Tuesday 18 June 2019

Messing around with card activation

While I have been snipping away paper soldiers, on the tabletop I have been playing some WW2 One Hour Wargames, in particular scenario 14  (static defence) to test out a card activation mechanism and using two bases for units.

The beginning of a game
Starting with the multi-base units, each stand effectively representing a section of a unit. The rule modifications are:

  • Bases must remain within 3" of each other
  • Units can shoot as long as one base is within range
  • Bases have a 45 degree shooting arc, and bases can face different directions to increase their coverage
  • Tank bases have a 180 degree shooting arc
  • Providing one base is in cover the unit is considered to be in cover
  • After 7 hits one base is removed and all subsequence shooting incurs a -1 penalty
Taking this approach degrades the ability of units after 7 hits, both in terms of shooting and reduces their ability to hold a frontage. A unit is fully eliminated after 14 hits rather than the 15 in the original rules, sufficiently close enough not to worry about modifying the shooting rules. Units can be tracked using 1 dice rather than 1-3 dice for 15 hits.

Cards get assigned to units
The activation rule modifications are:
  • A card is allocated to each unit at the start of a turn
  • Players then activate their units in card order King to Aces, two identical value cards are then ordered by Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs.
  • An activated unit can move or shoot as per rules
  • When a unit shoots at a target in the open which has not yet activated, the target can forgo their activation and take evasive action. This can be a vehicle retiring out of range or Infantry hitting the dirt. This reduces the number of hit taken by half. There are no penalties to taking evasive actions, other than losing their activation opportunity. Units which have already activated may not take evasive action.
  • Once all units have activated (or taken evasive actions) allocate cards again, reshuffle if necessary.
As a solo wargamer the card activation helps to introduce a level of unpredictability in the game. So far I have played the scenario a couple of times using the activation rules and they have created more interest for me. As I try to coordinate attacks which can be delayed due to the card order or opting to have attacks stall as units hit the dirt to minimise hits.

One optional rule I am considering is allowing a player to swap two cards between units.

One downside of the cards is they can look quite messy on the tabletop.



18 comments:

  1. Some great ideas here. I've become an advocate of card activation in last few years.
    Perhaps better commanders would be able to 'reposition' cards after they are dealt - lending flexibility to the card draw.
    So, commanders would have a command rating based on the number of cards they can change between units per turn.

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    1. The use of cards certainly adds another dimension. Thank you for the ideas. The repositioning of cards is the probably the way to go with only six units per side with OHW.

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  2. I like the notion of Opportunity Activation/Reaction. Since To the Strongest! uses card activation, perhaps, it offers ideas for refining your activation system? In TtS!, leaders are able to "redraw" a card when needed. Card activation is a good mechanism for solo play since it removes some decisions from the player.

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    1. I will have to try the re-draw option in a future game. Thanks.

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  3. Hi Peter. On Cards...the only Scenarios I've played with 'Cards' was for 1/72nd ACW - playing 'On To Richmond' Rules. The 'Cards' were shuffled for each Brigade - labelled: "Confederate 1st Bgd" etc...it allowed for random movement of each Brigade - different outcomes from Turn to Turn as each Brigade took it's full turn...about six Brigades per side was the norm. Cheers. KEV.

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    1. Hi Kev, thanks for the idea. Cheers, Peter

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  4. I’ve been playing a football (American) game that uses cards for activation that I’ve considered adapting for wargame use.
    In TechnoBowl all players are numbered 30-79.
    Players (coaches) make a play with 5 cards and put those cards in a separate deck in the order that the coach wishes to use them.
    After the play starts both players flip their top card from the play deck. Higher numbers go first.
    I think this could work with activation, but TechnoBowl also uses the player (piece) to represent skills. Lower number players are slower and stronger while higher number players are faster and more agile. It is very convenient to just look at a player and know their strengths/weaknesses, but I’m not sure how well it would translate to military units.

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    1. Thanks for another activation approach. It might work with a skirmish game where instead of players there are combatants.

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  5. I experimented with Piquet for a while as I was interested in the mechanics of it all. I do like card activation, but I might make smaller cards.

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    1. Yes, I am going to be on the lookout for some smaller cards.

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  6. "A card is allocated to each unit at the start of the turn." Randomly (dealt), or assigned (intentionally, knowing their values and thus likely order of activation)? With TTS, Piquet, and Field of Battle being all in my standard repertoire, card activation systems are well liked here!

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    1. Yes, randomly dealt. I was not clear on that. Thanks.

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  7. For my To the Strongest games I use packs of mini-playing cards - readily available on eBay and take up a lot less room so are less intrusive.

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  8. I always love when cards are used in a game. Paper Tigers uses an interesting method of assigning a difficulty to the value on the card (http://www.papertigerarmaments.com/PTArules.html). Also, many years ago, Bob Cordery had posted about using playing card tiles instead of cards but in this post he shares a print-your-own version - https://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/2013/01/diy-playing-card-tiles.html These look like they'd be less obtrusive.

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  9. A nice suggestion re: maybe letting Skilled leaders swap 2 cards...maybe thee for exceptional commanders.

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    1. I need to try these options out. Thanks.

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