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Pub Battles: Homebrew

A playtester’s guide to enjoying the Pub Battles System. I am not part of the company beyond playtesting, but I am here to answer any questions about the official rules as well. To order the games go to the Command Post Games website:

If you want to get one of these beautiful games: Click this.

If your curious about the system here’s an overview.

If you are new, here’s my quick start rules

My current homebrew rules are here.

My rules discussions are here: Movement rates How can a unit just sit there? When to Alter Turn Order More combat rules? Chit Draw

My Variants are here: Night Rally Optional Leadership Baggage Trains Solitaire with Written Orders

Gettysburg posts: Stonewall at Gettysburg

Waterloo posts: 3.0 has rendered my Waterloo post unnecessary and it has been removed.

Play the Map!

Solo Day 1 of the Pub Battles Waterloo Campaign!

The latest trend in RPGs is away from voluminous rulebooks and towards fewer rules. The bite size way they describe it is “Rulings, not rules.” Or as I often say, “What do you think would happen?”

As a dungeon master, you can run the game as you like without worrying that some rules lawyer player is going to be citing corner rules and undermining your authority. What I have found, and this is critical to our discussion, is that my players, instead of trying to get away with whatever the rules fail to prevent, respond to open ended rules by limiting their own actions.

This is the underlying philosophy of Pub Battles. What they essentially doing is put the role of game designer in the players laps. “Would you allow this in your game?”

The rules need to provide an essential frame work, and then the big question becomes “what is essential?”

So far, I’m loving the full movement rule (the 1/3 deduction for moving in terrain is dropped). It allows for a more fluid feeling game, without feeling like players can just plop down blocks wherever. I think it opens up the game in excellent ways , because while movement isn’t hidden, your opponent has to be prepared for all the options that the increased movement opens up, and yet can still react (with equal alacrity) to the your plans.

I’m recorded a “June 16” Waterloo Campaign game this morning. I can’t fit all four maps anywhere at home unless I move to the floor, and I’m getting to old for that!

I can just fit the Southern two maps on my dining room table, and I think this will be a more playable option for many.

My personal flavoring:

The British use the QB setup, and the Prussians can set up anywhere 1/3 away from the Southern edge. On turn 1 of Day 2, the rest of the British army may enter on the Northern major road. Studying the map, I can see Zieten setting up I Corps not far from where II, and III Corps enter, or even in the center of the map, so the French have to advance forward, but Guard their right flank.

So many possibilities!

For this first time, the French are going to try the typical alternative of putting their full weight on Quatre Bras. My French rules for setup are:

Turn 1: Corps must enter in road column on any road at least one mile from any other road being entered on. The one mile scale is right there on the map, and the proper roads are easy to discern.

Turn 2: Corps may enter anywhere on Southern edge (not in column).

Interestingly, I find the QB option (as I call this strategy) less desirable, because you still have to deal with the Prussians, and you would rather hit them before they concentrate their forces. I can see Napoleon’s logic of just sending Ney up to QB to hold the British, while the main force knocks Prussia out of the war. But we shall see. Maybe this will open up different options.

VICTORY CONDITIONS

Normal Victory Conditions apply.

LoC’s: The three major roads are LoCs for all armies.

French: The three Southern points.

Prussians: Both Eastern points.

British: Both the Northern and Western point.

Any Prussian or British forces that escape off the Northern edge are not considered eliminated even if their LoCs are captured (have an enemy block within command range).

Does Wellington go all in and try to stop Napoleon at Quatre Bras, or hold off until the 18th. The big kicker is what Blucher are doing (besides asking for help!).

Pub Battles Campaign Game

This is a work in progress, posted so others may view and give feedback. The intent of this campaign system is to allow the play of a campaign game that gives broader scope to games then simply to win that one battle. This is not historical.

Campaign turn order:
Winter / Orders-Move Armies-Combat-Build
Spring / Orders-move BT-Move Armies-Combat
Summer / Orders-move BT-Move Armies-Combat
Fall / Orders-move BT-Move Armies-Combat

Orders – To move, simply write the name of the adjacent node that the HQ is moving to.
There is no limit to the number of HQs moving into a Node.
All BT may move each turn, but only one BT may move between any two nodes per turn.

