MicroBattle Enhancements

Over this past week I made a number of enhancements to my MicroBattle game set-up.

Storage
First, I switched storage boxes. I had my 3mm figures split across multiple pencil boxes. I moved my generic shock, horse & musket, and sci-fi minis into this 9 x 11 inch box (I evicted my skirmish miniatures from it).

The nice thing about this box is that it fits an 8 x 10 inch battle board without having to fold it. No more creases.

Here is the interior of the box filled with terrain (cork hills, pot scrubber woods, little wooden buildings), markers, and woods.

The box also fits my miniatures. I have 2 generic armies (blue vs. red) in the plastic boxes.

Each army includes massed infantry and cavalry suitable for ancient to horse & musket periods, horse & musket artillery that could work for modern, skirmishers usable for any period, plus some tanks.

I also have some extra armies in bags (an evil black army, some knights in shiny armor, and some sci-fi robots).

With these armies, I have a lot of choice regarding which era to play.

Terrain
It's hard to see above but I have upgraded my terrain. Below is an example laid out for battle.

For reference, the figures are 3mm Magister Militum.

The battlefield is cork board with a grid of 8 by 10 1-inch squares. Hills are made of cork and woods are made of pot scrubbers. The village (top) is one I made years ago out of cardboard and wooden buttons. Fortuitously, I decided to hold onto it (and other scratch made buildings).

Rules
I further refined my MicroBattle rules changes that I mentioned last time. The base concept is that the score to succeed a test (whether attacking, defending, morale, etc.) depends on whether the tester is advantaged, neutral, or disadvantaged.



Major Disadvantage         6+
Disadvantage                    5+
Neutral                             4+
Advantage                        3+
Major Advantage             2+

Major Disadvantage / Advantage occurs when there are multiple disadvantages or advantages. Also note that disadvantages and advantages cancel each other out.

I have a list of situations that cause advantage or disadvantage, but you don't really need to check them. Any experienced gamer should have no trouble just eyeballing the situation and then ruling on the status. It is quick and intuitive, enabling a speedy game.

Note that combat involves 3 tests:

1. Does the attacker hit the target?
2. Can the target negate a hit (via armor, superior morale, etc.)?
3. Is the target forced to retreat?

This is not as onerous as it sounds. Tests 2 and 3 are only needed if the attacker succeeds (hits) in Test 1. Then Tests 2 and 3 can be rolled simultaneously (I suggest using different colored dice).

The Test
Once I put everything together, I played a test game. Stay tuned for a battle report in a few days or so.