Tuesday, 2 June 2020

Snakes and Ladders campaign and WW2 campaign game

Most of this weekend's hobby time was spent on cutting out some French Dragoons for my War of the Spanish Succession project, and preparing the snakes and ladders campaign. I am hoping this evening to play the next WW2 Western Desert campaign game. It should be an interesting game with both sides having limited units available due to air interdiction and wear and tear.

Tabletop with objectives shown.
The NZ infantry division was suffering from the effects of both air interdiction and wear and tear. In this action they field the following units:

  • 2 x infantry units (one in carriers)
  • 1 x 6 pounder AT gun
  • 3 x Tank units (2 Matilda and 1 Valentine tank)
  • 1 x Artillery unit

Elements of the 21st Panzer while also impacted by Allied interdiction have fared better with less wear and tear. Their field workshops keeping more equipment running. They enter the engagement with:

  • 1 x armoured infantry
  • 3 x Pz III units
  • 1 x 88mm gun
  • 1 x Wespe
  • 1 x armoured car unit
  • 1 x M/C unit
  • 1 x Stug

Having only a few units on the tabletop should make for an open and quick game.

Axis forces arrive
Allied forces in defensive positions
A view from the Allied held centre hills
Moving on to the abstract "snakes and ladders" campaign mentioned in the last post. The plan is to use it for a short Jacobite campaign with my paper armies. I have been able to draft up on one page the campaign board. Armies begin on the start square and roll a D6 dice moving forward the number of dice pips shown.

Armies must stop when moving on to a battle square, regardless of the number of unused pips. Then battles are fought on the tabletop and if won the army can advance along the green arrow. Else remain in place until their next roll or the dice.

When landing on fortune squares an army must follow their good (blue) or bad (red) fortune arrows.

Snakes and Ladder Campaign
If you want a closer look I hope this link to the campaign board works.

Having completed drafting the campaign board. I was thinking I could duplicate the board and change the fortune descriptions to be specific to the armies involved in a campaign with each army moving on their own board. Additionally, this would allow for fortune to be bias, good or bad, depending upon the campaign I involved.
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28 comments:

  1. arthur18152 June 2020 at 21:20

    I think your S&L Campaign board is a brilliant idea! Thanks very much for publishing it. The system could probably be adapted quite easily to other periods, and I might try to adapt it for siege warfare of that era, using Vauban's estimates of the number of days to allow for each stage of a formal siege.

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    1. Peter3 June 2020 at 07:18

      Adapting it to a siege game with each row representing a week or month could work very well. Thanks.

      Delete
  2. Kaptain Kobold2 June 2020 at 22:44

    That campaign track would work fine for an ECW game as well. Really simple and clever idea. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Peter3 June 2020 at 07:23

      Yes, it could certainly work with ECW.

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    2. Kaptain Kobold3 June 2020 at 09:08

      Is the final battle always the end of the campaign? So the one reward for getting to the end first is a chance to win the final action with a one unit advantage?

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    3. Peter3 June 2020 at 16:57

      Yes, the end battle is it. Are you thinking one unit is an insufficient advantage? One option is for each row the opposition is behind the opposition are down by one unit.

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    4. Kaptain Kobold3 June 2020 at 17:56

      I suppose the one unit advantage would depend on the rules, but maybe a one unit advantage to start, and then for each row you could(randomly) add one unit, upgrade an existing unit or downgrade an enemy unit.

      It would keep a losing side engaged more; at the moment if I end up back near the start it doesn't matter if the opponent is at the last space, because the penalty is the same - one unit. Winning battles when you're behind becomes way of reducing your disadvantage in the final game.

      Delete
    5. Peter3 June 2020 at 18:27

      You have got me thinking about the last game and what influences the forces involved (and possible terrain setup). Thanks.

      Delete
  3. Maudlin Jack Tar2 June 2020 at 23:49

    I like your Campaign Snakes & Ladders board Peter and look forward to seeing it in action.

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    1. Peter3 June 2020 at 07:24

      Thanks. I am looking forward to giving it a go.

