Below you will find the modifications I used for the gaming the Plains War using Piquet and Din of Battle first edition. Used these rules for a number of historical fights from Fetterman, to Beecher's Island, and of course the Little Big Horn with very good results.
Haven't seen the current edition of Din of Battle so cannot say how they would work with the newer version.
Let's begin:
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| Pardon the photo quality. It's an old camera. Well it is now but was not then! |
The
usual pattern of a hostile attack was a quick attempt at rout by mounted
charge, followed by dismounted skirmishing to disrupt, demoralize, and by
stampeding horses, demobilize the enemy. Attempts would be made to lure the
troops into spreading out while the hostiles would use their superior mobility
to overwhelm any detachment that found itself isolated. A charge, usually
mounted but not always, would seal the fate of any unit considerably reduced in
fighting power by the skirmishing. Truly being groups of individuals, the
warrior bands would be difficult to coordinate en masse, but individual bands could
usually be depended upon to act appropriately, i.e. don’t sit around on your
horse being shot at, don’t frontally charge a line of well ordered troops, do
move around the enemy’s flank, do withdraw in the face of a charge in order to
draw out the troops.
The
3/0 command rating for the Sioux is spot on for representing the difficulty in
coordinating a force’s actions. Other areas of the Sioux list could stand
discussion.
Based
on this model I would suggest changes to reflect the following points.
Despite the Hollywood image, by the mid 1870’s, while
individual warriors might “circle” the troops on horseback as a show of
bravery, most warriors would dismount and skirmish with any determined
opposition.
·
Add two more Deployment cards to the Sequence deck. If it is necessary
to keep the basic deck at 32, remove 2 Milling Around cards.
An individual warrior, being trained for war since birth,
would probably prove superior to the average trooper in melee. However a group
of warriors, truly a group of equals fighting along side each other by choice
and free to seek safety as individual conscience dictated, were not a match for
an equal number of relatively disciplined soldiers in melee. The historical
record shows instances of weakened or demoralized troops being overrun by
hostiles. Also in evidence are cases of hostiles routing troops from flank or
rear. But instances of hostiles defeating organized troops in frontal melee are
rare (actually I can’t recall any, but hate to say “never.”)
·
Change the Sioux troop type from Native to Militia (down 1 in melee.)
·
Do not allow Indian mounted troops to melee dismounted skirmishers
without a melee card. Mounted units that would otherwise have been eligible to
melee dismounted skirmishers may attempt to count coup (see below) on an
appropriate movement card at a cost of one pip per unit.
The Plains warrior being by nature a hunter was probably
the equal (some say the superior) of the soldier in terms of marksmanship. The
Native Americans’ main constraint viz. firepower was uncertain supply of
ammunition. Read just about any account of a fight between federal troops and
hostiles and you’ll be impressed with just how poorly the frontier regulars
handled their weapons. Some historians lay the blame on Congress. Apparently
the government failed to provide funds to allow for sufficient expenditure of
rounds in target practice.
·
Here I’m not sure of the design intent. If rating the cavalry as elite
(up 1 for fire) vs. the Sioux as Native (down 1 for fire) represents the U.S.
forces’ greater supply of cartridges for use in battle than perhaps no change
is warranted. However, as noted above, I advocate changing the hostiles to
Militia (NC for fire.) If ammunition supply is not being modeled than change
the U.S. cavalry from elite to line.
Mobility,
more than combat prowess, was the main strength of the warrior bands. It seems
that if the federals’ left an opening on a flank, the hostiles would find it
and infiltrate it. This penchant for infiltration made any movement by small bodies
of troops, particularly retreats, hazardous undertakings.
·
Add one more Maneuver card to the Sioux sequence deck.
Finally,
I feel that more detail is required to show the difficulties facing dismounted
cavalry. A large part of the hostiles’ attention was devoted to separating the
soldiers from their horses. That’s not very surprising if you consider that the
Plains warrior’s main weapon was mobility.
·
In regard to horse holders U.S. and European armies generally assigned
one man in four to hold the horses when the troop dismounted. This reduction of
the firing line, and consequently of the beaten zone as well, is easily
represented by retaining one stand of troops mounted. The mounted stand
represents the horses and holders and should be placed to the rear of the unit.
The horse holders may move with the troop at the dismounted rate. According to Upton’s 1874 manual of U.S. Army
Cavalry Tactics, the horse holders were to be placed in an area behind the
firing line to be used as a reserve. If a dismounted troop receives fire from
the flank or rear, the horse holders may be specifically targeted. If a stand
loss is required that troop is no longer able to remount as the horses have
been stampeded.
