Words and pictures by Conrad Kinch

Battlefield walking is a hobby of mine that I haven’t indulged as much as I would like. I’ve walked most of the Hundred Days campaign sites and done a few smaller English battles, but the big battlefield that’s near me is the Boyne. I’ve written about the Boyne and wargamed it several times, but I had the chance to go out to the field and spend the day really going over the ground with a good friend who is a professional soldier.

 

THE DILEMMA

Battle is in some ways an epistemological problem. A problem of knowing. It’s a logistical problem, a moral problem and a physical problem as well, of course, and eventually one must get down to the actual killing. But to act at all, you must know things. The side that knows and understands the nature of the conflict that it is in best will prevail over its opponent.

The nature of the ground will always dictate the nature of the engagement in land warfare. Technology can help and men can endure, but ultimately we cannot abolish geography. The Russian army learned in its first few days of operations in Ukraine that attacking during the bezdorizhzhia (a Ukrainian word meaning ‘the time of roadlessness’; also known as the Rasputitsa in Russian) when rain and melting snow made off road travel very difficult was a serious error. This mistake condemned their armour columns to operating only on metalled roads which made their movement more predictable.

 

THE BOYNE

With that perspective in mind, what made our visit to the Boyne very interesting was that the nature of the battle was dictated by the ground, but also by the combatants limited understanding of that ground.

Three examples of this from the Boyne battlefield include:

Firstly, King James’ army retreated to the Boyne river and took up a defensive position there. James II described it as an “...an indifferent good position..”. This was mainly because – after taking up position – he and his advisors realised that the river was lower and more fordable than they had believed.

Secondly, when Meinhardt Schomberg’s flanking force moved around the main body of the Jacobite army in an attempt to outflank it, they ran into a bog coupled with a deep ravine. This made it impossible for them to get around behind the Jacobite army and trap them in the bend of the river.

This was excusable, perhaps, for the Williamites, who were attacking and therefore had less time to scout the ground, but it also proved fatal to the Jacobite cause. A regiment of dragoons had been stationed there to protect the position and, when they reported that they were under attack, James II dispatched over half his army – including the cream of his French infantry – to hold it and went with them. Having realised that he was confronted by a smaller force, he ordered an attack only to discover that it couldn’t be done due to the nature of the terrain. This was surprising given that his forces had the time to both scout the ground in advance and counted amongst their number several local landowners who would have known it intimately.

Lastly, after the crushing of the Jacobite right, Lord Tyrconnel quite wisely decided to save what part of the army he could. Falling back on the graveyard at Donore, he gathered together a few regiments of horse, some dragoons and the remnants of his infantry and fought it out. The Williamite cavalry who charged in – hoping to complete the slaughter – ran straight into the walls and hedgerows that criss crossed that part of the battlefield. These were lined by the remnants of the Jacobite army who shot them down and gave them a bloody nose.

 

THE PLAY IS THE THING

So, that’s all very well Conrad, but what has this to do with a wargame?

Well it got me thinking that terrain in a wargame is very much a known quantity. You know – based on the rules you’re playing – that hills, woods, etc work in a particular way. You might have a chat with your opponent before the game to determine by mutual agreement how particular features will be treated, but – once you’ve done that – you know exactly what’s on the board and how it will effect your troops.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about reconnaissance and how it is treated in wargames (see Send Three & Fourpence: Having a Shufti Parts One & Two in issues 471 and 472) and how it might be dealt with better. In an ideal world, we’d be playing back to back games with hidden movement and umpires and all that flapdoodle. Unfortunately, for most of us, that isn’t really an option. I don’t get to play wargames near as often as I would like and most of my wargaming is solo, so I needed a solution that was low impact; that didn’t add a huge amount of administration of the game; and that didn’t gobble up too much of our all too valuable wargaming time, while still adding something to the experience. I’ve used hidden terrain before in double blind umpired games: this represents an attempt to make that system work for a standard two player game, though it would suit a solo player too.

It comes with the following caveats:

• This does inject a certain amount of randomness into the game because there are more unknowns than in a standard game. It probably isn’t suitable for serious competition play and are designed to add spice to casual pick up games.
• This would probably be a bad fit of straight historical scenarios. If you’re going to play Culloden for example, the terrain is – to an extent – a known quantity. If you change that, you’re probably not playing Culloden anymore.
• I’ve done similar things in games before, when playing as an umpire, but I haven’t used this particular system (i.e. generating terrain using cards) in non-solo games.
• I’ve used cards for this for a couple of reasons. Firstly, despite the fact that they need to be prepared in advance, they are instantly readable in a way that having to roll on a chart isn’t and that saves time at the gaming table. Secondly, the card drawn can be placed under the terrain feature and is therefore a quick and easy way of recording the state of the terrain in a way that is immediately accessible to both players. Lastly, a player can count what cards have come up and thereby hazard a guess as to which cards are more likely to come up. I like this as it introduces an element of player skill and represents – in my mind – the General trying to read the ground. However, if this bothers you, simply draw a card, note the result on a piece of paper and slip it under the terrain feature and reshuffle the deck after every draw.

