Brandywine Tutorial
How Does Movement Work in Brandywine?
Let’s work through an example turn. First you pull a Command Chit from a cup.
Cornwallis’ wing is pulled to move first.
The Colonists roll to preempt this move. They succeed by rolling Sullivan’s rating or less.
This lets Sullivan’s wing move before Cornwallis!
Until
The British roll for Cornwallis to preempt Sullivan’s move.
Except
The British fail the roll!
So Sullivan moves first anyways.
Cornwallis’ wing moves next:
How Does Combat Work?
Sullivan moves first again on turn 2.
Next Cornwallis moves. Instead of moving, the artillery bombards. The dice only score hits on 5 or 6 because the rebels are in the woods.
The first hit flips the target piece.
The 2nd hit forces it to retreat.
Next, Cornwallis’ pieces move forward to attack!
The defenders fire! Scoring hits on 4, 5 or 6.
The first hit flips Lord Grey.
The 2nd, forces him to retreat.
(a 3rd hit would have destroyed him)
The fire is simultaneous, so Lord Grey still fires back. Mathew could retreat with Lord Grey. Instead the British decide to advance him forward and press the attack!
Lord Grey only scores 1 hit with the 5 since the defenders have cover from the woods and the hill. This hit flips the last defending piece!
Play now falls to the Colonists. They could:
voluntarily RETREAT
(giving up a key defensive position to the British)
OR
stand and FIRE!
(risking another round of fire with the British that could destroy the piece)
This is a very tough call. The Colonists decide to stand and fire since they have the benefit of cover.
NEXT
The British must make this same choice. They could voluntarily call of this attack and withdrawal Mathew
OR
stand and FIRE!
They decide to press the attack! So they fight another round.
The Colonials fire, scoring 2 hits!!
Normally, this would flip and force the attacker back, ending the combat.
EXCEPT
This piece is the King’s Guards: An Elite piece!
Which Means:
They absorb the first hit,
So the 2nd hit just flips them.
Now the King’s Guard fires:
The 4 misses because of the woods.
The 5 and 6 both hit!
Scott’s Brigade is already flipped.
So the first hit forces him to retreat.
The 2nd hit destroys him!
The Colonial player is in big trouble!
After resolving the combat to the left, the end of the 2nd turn looks like this:
This Sounds Great!
Where Can I Get It?
Rules
I received my game a week ago. Looking at the above tutorial, I noted that none of my commanders have a rating printed on their sticker. Is this an error or was something changed since the tutorial was created.
Good question! The short answer is: No. It’s not a mistake. Yes, it is a change that came out of our intensive play testing over the last several months. If you are interested, here is the background on it:
The first approach was give each HQ a rating based on their historical performance. This is a common and traditional way of doing things in wargames. It does work and we did have ratings for each leader that we reached a consensus on.
Another train of thought developed on this. Why handcuff players and force them to have the restrictions of their historical counterparts? Isn’t the idea that YOU are in command? Why should you have to suffer in the game because the historical guy did poorly that day? Shouldn’t you as the player be able to define your own HQ ‘rating’ by how you run your command? The decisions you make during game?
Great questions. Both approaches are valid. It is a different perspective. How do you want to play it? What do you want to model? We tested it both ways carefully. We ended up liking the new way better.
Going forward with this design, our intent is to push more for multi-player games. Live players running the commands. RPWGs with written orders. In light of this, we felt the ‘unrated’ HQs were a better fit. Everybody is the same. All players have the same abilities. How does your command perform? It is all up to you. In a big multi-player game you will be judged and rated based on your actions.
Posted this on your Facebook page but thought I’d ask here as well in case others would be interested. Would it be possible for you to post the ratings you settled on for each commander (assuming you ever settled on final ratings you were comfortable with) before you decided to drop the ratings from the game? Might make a nice optional rule for those wanting to add a bit of the flavor of having to deal with weaknesses of subordinates (particularly in two player games–maybe the British player wouldn’t, for example, put a limit to Howe, but would for all his subordinates). Just a thought.
Sure!
Leader Ratings
This was a hotly contested issue in play testing. I can see this both ways really. Should it be left up to the player or should a player be affected by his historical sub commanders and staff? We played it both ways. Both approaches are valid. The final d6 ratings that we liked (after much heated debate) were: Washington 4, Greene 3, Sullivan 2, Howe 2, Cornwallis 3, Knyphausen 3
I was a strong proponent of d8. Everybody else seemed to hate them. For design and a ‘natural’ (not the right word but I’m not sure how else to describe it) feel, I’ve always liked d8s. The other play testers don’t like the look or the way the roll. They are also limited graphically. We’ve been talking about doing Imperial Eagle dice for Napoleon. Kind of hard to put a flag or crest on a d8 and have it look cool.
If we did use variable ratings for the HQs, I was most certainly going to switch to d8s. You simply don’t have enough of a range on d6. Our for this would look more like:
5 Washington
3 Sullivan
4 Greene
3 Howe
4 Cornwallis
4 Knyphausen
Can’t bid or support another game, still waiting on Custer one.
I guess soon?
Yes! Should be coming soon. Making last changes to rules and waiting on Sioux pieces. Everything else is ready to go.
I have been looking to the game in detail. Also to the Kriegspiel version. Both games look fantastic, pub battles a bit pricey.
What would you recommend between these two?
Great question.
I’m going to put the answer in a new Blog Post!