very soon.
The second stack performs its own part of the assault using the 3:2 odds but with a lot of DRMs against them: Each provincial brings -1 (-2 together), uphill -1, abatis -2, and finally Montcalm -1. That’s a brutal -6 DRM! The best possible roll would give just a single step loss, but that’s not what happened here… It actually was a “0” thus I am looking at the bottom of the table… Two step losses (so, one each), disruption and a morale loss.
There are no radios or pidgeons here thus I have decided that reserves can’t just pick a perfect moment to rush in, but all combat resulting from the movement segment must be fully resolved before the 2nd wave can move.
We still have those ~900 British regulars in the French fieldworks making trouble. Well, they are forced to continue attacking as long as they are adjacent to the enemy.
(Some prototype counters are misaligned as seen below)
Now it is starting to get interesting. The remaining 9 British SPs are up against 4 + 2 + 2 French SP and thus we are looking at 1:1 odds. There are no column shifts as the redoubt was breached and it isn’t protecting the French anymore.
Checking the DRMs, the British have +3 for them and -1 against but it is still a tough fight because equal odds strongly favor the defender (this may change but it will need some adjustments in a few places first). Rolling low continued and the British were pushed back with a step loss. The void was filled in by our Canadians forming again an unbroken defensive line.
2nd wave
It’s not over yet as the British reserves were ordered forward (it’s a tutorial!). Climbing over their dead and wounded, the 2nd wave now tries to storm the line.
(The 2nd wave markers are moved out of the way to reveal the actual units underneath)
One of the 2nd wave attacking units is irregular infantry, and the other regular – although light infantry. When irregulars attack a fortified position, their SP is halved (it’s not their forte). The Massachusetts regiment is thus only 5 effective SP against 2 SP Canadians and with two column shifts (redoubt), it’s 1:1 odds. Now add -1 for uphill, another -1 from Montcalm, and -2 for abatis, for -4 total DRM. Roll was “4”, reduce by 4 and it becomes a “0” with the modifiers. The provincials obviously lose, take a step loss, retreat 3 hexes, become disrupted, take a morale hit, and finally we ignore the leader hit check because there was no leader unit present (a separate counter). “Partridge” printed on the counter is not a leader unit but exists just for historical purposes and has no effect in the game.
Checking the 60/4 Regiment’s attack on the British left, it looks miserable. Their 8 SP go against 4 + 2 (half of La Sarre provides defensive support, as it is not under attack). Starting with 8:6, i.e., 1:1 odds, they have little chance of success. Redoubt drops the odds to the lowest column and with the -4 DRM the outlook is rather bad.
Eeek! The roll was a “1” – a futile attempt with three step losses and everything else on top. The unit loses half of its strength (8 to 6 to 5 to 4 SP – these are the printed strength points) and is getting close to being destroyed.
The final result is something like the image below (it took several sessions to get all the pictures taken so a thing or two may be off) – the British assault was repulsed just like in the real battle.
Wait! What about that lonely Montcalm, you might ask? I misplaced him by leaving alone on a hex, but he was all along protected by friendly ZoC. The Brits could not have moved there, because they cannot attack just a leader unit and were forced to go against the “tip” of the defensive line where the French troops were.
