Fog of War / Chance cards
There have been some complaints about the omniscience of the players (i.e. they and you know precisely how good your troops are) and the total control you have over your own troops, so this idea was conceived, almost stolen from PIQUET. This rule change the unit values from absolutes to probabilties.
Create two deck of cards (I use blank business cards) one for each side, and on each card place one event. Every turn in the Initial Phase just before the initiative step each Commander-in-Chief rolls two dice (depending on battle size, 6 sided for small battles, 10 sided for medium sized battles and 20 sided for large battles) subtract the smaller number from the larger and this is the number of event cards drawn from your side's deck. Each event card is played on a unit as it attempts to move or fire or whatever, the beneficial cards are played on your units, detrimental cards are played on your opponent, in a multi player battle each player has a portion of his sides cards and plays them on his own units or on any enemy units (no asking your fellow players to place cards). At the end of the turn any unused cards are returned to your deck which is then re-shuffled. You may not play a card on a unit that is already under the effects of another card, if both sides wish to place a card on the same unit roll dice, the high roll has right of first refusal.
You may want to customize the decks of different nationalities i.e. Spanish/pre-1807 Prussians have lot of dress ranks, Russians lots of fanatic.
For additional Fog of War you may want the event on the card to occur or not depending on a non competitive die roll like beneficial results occur if you roll the units RSP or less, Detrimental by rolling equal to or higher than its RSP .
Here is a list of possible events.
Beneficial |
Detrimental |
||
| Event Name | Event Effect | Event Name | Event Effect |
| Got the Range | +1 on artillery fire. | Obscured Target | -1 on Firing. |
| really got the range | +2 on artillery fire. | Very obscurred target | -2 on firing |
| Crushing Volley | +1 on infantry fire. | Withdraw ? | An enemy unit moves backward. Played during your movement phase |
| Quick March | +50% on a brigades move. | Dress Ranks or Conduct a Flogging | -50% on a brigade's move. |
| Self Rally | A routed brigade without an attached general may attempt to rally, but if rolls a 10 it must make a full rout move. | Cowardly Curs | DRD/RT #'s reduced by 1. |
| Heroic Stand | +1 on Melee rolls. | Uninspired Troops | - 1 on melee Rolls. |
| Fanatic | DRD/RT #'s increased by 1. |
|
One General (randomly selected) is killed on a roll of 1. |
| Return to Field | A previously dispersed unit return to the battlefield 1 figure above dispersal. | Command Confusion (Remove from deck after it is played.) |
You may move one enemy division as you see fit (may not move more
than one unit outside of its command radius, nor can you crash march columns or squares
into your own troops). This is very harmful. |
| Recover Stragglers | A brigade recovers 1 dead figure, may not be full strengthed by such recovery. | Command Indecision | One Division has its movement factors halved. |
| Rejoin Division. | A brigade outside of command radius may move (Full or half) and attempt to end in its divisional general's radius. |
|
A disordered unit must move into contact (regardless of distance) with the nearest visible enemy unit. +2 on the resultant combat. |
| Sappers Forward | +1 on melee vs. a town or entrenchment. | Desertion | A brigade loses 1 figure, may not disperse a unit though |
| Emergency Rally | An unattached general may move and attach to one or more of his routed brigades. | Terrain card | May be many thing. Some examples: last bridge crossed collapses, woods are more or less dense than reported, a ford is found across an uncrossable river/stream, a gully is discovered. |
| An alternative to the command confusion card is several less destrective cards | |||
| Uncoordinated attack | one unit in a multi-unit attack is moved back out of contact . | ||
| Mis-understood orders | an out of command units falls back to friendly table edge. | ||
| Confused | Change the facing or formation of an enemy unit. | ||
If you have any more possible events please let me know.