A Splendid Little War

Quickplay rules for Spanish-American War Land Battles By Chuck Turnitsa Game preparation 1. Each side should have 3 or more brigades of troops. 2. Each brigade should have a handful of units. a. Infantry units are from 4-8 stands of infantry b. MG units are 1 stand of machine guns c. Artillery units are 1 stand. 3. Prepare a card for each brigade, identified on the card. Prepare 1 bonus card for each side. 4. Shuffle all these cards together. Turn Sequence 1. Take turns flipping over a card. When a card is flipped, all of the units in that brigade may move. 2. If a bonus card is flipped, a Brigade that HAS ALREADY MOVED may move again. Units that contacted the enemy during the first move may not move during this bonus move. 3. If a bonus card is flipped first, then that side may identify a Brigade of the enemys as pinned which means that it may not move that turn on its regular card. If the enemy draws its own bonus card, after it would have normally moved the pinned brigade, then it may move it normally. 4. All units move 6 inches each turn. 5. If an Artillery unit or MG unit move, they may not shoot. 6. An Infantry unit may charge the enemy. If this is the case, the unit gets +1d6 inches added to their basic move. 7. See charges and responses (below) to determine what happens during a charge, and how a unit may respond to being charged. 8. After all cards have been flipped, and all units have moved then all artillery and MG fire takes place, simultaneously. 9. After all artillery and MG fire is done, then all infantry fire takes place, simultaneously. Units charged may fire; charging units may not. 10. After all firing takes place, then fight hand to hand combat (see charges and responses, below). 11. Shuffle cards and begin next turn. Firing Sequence 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Infantry may fire 12 inches MG may fire 24 inches Artillery may fire 48 inches Infantry fire is done by rolling 1d6 per stand firing, and scores a hit on a 5 or 6. MG fire is done by rolling 3d6 per crewman (there are 2 crewman per MG stand, initially), and score a hit on a 5 or 6.

6. Artillery fire is done by first picking a target point, then rolling a drift dice and 1d6 (2d6 if over half range). If the drift dice indicates a hit, then good, otherwise drift the target point the amount rolled on the dice. Roll 1d6, and any unit within 1 inch of the landing point takes that many hits. 7. US units under cover may be fired at, but receive a save of 4,5,6 per hit scored. 8. Spanish units under cover may not be fired at (they are adept at hiding learned in the war against Cuban rebels and are using smokeless powder, so are not easily spotted). 9. Units under cover may fire out of cover, if they are at the edge of that cover. 10. Units that lose a stand must test morale see below. Charges and Responses 1. When a unit wishes to charge, before measuring the distance to the charger, roll 1d6 and add that many inches to the units move. 2. If the unit has enough move to contact the enemy, then the charge is a success. 3. If the unit does not have enough move to contact the enemy, then it stops after moving as far as it can. 4. The charged unit may shoot during the Firing sequence part of the turn, but only at the charging unit. 5. The charging unit may not fire, even if it did not contact the enemy. 6. If the charging unit loses a stand, and then tests morale, it may fail (see below). 7. If the charged unit gets to move after being contacted, and wants to evade, it moves away 1d6 inches. If the charging unit has enough remaining movement to catch it, then it is removed from the game. An evading unit may not fire or charge another unit.