Move – HQs and LPs must attempt to follow the orders they are given, as fully as possible. Orders that contravene the rules count as No Orders.
Units under No Orders may not move, and if attacked will automatically retreat, if able, or grant the enemy one Surprise turn (only the enemy draws chits!), if a bettle is fought..
Orders – HQs may be ordered to Move to another Node, or Hold the Node they occupy. A unit may be given No Orders, which mean they remain in their Node, but are expected to retreat and not risk their Army if attacked.

Build – Build one Corps and one Logistics Point (LP), per Build Area you control. Some, none, or all, must be placed in any home Build area.

Corps Builds – One Corps per Build Phase may be Cavalry.
Infantry Corps – 1 hussar, 3 infantry, 1 artillery.
Cavalry Corps – 1 horse artillery, 1 hussar, 1 dragoon, 1 cuirassier.

Reorganizing – During the Build phase, the armies may be reorganized. All blocks in an area may be reassigned to different HQs. Additionally:
2 regular blocks of any type may be combined into 1 Elite block and 1 militia block, of the same type.
1 regular block of any type may be swapped for 2 militia of the same type.

Orders – HQs in the same area may first reorganize, blocks may be assigned to any HQ, and HQs may be created or eliminated as needed. An HQ must contain at least 2 blocks. A new HQ begins with a rating of 3. If its command contains any Elite, +1 to the score. Each player gets one Army HQ with a rating of 4 to begin the game. After any battle, a player who wins a decisive victory gets to increase a single HQ’s rating by +1, to a maximum of 5.

Setting up the map

The map is a series of interconnected Nodes. Each Bold Node is worth 1 Build.

Each node may normally only hold one LP. A node with a Supply Depot may contain 3 LPs. Each home Node contains a Supply Depot. A Supply Depot may be created on any Node by replacing a LP with a depot Cube. If an army begins its turn with an enemy SD/BT, it may Capture an LP if it doesn’t already have one, it may move one remaining LP (if able) to an adjacent Node, and it must destroy the excess.

Setting up a battle

All of the HQs on a single node compose an army. Each army can have one LP on its node. LPs may only move one at a time between nodes.

Idea: 1 Logistics Point is worth 3 BTs. Only one LP per Node. No Depots. So 1 LP can move with an army, but you may never have more than one LP per Node, except when multiple armies enter the same Node. As soon as an army Occupies the same node as a LP, it may convert the LP to 3 BTs. After a battle, the BTs are considered consumed.

When two armies end their turn on the same node, a battle will ensue. If opposing armies would meet on a road connecting two nodes, the side with Cavalry Scouting Superiority (CSS) drives the opposing army back. If neither side has CSS, compare the total number of infantry and cavalry blocks, if still equal, highest die roll decides. The army without CSS must setup within 1 mounted move of the side of the map they entered from. The side with CSS may setup within 1/3 of the the side they enter from, or may enter on turn one along either of the remaining sides.

If one army is attacked while Occupying a node, it begins set up anywhere on the map, at least 1/3 mounted move from any map edge. The side it entered from is its base side. The attacking force must enter along the opposite side unless it has CSS, in which case it may enter anywhere on any of the three non enemy base sides, and may begin within 1/3 Mounted move of the base side it enters the node from, remaining 1/3 mounted move away from any enemy forces.

If multiple friendly armies are entering from different Nodes, one army is considered the main army (players choice) and the remaining armies enter along the Node edge they are arriving from, on a turn determined by a D6. CSS makes no difference for additional armies, so it may be in your best interest to consider your army with the most cavalry to be your main force.

Cavalry Scouting Superiority (CSS) – Points are awarded based on total cavalry blocks:
Hussars 3 per block
Dragoons 2 per block
Cuirassiers 0 points (Cuirassiers were not used for scouting), Hussars are better at scouting, but dragoons are better on the battlefield.

