7/23/2018
I've been thinking about the play test last week. It was a cavalry unit of four stands versus an infantry unit of eight stands with bows. In the game the cavalry tried to flank the archers. With a good roll of say 6" either unit was able to move all its men to the other units flank without any effort. This made for a very choppy set of moves. It looked ugly and made no sense. My movement rules say nothing about formations or who can move where. I'm pretty certain I don't want to force players to form stands into close formations. In WWI units were spread out a lot. But the ease of flanking means I have to do something. The reduction of infantry moves and increase of cavalry moves does not help this secondary issue.
I have thought about allowing non-moving players to make emergency response moves. I've seen this in other games over the years. When charged a unit gets to form square or skirmishers get to fall back to main battle lines. Cavalry units may get to fall back to evade, or units might counter-charge to meet the enemy half way. If an enemy appears on a units flank they get to turn men at the end of the line to face them. It is something that I can put into movement rules easily enough. Maybe make a unit make a morale check to see if they get to make an emergency response. If they roll a 6 they can't do it. If they pass they can move but if they fail they get no loss of morale or men. They just don't get to move. Maybe give them 1" or 2" move?
My other thoughts were about how to roll distance morale checks, especially when charging. If I do them all at once then units that fail checks get to close to contact. Maybe not a good idea. If I do them one at a time, then a unit might fail a check and be stopped before contact. I like this better but how to tell people how to do that? I think people will naturally want to roll all the checks at once, especially if they only roll 1d6 for checks. I need to think about this.
7/20/2018
I did a little test of the rules. A unit of knights versus a unit of archers. I thought that the knights would play around jumping back and forth over the 6" barrier check to see if I could drive off the bowmen using distance morale checks. Unfortunately for the horsemen, 6" is bow range so as soon as they stepped in range they were peppered by arrows. I tried moving the horsemen to the flanks but that didn't help. Movement rates for the infantry were too fast and horse moves too slow. Both sides suffered from the morale effects equally so the knights had no real advantage. Also the movement rules do not specify the direction a stand is pointed at the end of the move so units were HIGHLY maneuverable! The only reason a flank was open was if you were close enough to the enemy that they could swing around to a flank you chose to leave exposed. The knights did destroy one stand of bowmen because in a flank attack I found the defender does not get a save roll. I interpreted that as a kill but I'm not certain that's what the rules say. Shortly after that the knights were driven off and one was run down by pursuing infantry! The other knights escaped.
So I think I need to increase cavalry move to 1d6+2 and maybe decrease infantry move to 1d6-1 and thus artillery to 1d6-2.
7/16/18
The idea of lumping all the distance morale checks continues to make sense to me. I've been mulling it over for two weeks thinking of scenarios and it looks like it will work. I think I will add it into the rules now.
Last night I had an idea about adding another morale level to the game. It would be something like elite status since it would be for elite troops. It would show that some troops (shock troops for instance, guard units etc.) can keep on moving forward even when they falter a little. Other descriptive words might be enthusiastic, determined, committed. I will think about this. It does not have to be in the base game. Might make more sense as a scenario rule.
7/10/18
At the moment I have the rules for distance morale checks for ambushed units set so they make the rolls when the attackers jump out. Both sides do this so they can fall apart before the first shot is fired. This would be to make a check for each distance check: 48", 24", 12", 6", 3", 1" (if that could even happen!) This seems clunky because of all the rolls. I think there might be a better way.
Have they attacker make no morale check at all. They are sneaky bastards who get to feels superior due to their position. Have the defender roll one morale check - 1d6 per distance they've crossed (so if it is a 12" check, they roll 3d6). If they roll a single six they fail the check, drop to won't advance morale and have one stand flee. They then roll a second check - 1d6 for every six rolled in the first check. If they roll another six they fail this check. Their morale drops to retreat a move and then stand and fight and another stand flees.
This will make for much simpler rolls since they only roll twice and it allows ambushers an advantage in morale for being sneaky.
I'll think about this rule for a while before adding it in.
6/5/2018
Here are my rules on specialized SINGLE STAND UNITS for WWI games.
TANKS: Tanks are single stand units. Each one is armed with a machine gun and a cannon. Only certain weapons can attack them. They roll the following dice.
Artillery 2d6 per gun
Machine gun 1d6 per gun
Infantry 3" out 1d6 no matter how many stands shooting
Infantry in melee (1") 1d6 per stand in 1"
Tanks roll to save from hits. If they do not block them, the tank is destroyed. Roll morale if they save and roll distance checks to determine what morale level a tank is at.
Tank Movement: 1d6-1 (If they fail to move two turns in a row then they break down and are abandoned.
ARMORED CARS: Armored cards operate like tanks except that they move 2d6 rather than 1d6-1 but they may only move on roads.
SNIPERS: Snipers are single stand units that move like infantry but attack separately. They roll 1d6 if they are in range. If they score a hit it cannot be saved from.
AIRPLANES: Airplanes are special vehicles that carry a machine gun and a bomb. They move differently from other units and it affects how they attack. They can only be attacked by specific units. The attacker rolls the following dice no matter how many stands they have firing.
Artillery, machine guns, infantry 2d6
Air to Air 4d6
If an airplane is hit it must save from all hits or it is shot down.
Airplane Movement: Planes roll 4d6 to see how far they move. They must move up to that distance in a straight line. They end their turn pointed in any direction they like. They may only shoot at stands they move over or are pointed at.