Lesson 7 - Why reserves matter

One issue I have often pondered in wargames is how to make it sensible that having a reserve is actually a good thing.  This lesson includes examples on why it is wise to have a reserve.  Apologies for this very wordy example, I started trying to make it all graphical, but somewhere along the way I lost that intention!  I was going to redo it...then I lost that intention too.  I realise these campaign rule postings are a tad boring, we will soon kick off with the campaign while we finish the design as the initial part of the campaign will be pursuing the retreating Hotakistani's rather than the insurgent campaign itself.

The two main lessons from this lesson is why you should have a reserve/QRF and two a general example on how you navigate the landscape and bring the enemy to the fight.  In this example you can see what all the influence-peddlers are, in the campaign many of these will be unknown, and will require effort on the players part to discover which of the influence peddlers are spoilers or helpers.

During this example I decided to drop MSCT (basically convoy protection) and made the QRF and PROTECTION activities.  Also I realized the need for a REST activity, for example, if the campaign commander wants his artillery to rest then it will not supply fire support, and therefore needs to be marked as such.  While I was at it I also added TAXI (to denote a unit as moving men and not taking part in the operation itself), and HUNT (for UAV and Special Forces).  Mentoring is also added, so when Malikastani units are created they will be...well crap...and you will need to instill some discipline and skill.  Therefore you need to designate a unit as mentoring.  A mentor unit can accompany a Malikastani unit on a patrol or operation.

So the command list is now BUILD, DIG-IN, MENTORING, ON THE MOVE, OPERATION, PATROL, PROTECTION, QRF, RESERVE, TAXI, VULNERABLE and the special HUNT.

I will have to make a graphic of all this.  But today I ended up playing SWTOR instead (after chasing Guinea Pigs around the garden!).

I will also upload all the slides so if anyone needs to translate them to read them.

The example follows a written order from a player, then shows what the GM does, then gives a brief note on reserves and then follows up with some examples of how the outcome of a mission is played.  Next post will likely be more around the generation of missions.

So, I think we have the following forces:
Brisbane:
Generic Middle/South Asian x2
US Infantry and Mechanized Infantry
British Infantry and Mechanized Infantry x2
Australian Motorised Infantry (Mech to come?)
Russian Infantry and Mechanized Infantry x2
Insurgents
British Armour
Russian Armour
Australian/US Armour

And in WA I have:
Generic Middle/South Asian
US Motorised Infantry (hopefully Bradleyize these soon)
French Mechanized Infantry
South African Mechanized Infantry
Australian Motorised Infantry to come (probably make a QRF force)
Various Armour (Australian/US/Russian)
Insurgents
Russian Paratroopers (with BMD)
I also know of one player north of me with British.

So these are the initial units in the campaign.  If anyone around Earth would like to join in and play some of the campaign battles please PM me and I will ensure that the module will include them.