Divisional Commander
Buy now in PDF format at Wargames Vault
The rules system:
The Tactical approach of Divisional Commander fairly novel , concentrates on command and control.
Units can be customised by allocating special characteristics that can match up to that units historical performance and we provide army lists on board; likewise with the field commanders, so you can, for example, give Black Bob Craufurd the special abilities that made him famous. The abilities of the commanders impinge directly on the behaviour of their commands in battle.
A units cohesion gradually breaks down in combat until either it has to withdraw or be broken.
The bound is split into two phases and action markers are allocated to each unit indicating what it will do in each phase. These are hidden from the opponent, thus engendering a fog-of-war. The markers must adhere to the orders given by the formation commander and his superiors in the chain of command, so you cant have a battalion dashing off to do its own thing. Units must maintain command distances within their brigade to operate effectively and are limited in their actions by the orders they have received (although these can be misunderstood!)
Basing System:
DC is designed to give flexibility to the player to use his armies without rebasing them. The rules system allows that, if players have their collections of miniatures based for other game systems, they can use them without any problem. As we have said, players can use any basing system,as long as both use the same. We recommend the Napoleon’s Battles basing system as is widely used by wargamers. Dimensions.
Units types:
In DC there are two kinds of units: Troop Units and Commander Units.
Troop Units are: Infantry battalions – in the rules called Infantry Units (IU) Cavalry regiments – in the rules called Cavalry Units (CU) Artillery batteries – in the rules called Artillery Units (AU)
Commander Units are: HQ Command (HQCU) Independent Commander (ICU) Brigade Commander (BCU) Division Commander (DCU) Corps Commander (CCU).
Game Scale & Units:
Infantry & Cavalry units are composed of bases of four miniatures, each miniature represents 20-40 soldiers and a base 80-160 soldiers, depending on the conflict being gamed. Earlier main-European conflicts use a scale of 40 men per figure, the Peninsular War: 30 men per figure and The War of 1812: 20 men per figure. Thus “standard” 6-base infantry battalions contain a number of figures that approximate to the size of the battalions that fought in each conflict. “Standard” infantry battalions will have six bases, each of four miniatures, and standard cavalry regiments three or four bases, each of four miniatures, in both cases with one command group included. If it is desired accurately to re-create a historical battle, divide the number of men in each unit by the appropriate figure-to-men ratio for the conflict, divide the result by 4 to indicate the number of bases and round to the nearest whole number to obtain complete bases.
Not all results will be the standard 6 bases for an infantry battalion but historical accuracy will be preserved. Artillery units, are composed of bases of gunners and a gun, each gunner represents about 40 gunners and a gun model three or four guns. Command figures, are not at the same scale as troop units, they represent the generals with their staff, ADC´s and bodyguard. The scale for terrain is approximately 10 centimetres = 150 metres. Each turn represents about 10 minutes of real time, divided into two phases.