The Seven Years Memewar Continues

 

Don't worry, Prussia Baby! Daddy Britain is on his way over to stop this, and he's bringing his whole fleet with him.

More on the Seven Years Memewar

 

If The Internet Existed in 1762

 If you're here, you're the kind of guy who appreciates the intersection of two kinds of humor:

Another Layer of Confusion

Each of the Trossian Nations has a pool of several generals from which to draw his Army Commanders.  Each one is a unique individual with his own personality.  Each General will have one or two identifying characteristics that add a bit of flavor and effect to the campaign.  

Some of the traits will be rule-specific.  For example, a General may be the scion of a wealthy family and if appointed to field command, generates additional AP over the winter that can be used to purchase new units.  Or he might be afraid of sailing, and this his forces cannot travel by sea.  Or he might be foreign born and refuse service against his birth nation.  Or he might be loved by his troops and thus his presence acts as a morale boost to them. These will be obvious, and explicitly outlined to the players.

Some of the traits will be general personality quirks that will come into play when a General is left to his own devices.  This can happen when the strategic situation changes, a message is lost, or the General is given vague or contradictory orders.  The umpire will use the trait to help adjudicate what a General does when left to his own devices.  One that is 'Aggressive' will pursue the enemy and seek out battle.  One that is 'Cautious' will hunker down and assume a defensive stance.

At the start of the campaign, the players will be given a list to choose from.  Each Army will need a General to function, and the selection will be hidden from other players until the fighting starts.  As Tros is a small Empire, everybody knows everybody by reputation, even if they don't know everything about them.  The post-battle reports will include plenty of information about the forces and the generals, and ideally over time, players who pay attention can use this information to make informed strategic choices.

In the event of the death of a General, the Army will continue to operate, as a subordinate assumes command.  The army will continue without any obvious advantages or drawbacks.

On Imperfect Information

The War of the Trossian Succession has some pretty lofty goals.  One of those goals, and one that few games attempt, and even fewer achieve is giving the players a sense of the uncertainty of running a major military campaign.  Warren Peace threw me a link to a review of The Flight of the Eagle.  As the players take the role of the Kings of Tros, the issue of perfect information during the tabletop wargames becomes a non-issue.  

As a suitable replacement for that uncertainty, The Wars of the Trossian Succession includes blind-pull event cards - one per year per player - which may not become evident until after traps are sprung!

Additionally, and of more practical concern, the poor Kings must rely on the communications of the day.  That means slow-post horse and/or packet ships:

[P]erfect information is only part of the problem. Armies are composed of individuals, and communication is an imperfect art. Messages are lost, delayed, misunderstood; subordinates are willful, disobedient, over-promoted, and commanders are egotists, out of touch with reality. War is the province of uncertainty, as Clausewitz reminds us, and things go wrong. 1815 once again provides us with a perfect example of this in the fruitless march and counter march of d’Erlon’s corps between Quatre Bras and Ligny.

Although the rules for Tros are considerably simpler than those for Flight of the Eagle, they should help capture some of the uncertainty and difficulty inherent in managing large-scale campaigning.  Much of what gets handled by iron-clad rules in Eagles will be managed in a more narrative format - subject to the whims of the umpire - in Tros.

As such, Tros is not intended to serve as a playtest for a ruleset destined for the market.  It relies too heavily on the trust established between players and umpire for such base concerns.  Rather, it is meant as a proof of concept, a means of demonstrating to the world that the simple rules and convoluted execution of old school wargames possess a charm all their own.  It is a stab at a return to tradition, and you are invited to follow along as we re-blaze a trail overgrown with rules crunch over the last few decades.

At any rate, the first portion of the review is well worth a read for anyone interested in a deeper-than-usual delve into a different way to emulate generalship and the high-stakes tension of issuing imperfect orders to imperfect soldiers.  It might even help the reader feel a little more sympathy for old hapless General Irvin McDowell, of First Manassas infamy.

On Artillery and Historic Accuracy

  

Turns out the miniature order that I placed was for Malburian/Seven Years War armies.

That necessitates a bit of shuffling figures around to get a better mix for the Napoleonic rules that we're using for our battles.  Somehow the French wound up with almost no cavalry, which just wouldn't work with the "2 x 2 Napoleonics" ruleset that we will be using to resolve battles.

For now, all you need to know is that the option to purchase horse artillery has been removed from the game.  All artillery in the imagi-nation of Tros is slow to move and packs a punch.  From a historical perspective, the changes in army composition and artillery place our modelled combat somewhere in the hazy gap between the Seven Years War and the Napoleonic era.  

The full maximize army sizes will be sent out to each King within the next couple of weeks.

Chancey Propositions

Prior to the Early Spring Phase of each year, the Umpire will roll 1d9 for each player.  The resultant number is the phase in which that player will receive a Chance Card.  On a roll of 0, the Umpire will roll twice, treating additional rolls of 0 as "No Event."  Players will be notified of which turn they can expect a Chance Card, however, the results of each Chance Card may be with held by the Umpire depending on the result.

Pictured above is the Chance Deck, which consists of 60 cards.  Twelve of the cars are "No Event" cards, and the remainder are a mix of positives and negatives.  Some events will impact all players, and some are seasonally dependent.  In the latter case, all players will be notified so that they can plan accordingly.

The six examples are illustrative of the types of events that might occur, but the actual mix is left uncertain. Say hello to the Fog of War!