Spanish Guerrilla Garrisons

Our PBEM campaign throws up many unusual and unexpected wargames, and put our simple “old school” type wargame rules to the test.

The rules are designed to cover 90% of table top actions, and leave the other 10% to amicable conclusion between me and Jan.   On the rare occasions when we do not agree we just roll a dice, and try to solve the problems after the game is completed.

We had one such problem during the recent Battle of Savaltiere.   The campaign background was a British corps would advance north from Savaltiere in order to attack an isolated French corps.   A second British corps would replace them in the town.

Unknown to the British there was a second French corps within supporting distance, and they “marched to the sound of the guns”.   In doing so they had to pass a farmhouse, which was occupied by a Spanish guerrilla band.

Guerrilla are not designed to take part in table top games.   If they find themselves on the table they usually ambush the nearest French brigade, and they rout off the table.   In this case if they left the farm they would run into the second French corps.

So we agreed that they could find as a garrison, but only to skirmish.   No hand to hand fighting would be allowed.   Both sides would roll 1D6 each move.   The French would need 5 or 6 for a hit.   The Spanish would need 6.   As luck would have it the Spanish hit the French first move, which meant that the French would also need a 6 for a hit.   Three moves later the Spanish hit the French a second time.   They had won the skirmish!

This would have ended the whole campaign on a sour note.   So we agreed to rout the guerrilla and let the weakened French infantry brigade take the farm.

However in future we have agreed how to handle such a situation.   Each move the Spanish would have to test their morale, but not with the normal morale table.   They would roll 1D6.   On the first move they would need 2 or more to make morale.   On the second they would need 3 or more, and so on.   So they could not hold for more than four moves, and were likely to rout much sooner.

No doubt it will never happen again, now that we have agreed how to handle it!