The Raptor Presents: The Battle of Morristown

The Rogersville Dragoons on the attack!

 Yesterday we saw one man's take on The Battle of Morristown.  Let's look at another way to run the same fight.  this time we turn our attention to The Raptor's Bunker. Here's a little preview, but I wanted to draw your attention to something that is important in campaign games: unit tracking.

With the Knoxvillians being led by a very high grade commander, they had the opportunity to start in the Early Morning Day Segment (6AM to 8AM), and they took it! 

When the Rogersville Dragoons arrived at the crossroads and sent word back of how close the enemy was, the Kingsportian commander scrambled a new plan...

Lord knows I've taken short cuts on this issue myself.  When it comes to your standard miniature wargame fight, one regiment of foot is pretty much the same as any other regiment of foot.  But what happens when you have units that have to live to fight tomorrow?  Now the number of casualties taken takes on an even greater role in the proceedings.  Maybe not so much for the first battle, but in subsequent battles, knowing which unit is fresh and which has been badly battered can have a significant impact on deployment and use.  

Even if your tabletop rules don't distinguish between fresh and battered, the number of men still standing in a unit can act as a proxy-hit point system.  This leads to some very interesting questions.  For the sake of example, let us assume that the player has two regiments of line infantry, one enters the battle with 88% of its men effective, the other with 57%.  One unit will be assigned to the center, where they are guaranteed to see some action.  The other will be held in reserve and unlikely to fight.

Given that the battle rules are binary when it comes to effectiveness, it wouldn't matter in a one-off fight.  But now that we care about tomorrow, sending the 57th into action first risks them suffering enough casualties to fall below the 50% level at which they retire from the campaign as spent.  Do you sacrifice that regiment for the campaign, all for the sake of this one fight?  Or do you order the 88th into that role, knowing that in the next fight you are likely to have TWO fragile units to consider?  These are the variables that real generals have to juggle every day, and that tabletop generals frequently shy away from.

This stuff matters, and God Bless the Raptor for taking the time to track such details.  It makes for a fuller and richer experience.