Saturday, January 10, 2015

BLACK POWDER: MODIFIED HAIL CAESAR BREAK TESTS

When I was at Claymore last year Jim Wallace from the Dumfries  Wargames  Club mentioned that they were experimenting with using a modified Hail Caesar break test chart in their Black powder games.   Since it was Jim who first alerted me to the Alternative Turn sequence which I now use in all my BP games this got me thinking and I started drafting my own version.  I first tested it in my Bennington  AWI game.  See
http://blenheimtoberlin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/28mm-awi-bennington-16th-august-1777.html

Following that game I made some more modifications and here below is the latest version of the chart.  The chart gives  less chance for unshaken infantry units breaking under fire.  However it does make skirmishers more vulnerable to shooting.   When to test and the break test modifiers are unchanged from BP.

TEST WHEN:
A             Test if excess hits suffered from Shooting                                                                           
B             Test if Shaken or suffering artillery casualties by closing fire                                       
C             Test if defeated in Hand-to-hand Combat                                                                           
D             Test if Shaken in a drawn Hand-to-hand Combat   
E              Test supporting units if supported unit breaks and flees

BREAK TEST MODIFIERS
-1   Per excess casualty
-1   Disordered
-1   Suffered casualties from artillery for tests A or B
 
 
SCORE
TYPE
SHOOTING
HAND TO HAND
10+
ALL
Hold your ground without penalty
Hold your ground without penalty
9
Infantry & Art
Cavalry
Skirmishers
Hold your ground without penalty
Hold your ground without penalty
Hold your ground without penalty
Hold your ground without penalty
Retreat in good
Retreat disordered
8
Infantry & Art
Cavalry
Skirmishers
Hold your ground without penalty
Hold your ground without penalty
Retreat in good order
Hold your ground without penalty
Retreat in good order
Break if shaken, otherwise Retreat disordered
7
Infantry
Cavalry
Skirmishers
Hold your ground without penalty
Retreat in good order
Retreat disordered
Retreat in good order
Retreat disordered 
Break
6
Infantry

Cavalry
Skirmishers
Hold your ground disordered or Retreat in good order
Retreat disordered
Retreat disordered
Retreat in good order

Retreat disordered
Break
5
Infantry

Cavalry

Skirmishers
Hold your ground disordered or Retreat in good order
Retreat disordered

Break
Retreat disordered

Break if shaken, otherwise Retreat disordered
Break
4
Infantry

Cavalry

Skirmishers
Retreat disordered

Break

Break
Break if shaken, otherwise Retreat disordered
Break if shaken, otherwise Retreat disordered
Break
3
Infantry

Cavalry

Skirmishers
Break

Break

Break
Break if shaken, otherwise Retreat disordered
Break

Break
2
ALL
Break
Break

Artillery are treated as infantry except  Artillery in Hand to Hand always Break instead.

At some point I will add this to my BP House Rules page.

5 comments:

  1. It does sound interesting. I may give that a try.

    Christopher

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Bill and Happy New Year - I adopted a support rule for artillery if 3 inches near infantry to allow artillery to hold if they roll high enough.- if limbered they could choose to retreat otherwise seven and under is a break.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Also I would still like to see some positive modifiers for elite units for the break test. Any ideas?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dave
      I would leave the tests as they are and not add factors for troop quality. Elite troops have higher stamina and some other special rules which reduce the number of tests they should take.

      Delete
  4. Thank you. This is exactly the solution I am looking for to modify Hail Caesarfor the better. I had a great game of Hail Caesar at the weekend spoiled only by a fresh charging fanatic warband being forced to retreat by the skirmish fire of a few archers. Both my opponent and I thought it somewhat ridiculous and very unlikely.

    By having the test only if excess hits are suffered through shooting is a great idea. I have struggled with the concept of testing each time '6's are rolled as it just seemed too great a possibility of making units test - and this last game proved it.

    Best wishes

    Jason

    http://lightbobsandpaintblobs.blogspot.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete