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Pub Battles Strategy Guide

The traditional turn format of I-GO-YOU-GO is very neat and orderly. The turn sequence actually helps organize your thinking.  Handy but that is not the way the real world works. 

Pub Battles forces you to think like a real commander. Real battlefields are chaotic.  Imagine a flurry of reports coming in real time, explosions, musket fire, smoke, orders going out.  Half the time you don’t even know where your own troops are, little lone the enemy.  (In Pub Battles, each Command moves in random order as their chit is pulled.  Your HQs can roll to alter this sequence.)

Just like the real world, Pub Battles are a chaotic mess. This realism is good and exciting.  For new players, it can be overwhelming.  Where do you even begin?  Just like in the real world, you can often find yourself running from one emergency to the next.  You are constantly putting out fires with knee jerk management, always 1 step behind.  It is great if the enemy is doing this.  This is exactly the situation you want to create for HIM. 

You need to be much more ….premeditated. Here are some tips to help keep you on the right track.

Before each turn, look at each Command. What would happen if the enemy moves first?  Is that a total disaster or can you deal with it?  Now what if the good guys move first?  How much hurt will this put on the enemy?  Do you want to move first or last?  How important is this right now? 

In many ways, Pub Battles is like Poker. There is hidden intel.  In many ways it is like a random, chaotic street fight.  New players often overlook the fact that it is also a lot like Chess.  You must keep your eyes firmly fixed on 1-2 moves ahead.  Where is this going?  Where do you want it to go? 

Who has already moved? This is really key.  The enemy command in front of you that has NOT moved, is very different from the one that HAS moved.

Now that you know who needs to go first or last, should you roll now for HQs? No.  Big mistake.  Just sit tight.  Bide your time.  Let’s see who comes out of the chute first.  Maybe it’s you!  You got first move naturally.  Great!  If the enemy doesn’t like it and tries to roll, there is a good chance they miss.  That gives you intell.  You know what the enemy wanted and you know he’s not happy.  If the enemy jumps ahead of you, you can still have the last say by jumping ahead of him.

Notice what happens if you jump the gun and roll to go first?  You just wasted your roll. If the enemy jumps ahead of you now, you have no chance to alter.  You wasted it!   

Sit up and pay attention if the enemy starts rolling to change a chit pull suddenly. That means they are in danger.  They don’t like the way it came down.  If the enemy doesn’t like it, that means you do!  Do what you can to counter their changes.  If this threat wasn’t on your radar, you better start asking yourself why?  What would happen if the sequence stays as it is?  What is the enemy so afraid of?  What can you do to maximize their pain? 

Move First When:

• The enemy is spent. Move to engage them. This will force them to fall back or fight you on unfavorable terms.
• Critical terrain is currently unoccupied.
• The enemy can block off routes of escape.
• You can move up to block a key route of the enemy’s escape or attack.

Move Last When:

• You plan on falling back but want to delay the enemy. Just make sure you can still get out!
• When expecting an enemy attack. If he goes first, you can commit support afterwards.
• When attacking prepared positions, so the enemy cannot react.

If you do move last, try to think ahead to the next turn. What could you do with a double move?  Try to setup the first blow now.

If your artillery is in a separate command, try to get them to move right before your attacking command moves. That way you can contact the enemy defenders before they can Rally. Also the defenders may flat out run, so you can occupy their good terrain without a fight. 

If you must attack first, make sure you guard your flanks! Attack all the defenders in the line.  If you can’t, you will need an extra piece on your flanks. 

If you attack last, you don’t have to worry about this technically. You can make isolated attacks.  Just keep in mind what could happen if the enemy moves first next turn.  🙂

This is a lot to think about for each command isn’t it? Yes, that’s why Pub Battles works even better with a live player for each command.  Then each player can really focus on just their part of the front.  You can also add in written orders, which opens up a plethora of communication problems.  Now you’re really in command.   

Our first ever Mega Event and it is completely FREE!!    We are so excited. 

Supremacy is perfectly suited to be run as a Mega Game. In many ways, I think the system works better as a Mega Game. 

What is a Mega Game?  It is a large, multi-player event.  They often have 30-80 players in 1 game!  The countries are played by teams.  So you break the duties down by role:  President, Diplomat, General, Trader. 

I’ve always wanted to do this with Supremacy. The problem is always, where do you get enough players?  The Mega Game format solves this! 

More Players = More Fun

This is a Large Convention, Supremacy, Kriegsspiel and Roleplaying game all rolled into some big, crazy, wonderful mix.

Make it if you can. I know many of you are not in the area.  We will report on the results here on our site.  We hope to start doing regular events like this here in the Front Range area.  As this expands, we may be coming to your area!

If you would like to see a Mega Supremacy near you, email us your location.

How Does Mega Supremacy Work?

When and Where is this?

Final demise of the Autrians

I played a game a Marengo last night.  It is really much better to jump around and play different battles.  It makes it feel fresh.  More like you are there for the first time.  –because I haven’t seen it for awhile I forget all the nuances of that field. 

This is a really fun and unique fight.  The French actually outnumber the Austrians in points but the Austrians attack because they have more pieces.  The French keep getting flanked and forced back, -Until Desaix shows up! 

That gives them the extra couple of blocks they need to solidify their lines and punch back.  Very cool. 

I used the Murat to screen the flanks.  Later he ran down the Austrian skirmishers.  I didn’t get a chance to actually charge spent infantry.    

I didn’t make a Column attack either but I did think that it would be a good way to attack up hill.  You are going to be suffering a -1 anyways.  If you can survive until the 2^nd round that could make up for the hill advantage! 

Final positions of both armies, at least before Murat was unleashed to run down the remaining Austrians.

I’m really liking this system as I see it in more battles.  The chit movement system really shines here.  In a big open field with little terrain, the battle becomes very fluid.  It mostly comes down to maneuver.  The elegance and intricacies of the chit pull movement system really stand out then.  There are many subtle and tricky things we often lose sight of in the other battles. 

I can just imagine how this mirrors real command.  I wanted to attack with Desaix but Lannes came up to move first.  I rolled to jump Desaix first but failed.  I rolled again with Bonaparte but he failed too.  Alright, so I have ordered both Corps to attack but can’t coordinate them like I want.  Lannes jumps the gun, moves first and then blocks the route of advance by Desaix.  Sigh.  That is command. 

Now what does Desaix do?  Sit out a turn and do nothing?  Or attack somewhere else in less than optimal conditions?  That is the type of thing that comes up all the time.  That is war. 

I think the technical military term for it is Charlie Foxtrot.   

Final Score: French Major Victory

Over Christmas break, we setup a little battle for Kriegsspiel. Something small and quick.  How about Bunker Hill?

We did a little research, found some maps and set it up:

The wooden blocks are ships at sea bombarding the peninsula.

In Kriegsspiel, we use real maps. This got me thinking about Pub Battles.  Could we make a Pub Battles:  Bunker Hill?  I think so.  We’d need to adjust the scale a bit.  Some were worried that is would be boring after the first play or so.  There isn’t much to do but attack the redoubt. 

True, unless the British can land anywhere and start attacking….   They took terrible losses at the battle.  Could that have been avoided?  Could they have defeated the rebels with light losses?  A big, British victory here might have prevented the entire war.

I think it could be a good game. What about you?

Each turn in Kriegsspiel represents 2 min. Often times, Kriegsspiel is run in real time.  You play a full days battle in 1 full day.  You just got a report in from the Umpire.  You need to write new orders to respond.  How long does that take you?  Well, the clock is ticking.  How fast can you write?  This creates a sense of urgency and timing. 

In a big battle, you might need a team of Umpires to crank out the combat results and issue reports. One option an Umpire has, is to group turns together to speed things up.  This is particularly helpful for operational movement.  So let’s say the forces aren’t even in contact yet.  You start playing by 1 hour turns or even 1 day turns.  Once there is contact, then you slow it down to 2 min turns. 

Keep in mind, the turns are for the Umpire. The players don’t usually know about or track turns.  They just know what time it is. 

So how does the time / movement scale compare to Pub Battles?

This is a 2 min step out march rate compared to the Pub Battles Movement Stick. Keep in mind that the map scales are off by 2:1.  So really, that is how far infantry would move in 4 min of time in Kriegsspiel. 

How long are Pub Battles turns? 1.5 hours.  Wow!!  This is way off.  By direct comparison it is.  Keep in mind how Kriegsspiel is played.  That is technically how fast your infantry CAN move in 4 min.  That doesn’t mean every piece you have moves that far every 4 min.  They don’t move at all if they don’t have orders! 

So first, you have to write an order. How long does that take you?  15 min?  Remember, the clock is ticking.  Now you have to get this order to the Umpire.  He has to assign it to a messenger and track the messengers move down the chain of command down to the actual unit.  How long does that take?  How many people are in the chain of command?  Each link adds time.  It could easily take 20-30 min for a messenger to ride that far.  Let’s say there are 3 key command links that needs to give the orders a once over.  Figure a 10 min delay for each of them while they make plans and the troops are ready to actually start moving. 

That all adds up to about an hour, give or take. It depends on the exact situation.  That leaves about 20-30 min left for the troops to actually march.  That works out to be just about right:  1.5 hours.  An Umpire would track all of these details in Kriegsspiel.  Pub Battles streamlines this for speed.  It is a close approximation.  You do lose some of this detail and texture in command systems.  Pub Battles makes up for some of this with the Turn Alter rolls HQs can do.  Some HQs are rated higher to simulate a more efficient and sleeker command system. 

The Mounted speed is comparable.

Note that this shows the ‘gallop’ speed of cavalry. You can do this but only for short bursts.  Infantry has a variable march speed as well. 

What about artillery ranges?

Very comparable. Again, remember the 2:1 map ratio.  Kriegsspiel breaks ranges down into more detail with the various gun weights.  Pub Battles again simplifies and groups these all together.  A close approximation as a trade off for speed. 

Is that a good trade? How much accuracy and detail are we losing here?  Judging from this, it looks to be about a 5% loss in accuracy.  How much speed do we gain?  Well, if you are playing in real time, a full day battle should take about a full day in the real world.  Let’s call it 8 hours.  How long does it take to play a full battle in Pub Battles?  1 hour.  Would that be an 800% improvement? 

I’d call that a bargain.