"Where Are The Camp Followers?" Topic

Most of our tabletop armies march and fight in isolation but historically they rarely did.

From the vast baggage trains of ancient and medieval armies to the civilian tails that followed forces in the Napoleonic period, non-combatants were everywhere. They clogged roads, slowed marches, consumed supplies and ,crucially, could trigger panic if threatened. They occupied BUAs and came to sight-see battles (Bull Run in the ACW?).

Even in modern conflicts, we see the same pattern in a different form: columns of displaced civilians and refugees shaping movement, logistics and sometimes even operational decisions.

Yet in wargames, these elements are usually absent—or at best abstracted away.

Are we missing something important by leaving out camp followers, baggage and civilians?
Would their inclusion actually improve games, or just complicate them?
Has anyone tried modelling them in a meaningful way (raid targets, morale effects, road congestion, etc.)?

So, speak up. Especially from anyone who's experimented with this on the table.

I have played in and run a few science fiction skirmish games where there were civilians on the board. These were typically urban-like scenarios where government forces were opposing insurgents or enemy special forces.

The civilians were 25-28mm civilians from various sources and they looked OK. There could also be civilian vehicles on the table.

Typically the civilians would move according to rules prepared before the game.

There would usually be at least one civilian unit that was actually an undercover unit for one side or the other. Each side would tell the referee in secret where it wanted its undercover unit to move.

Player units for the government side could (or might have to) stop and inspect civilian units. This would be a secret opposed dice roll. If the government won, that player would know whether the unit was really civilian or an enemy. The other player might get to take action or not (like close assault or break contact), depending on the dice roll. If the government won the dice roll by a lot, it would capture the enemy unit. If the anti-government side won, it could remain hidden or take some action (like a close assault).

Of course, the owner of the hidden unit could reveal it at any time by making it do something. And the government could attack apparent civilian units, which would deduct from its victory points.

Civilians added some work to the game, especially for the referee to write movement rules and gather and possibly paint extra miniatures. They did add to the fog of war and an immersion into the world of the game, so I think that they were a net positive.