·
The Plains warriors (as, if I recall correctly did the Boers) used
non-combatants to tend to their horses when they dismounted. A riderless horse
or perhaps one of the mounted figures can be used to represent the location of
the horses. This has the advantage of allowing all four stands to take their
place on the firing line. The downside is that the horses themselves may not
move. Lines of sight permitting the riderless horses may be targeted by the
enemy, two hits sufficing to scatter the herd.
Other
changes to the sequence deck (added 3/2000):
In
the late 1860’s and early 70’s the increasing availability of breech-loading
weaponry began to effect the tactics of both soldier and warrior. The changes
to the sequence deck outlined below reflect how the availability of modern
firearms altered the art of war on the plains.
1. For the US, reduce the
number of Missile/Musket Reload cards to two. Add one Breech-Loader Reload
card. This will have to be home made or substituted from one of the other
cards.
2. For the Sioux, add a
Breech-Loader/Bow Reload as well as an Elite Reload card. Remove two Milling
Around cards. The absence of an Elite Reload from the Sioux deck must have been
an oversight as this army is allowed elite troops.
3. Note that unlike carbine
armed troops, mounted bow armed troops may reload on Musket/Missile Reload
and/or Breech-Loader/Bow Reload cards without penalty.
4. Players might also want to
use the indirect bow fire rules from Archon or BoB to allow bow armed Indians
to fire at soldier positions from behind intervening terrain features.
5. Replace 2 of the three Melee
Resolution cards in the Sioux deck with 2 Count Coup cards.
When
this card is drawn, the player must pay one pip for each unit within 8 inches
of an enemy unit as enthusiastic individuals ride/run out from the warband to
perform feats of daring to prove their prowess.
The
warband unit does not itself move. The majority of the unit will be waiting and
watching the deeds of their dare devil brethren.
The
defending unit will fire if loaded. This fire does not require an opportunity
fire chit. Range is determined as in the opp fire rules with firing troop
quality determining the range at which fire is taken. Consider the targets to
be closing from the parent unit’s position. This fire can only effect the coup
counters, not their parent unit. A loss of one or more stands will end the
attempt at counting coup. The warband will suffer no adverse effect. If the
firing unit was armed with muzzle-loading weapons, mark that unit as fired.
They will need a reload card before they can fire again. If the unit was armed
with breech-loaders or repeaters, it retains its loaded status.
If
the coup counters survive the opportunity fire they will fight one round of
melee (at no additional cost) with the target unit. Consider this a straight
roll of the two units’ melee dice. Consider the advantages of charging to be
cancelled out by the numbers of the defenders. The numerical advantage of the
defenders is cancelled out by the sheer audacity of the “attacks.”
If
the Coup Counters win the melee round, the defending unit is disrupted and must
surrender a morale chip. If already disrupted, a morale chip is still lost but
the defending unit is not routed. No stands are ever lost to coup counters but
a dismounted cavalry unit will lose its mounts if it loses a coup counter
melee. Consider the braves to have so spooked the mounts with eagle bone
whistles and waving blankets that the horse holders are unable to control their
charges and the mounts bolt.
If
the coup counters lose the melee, they are considered eliminated. The Sioux
player must surrender a morale chip but suffers no other adverse effect as the
coup counters are deemed to be a very small portion of the warband’s number.
Note
that I have opted not to charge the hostiles a morale chip if the coup counters
are laid low by gunfire, only by melee. If the coup counters were driven off by
gunfire, we may assume that the individuals were killed, wounded, or simply
thought better of their actions and returned to their units. While this may or
may not have a negative effect on that individual’s power or medicine, I deem
this not to significantly undermine the unit’s or tribe’s morale as a whole.
Losing the melee on the other hand, shows the unit that their bravest warriors
were no match for the foe in close combat, a very disheartening revelation
indeed for the surviving braves, and thus worth the loss of a morale chip.
As
you can see the act of counting coup can set up opportunities for the rest of
the hostiles to charge and melee the newly disrupted units, as well as drain
precious morale chips. At the same time coup counting is quite dangerous and
later in the period, when breech-loading weaponry is readily available, will
often come to naught.
·
As one final note, consider carbines to have one half the range of
their long rifle counterpart on the Weapon Adjustment Table. Thus a Trapdoor
Springfield carbine would have a Point Blank range of 0-5”, Short 5”-9”, Medium
9”-12”, and Long 12”-16”.
I
look forward to discussing these ideas with any interested parties. Sources can
be provided but I didn’t want to add to an already long post.
1998
Coup
rules, some changes 2000
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| Guideons suitable for wargaming |
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