"ruses de guerre - in the Seven Year War" Topic

Gentlemen,

Recalling the film The Patriot, there were two instances of ruses de guerre"; "straw" British officers in exchange for American rebels and a supply column loaded with British infantry shadowed by Light Dragoons.

I am sure many of us, involved in a campaign, have suggested some cunning plan to an umpire to be given a thumbs up or down. Failing an umpire, has anyone created a table with various plus and minus factors to see if a plan can succeed?

Take the film, the Patriot, how would your table handle these two instances of "ruses de guerre"? Name some factors that would increase or decrease the chances of success.

Cheers,
Robert
18thcenturysojourn.blogspot.com

There are also the dead Black Watch rolling into Fort Pitt in The Unconquored.

Frederick the Great ordered the 56th Fusiliers to put their coats and hats and caps on backwards, so the French would think they were retreating, at the Battle of Gross Scheisskopf in 1761. They had a very successful charge against the Villers Bocage Regiment, because the colonel AND his ADC were both blind as bats and moles.
Captain Mulhern tried to alert them to the danger, but Col Beauchamp Comber replied "Zut! Alors! Zey are running away, you fool!"
The rest is history.

I can't wait to read the full account of John's anecdote on Wikipedia next week…

"put their coats and hats and caps on backwards, so the French would think they were retreating"
This could work!!
When I was a kid, I used to walk backwards in to the cinema so the usher would think I was leaving.

Interesting suggestions.

Back to the two illustrations. As an umpire, you had to create a chance table for success, would you give even odds 1-3 ruse fails, 4-6 ruse succeeds?

What factors would increase or decrease the odds?

Dogs were returned so surely this would increase the odds of success.
Rebels were known to mark officers as targets during an engagement.

Any ideas?
Cheers,

Hi

We brewed up a few charts for things like this, but it requires "spirit" of the game, that is, doing stupid if you roll wrong.

If your gamers are competitive and "need" to win, this sort of thing requires a judge.

Rocky

I think Rocky is on to something here with the use of a chart. Since most of the time, players are playing the part of a higher level commander, most of these "ruses" are concockted by junior leaders. YOU would ony learn of their success or failure after the fact! (Knowing beforehand would probably see yourself killing off the idea (as commander) as being too risky!

So a chart to be used when you feel "froggy" enough to try such a ploy (perhaps out of despiration?) could be handy! Maybe something like this?:

Roll 1d6:

1- Fails. All killed in the attempt. Tough luck!
2- Fails. All captured or killed! (Bummer!)
3- Never goes off due to the inability of the forces to act in time. "Sarge, where's my cartridge box?"
4- Partial Success. Enemy unit (closest) confused and no activity allowed this turn at all. "Dear God, Sir. I believe they are mooning us…."
5- Partial success. Enemy Brigade in confusion as it's commander is befuddled as to what to do this turn! (But they told me this area was the "quiet" part of the battlefield!)
6. Success! Enemy force withdraws as they believe they are following orders! (I just KNEW Corporal Smith's "special talent" would come in handy some day…..(as a forger)"

Die roll modifiers:
Attempting leader is a boffoon +1 (That idea sounds good to me!….)
Overall situation is despairate -1 (Only fools rush in….)
YOUR Force is surrounded +1 (for asking the opposing commander if they would like to surrender now, before your heroic defense that will go down in the history books and his name will as well for losing such a lopsided fight!)

Again, only when it fits within the "spirit" of the game!

Best
Tom Dye
GFI

I recall an ancients campaign where we used a game for strategic movement. You could set an ambush in closed terrain for the enemy. Before any modifiers it was basically a d6 50-50 chance. If one army had a big difference in scouting (this was a WRG world) then it was modified. Seems like you typically had a 1-2 of 6 chance of success.

The only way we successfully pulled it off on the table top was with independent commanders and a dedicated ref who would put out the wrong stuff or the captured T-34 initially. Never worked out anything for the horse and musket era, though it would be fun for sure.

I think there was an instance of a Prussian hussar regiment wearing their pelisses buttoned up and masquerading as Austrians and riding through the enemy camp.

Tom and Rocky … You are quite right about the "spirit" of times playing a critical part in constructing a chance table. We do have characteristics for the generals of brigade (cautious, bold or rash) and this would influence the success or failure of a cunning plan. Their characteristics would certainly influence the reaction of regimental level command.

We are currently in the middle of our second phase of Campaign in Bohemia. Here, we have two commands involved in the "petite guerre", the Prussians are trying to sweep the Elbe clear of enemy while following up the fugitives from Prague and all this must be completed before a screening force can be set up in anticipation of an Austrian (Daun) relief force.

The Croats and Hussars have been nimble enough to avoid the Prussian sweeps; breaking camp earlier, night marches along with the odd force march has kept the Austrians one step ahead of the Prussians. On two occaissions we have assembled the scattered units to strike back. This current conflict the Austrians outnumber the Prussians, 4,000 to 1,200 and the Prussians have their tunics buttoned correctly.

Cheers,

Isn't this sort of thing part of the reason why rule designs like PK were invented?

One of those out of ammo cards is because the enemy unit remains hidden in their giant barrels….

Someone should have mentioned the coats and hats thing to the Patriot producers.
Maybe they could have worked that in with firing 6 muskets simultaneously.

"There are also the dead Black Watch rolling into Fort Pitt in The Unconquored."

DAF

Excellent film! There is also the actuality of the feigned retreat and redeloyment/flank attack at Bushy Run on the second day.

The Highlander's rolling into Fort Pitt in The Unconquored is based on the 77th.Montgomery's Regiment being so sick from the fever brought back from the West Indias that they were transported in wagons and left as garrisons along Bouquet's march.

Another ruse de guerre I recall is from the Battle of Oriskany in 1777. The King's Royal Yorker detachment, upon the suggestion of Major John Butler, reversed their green provincial coats so the white lining would show them to look like a Continental detachment at a distance in an attempt to break through the Tryon Count Miltia defensive circle. Unfortunately it did not work for very long. Both Provinicials and miltia, being from the same region had many relatives and friends intermixed during the battle and many of the Yorkers were recognized by the miltia. But it almost worked. A good description of this tactic is noted in Gavin Watts' Rebellion in the Mohawk Valley.

Cheers, John

As our game is planned for the 1st of December, I have taken the opportunity this week to read what the fertile minds could do with this kind of situation.

It has activated my own creativity in assembling a list of possible scenarios. The Gypsies and dancing bears apart, I think I have come up with an option worthy of Sun-Tzu, but you will have to wait until next week. In the meantime, I should have our conflict at Nunbung at the blog tomorrow.

Cheers,
Robert
18thcenturysojourn.blogspot.com