Designing Rules for Ambushes in Wargames

 

The ambush is a well known military tactic, however wargames rules rarely seem to have a workable mechanism to handle them.

A summary of existing rules and methods

I carried out a non-comprehensive analysis of wargames rules that have any rules for ambushes. (If any readers know of any other than those I have listed then please send a comment to the Editor!)

Ambush rules in published wargames

“Flames of War”

The Defender may have 1 (sometimes more than 1 depending on the scenario) unit kept off table for use in an ambush.

Deployed no closer than 4" and in cover (woods, etc.) to an enemy unit or more than 16" and not in cover.

Bolt Action

A unit can be given an Ambush order

A unit with an Ambush order may fire at a moving enemy unit in the opponent’s turn (so a bit like overwatch in other rules)

At the end of the turn an unused Ambush order can be converted to a Fire order on a score of 4+ on 1D6

One Page Rules

Units with the Ambush special rule may be set aside at the beginning of the game. In any turn after the first, a one of these units can be deployed anywhere >9” from any opposing unit.

“The Sword and the Flame”

This game has rules for the concealment of units – indeed it is recommended that all Native units are concealed at the start of a game. A concealed unit may be revealed as and when desired by the Native player or when an opposing unit moves to a position where the concealed unit is visible.

Considerations

Most of these methods work up to a point. However, tracking the location of units can be a pain. This pain can be alleviated to some extent by using an area or grid location but it still requires record keeping. Of course it is possible to “free kriegsspiel” the whole thing as in Dick Scholefield’s “The Birds Are Singing And It's a Wonderful Day!”, but I was looking for something more rules based.

Colonial

Many moons ago my old wargaming friend Robin Peck (now sadly passed away) wrote up a system in the “Lone Warrior” magazine. This is summarised here:

Generally, the native forces will be concealed at the start of the game. Shuffle together as many marked cards as there are native units with as many blank cards as there are more possible places of concealment than native units. For example, if there are 11 possible places of concealment and 6 native units, shuffle together 11 cards – 6 marked and 5 blank.

Place one card face down at each location. Remember that more than one unit may fit in a larger area of concealment.

Face down cards may not be moved. Cards may be turned over when:

• During native movement – roll 1D6 to score 6 to allow one card card to be turned over. You may do this no more than twice in any turn.

• If any Imperial figure approaches within 4in. of a feature containing a card

An ordinary pack of playing cards may be used:

• Blank cards are red. A blank card is removed when turned over.

• Marked cards are black. A marked card is replaced by a native unit.

Again the system worked but the disadvantage is that all potential concealment locations are known, it’s just that you don’t know if they are occupied or not. It is theoretically possible for the opposing force to simply work around them.

I have seen a number of other games where concealment is managed by having one or more dummy markers for each marker representing a real unit. Again, this has the same problem – all the potential locations of the concealed forces are known even if the actual location is unknown. The corollary is of course that where there is no marker there is definitely no enemy troops ...

A Better Mousetrap?

Picture the scene … a British column advancing through hostile territory. It could be the North West Frontier or the savannahs of Zululand … . An American patrol in Vietnam …. an armed convoy in Palestine in 1936….

At any time they could be ambushed by enemy troops. They don’t see it coming until the bullets start flying or the demolition charge blows the road in front of them. Every tree, hillock or other piece of cover could hide a malevolent enemy. Most of the time the Americans in the jungles of Vietnam never even saw their opponents.

While trying to recreate these sort of situations in a game format, it dawned on me that all the constraints rules normally placed on where and when an ambush might occur are actually completely irrelevant. Why not simply allow ambushers to appear from cover literally anywhere? And why limit the number of ambushers?

Simple Ambush Rules

These rules have a main core section (given below) and then two alternative specific modules – one for a unit based rules system and the other for a figure based skirmish type game. In the latter case my “go to“ rules for skirmishes is “One Hour Skirmish Wargames”, hence the references to Action Points (APs).

The ambushing side has one or more “ambush pools”. An Ambush Pool is a group of units or figures held off table and available for deployment in ambushes. The Ambush Pools can potentially contain all the figures or units in the Ambushing force. A single Ambush Pool can be assigned to a specified zone on the table.

The Defender moves onto the table and proceeds with actions until the Ambusher declares an ambush. At this point the Ambusher places as many units or figures from the Ambush Pool as they wish. This deployment counts as a Move action (and any restrictions on Move actions will apply).

Ambushing units must be placed no closer than the “minimum ambush distance” from any enemy, may be in cover or prone, and no further away than the “maximum shooting distance”. The ambushers must have LOS to an enemy unit. The “minimum ambush distance” is to ensure that Ambushers cannot move straight into Close Combat.

