Logistics and Casualty Rules

[CG2]

In response to Waddell's question in another thread :

While I appreciate many people don't wish to wargame the way I do, what I personally like to do is wargame on a 1:1 basis and include more detailed logistics, engineer and medical rules in a sort of similar way to common rules for aircraft or off-table artillery. This makes more sense when you're looking at a longer series of linked scenarios or a campaign than it does with just the more common skirmish game. I'm still working on how to include electronic warfare for moderns!

Basically, I assume that vehicles have a full load of ammunition and their normal allocation of medics and mechanics in each unit at the start of the first scenario.

Second, any supply vehicles have to be designated on what they carry ie fuel, food, water, spares etc.

Third, I dice for how far off the table the nearest supplies are for each item or you could just designate a single point for everything, including a field hospital or a workshop. Of course, you can have these facilities or supply dumps on the table as part of the game.

Each unit is assigned a consumption rate per day for each item and an increased factor if in combat. This can vary be theatre, date etc.

If there is no action, supply vehicles can be used to bring supplies forward to a dump. Supply vehicles disappear off table for a period equal to the journey time to the dump etc. This can be modified by factors such as weather, morale, a chance they will get ordered elsewhere, destroyed etc.

Consequences are applied to a unit, dependent on what they run out of, with a random dice factor.

Vehicles can be repaired based on how severely damaged they are (including enemy ones) and the time taken depends on how badly they are damaged and what engineer units are on the table. More seriously damaged vehicles can be repaired by a workshop, assuming you have vehicles that can get them there.

Replacements of vehicles/troops are diced for with modifiers based on how historically likely that would have been.

In terms of wounded, most rules will dictate how people get wounded in the first place and how seriously. After that, it's like the engineering rules, but substitute Field Hospital for workshop and Ambulance for Recovery vehicle. There are then some stats for how long it took for people to get back to the front after being wounded which I have extrapolated from historical data.

I must admit I don't have detail for all armies and all periods as i just generate the stats I need as I game - it does take a lot of time but you get all sorts of interesting scenarios and my personal opinion is that it's more realistic. It won't suit everybody though!

[Waddell]

Thanks for the response. Some of this I was using from the Dupuy rules from his book on numerical wargaming. I like the off map dicing for distance rule and may make a variation of it for my own use.

[Mk 1]

I like to add logistics or casualty considerations to scenarios to make life a little more interesting for the opposing commanders. I usually do this through scenario-specific victory conditions, as that simplifies things by obviating the need for new rules.

For casualties I use markers to indicate where a squad stand was "eliminated". A player or commander might have victory conditions such as 5 pts for capturing some key geographical point, and 1 pt for each enemy unit eliminated, minus 1 pt for each of his own units eliminated. BUT he can reclaim 1/2 point for each casualty marker that his medic team visits for a full turn.

This way as much as he is busy thinking of his tactics, he also has this side-thought to his medics and where they are and are they safe and doing their jobs. But pretty simple.

Just my $0.02 worth...

[sultanbev]

We don't have logistics rules as such, although off-table artillery has a set number of salvos a day.

On the battlefield, we do firing by platoons, if a unit rolls maximum on it's fire dice (typically 12 on 2D6) then it is considered to have run out of ammo. For whatever reason, whether their fire discipline was low or over-enthusiastic, or they didn't have much to start with.

To compensate for this, we allow each company HQ and Bttn HQ a supply vehicle, armoured if appropriate, which they can summon and/or retire to, which can they resupply their ammunition. With all the risks that involves....

FOr medical units, we allow each CHQ an ambulance of some sort, and modern armies can call medevac helicopter if the model is available.

If a squad takes a hit (in our rules this represents 1-3 casualties), they can take an opportunity action to call medevac. If the ambulance/helicopter reaches the damaged squad and evacuates it, the squad is removed but, significantly, is not counted as lost to the rest of the platoon for morale purposes. As ultimately, our games win or fail on morale (you win by breaking the enemy's morale before yours fails in most games) this can be very useful. In effect exchanging some loss in firepower for retention of morale.

Mark

[paul]

I like the approaches listed. I will have to see what we can do to include some of this into our game.

[Waddell]

Been awhile since anyone's posted in this thread but I've run into a question. I'm recreating the Battle of Konna in Mali in January, 2013. I've got the miniatures, rules set, and the map is nearly done now that I've accumulated enough buildings.

However, one of the determining factors in the early part of the battle was the Mali Army's lack of ammunition. Has anyone modeled this in one of their games? Right now I'm leaning towards making it similar to depletion of ATGM's so that when a unit shoots it must roll to see if it's run out of ammo.

I'm curious to see if anyone else has addressed this and what their solution was. I'm trying very hard to avoid adding bookkeeping in the form of a set number of fires available.

[piersyf]

As far as I can tell, you have 2 options, book keeping or the dice method. The thing I absolutely hate about the dice method is that you don't know it was your last round until you use it. In real world situations, shoot your 2ic if that ever happens. A commander should know BEFORE he fires what the ammo situation is.
If you are absolutely set against book keeping, my suggestion is that if a unit fires and rolls the 'bad' number, that is an indicator that they have 1 round left, not that they have none left. Presumably you have a token or some method to indicate they are out of a certain type of ammo; just flip the token over to indicate last round.
I cannot tell you the number of times people have complained that if they had known it was their last round, they wouldn't have used it. Take that excuse away and give the decision back to the player!

[Waddell]

That or a variation of it sounds like a good idea. Games have markers anyway so perhaps an inverted marker to indicate the number of rounds a unit has. Inverted so the other side doesn't know what the ammo situation is. I remember reading about a Maori war chief that noticed the British in a fort had stopped firing. He went forward under a flag of truce and politely asked if they were out of ammunition. They indicated they were. He then gave them a wagon load of his munitions and went on to lose the engagement. Score 1 for courtesy and lose the fight.