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  4. Robert (Bob) Cordery3 June 2020 at 01:20

    I’ve experimented with a ‘snakes and ladders’ campaign system, but in the end, I opted for something different.

    I’ll be interested to see how yours works, as it seems to be generic enough to be useable for a variety of historical periods.

    All the best,

    Bob

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    1. Peter3 June 2020 at 07:35

      Thanks Bob. I am looking forward to seeing how the campaign progresses. I will need to rework the fortune squares descriptions for a Jacobite Rebellion narrative.

      Delete
  5. A J3 June 2020 at 05:25

    I look forward to the next battle report, although I think the Kiwis are going to have a tough time of it. The link works fine.

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    1. Peter3 June 2020 at 07:36

      The Kiwis are out numbered and against a very mobile force. Not a promising situation to be in.

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  6. Jonathan Freitag3 June 2020 at 09:50

    Looking forward to your Western Desert battle.

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    1. Peter3 June 2020 at 17:02

      A few units and wide open spaces on the tabletop. Should be fun.

      Delete
  7. Archduke Piccolo3 June 2020 at 11:17

    A fine concept for a mini campaign.

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    1. Peter3 June 2020 at 17:03

      Thank you. I am looking forward to see how it plays out.

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  8. Just Jack3 June 2020 at 12:34

    Looking forward to the fight, and very different this one, almost no infantry. Let the tanks roll!

    V/R,
    Jack

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    1. Peter3 June 2020 at 17:04

      A very different game to some recent ones. Indeed let the tanks roll.

      Delete
  9. Dave5 June 2020 at 13:07

    The S&L campaign looks interesting. Initially I was thinking only one army was on the ladder. Did you give this one army idea any thought? Have an idea on this but don't want to go down a rabbit hole if it's already been explored.

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    1. Peter6 June 2020 at 09:47

      When I started I originally thought of one army on the ladder, then later though it could work with two. I may create two S&L boards with identical number of squares, but with different fortunes (snakes and ladders) to reflect the individual army's trials and tribulations. Then run them in parallel.

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  10. Chris Kemp8 June 2020 at 06:31

    If it helps, the Allies tried to use reverse slope positions in defence with only advance posts on the forward slopes, and they did their best to make positions mutually supporting. You probably know all that already though. good to see air interdiction and mechanical breakdowns coming in to the game. :-)

    Regards, Chris.

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    1. Peter9 June 2020 at 07:14

      The mechanical breakdowns certainly effected the Allies badly in this game. In the second game the Allies certainly made better use of the terrain. I have a few sand dune terrain which I keep forgetting to use when setting up the tabletop for some surprise attacks.

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  11. Stephen25 July 2022 at 23:38

    Good morning
    I'm trying to get my head around this format, and I'm wondering about the placement of the colored arrows. Are they arbitrary?
    Bases on the box text?
    Which came first, the red or blue arrow, or the Fortune events?
    How did you determine the length of the green arrows?

    Thanks!

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  12. Peter26 July 2022 at 08:21

    Hi Stephen, when it came to the placement of arrows I looked online at various young kids versions of the snakes and ladders game to get an ideas of a reasonable balance on the blue and red arrows.
    Not sure what is meant to "bases on the box text", but I worked out all arrows first, then added suitable text.
    I decided on the red and blue arrows first, then added in the green arrows last.
    The green arrows (when an army advances after a victory) are arbitrary but had to land on a square where the army did not benefit or be disadvantaged.
    I hope this helps with some of your questions. Regards, Peter

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  13. Stephen26 July 2022 at 09:34

    Awesome, thank you.
    I made a typo, but you answered my question,
    "Not sure what is meant to "bases on the box text", but I worked out all arrows first, then added suitable text.
    I decided on the red and blue arrows first, then added in the green arrows last."

    'Bases' should have been "based".
    I was most curious about whether the locations of text of the Fortune events informed the arrows or vice-versa.
    Thanks for taking the time.

    ReplyDelete

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