"What happens to the commander when he is removed?" Topic

I've always found it adds color to see what happened to a commander that has been removed from a wargame battle from combat. I think it would be great fun to roll for his fate at the end of the battle.

Does anyone know of such a table of possible outcomes that I can find on the net? Something that has perhaps 20+ possibilities that outline possible deaths such as "Carried from the field gravely wounded, he died 3 days later" to "Found pinned under his horse. Has a broken leg but is otherwise fine."

Age of Reason uses such a system for leaders. Exactly what you are looking for.

Yaquinto (i believe) released a tactical Civil War board game in the '70s that had a random chart exactly what you're looking for. There were about 40 outcomes. I recall the gist of two of them:

"The Colonel vanishes into a pink mist in front of the horrified regiment."

"The Colonel is hit by a round shot and appliqued across the front rank of the regiment."

Sadly, my copy got watered logged in a basement flood long ago. Maybe an internet search for Yaquinto Civil War games would bear fruit?

Or it should be fairly simple to create your own table and just use it with any rule system that you already have

My adaptation of Armati has a D6 roll after the combat in which the commander fell which had a range of (6, of course) outcomes from dead to recovers and joins the nearest unit (which is his own if it has survived the combat) … One of the outcomes was that he was not found, in which case we would roll again at the end of the battle to see if he could be found amongst the casualties.

Trebian's Indian Mutiny game Sepoy had an extensive list of diced-for 'Officer Incidents' when commanders were at risk which gave you a rich anecdotal range from bullets being stopped by hip flasks to killed outright.

Something like that might suit but I'm not sure what online variants there are …

Phil

Including, if I remember correctly
"bullet ricochets off hip flask and blows off the top of his head"

Yaquinto's Battles and Leaders

there were @ 60 entries

Yaquinto's Battles and Leaders

We played that one back in the day. It was some great fun. I do remember the leader casualty table.

General de Brigade has a similar system for General casualties.

In one of our games Wellington and Staff suffered a 'double-six' result, galloped for cover into a small wood and was captured by French forces !!

Yes, I really like the GdeB double six table for general's casualties.

Boardgamegeek.com has a picture of the leader loss table for the Yaquinto game posted. It's big enough to read, so if you want it go and get it.
BWW

"File Leader" is a small-scale set of rules for the ECW period and had virtually the same table as Yaquinto's. Which came first I can't say, but either is a good read and a fun addition to any game.

Brianw, can you give a more direct link please? I've tried all the search combinations I can think of with no result and there's a lot to wade through. Thanks.

link

Worth a look

Guns at Gettysburg has a good system to handle this

I think I still have that Yaquinto chart. I will open the mouldy vault to see. If anyone wants a copy, drop me a line.

Oh, you mean commanders who have become casualties! My first thought was for generals who were removed from command because of losing the battle.

In which case the results would be things like:

1. Sent west to fight Indians

2. Spends rest of life justifying his action and writing bitter letters to the newspapers.

3. etc.

WRT the ACW, there should be entries for COs who were barely wounded (or not at all) and opted to retire from the field. And of course there were occasionally those who were too inebriated to exercise command.

One doesn't read about this as much in other periods. I think it has to do with both the nature of ACW armies and the embarrassment of riches we have in the form of letters, diaries and unit histories.

Thanks for the link Saber6 and BrianW. I can modify those so that it tells whether they lived or died after the battle.

ScottWashburn: Yeah…battlefield casualties. There fate after their military career is probably a little more immersive than I want to go!

Thanks Sabre6 and Brian. #16 and 61 were the ones I was thinking of. Not too far off for 30+ years,lol.

Napoleon's battles also has a chat for eliminated Generals sometimes it is a mere scratch, or he can be even be captured

24 and 31 are favorites too

24, 31 and 46 are favorites too

46 was always my favorite. Seemed so appropriate for a wargame.

I've managed to make my own table with 18 entries. I used the Battles and Leaders table as inspiration as well as some accounts of leader deaths and woundings from history. I could not get to 36 though! My table pertains more of an aftermath of what happened to the man when he fell. The end result is the same with the leader being removed from the game. The fate table just adds color and context. Thanks for all the help. I'll post my creation this weekend.

Shouldn`t there be a `Dismissed for incompetance, sent home on half pay and spend the rest of his life writing his memoirs. Making himself out to be the hero" option?

thanks for the extra link saber6, I can see it now.

I found the leader hit table from the Yaquinto rules on BGG here:
link

You will need to sign-in to view it at a reasonable size, but it's well worth it.

I don't think posting those tables from other rules (e.g. Sepoy) would be a violation of copyright as long as they are not more than 15% of the original work (although I'm unfamiliar with TMP rules on the matter & would suggest checking those first).

If the NKVD removed him it is moot how he was 'removed" from command.

Adding another pitch for General de Brigade. The double six die roll can have some frustrating results. Or the general just gets up, roars at the enemy across the field, much to the admiration of the conscripts, and carries on. Great fun.

When a commander is removed he sent back home, sometimes with a suggestion that he might want to have an unfortunate "accident" with his personal pistol somewhere enroute. Oh, wait, you mean when a commander is a "casualty". Oh, sorry.

I always wondered what happened to commanders who are sacked – very much depends on whether it's Churchill or Stalin doing the sacking of course!!!

Yes, the Napoleon's Battles and GdeB tables are both great fun.

When playing Bluecher at the GdeB Waterloo Mega-Game at the National Army Museum in 2002, I suffered an astonishing number of double-sixes directed at my personage! This resulted in the loss of one horse, had two rounds deflected by my (superior-quality) pocket-watch and also suffered two wounds from suspicious friendly-fire incidents! It all made for a very characterful and memorable game! :)

If he is Confederate, he is sent out of Lee's army, to fill up other commands with his cast-offs. If he is Federal -- somewhat the same, actually (such as Burnside and Hooker).

From our home-brew club rules:
Risk to Leader: A leader in a hex that takes a hit may become a casualty. The enemy player rolls a die.
On a 6 roll again:
1 or 2, an aide was hit, no effect.
3 or 4, the leader's horse was shot. The leader is out for one turn.
5, the leader is wounded and out of the game.
6, the leader is dead – discard 2 cards from player's hand for a subordinate leader, 3 for the army leader.

If a lone leader is overrun by cavalry, the enemy gets a re-roll on 4+. If a leader is unhorsed or wounded in a hex captured by the enemy, roll again. On 5 or 6 the leader is captured, otherwise has escaped to the nearest friendly unit. If retreating through a contested hex, check again for capture.

If a leader was wounded and you wish to know this worthy's fate after the game, roll a die. On 1 or 2 the wound was painful but minor; the leader is back in action after the number of days in another die roll. On 3 or 4 the wound was serious but the leader is back in action after the number of weeks on another die roll. On a roll of 5 or 6 the leader has lost a limb. Roll again, on 1 the leader has succumbed to infection. On a roll of 2 the leader has survived but chooses to retire from the military. 3 through 6 is the number of months the leader requires to heal before returning to the army.

Special for the French at Blenheim D6

1 surrenders
2 drowns in Danube
3 surrenders
4 drowns in Danube
5 surrenders
6 drowns in Danube

In my SYW rules, I've included a "take one for the general"
variation.

"General attached to a unit taking casualties in a melee is killed on a ‘6' (may deflect the kill if ADC is also attached) or automatically removed if attached to a unit that is eliminated."

Bit of fun, really.