Commanding Ghosts

So after my previous post on ghost combat, I thought long and hard about how you’d go about commanding them.

Thinking the game could be grid based to avoid lots of complicated rules regarding ‘units’ I came up with the following (still in rough note form):

Roll 1D6 per leader figure you have in play. Highest single die roll = actions for the turn.

Actions include –

Activate all figures in a square and have them move to an adjacent square (not all figures need to end their move in the same square). One all figures have been moved resolve any melees.

OR

Activate all figures in a square and have them fire at the enemies in another square (all figures must target the same square).

A figure cannot be activated more than twice in a turn.

It’s strange playing such a big grid based game, I instinctively went for my trusty tape measure only to realise it was completely unnecessary. A 4’x4’ table makes an 8×8 grid of 6” squares, so you could replicate this game on a chessboard with teeny tiny figures.

Here’s how the melee rules are now shaping up:

When two opposing groups of figures are in the same square, pair up all figures in with opponents. When one group is larger pair up additional figures with already paired opponents. The player with more figures decides where additional figures are paired, but figures must be spread as evenly as possible.

Roll a die for each figure in a pair adding their Melee Bonus, higher roller kills their opponent. Where multiple figures are paired against a single opponent only roll once for the larger side adding 1 to their MB for each additional figure. Higher roller wins, and if the outnumbered figure wins they will kill all of their opponents. Reroll any ties. Where it would be impossible for a figure to win the combat they are still successful if they roll a 6 and their opponent/s roll a 1.

After each pair is resolved, the side that took the most casualties loses the combat. If the losing side is now smaller in number than the winning side any remaining figures on that side are wiped out. If the side that lost is equal or larger than the winning side all remaining figures fall back 1 square.

When calculating which side is smaller count a leader, banner or musician as three figures instead of 1. If a leader was killed they count as -3 figures.

My little skirmish played very quickly and easily this evening in about half an hour and with minimal to no hiccups and a fairy decisive Japanese victory. I think in terms of improving the rules I need to think about allowing more options for diversifying troops in a battle. Some kind of resource to give buffs etc. so a unit can be kitted out for a specific purpose or objective. The Paratroops were more fun to play since they have a variety of arms. The Bashi-Bazouks however are all armed with muskets, pistols and swords. I don’t want you to have to step outside of that original purchase of a box of 1/72 figures to get the most out of the game.