I hope to play the forthcoming games as the Danish general. I am looking for suggestions as how to run the British opposition using some solo mechanism that makes their decisions for them. I am talking about in a battle not a campaign. I know many of you are solo gamers and or in the Solo Wargames Society. All ideas welcome.
Programmed wargame scenarios has setups and plans specific to the terrain/mission (crossing rivers, holding hills, taking villages, pincers, refused flanks, etc). You can play both, one or neither force. The tables randomize the setup, then if you are playing a force you'd do your setup. Then the actual plan is rolled. With some more battle information I could probably forward a relevant set of tables to you...
ReplyDeleteWorth a look I think, thanks for info.
DeleteAlan Tradgardland
Some options: Have hidden deployment cards that you can shuffle and place for the 'enemy' or get a friend or relative to do it. You can also write down some strategic and tactical options down and do it on separate cards. Randomly draw the cards and move 'enemy'
ReplyDeletetroops as appropriate. Or, again, get someone else to set it up for you or choose a strategy.
More to think about, thanks.
DeleteAlan Tradgardland
That's a big subject! Featherstone wrote a book on it, and I think Stuart Asquith too - I think his little book was probably quite good. 'The Men Who Would Be Kings' has a 'Mr Babbage' solo gaming engine. Or maybe just allow the dice gods to decide - when a decision is needed for the British, roll a dice, maybe with a bit of probability included, i.e. they are in a good defensive position so on a roll of 1 to 4 they stand and volley, 5 or 6 they ( perhaps rashly ) countercharge..? I look forward to seeing the results!
ReplyDeleteI will look out for the books and go and see if I have TMWWBK on the shelf somewhere.
DeleteAlan Tradgardland
There's a lot on solo mechanics, be it for skirmishes, battles or campaigns in, not suprising, Lone Warrior the jounral of the solo wargamers assocation. Four issues (usually 70pages, no adverts, a few photos) a year for $15 - terrific value. I declare an interest as a regular contributor! I'll send you some of the ideas I use.
ReplyDeleteNot to steal Brian's thunder but I believe he's the same Brian who authored this rather helpful article (currently available on our Sample Articles page): https://lonewarriorswa.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/My-Approach-to-Playing-Solo-Battles.pdf
ReplyDeleteI used his methods from the "Plans" and "The devil is in the detail" sections and they worked quite well to provide guidance for controlling the enemy force in the action that followed.
Do check out the other free articles we have up (a new one goes up this Sunday) for ideas: https://lonewarriorswa.com/sample-articles
Although I haven't used it myself, "Adjutant Introuvable 1.1" (available on Wargame Vault) provides rules for controlling the enemy via "AI" and I have heard good things about it. The Asquith and Featherstone books are more like idea generators than comprehensive rules but most definitely full of inspiration (fwiw, I much prefer Asquith's book).
As a rule, I find that solo wargames where you have one side as your own that you are rooting for and the enemy is controlled by "AI" are a little easier to play when the enemy is defending or has some otherwise limited tactical choice.
Of course, controlling both sides is always an option. You can give the British some advantages or the Danish some disadvantages to make it more of a challenge for yourself. I find a system like that used in "Chronicles of Blood - Solo War Game" (free on Wargame Vault) for "The Enemy Turn" and "Your Turn" to work well enough. It's basically a variant of chance cards (I believe Featherstone and Asquith both give ideas for them).
You could also use something like Mythic: Game Master Emulator or a variant of the Matrix argument to decide between options for the enemy (many years ago there was an example online of doing just this for a miniatures game, but I have not been able to find it in a long time).
The Two Hour Wargames systems are designed with solo wargaming in mind and even if the games themselves don't appeal to you directly (I do recommend reading the play through document or finding some videos - they can be hard to grok just by reading), you can glean quite a bit of inspiration from their reaction mechanisms. They have two free sets for download: https://www.twohourwargames.com/free.html
And speaking of reaction tests, and a final shameless plug for Lone Warrior, the sample article, The Spanish Ulcer includes a reaction test mechanism that may be useful in your chosen period.
Sorry for the ramble and all of the Lone Warrior plugs!
Oops I misspoke. The next article goes up the first Sunday in November.
DeleteI am thinking of joining…
DeleteAlan Tradgardland
John Y: you're welcome to my thunder. Just don't try for the lightning :) Glad you found the ideas of some interest and thanks - I'd forgotten the article was now among the samples.
ReplyDeleteI second Daveb on Charles S. Grant's Programmed Wargames Scenarios - though it's difficult to obtain.
ReplyDeleteThere was a 2nd edition of Grant's book published about a year ago. Almost identical to the 1st edition so basically it's just been republished.
ReplyDeleteI will look out for CSG on Amazon etc…
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
Should have said that it was published by Caliver Books (the first edition by WRG).
ReplyDeleteWhat I usually do for solo games is - for each turn - specify 2 or 3 options about what to do and then assign a probability to each. The options are mostly the bigger decisions, the micro-movement of units usually is trivial.
ReplyDelete