MicroBattle - Scenarios and Campaigns

 In my previous post, I laid out the rules for my latest incarnation of MicroBattle. Today I would like to explain how I set up games.

Battle Scenarios

Using One Hour Wargames

My method is not exactly original. I generally rely on Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames.

Aside - I just noticed that this is the first photo I posted to this blog in 2021. I need to play some games with minis!

Anyway, OHW provides streamlined rules for wargaming 8 different eras in history. While I admire their design simplicity, I find them a little too bare bones for my tastes (although I must admit that OHW does influence MicroBattle). 

Nevertheless, this book is a gold mine because it contains 30 different, generic scenarios. When I want to play a game, I just pull out the book and roll randomly to select a scenario. Thomas also includes tables for randomly generating armies of 4 to 6 units (it is not a coincidence that MicroBattle uses the same sized armies). With a few rolls, my game is ready to go!

Just beware that Thomas's scenario objectives may not be achievable in his standard 15 turns when using different rules (activation rolls. different movement rates, etc.). I'll generally adjust the number of turns on the fly to compensate.

Aside - I have OHW on my Kindle but as I was writing this I was thinking that I should get a physical copy. Then I saw the price on Amazon!

Wow! I guess it has become a collector's item!

My Random Battlefields

I find the OHW battlefields to be a bit barren. Other times I just want to set something up without using a OHW scenario. In either case, I have devised a method to create random battlefields. I created a set of terrain cards. I'll draw some from my deck and lay them out to determine the battlefield.

For example, the above battlefield will have woods in the upper left, hills in the upper right and bottom left center. A river begins in the lower right; I will roll to determine if it runs vertically or horizontally.

I created the cards in PowerPoint, with 8 to a page. I just created colored boxes and then pasted some generic icons on top. I fit 8 cards per page. All told, I have 8 each of woods and hills; 2 each of rivers, rocks, fields, and buildings; and 16 clear. I printed them on cardstock and cut them out.

When drawing, I can adjust the probabilities of certain terrain by dropping some cards from the deck. For example, if my battle is in a desert, I can drop the woods cards and maybe the river cards. Simple!

Campaigns

Battles will be more interesting if there is some impact to the outcome. Thus, I and many other wargamers will move beyond one-off battles to campaigns, series of linked battles that lead to a final conclusion.

I've tried different campaign ideas in the past, but lately I've been using the extremely simple format suggested by Neil Thomas in One Hour Wargames. Essentially, it is best of 5 battles, with each battle determined randomly. The winner of a battle gets to choose to attack or defend in the next battle. This choice can be crucial because some of the scenarios are more difficult to win as the attacker. This provides a nice handicap to the victor.

Francesia

Thomas's campaign may be too simplistic, especially for those who want to move troops on a map. Years ago I devised a simple system based on the Diplomacy board game. I created my own map, set on my fictional continent of Francesia (so named because I drew the map during Hurricane Frances back in 2004). I designated certain areas to contain supply centers, then assigned an army or navy to each center (the symbols on this version of the map all represent armies).

I then proceeded to run the campaign like a game of Diplomacy. I controlled one country then randomly determined the moves for the other powers. When opposing forces disputed a territory, I would play out the battle. The main contending armies would be 6 units each. Supporting armies would add 3 units to the fight. I would randomly generate the battlefield. The winner of the battle would seize the territory and the loser would have to retreat. This all makes more sense if you are familiar with the rules of Diplomacy.

One issue with this system is that it can generate a lot of battles. Therefore, I simplified by being selective about which contacts to turn into miniature battles. Most contacts would be determined by the standard Diplomacy rules. If there was a particularly interesting or crucial battle, I would play that out and then apply the results.

The system worked well enough for my purposes at the time. I completed an entire war, with Redgrave (my red army) emerging victorious. I'm not sure if Diplomacy works as well for a straight-up 1v1 conflict, which is my standard campaign these days. While I no longer use these rules, you will still see the armies of Redgrave, Bluderia, Grayrock, and the Empire clash on my miniature battlefields.