Grognard Guide

Grognards (grumblers) was the name Napoleon affectionately gave to his Old Guard, and it is now used to describe older wargamers. Pub Battles is relatively easy to learn…Unless you’ve been playing regular wargames for years! I had some difficulty wrapping my head around some concepts because they were so unlike typical Hex and Counter games. This is a hybrid system, really; part Hex and Counter, part miniatures. Because the rules are so short, one is tempted to skim over them, and get right to the game. This is what you should do! Just be aware that you will probably be doing a few things wrong. Before you dismiss the system, and accuse Command Post Games of poor rules writing, be advised that close and careful inspection of the rules should answer most questions.

To help others who might be climbing the steep learning curve, I’ve put together a handy tip guide to draw your attention to a few points that are commonly missed, or misunderstood by many who are learning this system.

The Map Those who are used to hex and counter maps may be a little overwhelmed by having no hexes. A block is considered to be in the terrain that most of the block occupies. Make sure your block is clearly in one terrain type, clarify it with your opponent if you anticipate a question.

The Units The blocks can be thought of as representing divisional level units, but not specific divisions. If a Corps had 50% green troops and has two blocks, one of those blocks will be militia. It does not mean that the division named on the block was historically composed of all green troops. The system is accurate at the Corps level.

Elite/Militia All units have the same attack strength, even spent units. The difference is how well they stand up to enemy fire. Spent units are very brittle, and don’t last long in combat. Militia are liable to run away and dissolve from combat. Elites tend to keep coming, like terminators!

Detachments are not specifically attached to any HQ, but they are only allowed to move once a turn when a friendly HQ is drawn.

Artillery bombards in the movement phase, instead of moving. In the combat phase it only defends when attacked.

Baggage Trains must be unpacked to rally friendly units. They may rally any friendly unit in command range. When a Baggage Train is packed up again, it signals the owning player is admitting defeat and bugging out. If a unit is in contact with an enemy Baggage Train at the end of the movement phase, the enemy has been beaten, the game is over.

The Chit Draw You may always move when your chit is drawn, even if previously contacted. The chit draw simulates simultaneous movement.

Alter Turn Order It is not always advantageous to move earlier or later in the turn. It depends.

Command Range is 1/3 mounted move.

Difficult Terrain reduces total movement by one third. It does not matter if you spend the entire turn moving through a single terrain feature, or if you move through multiple features. Think of it as being able to move a full three thirds if you spend the entire move in clear terrain! Terrain features that are less than half a base width have no effect on the game and are only for there for aesthetic reasons.

Combat Mods no matter how many conditions may add or subtract from a die roll, when all is said and done, the final mod can never be more than plus or minus one. Essentially, you either have an advantage, or you’re at a disadvantage.

Most Recent Homebrew

As with all my Homebrew rules, these are ways I find that enhance the system, with out adding weight to the rules. This includes and replaces any previous homebrew rules I’ve used.

Artillery – Spent Artillery may fire.

Originally, pre Baggage Train Rally rule, blocks just rallied from spent automatically if they didn’t move. So the proscription from bombardment felt right. Now, with an unpacked Baggage Train required to rally, it is too harsh. If you don’t rally your artillery, it is still very vulnerable, just not nearly useless! Instead of being a new rule, this is just eliminating an old rule!

Cavalry – Foot retreating from mounted are eliminated.

It just feels wrong to have mounted charge foot, and then have them pull back while the cav just stands there!

Infantry – Supporting infantry blocks may choose to suffer any of the hits of the unit they are supporting.

This makes more sense when Infantry are guarding Artillery, or if you imagine the two defending blocks half as wide and double deep. You can also imagine elite troops, or Grenadier Regiments, “stiffening” the line by ignoring the first hit.

Kriegspiel style Artillery in Pub Battles

I believe that with the addition of the requirement for an unpacked Baggage Train to Rally from spent, that the proscription against spent artillery bombarding is too much.

New Artillery rules:

Spent artillery may bombard.

