"Friction in Wargaming" Topic

Mister H,
Thanks for those kind words, but I'm sure anyone who has been in the infantry had the same experience.

My infantry rules are still a WIP. I assign an infantry unit a Tactical Quality Rating of generally 1 to 4, and Squad and Platoon Leaders a Leadership Rating of 1 to 3.

Executing orders while under fire is the trickiest thing to model, especially moving under fire. So when under fire and a team is issued an order, the player rolls a D6 for the TQ Rating modified by the level of fire they are under. If the D6 result is <= the TQ, the unit performs.

If they fail, the SL or LT who is close enough can use their Leadership modifier to get them to pass. If they ultimately fail, that's being Pinned Down. However, when the player decides to use the Leadership modifier, the Leader takes a causality check and can be KIA. Players need to be careful using them.

So a poor unit with a strong leader can perform, a good unit with a poor leader can perform.

However, an order to fall back is always obeyed, but the unit must move at top speed to get out of the enemy's LOS and cannot shoot back.

One more thing. We were always taught to assault THROUGH an enemy position and not to occupy it. Typically, the enemy would have mortars zeroed in on their defender's position, so you don't want to stop there.

This is happening in Ukraine right now. When hard pressed, the Ukie defenders fall back and let the Russians take their position and immediately get hit by 82 and 120mm mortars. Then the Ukies go back and take their position. Of course, it does not work perfectly every time.

So when assaulting a trench/treeline, the mortars lift from the enemy position to just behind the defender's position when the attackers are 25-50m away IF they have enough ammo. Having a drone coordinate helps.

I see you live in Illinois. I'll be at Little Wars in April GM-ing several games and giving away a copy of the intro version of my WWII AFV rules. If you are interested, I can send you an advance copy.

Wolfhag

Wolfhag,

I'll gladly take you up on the offer. I'd really enjoy reading through the rules. Thanks for that! I'm planning to be at Little Wars as well. Reach me by email at slantyshanty@att.net when you have a chance.

Looking forward to it.

Mister H

Wolfhag,

A lot of what you're describing is the same problem space I've been wrestling with in my own rules, especially the gap between giving an order and actually getting a unit to move when rounds are coming in.

Rather than treating it as a straight quality check, I've been leaning into command friction. Units usually know what they're supposed to do – the question is whether they can pull it off right now. Leaders don't magically fix that, but they can push things along, usually by taking on some risk themselves, which sounds very close to what you're modeling with leader exposure.

I'm with you that moving under fire is the hardest thing to get right on the table. In my game it's possible, but it's ugly — slow, inefficient, and often makes the situation worse before it gets better. Pulling back may be easier to execute, but you pay for it in lost ground and cohesion rather than bodies.

Good point about assaulting through a position instead of stopping on it. The Ukraine example really drive that home – ground changes hands, but fires decide whether it can be held.

Thanks for sharing. Always good to compare notes on the infantry problem set.

Mister H

Mister H,
I emailed you my designer notes and the link to the YouTube channel. It has the links to documents and manuals I used to develop the game. I'm doing videos for the intro game two-page rules, which should be ready next week.

Last month, we had a detailed discussion between game types: TMP link

Wolfhag