Big fat desperate Optio slog

[dwkay57]

My big problem is coming up with suitable "ancient" style terrain maps at the moment. I'll probably be able to come up with some in the longer term, but some starter sets would help.

[Justin Swanton]

Have you seen the campaign and pre-battle rules in the (Sam Mustafa) Napoeonic ruleset Blucher?

How do army corps remain hidden from each other until discovery?

[Imperial Dave]

My big problem is coming up with suitable "ancient" style terrain maps at the moment. I'll probably be able to come up with some in the longer term, but some starter sets would help.

How so...?

[stevenneate]

In Blucher the army is broken into separate Corps whose composition is only known to them. It must contain at least one brigade, but it could, for example, be a single light cavalry or grenz brigade. These are moved around the map with the option to sieze beneficial objectives as well (hence the use of single brigade tokens). These objectives can impact what happens later.

Players also designate at the start as to whether they will commit brigades to scouting duties who can uncover the contents of hidden enemy units. Russians (Cossacks), Spanish (guerillas) and Ottomans (lots of light cavalry) have plenty of these cheap, disposable units to spare. When battle happens, scouting units turn up fatigued (if they manage to turn up).

Battle happens when the two sides confront each other in opposite (or diagonal) terrain squares. Tokens one square move away arrive during the battle (they're late converging or marching to the sound of the guns). Others can roll in very late depending on ground scale and if foot or mounted.

Hidden tokens are only identified when confronted and then you find out what it consists of.

You could have decoyed a major enemy force away, taken an objective unopposed or been run to ground by serious opposition before you could rendezvous with the main force.

It is simple, takes about 10-20 minutes to play out and creates something different and unexpected.

In Blucher, deployment is also hidden (using cards or tokens to mark units) and only revealed when fired upon or come within 4 base widths of the enemy - a nice touch for surprise deployments in Napoleonics.

Personally, I like it. It certainly adds an extra dimension to the main game.