My Smooth Brew 3.0

This blog will be updated from time to time as I find smoother and cleaner ways to play Pub Battles.

I am happy to play with the tried and true “official” rules. Pub Battles is quite a robust system and you can add all kinds of rules. These can be fun or satisfying, but most are unnecessary. I am very leery of adding any rules, other than those that smooth or speed play, as the system can quickly bog down. Remember, Pub Battles is first and foremost a command simulation, not a combat simulation.

I have four simplified rules and an easy written orders system. Correction, I now only use #4.
1)
2)
3)
4) Single die combat

Title in bold. Rule is normal font. Discussion/clarification in italics.

Single Die Combat

Each combatant rolls 1D6 and divides the result by 2 rounding down (1D6/2 round down) Giving a range from 0-3.

Die modifiers are now hit modifiers. 3 hits maximum, ignore the fourth hit if a flanking attacker rolls a 6!

This means that fresh units in cover cannot be killed in one round, they will always have a chance to retreat. This also means that flanked units will always suffer at least one hit. Flanked units can never suffer four hits, but they do triple the chance of sustaining 3 hits.

Written Orders

These written orders rules work well for solo games and two player games between non-contentious players. The fun of using these rules is the delay in transmission and the increased feel of maneuvering as a corps. This is in contradistinction to the “carefully choreographed bar fight” that some wargames feel like.