Sunday, March 6, 2011

Some Thoughts on Officers

The purpose of this post is to record some of thoughts I have about some aspects of the "Afristan Campaign" I am intending to run. These thoughts are not "set in stone" and might well change . . . but they reflect my current thinking.

Player's Officers & Troops

Currently I am thinking about each player starting with the following:
  • one British Captain (independent)
  • one British Lieutenant (independent -- senior Lt.)
  • one Platoon (British or Scottish) with Lt. & NCO
  • one Platoon (Sepoy) with British Lt. & Native NCO
  • one Squad (British or Scottish) with NCO
  • one Squad (Gurkha) with NCO
  • six Supply Mules
I am also considering giving each a cavalry unit and/or a Gatling Gun . . . but those might not be available at the start of the campaign.

Anyway it looks like each player will start with one Captain and three Lieutenants. Players will roll 1d12 and 1dAv for each officer's date of commission:
  • Captains -- roll 1d12 for month and 1dAv + 1865 for year
  • "Leftenants" -- roll 1d12 for month and 1dAv + 1869 for year
Each Player's Captain and senior Lieutenant will be available to command a force of the other units. The junior Lieutenant will command the platoon. Note that this means that a Player could choose to send out two very weak Field Forces . . . but that they would be in serious trouble if they faced a district in rebellion.

Anyway, once these "commission dates" are determined, the Players will select which River District will be "theirs" in descending order of their Captain's commission date (senior to junior).

If an officer should die, the Player's other officers would "move up" to fill gaps (the senior Lt. would get promoted to Captain if the Player's Captain were to fall). Any new "replacement officers" would take the junior most position and have a commission date one month later than the junior-most Lt. of ALL of the Players.

-- Jeff

6 comments:

  1. I like the idea and system you've come up with for dating commissions. I shall borrow it for my own campaign, if I may.

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  2. AJ, of course you can use it . . . I haven't patented it . . . *grin* . . . and, I must confess that it was inspired by that scene in the movie Zulu where Chard and Bromhead compare their dates of commission to see who's in command.


    -- Jeff

    PS, others are free to use it too.

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  3. Great Idea Jeff I can see a lot of thought has gone into this.

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  4. Jeff, are you considering adding a railroad component to the campaign?

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  5. AJ, No, I'm not. I have LOTS of stuff to do yet, but I've never been a model railroader and don't have any tracks, etc.

    That doesn't mean that someone else might use my maps, etc. and add railroads, that would be fine. . . . But I have no plans for it.


    -- Jeff

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  6. Would you allow any supernumeries, such as a Belgian Grenadier Guard officer named Verbeek to accompany your forces, I have access to some Ral Partha minis and could paint one up for you :).

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