Play then proceeds normally with the following additional provisions:

• In the Ambusher’s activation, additional units or figures from the Ambush Pool may be deployed. This deployment counts as a Move action.

• The scenario may set a limit on how many units or figures can be deployed in a single activation.

• Ambushing units or figures may “fade away”. They are removed from the table and returned to the Ambush Pool. This action also counts as a Move action. A unit that fades away recovers all hits.

• Contact is broken when all units or figures are out of LOS. If contact is broken then all the ambushing units fade away.

Simple Ambush Rules (unit based)

“minimum ambush distance” is one normal move (for the ambushing unit).

“maximum shooting distance” Is small arms range

Roll 6+ on 2D6 to activate a unit from the ambush pool for the first time.

A unit cannot fade away if engaged in close combat.

A unit that has “faded away” may be deployed again in ambush on a score of 8+ on 2D6, but not on the same turn in which it fades away..

Simple Ambush Rules (for use with “One Hour Skirmish Wargames” or similar skirmish rules)

“minimum ambush distance” is 6”.

“maximum shooting distance” Is 24”

It costs 1AP to deploy a figure

The scenario will set a limit on how many figures can be deployed in a single activation, though usually this is limited by the number of APs available.

An ambushing figure may “fade away” at a cost of 1AP per figure.

Vietnam artillery and emplacements

 

I wanted some artillery pieces for a firebase defence in Vietnam game. I constructed these simple guns using bamboo skewers, balsa wood and plastic counters for the wheels. Not the most wonderful scale models but as they are effectively just terrain pieces I think they do the job. The emplacements were made by making sandbags from rolled paper strips that are flattened and then glued together.

A command bunker was made with sandbags made in the same way with a removable roof of bamboo skewers.

How to model trenches

 ( I have ben away for a few days, hence the lack of posts for the last week or so.)

I needed some trenches for a siege game I am designing. Various companies produce trench system terrain pieces but they are fairly expensive and I needed something that was really flexible. I have been making models of one sort or another for over 50 years so I had a few ideas...

Materials

The system needed to be cheap. We drink wine and I therefore had a quantity of wine corks. The "composition" corks are better for this purpose than the corks that are a solid piece of material. If you don't drink wine then you can buy wine corks on Amazon quite cheaply. Get the straight ones rather than the tapered type. Craft match sticks are about £4 for a bag of 1000, though you could use ordinary matches if you cut the heads off. The bases are mount board. I use a lot of mount board in modelling.

Basic Construction

 First cut the wine corks into quarters lengthwise. Use a sharp utility knife blade and be careful!

My base terrain system is Hexon II so I make everything to a 4" modular size. A straight trench piece is therefore mounted on a piece of mount board 4" long by 1/2" wide

Notice there is a small space behind the vertical face. Cut the matches into ~11mm lengths and glue to the vertical face using woodworking PVA glue. I use the guidelines on the cutting mat to make this easier and quicker. I also used the PVA glue to plug any large gaps between the cork pieces.

Corners

I already had some outside 120 degree angle pieces (to fit on a Hexon tile) so I made some internal corner pieces to match them. Cut away the excess mount board before doing the next step.

Texturing

Cover the slopes with PVA glue (use your finger to get a smooth coat) and shake modelling sand over the glue. I use a coarse modelling sand available from Pendraken.

If you don't want angle pieces as shown above then you can just as easily make 90 degree corner pieces like this. When making corners ensure that the gap between the inside and outside is the same throughout. In my case I worked on a 20mm gap. You can probably see the reveting better in this photo than the ones above.

More Corners

Completed trenches

Here's a picture of what it all looks like when laid out on the table. You could also make card strips to represent the floor of the trench, particularly if it is boarded rather than just bare earth. Of course, being modular you can reconfigure it into any shape you want.

You can make any shape you want using this basic technique. I thought about making some "T junction" pieces but I decided not to at least for the time being. 

The Book - "Battles of St Albans"

 Looking back through posts on this blog you may find a post entitled "2005" in which I said that the blog would go on hold while we wrote the book about the battles of St Albans. I never updated the blog much after that so after many years delay here is the post about the book:

It was actually published in 2007 and has gone through at least one reprinting since then. Although at the time it incorporated new  research as was as accurate to the history as we could get, over the years further research by both ourselves and others has refined and updated the story. More about that in another post perhaps.

You can still purchase the book from Amazon:

Battles of St Albans

There are probably also copies available from used book stores.