New support rules.

Each hit may be applied to either the front, or the supporting block, in combat (owner’s choice). Note that only infantry blocks can support in combat!

I want to make sure these feel right, and don’t open up any loopholes.

Let me know what your reservations might be, or why you think this might be inappropriate.

How “Real” is Pub Battles?

I often heard it said that, while Pub Battles is good for what it is, it isn’t very real.

This comes from people who equate real with detailed combat, and endless tracking of logistics, and “down to the man” unit strengths. They can’t be faulted, because when one reads the histories, especially “I was there” accounts, those details are thrilling. The army commander’s eye view of the events are certainly interesting, but not as viscerally engaging as descriptions of battlefield actions.

Yet, when gaming these actions, almost the opposite is true. Keeping track of all those minute combat details, consulting endless charts, and the endless hours it takes to simulate minutes of time, is a challenge to enjoy. We all want to be Napoleons, Wellingtons, and Lees. It is far more exciting to be making the big decisions, when to send in the guard, when to bluff and feint, trying to judge how much more the enemy’s army (or yours!) can take.

The exciting narrative is still there in Pub Battles, you get to make it up yourself! Why were the Elite Guard Cuirassiers pushed back by the inexperienced Dutch dragoons? It shouldn’t ever happen, yet in my last Waterloo, it did (Cuirassiers rolled really bad, and the Dutch rolled really well). Is this because the system is broke? Hardly, but it probably means there was something going on that dissembled the French. Maybe there was a morass of mud in a low area, maybe there was a SNAFU that resulted in the charge being completely disorganized and ultimately called off, or maybe an unsung Dutch cavalry officer organized a surprise flank charge that succeeded because it was so unexpected. Rather than try to simulate each of these unlikely events, Pub Battles merely allows that something happened that resulted in the outcome shown on the map. Finally, there is the very real possibility that the information on the map is not correct. As wargamers, we want everything to be exact. just like our historical counterparts wanted all their intel to be accurate. That was rarely the case. Who knows what those Cuirassiers ran into, it probably wasn’t Dutch dragoons, maybe the Prince of Orange was there, gathering the Household Guard for a planned surprise counter-attack!

What Pub Battles does do very accurately, is simulate being an army commander. You’re in your command tent, looking at the latest picture your staff has assembled of the battlefield. You can wonder “Does Jackson have the left secured, what strength does he have after driving off the last Federal assault?” Before he leaves, Jackson assures you that A. P. Hill has reinforced his left, and that he has already pulled Pender’s men off the line to rest and recover. Thirty minutes later an excited Lieutenant arrives exclaiming A.P. Hill will join the battle “before nightfall!” Jackson had already departed, and you’re left wondering…

Maybe Pub Battles is too real!

The Measure of a Commander

Let’s take a moment to examine measuring movement, and how exact a player needs to be.

The first thing to consider is how exact are the movement rates. They are, after all, based on Kriegspiel movement rates, as determined by officers of the time. I definitely think this makes it a great place to start, but there are two huge areas of “fudginess” that place a limit on how exact those movement rates can be considered to be.

The first is that every foot and every mounted block moves the same. If a block is travelling the same straight path a few turns in a row, then it might be considered to be moving the full 90 minutes of a turn (one movement stick). A similar block might receive new orders. One can imagine the formation commander interpreting the order, issuing new orders to his command, who then might have to react to a complete change of plans, who might need to verify the orders, get their men moving in the new direction, maybe scouting the terrain to determine the best path (more on that in the second point), move to the new location, where they might possibly be involved in combat, which itself requires some further maneuver and giving/interpreting of orders, all that, and they too can move one movement stick in a turn.