I used a set of standard playing cards and wrote on some sticky labels to make my deck of cards as it was cheap, quick and took about half an hour.

RULES

These rules assume a 20th century (Second World War era) battle and that the game features between 5-7 units and a table of approximately 6 x 4 with between 8-10 terrain features on it or possibly more. I’ve messed around with them a bit using Memoir ‘44, but I think they’d be a good fit for Rapid Fire or similar brigade level games. I’ve aimed the examples below at the European Theatre and I’ve tried to keep them quite generic so that they can suit more types of games, but there’s no reason the idea couldn’t be adapted to other periods/theatres.

 

PRE-GAME SCOUTING

Each player begins the game with three Scouting Points. Each player gains an additional point for the following:

 

• Player is defending.
• Player has more infantry scout units (recce, Razvedcheki, pathfinders, etc) than the enemy.
• Player has air superiority (decide on a theatre-by-theatre basis)
• Player has more armoured cars (or other motorised scout units) than the enemy.
• Player has more armour units than the enemy.
• Player has local militia, homeguard or partisan units in his army.

 

Adjust this up or down depending on the circumstances. For example, if your scenario involves a German paratrooper assaults against some Belgian fortress troops, I would suggest giving the Belgians additional points as they will have spent years garrisoned in that location. Likewise, American troops in 1945 facing local Volksturm would face foes who knew their ground even if they had few other resources.

Prior to deployment, but after the board is set up, the player with the larger number of Scouting Points can select a feature to scout. Each point allows the player to scout one terrain feature, draw the appropriate card and put it under the terrain feature. Once they have completed their scouting, the second player may then scout.

Each player must spend at least half of their points scouting terrain in their deployment area and may not spend any on terrain features in their opponents deployment area. However there’s one exception!

 

• Scouting Exception: If the player has air superiority, they may spend up to two points on terrain features in their opponents deployment area.

 

If a player scouts a terrain feature that has already been scouted by their opponent, they simply take the card from underneath the terrain feature and may read it.

Once the game begins, terrain is scouted once a unit moves into it.

TERRAIN: A TURN OF THE CARD

Let’s split these up:

 

WOODS

• Ace: Young growth. There area large number of small trees, with very little undergrowth. Block line of sight and offers concealment. Difficult ground for armour and vehicles. Light cover from fire coming from outside the feature. No cover for infantry fire within the feature.
• Two: Standard managed forest. Mix of mature and young growth. Block line of sight and offers concealment. Difficult ground for armour and vehicles. Light cover from fire.
• Three: Standard managed forest. Mix of mature and young growth. Block line of sight and offers concealment. Difficult ground for armour and vehicles. Light cover from fire.
• Four: Standard managed forest. Mix of mature and young growth. Block line of sight and offers concealment. Difficult ground for armour and vehicles. Small streams represent a bogging risk for vehicles, who become stuck on a roll of 5+ on a d6 and must unbog on a further 5+ on following turns. Light cover from fire.
• Five: Standard managed forest. Mix of mature and young growth. Block line of sight and offers concealment. Difficult ground for all units. Light cover from fire.
• Six: Standard managed forest. Mix of mature and young growth. Block line of sight and offers concealment. Difficult ground for all units. Light cover from fire.
• Seven: Standard managed forest. Mix of mature and young growth. Block line of sight and offers concealment. Difficult ground for all units, however open paths exist. Units moving North-South or South-North may treat it as open ground for movement purposes. Light cover from fire.
• Eight: Standard managed forest. Mix of mature and young growth. Block line of sight and offers concealment. Difficult ground for all units, however open paths exist. Units moving North-South or South-North may treat it as open ground for movement purposes. Light cover from fire.
• Nine: Old forest with little management. Extensive undergrowth and very broken ground. Blocks line of sight. Vehicles entering this feature stop immediately and may not progress further. Roll 4+ on d6 to get out. Very difficult ground for infantry. Heavy cover from fire.
• Ten: Old forest with little management. Blocks line of sight. Very difficult ground for all vehicles, difficult ground for infantry. Heavy cover from fire. Streams and boggy ground running east-west make it impassable for vehicles moving north-south or south-north.
• Jack: Managed forest, mostly cleared. Block line of sight and offers concealment from outside the feature. Extensive clearings mean that units have no cover from indirect fire or from fire from within the feature. Difficult ground for vehicles, treat as open ground for infantry. Light cover from direct fire from outside the feature.
• Queen: Standard managed forest. Block line of sight and offers concealment. Difficult ground for all units. Light cover from fire for all units, however there are abandoned stone buildings within the forest which offer hard cover to infantry.
• King: Draw again to determine the nature of wooded feature but also nominate an area 6” by 6” touching the feature. This area is riddled with drainage ditches, hollows and boggy ground. Impassable to vehicles, difficult ground for infantry. Counts as improvised trenches for infantry.

