Skirmish rules - Part 4 - Initiative and unit activation; Morale

Initiative and unit activation

When I started developing my rules, it seemed to me that the key to a realistic, dynamic skirmish war game should consist in a realistic way to deal with initiative.

I thought that the rules should favor those players that show higher tactical sense and act consistently according to their goals, allowing them to snatch and keep the initiative to the detriment of more lethargic, or casual, opponents. 

In practical terms:

• I wanted an attacking player to be rewarded if he succeeded in keeping his opponent under constant pressure (inflicting fire casualties to enemy units and/or engaging them in hand-to-hand combat); 

• I wanted a defending player to be rewarded if he was able to frustrate the attacker’s aggressiveness (protecting his own units from enemy fire and/or anchoring or supporting them to discourage enemy charges); 

• and I wanted the more consistent player to have a higher chance of keeping the initiative for himself, denying it to his opponent so as to effectively hinder the latter’s ability to pursue his own plan. This would add significantly to the realism of the game, hopefully allowing for fast, decisive actions.

In order to transfer these principles into the mechanics of the game in a simple enough way, I linked the concept of initiative to that of unit activation, and made each player’s tactical choices have a direct influence on the activation of his opponent’s units. 

Only a player’s units that are not subjected to enemy pressure (that is, units that are not taking fire casualties and are not charged by enemy units) are automatically activated and can be used during the player’s turn.

Conversely, all units that are attacked (suffering fire casualties, or being charged by enemy units) are considered under stress and temporarily out-of-control. They are marked with one or more stress markers (red squares),  and must pass an activation test before they can perform any active action.

The French unit takes three fire casualties this turn, and is marked with one red square

The activation test is carried out at the beginning of a player’s turn for all his stress-marked units, and consists of rolling dice corresponding to the unit’s Command / Discipline skill coefficient for each red square. Depending on the dice roll score, the unit may become in-control again, and thus be employed in the turn; or remain out-of-control and pass the turn; or get routed altogether.

Morale

Units that endure a very critical situation (for example: reduced to less than 50% of their initial strength; charged from the back or flanks) must undergo a morale or reaction test.

The reaction test is carried out in a way similar to the activation test, however immediately as the critical situation occurs (hence during the opponent’s turn), and may result in the unit being put, or left, temporally out-of-control (the red square is not removed and the unit must test for activation in its next turn); or getting routed.

The same French unit, now charged on its right flank, is marked with an additional red square.
A reaction test must be carried out immediately

When a unit is routed, its figures are each marked with a red triangle and must run away from the enemy at full speed. In a simpler version of the rules, routed figures are  removed from the table altogether.