One Hour Skirmish Wargames - Genres

"One Hour Skirmish Wargames" by John Lambshead is one of those books that completely revolutionises your thinking. I have been designing wargames for  more than 50 years, many of them "skirmish" - that is, one figure represents one man. Yet when I tried OHSW I was gobsmacked by the elegant game mechanics and their sheer simplicity. So much so that I have been adding and modifying the basic OHSW system for quite a while now and have used it for  number of different periods or genres.

Here's a list:

Three Musketeers

Border Reivers (16th century raids on the borders of England and Scotland)

French & Indian War

Napoleonic

Wild West (including 19th century crime - Sherlock Holmes)

Early 20th Century (the Irish war of Independence, Irish Civil War and actions on the NW Frontier of India)

World War 2

Vietnam

Sci-Fi (various including Doctor Who and Cyberpunk)

I'm even looking at using OHSW for a 15th century Wars of the Roses skirmish. Yes, I know that he has produced a second book for Ancient and Medieval Skirmishes, but I prefer a modified version of the original OHSW because I think there are too many card draws in  OHAMSW.

I plan to publish my modifications of OHSW here in due course.

Vietnam Game Types

I guess many people only know about the "classic" Vietnam wargame style - a US patrol in the jungle gets ambushed. This is a "Search and Destroy" operation.

However, the more I read  about the war, the more different types of action I have discovered. Here are a number of examples. I have added notes about rules that I use for various types of game.

Search and Destroy

Patrol and ambush OHSW+[1]  (with Ambush [2] ) – “Search and Destroy” sub rules

Platoon and squad sized patrols

Ambush patrol (at night) US forces set up ambush

Advance to Contact

A variation on the "Search and Destroy" theme where the US are being more aggressive and may even have supporting armour.

Can include armour (M113s and M48s)

Xenos Rampant (with Ambush)

Air support

PBR River Patrol

The Patrol Boat River or PBR was a small fast river patrol boat equipped with machine guns and a crew of about 6 men. They patrolled throughout the Mekong River delta.

Street Fighting

Not all fighting in Vietnam was in the jungle. Notably there was substantial street fighting during the Tet Offensive in 1968.

Xenos Rampant

Firebase Defence

The US set up firebases to provide artillery support for their foot patrols. However, these firebases also became targets for attack.

Xenos Rampant  (night fighting and stealth)

Air support

Combat Search and Rescue

A downed pilot or helicopter crew need to be found and extracted. On or more of them maybe injured. In the famous "BAT21" incident a whole battle was fought just to extract one downed pilot.

OHSW+ (with Ambush)

May include helicopter insertion

Air Assault

The classic sequence in "Apocalypse Now" complete with "Ride of the Valkyries" soundtrack. The Landing Zone (LZ) may be "hot" (under fire from VC or NVA) or "cold".

 “We Were Soldiers” (with Ambush)

Tunnel Warfare

The tunnels of Cu Chi. There was quite a bit of fighting underground in the extensive tunnel complexes built by the communists.

 “Search and Destroy” sub rules

Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP)

Small groups of elite US troops searching out VC or NVA operations. Mike Lambo has produced an excellent solitaire game "Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol" based on this subject.

Convoy Attack

The US supply convoys naturally became a target, ripe for ambush as they snaked along mountain roads. In the face of such attacks US troops improvised and created "gun trucks". Normal trucks converted with improvised armour and machine guns. Some 5 ton truck versions even had salvaged M113 hulls placed on the back.

Xenos Rampant

Riverine Action

The US created entire river borne units,  the US Mobile Riverine Force, using modified LCM-8 landing craft. The "monitors" carried heavy guns.

“We Were Soldiers”

Assault against dug in NVA positions

Hamburger Hill

First Indo-China War (1946 - 1954)

The US involvement in Vietnam was actually the second Indo-China War. Substitute French for Americans and there you are. The French troops at this time looked not dissimilar to US troops of WW2  so you could use your WW2 Americans to stand in for the French.

Memoir '44

Notes:

1. OHSW+ is "One Hour Skirmish Wargames" by John Lambshead with my additional rules

2. "Ambush" is my simple system for conducting ambushes.

There's possibly more to add here at some point.   

Xenos Rampant .... for Vietnam???

I admit it, I have become  a fan of the Rampant series of games. There are many subtleties to the way the basic game engine works and it is easy to add additional rules for special effects.

Xenos Rampant is the ostensibly Sci-fi version of the Rampant system. I say ostensibly because shortly after getting my copy I realised that it could work for modern periods as well. Indeed one of the "settings" is entitled "Five Minutes into the Future" (in other words, modern) and another is "Weird War" (which is basically WW2 with added fantasy bits).