BUILT UP AREA

• Ace: Light urban area. Block line of sight and offer concealment. Difficult ground for all units. Light cover from fire.
• Two: Light urban area. Block line of sight and offer concealment. Difficult ground for all units. Light cover from fire. 
• Three: Light urban area. Block line of sight and offer concealment. Difficult ground for all units. Light cover from fire. Due to good roads and squares, units moving North-South or South-North may treat it as open ground for movement purposes.
• Four: Light urban area. Block line of sight and offer concealment. Difficult ground for all units. Light cover from fire. Due to good roads and squares, units moving East-West or West-East may treat it as open ground for movement purposes.
• Five: Dense development. Block line of sight and offer concealment. Difficult ground for all units. Hard cover from fire. Due to good roads and squares, units moving North-South or South-North may treat it as open ground for movement purposes.
• Six: Dense development. Block line of sight and offer concealment. Difficult ground for all units. Hard cover from fire. Refugees present, blocking roads and slowing movement. Unit’s must move refugees (5+ on d6, 3+ if military police) before attempting to exit the area. Unit may attempt to gather intelligence from refugees (5+ on d6), if successful, scout nearest terrain feature for free.
• Seven: Dense development. Block line of sight and offer concealment. Difficult ground for all units. Hard cover from fire.
• Eight: Dense development. Block line of sight and offer concealment. Difficult ground for all units. Hard cover from fire. Area contains sturdy stone church/town hall, which one infantry unit may treat as an improvised bunker.
• Nine: Suburban area. Block line of sight and offer concealment.Difficult ground for armour and vehicles, infantry may move as open due to extensive gardens. Hard cover from fire.
• Ten: Suburban area. Block line of sight and offer concealment. Difficult ground for armour and vehicles, infantry may move as open due to extensive gardens. Hard cover from fire.
• Jack: Dense development. Block line of sight and offer concealment. Difficult ground for all units. Hard cover from fire. Extensive under-street cellars mean that armour is in danger of being immobilised. Any armour unit moving through the area will be immobilised on a 6 on a d6.
• Queen: Light urban area. Block line of sight and offer concealment. Difficult ground for all units. Light cover from fire. Local sympathisers are present and make themselves known. Unit may attempt to gather intelligence from refugees (5+ on d6), if successful, scout one terrain feature for free.
• King: Fuel/Munitions dump. Draw an additional card to determine the nature of the Build Up Area. Nominate one armour/vehicle unit within twelve inches of the BUA, this unit may immediately take a free move. If the BUA is hit by HE or artillery fire, roll d6. On a 6, the fire causes a massive explosion/fire. Mark the area with smoke. Units in the area have two turns to vacate or be destroyed.

 

IN CONCLUSION

This is a bit of an experiment and I would be surprised if someone else hasn’t come up with something similar. I don’t think it would work for hills, changes in elevation, etc as those are fairly self evident, but it could work for rivers, rough ground and hedgerows. It added extra interest to the solo games I tried it in (and gave my Daimler armoured cars something to do!), but this is more of a proof of concept than a fully realised terrain generation system.

If you do try it and find it useful, drop me a line at [email protected] or @aquestingvole on Twitter. 

 

HOMEWORK

As an aside, if you’ve any interest in military history or wargaming in general, I cannot recommend battlefield walking enough. It’s a tremendous way to get your head around a battle and understand it in a way that reading a book just doesn’t convey. I’ve written about it before in previous editions of Send Three & Fourpence, but I do urge you to give it a try. There’s any number of good books on the subject, I would recommend War Walks by Richard Holmes, but here are the few things I’ve learned in my time as a battlefield walker.

 

• Togs & Vittles. Bring good boots, a decent jacket and a packed lunch. It would be a damned shame to miss something because the ground was muddy and you didn’t have appropriate footwear. A packed lunch is useful because there may not be somewhere to get grub and, even if there is, eating on the hoof will give you more time on the field.

 

• Maps & Maps. Time spent in reconaissance is seldom wasted. Try and find a good guidebook. Have a scout around on GoogleMaps before you go. Don’t rely on a period map. On that last point I learned to my cost when trying to follow part of the 1848 Siege of Rome and I made Mrs Kinch walk around the Janiculum (in heels!) because I didn’t take account of post war building. She has never let me forget it.

 

• Plans & Guides. Plan your route beforehand. It will save time and give a sense of the battle. If you have a good walking guide all the better, but there’s nothing wrong with preparing your own notes. Try and break the battle into a couple of acts and pick out the main locations in those acts. Alternatively, and I’ve found this very rewarding, you can follow a particular unit or even a particular general. Medieval and blackpowder battlefields are often quite small and can be got around in their totality. More modern engagements are hard to get your head around just because of the sheer size of them, so it can be useful to pick a particular unit and follow their day.

 

• The Measure of a Man. Lastly, it really helps to know a bit about distances. I usually make up a little cheat sheet with the common ranges of the weapons used, frontages of units, etc. If you don’t have any experience using pace counts or orienteering, have a quick look on YouTube for “pacecount” or “estimating distances”. You’ll find a number of videos there that will give the basic knowledge you need to measure and estimate distances. This will help you “read” the field better and give you a better understanding of the challenges involved. The truncated size of wargames units can give a false picture of the amount of ground units actually cover, so it’s good to check your thinking against the real numbers.

 

 

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