Has anyone worked deployment of rivers and streams into the PBS and terrain set up process?
As a relative noob to MeG with no interest in tournament gaming but enthusiastic about using MeG in a campaign setting, I'd like to work out how to include rivers and streams into the PBS process. I have some ideas of my own, but would like to know if anyone else has come up with a workable system.
With regard to streams, the question is were they really any type of obstacle that needs representing in a battle or are they subsumed into all the rules already.
With regard to rivers, if they are not impassable then it is the level of difficult crossing them. They might be represented as rough or difficult terrain. I am sceptical about the benefits of defending river banks. Clearly there may be some advantage (perhaps at impact only) - but if they are too strong then the opposition is going to find somewhere else to cress and then outflank you. Plenty of historical examples of this happening. I am struggling to think of any battle where an army successfully defended a river bank. There are examples of armies being caught crossing a river (due to mist for example) and then being beaten badly (for example Crimisus).
Pursuing a broken army into a river typically resulted in huge numbers of casualties.
I have more campaign ideas lined up for my next Age of book (Age of Pyrrhus).
Richard
Thanks for the thoughts Richard.
I don't disagree with what you've said, but what's got me thinking is that using the guidance on running a campaign in the MeG rule book, a campaign map generated battle effectively sets the terrain type and who the attacker is but you've then got the rest of the PBS process to work through. If the campaign map indicates a river in that area then the defender would probably want to set up to defend a river crossing (bridge or ford) where the attacker would be at a disadvantage. The attacker though would use strategic movement to avoid having to attack across that more easily defended crossing i.e just what the PBS process is meant to represent
Don't read too much into the PBS system. MeG battles don't feature defended river crossings.
A battle at a defended river crossing is only going to occur if a) the attacker feels so strong that they can force the crossing and win (i.e. they believe they significantly outnumber the enemy) or b) the attacker is running out of supplies and the only route back to supplies is through the river crossing (desperation).
Alternative scenarios are that the attacker can cross the river elsewhere with part/all of their army and then is seeking to trap and defeat the enemy. The Battle of Medway as part of the Roman invasion of Britain may be an example of this (with the Batavians crossing whilst the Legions faced off the Britons)..
How to represent this with cards is perhaps the invader needing to select a better card than the defender.
Richard
I understand that a river crossing is never something you'd inflict on a player in a tournament game, it would be dreadfully unfair.
My interest is really in a campaign setting where those imperatives that you listed would come into play.
My particular period of interest is late mediaeval / early Renaissance where there are numerous examples of battles fought over river crossings - Blanchetaque, Fornovo and Garigliano being 3 that immediately come to mind.
I'll see if I can pull something together to fit in with the PBS and share it here for comment.
Including Rivers in PBS
Rivers are listed as special terrain in the terrain table and for use in scenarios only.
The campaign rules call for a campaign map divided up into squares (or hexes) with each of those areas given a terrain type.
Players, in a campaign, move their armies around the map each occupying it's own square.
When one army moves into a square occupied by an enemy army there is likely to be a battle with the encroaching army being the invader and the already occupying army being the defender.
This is all well and good and the PBS system picks up at this point.
But what if there is a major river running through that square on the campaign map? - Can we give the defenders a chance to use that river to their advantage?
When positioning the army marker for the defenders on the PBS map also place a marker for the river and leave it in that square.
Play "the five days before the battle" turns as usual. If the defenders finish in the same square as the river marker then they get to use the river in their terrain set up.
During terrain set up the defender must forego any secure flank terrain to use the river.
The river itself will run across the table and will be aligned to the forward edge of the defender's deployment zone. It should be no more than 2BW wide.
The river will be deep water and therefore impassable except for a single crossing point which the defender may place on the river anywhere in the central area of the table. It must be the first terrain piece deployed on the table.
The crossing point may be either a bridge or a ford. Bridges are 1BW wide and classed as good going. Fords are 3BW wide and classed as rough ground. (ignore the Pacto halving of BWs for these widths if playing that variant).
The invading army has an additional optional terrain type available to them of "river crossing point". Definition of this is the same as above. Placement rolls are as for any other type of optional terrain except that it obviously has to be placed on the river.
Defender's terrain adjustment roll for river crossings is:
4+ = move it along the river by up to 6 BW.
5+ = as above or change the crossing type (bridge to ford or vice versa) or if already a ford change it to difficult ground.
6+ = as above or remove it entirely.
Any comments or corrections gratefully received :)