So I thought, why not Vietnam?

Why not indeed!

US troops and NVA are Heavy Infantry while VC are Light Infantry. The "Fire Support" option can represent either artillery or airstrikes. The vehicles are either Fighting Vehicle (tank) or Transport Vehicle (APC). For helicopters just add the "Flying" Xeno rule. Add other special rules to taste and away you go!

I have designed several House Rules to add to the flavour:

Xenos Rampant – House Rules

Fire Markers

When a unit in cover fires, place a red counter next to it. This represents the defenders spotting where fire is coming from. In the defender’s turn they must fire at red counters if possible. Firing at a red counter (and the unit next to it) removes the red counter.

If a unit with a red counter moves, the red counter is left in place. Thus the defenders may find themselves firing at nothing.

Infantry Anti-Tank Capability

Infantry can attack armoured vehicles with satchel charges and grenades if so equipped (This is the XR “Demolitions” rule, worth 2pts). The target’s armour is halved against such attacks.

Vehicle Flanks and Rear

When a vehicle is fired on from the rear 180 degrees by anti-tank weapons then the target’s armour is reduced by 1

Casualty Effects

An FW unit that takes a casualty must move to a suitable LZ location (8” square) for Dustoff. Place a “Dustoff” marker on the unit. When the unit is at the LZ roll 2D6, on a score of 6+ Dustoff occurs and the marker is removed. This doesn’t remove the casualty from the unit but allows it to fight again.

Place a marker for every 2 casualties on a NLF unit. An FW unit must move to contact the marker in order to claim a bodycount.

Media Crews

A media crew is typically 2 figures. They have an Armour of 2 and 5 SP. The only actions they can take are Move (though it is a free move) and Rally.

Media crews score points as follows:

+1 A media crew that is in LOS of a firefight (FW unit firing).

+2 in LOS of an NLF unit that takes 1 or more hits

+4 in LOS of an NLF unit that is broken

-1 If media crew is shot at

-2 If media crew takes 1 or more hits

-4 If media crew is forced to retreat

Barbed Wire

Barbed Wire is a linear obstacle. It can be cleared by an Engineering Unit making an Attack action when in contact. The Attack is automatically successful.

Slit Trench

A slit trench provides Cover (Armour +1) against shooting.

Bunker

A bunker counts as a fortification (Armour 7)

Satchel Charges

A satchel charge is a one-shot weapon.

Attack action (6+)

Attack value 4+

Anti-Tank (½ armour vs. vehicle or fortification)

Mines

A mine is rated as nD6. A Claymore is a one-shot 6D6 weapon with a range of 6”.

Attack action (6+)

Attack value 4+ (roll nD6 according to mine rating)

May be Anti-Tank (½ armour vs. vehicle)

A mine is a one shot weapon

Stealthy Movement

A unit can move quietly at half speed. A unit may have a Stealthy Movement skill so can move quietly at normal speed.

Going Prone

A unit can drop to prone or stand up from prone as part of a Move action. A prone unit counts as in cover and is invisible to sentries until it stands up or moves. A prone unit can move at half speed and remain prone.

Shot at in the Open

An infantry unit that is shot at while in the open will immediately go to ground.

Visibility and Spotting

A terrain item may be designated as either open or dense cover. Open Cover can be seen through up to 4”. Dense cover can be seen through up to 2” and additionally the edge of dense cover blocks LOS when looking into the terrain.

A unit can see within a 90 degree arc to their front. A unit in contact with a terrain item may “hide in the shadows”.

Visibility distance at night:

Unaided 6”

Torch or lantern 12”

Searchlight 24”

Rain or fog reduces visibility to ~12” (dependent on scenario).

A unit that is in any cover or prone (except on a hard surface) is Hidden. A Hidden unit cannot be observed or shot at. The unit remains hidden until it discharges any firearms or moves out of the cover.

Sound

In daylight, sound is not usually significant. However at night, sound carries further. So a unit moving normally can be heard at a distance of 24” by an alert unit. A firearm discharge can be heard at any distance.

“Endless Hordes”

A unit that is routed may return as a fresh unit on an activation score of 8+ on 2D6.

Nervous Defenders

After the first shot or explosion, on each turn roll 2D6 for each unit with a Claymore. On a score of 7+ they fire the Claymore (see above for effect).

Illumination Rounds

Call for Illumination Rounds in the same way as for artillery support. If at least one hit is scored then the field is illuminated for 2 turns. Unaided visibility is increased to 12”.

Artillery Emplacement

An artillery emplacement has a strength of 5 and armour 2. 

Note: I am publishing these posts in no particular order.