"Did you ever run Morale like this?" Topic

Back in the mists of the previous millennium and century, I loved playing WRG Ancients. They were a bit time consuming, though. There was a LOT of adding positive factors, subtracting negative factors (and this usually evened out…) and rolling the dice which resulted in a "carry on as normal".

Once or twice, we tried this. Assume that you pass all morale rolls (Reaction Tests™) unless challenged. Each general got 3 poker chips. These were used to force the enemy to take a Reaction Test at your choosing. You could also challenge yourself, if you wanted to go Impetuous.
These functioned just like an NFL Coach's challenge. If you failed, you lost the chip. If you got the results you wanted, you got the chip back. You of course had to specify the results you wanted. If you were behind his flank and caused a heap big bunch of casualties, you threw in the chip. If he broke, you got the chip back, and could challenge the next unit over.

As I remember it, it worked rather well. So well, that we only did it once or twice.

This is almost exactly the system found in Piquet in 1994 and in all later versions, and in Field of Battle II at this very time. The only difference is the amount of chips you had varies according to Quality of command and troops. Also the only morale checks were forced by the playing a chip-assuming you would always select a critical moment( and better than a simple table grid).

You also lost chips to enemy combat, and resulting morale failures.When you were out-the battle ended, you had lost. This made the number of challenges and the use of chips very selective and careful as they were a finite and diminishing supply.

Works like a charm.

Since 1994 was 8 years into my marital wargaming hiatus…
I think we tried it out in 1984 or 1985. I should have patented it. I would be rich now!

You'd also own the only wargame rules patent! The only two people I know that made a fortune in wargaming primarily sold figures not rules. Rules are too easy to copy or plagiarize.

In any case, it appears at least two of us did try this idea. It works well.

That sounds interesting – worth a try next time we game

I think that is a great idea, especially for games with great amounts of detail.

No, we used a diferrent method. We tossed out the rules and used one with almost no modifiers. Works great.
We don't put band-aids on bad rules, but we do believe in mercy-killing.

The "challenge" system was one of several innovations to be found in Chris Parker's "Day of Battle" medieval rules.