It has been quite a while since we last presented a Tactical Problem for your enjoyment. As luck would have it, the September 1961 issue of The War Game Digest contains a Tactical Problem presented by non other than Charles Grant.
Wagon or Supply train escort can make for a very fun and challenging war game scenario. The problem as posed by Mr. Grant should provide a fun game. In fact, one of our next games at HistoriFigs HQ will use today’s Tactical Problem as the basis for our scenario. Well, alight then, enough waiting already, lets get on with the show…
WAGGON TRAIN
A Tactical Problem
By Charles Grant
The War Game Digest, Book V Volume III, September 1961
This is a scheme which, if it works out at all well, should afford the players a fair amount of fun and possibly cause them to improvise more than in a set piece type of battle. It involves the movement of a convoy (supplies, ammo., or what you will) between points ‘A‘ and ‘B’ on the map, one player having the side moving the convoy, the other’s problem being, naturally, to intercept it.
Waggon Train - A Tactical Problem. Click to Enlarge
The troops engaged are as follows: Reader (who has the waggon train) deploys three brigades of infantry, each of 50 men; the Enemy (the intercepting force) has one brigade of infantry, again of 50 men, and one brigade of cavalry, of 30 men. No guns on either side, for a change.
The procedure is – on Move No. 1 the wagon train with an escort of two brigades of Infantry arrive at ‘A’. At the same time, the enemy player throws a die four times. The first throw determines the point on the table where his infantry brigade debouches (throws 1, 2 = ‘X’; 3, 4 = ‘Y’, and 5, 6: ‘Z’) and the second throw the moves on which it appears. For example, throws of 4 and 5 indicate that the brigade would appear at ‘Y’ on the 5th move. The second pair of throws determines place and time of arrival of the cavalry brigade.
Finally, the Reader throws two dice — to show when his third infantry brigade appears at ’B’, coming to meet the waggons. If the Reader is lucky it might appear on the 2nd move, but it might even be the 12th!
There it is — the problem being to bring the waggons to their destination in the teeth of opposition. Junior (with the waggons) and I fought the game some time ago and he was just able to get his train home in the teeth of baffled Confederate cavalry, but not before some exceedingly brisk fighting had taken place along the route. The train we represented, by the way, with a couple of four—horse white—tops.
By the way, both horse and foot can move all over the place, of course, but the waggcns must stay on the highway.
Look for more Tactical Problems and HistoriFigs news in the near future.