Using geometry to find implicit crests on a hill

Hills-215 Geometry and implicit crests - Banner

While I was ranting about Why I think hills are horrible in wargames rules, I found two rules had a clever solution for dealing with line of sight on hills using geometry. I’d already thought of a similar approach, also using geometry. I call the two approaches “Parallel crest” and “Perpendicular crest”. Both solutions are clever. Which one is better?

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Musing on resolve – recent tweaks rejected

Musing on Resolve Tweaks in Tillys Very Bad Day - Banner

Well, that has been a miserable failure. I’ve been musing on the resolve rules in Tilly’s Very Bad Day. Thinking up possible tweaks and extensions. Taking a good rule and making it better – or so I thought. This got an interesting conversation going, but I did not get universal endorsement for my suggestions. Quite the reverse. People like the resolve rules as they are. It is time to put that thread to rest and I thought I’d summarise where I’ve got to and why.

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Musing on resolve – strengthen before weaken during the morale phase

Resolve - Strengthen before Weaken - Banner

We really like the morale rules in Tilly’s Very Bad Day, with both positive and negative events affecting a unit’s resolve. But I’ve been wondering whether I should shuffle the steps around in the sequence of play for the morale phase. This would mean we strengthen resolve before we weaken resolve, making units slightly more resilient. I explore three options: (1) current rules; (2) heal before harm; (3) unit morale.

This is one of a series of posts musing on resolve in Tilly’s Very Bad Day.

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Musing on resolve – horse and pike+shot in difficult terrain

Musing on Pike+Shot and Horse in Difficult Terrain in Tillys Very Bad Day - Banner

We really like the resolve mechanism in Tilly’s Very Bad Day. Bundling all morale factors into one number and using that to simulate combat, reaction to the result of combat, and a commander’s ability to rally. We think it one of the things that makes Tilly’s Very Bad Day unique. So I wondered how to take it further. One possibility is to weaken resolve when moving in disrupting terrain.

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Musing on distance distortion in Tilly’s Very Bad Day

30YW-871 - Swedish - Pike and Shot - Yellow Brigade - Banner

A couple of people have commented on the seemingly distorted distances in Tilly’s Very Bad Day with ranges being overly generous compared to unit frontages. I thought I’d respond. The truth is, I deliberately distorted the distances to enhance game play and they’re actually not as wrong as folk seem to think.

This post is part of my musing on Tilly’s Very Bad Day.

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Musing on Units and their attributes in Tillys Very Bad Day

Musing on Units and their Attributes in Tillys Very Bad Day - Banner

Although Tilly’s Very Bad Day is for the Thirty Years War, I’m thinking of expanding the system into other periods. The Ancients, Medieval, and Gunpowder settings all look suitable. I’ve already experimented in the South American Wars of Independence with Bolivar’s Very Bad Day. I’m looking for inspiration so in this post I explore the attributes assigned to units in Tilly’s Very Bad Day.

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Contested river crossings in the Seventeenth Century – Musing for Tilly’s Very Bad Day

Map of the Battle of Rain 1632-04-15 - Banner

Recently we play tested my S12 Fighting Across the River scenario for Tilly’s Very Bad Day (which I’ll post about soon). After the game Adam and I got to talking about the premise of the scenario and Adam encouraged me to take a closer look at some 17th century battles that feature a river crossing. In this post I look at four such battles and look for patterns in four factors: (1) crossing points; (2) forces present; (3) forces engaged; and (4) the battle result. The nature of the river crossings includes whether the river was fordable and how many crossings there were. A lot of men might have been nearby but only a minority were actively engaged, which suggests whether these battles were ‘nasty fights’ or ‘grand battles’. The result of battle is on the list because the defenders of a river crossings had a habit of ‘retreating once things get serious’.

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Musing on Commander Ability in Tilly’s Very Bad Day

Musing on Commander Ability in Tillys Very Bad Day - Banner v2

I like the way John Fletcher (2005, 2006) assigns explicit abilities to the generals of the South American Wars of Liberation. In Liberators QPR generals are classified on a five rating scale from abysmal, through poor, average, good to excellent. And then he gives come generals extra abilities e.g. improved initiative. So how would that work in Tilly’s Very Bad Day for the generals of the Thirty Years War?

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Musing on Unmounted Cavalrymen in Tilly’s Very Bad Day

Tillys Very Bad Day - Dismounted Cavalry - Banner

I was just reading Michael Fredholm von Essen’s latest book on the Swedish army of the Thirty Years War (Von Essen, 2000), and it seems the Swedes sometimes had unmounted cavalrymen. Not dismounted, unmounted, i.e. they were horsemen without horses. Naturally I started pondering how to simulate these men in Tilly’s Very Bad Day.

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Spitballing on Eastern Armies in Tilly’s Very Bad Day

Spitballing on Eastern Armies in Tilly’s Very Bad Day - Banner

I tend to focus on the Thirty Years War in western and central Europe. Tilly’s Very Bad Day is written with this same focus. But there was a lot going on in the East. Russia, Poland and the Ottoman Empire were all big players. Even closer to home there was also the Hungarians and Transylvanians – sandwiched between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottomans – and they could field large armies in their own right. So how can we / should we represent these armies in Tilly’s Very Bad Day? I don’t know the answer so figured we should do some “spitballing” on the topic.

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