The second consideration is the terrain penalties. If a block moves through any terrain that reduces it’s movement, say a grove of trees wider than 1/2 a block, or moves the entire time through woods and over hill and dale, it loses one third. This is not some arbitrary amount, this is how the Kriegspiel rules work. Such an adjustment was considered “close enough.” The terrain itself can be varied. Are there wide paths through the woods, or are they thick and almost impenetrable? How steep is that hill? does it include cliffs, washouts, or large boulders (great for cover, impossible for artillery)? In the grand scheme of things, when you are talking about moving a few thousand men, such variables get handled, and Pub Battles docks the formation a third. That is “close enough.” For everything else, there is the chit draw to determine who might have got where, and who might have outguessed their opponent.

One should be satisfied with “close enough,” because it is a fact of life that the map and blocks are going to get jostled. When I’m moving, I use a divider and walk it out however far it says I can go, and that’s where I move to. If I come to the end of my move and am close enough have interlocking Fields of Fire, I just go ahead and move to contact, or stay out of the FoF. Battlefields are fluid and chaotic, and within reason this allows a little slippage in measurement. How much? Enough to allow smooth play, but not so much as to allow one to game an advantage. Gentlemen’s rules.

The Realism of Pub Battles

You want a realistic system? This is the reality!

Some players feel like Pub Battles is too simplistic. They want more detail. If that’s what they want, then Pub Battles is delivering an authentic experience. Every commander in history has wanted more detail. They hungered for all the intel they could gather. Did they get it? Ha! The more detailed the intel, the more likely its inaccuracies!

The best way to think of Pub Battles and what it is simulating, is to imagine yourself in your command tent, looking over the map that your staff has prepared for you. It has all the latest and best information. Is it accurate? You hope so. Historically, its probably mostly accurate, but it isn’t an exact mirror image.

On top of that, you have people. People who must receive and carry out your directions. Do they understand? Do they think you understand what their situation is? Do you think you understand what the situation is? You’re telling them to take Sharpsburg, but they haven’t even crossed the Antietam, yet! Was this message meant for Hooker’s Corps? How much time is lost while riders scurry back and forth confirming orders?

This is what the chit draw simulates. You can have a good plan, but if the chit draw (chance) doesn’t cooperate, at least a little, you may find your scheme dashed. How you react and respond to what happens is what really makes a good commander.

This is Pub Battles at its core.

New Blog Identity and address!

Hey gang. I have decided to align my Blog and YouTube channel under the same “brand.”

I will no longer be using this blog. My new Blog is found Here.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but going forward this will work much better. Part of the problem is in the name Pub Battles: My Homebrew. It gets very hard to find due to the bazillion pubs and home brewers that use similar names! I believe the name “Boom Simple Pub Battles” will work much better!

Playing Pub Battles

Pub Battles was created as a 2 player Kriegspiel game. The object was to create a system that “reffed” the game.

Playing Kriegspiel requires no knowledge of the rules, you simply write your orders and are told what happens; the refs handle all the heavy lifting.

This makes it similar to playing a fantasy role playing game like D&D. It is essentially playing D&D, except your character is a military officer, and your “world” is the real world.

A good Kriegspiel referee will throw a wrench in the works, and ruin the best laid plans. Not every time, but often enough, that players learn to expect the unexpected.

Pub Battles does this with the chit draw mechanic, and simple and dramatic combat resolution.

As an army commander (player), your role is big picture. You send out your orders (move your units), and await news from the front (battle results). Formations, weapon ranges, tactical maneuvers, and the like, are all details that you rely on your subordinate officers to handle. Napoleon famously led brilliant campaigns, but let his officers and troops fight the battle.

For a wargame, Pub Battles is very simple. This is because it is command focused, not combat focused. In a combat focused game, details are everything, they are the simulation. In a command focused game, such details are inappropriate for the Army General. They hinder the player’s authentic experience.

In Pub Battles, what you see on the map, including the map itself, are approximations at best. Commanders are as desperate to know exactly what’s going on, as they are uncertain what’s actually going on! This is very authentic, and very like playing Kriegspiel.

Wellington himself, said no one will ever know what actually happened at Waterloo. Everyone, even he himself, was only witness to a small slice of the whole battle.

Command is an exercise in managing chaos and uncertainty. In this respect, Pub Battles is one of the most authentic simulations available.