Die Fighting

Each army begins the game with a number of six sided dice (known as resource dice).
The exact number of dice is determined by what units make up the army – for
example, each Infantry Line unit adds 12 dice to the ‘pool’, Guard Infantry add 16.
Further dice may be added or taken away from the ‘pool’ as each unit in the army is
‘rated’, rolling on a table to see if they are poor, average or crack; during these
rolls 2d6 are rolled, one darker than the other, if the darker d6 is higher than
the lighter, you lose 5 dice from your ‘pool’, if lower, gain 5.

As stated above, the idea is that you take all these d6 and put them in a pot
together to be used as I shall explain shortly, but not everyone has that many dice
available, especially all d6’s. This is not an issue, and can be addressed in
various ways. Players may choose to simply keep a written tally of the dice or use
some other form of chip or counter. I used dice, but they were not all d6’s, just
various dice doubling as counters.

When a unit wished to carry out an action, such as move or fire, they may roll up
to 2 resource dice taken from the dice ‘pool’ to determine the result. Once the
resource dice are used, they are lost forever and discarded. When using resource
dice, the unit may also be awarded a number of free dice depending on various
modifiers – for example Napoleonic Light Cavalry moving in open terrain get +2d6
for free. Note that the unit must expend at least one resource dice before they can
add free dice to them.

These free dice do not come from the resource ‘pool’ and are there to be used
whenever the situational modifiers apply.
Commanders can also add dice to the unit at certain moments, which I shall address
later.
In some situations, units are also allowed to re-roll the lowest value dice or any
multiples (such as a two 2’s, or three 1’s etc).

When applied to movement, the total value of the dice rolled is how far the unit
may move – though it might choose to move less. So our Light Cavalry mentioned
earlier, rolling 2 resource dice and 2 free dice, might move anywhere between 4” to
24”.
The concept of the resource dice works very nicely once combat is joined, be it
melee or missile fire, where the army can lose precious resource dice to the enemy
action.

The idea is best illustrated with an example; a unit of British Elite Line opens
fire at a French Infantry unit closing to its front in attack column (good old
French, coming on it the same old way). If the British open fire at short range
(less than 8”) their dice could be something like this – 2 resource dice from the
‘pool’, Elite +1 free dice, enemy in attack column +1 free dice, fire at close
range = re roll lowest dice. So the British end up rolling a total of 4 d6 with a
re-roll if they wish. Let’s say they roll 3, 3, 2 and 5 then choosing to re roll
the 2, for a 3; grand total 14

The French dice to defend against the attack. Up to 2 resource dice may be used,
and they had best roll both in this example. They do not qualify for any free dice
and so they need some high rolls; let’s assume a 5 and 4 turn up, total of 9.
The two totals are compared, and we see that the British beat the French by 5. The
French commander now has a choice; if enemy fire beats the defence roll by 6 or
less, the army can discard resource dice equal to the amount that they lost by and
the unit fired upon can remain where it is in good order. Alternatively the unit
can opt not to pay out any resource dice and retreat up to the number they were
beaten by in inches and becoming disordered. Note that if a firing side wins the
‘roll off’ by greater than 6, the defending unit must retreat, becoming disordered
 and loosing the relevant number of dice from the army’s resource ‘pool’.

Melee combat is essentially handled in the same way, except any loss (not just
those over 6) mean retreat, disorder and loss of resource dice.
If a side runs out of resource dice, the game ends and they have lost.
During the battle it is possible to gain resource dice by capturing objectives and
defeating enemy units, critical events if an army is to keep fighting.

1. On any combat where the defender rolls higher than the attacker in either melee
or fire, there is no effect. It is a miss.2. On any combat hit of 6 or less, a unit
may “buy down” the loss by discarding red dice of the same number. The unit remains
in good order, fully capable of movement, melee, or fire. The only loss is the red
dice.

3. On any combat hit of 7 or more, the unit loses the identical number of red dice
to the discard bucket. If the difference is 9, 9 dice are lost; if 15, fifteen dice
are lost. If the immediate loss is greater than the initial dice worth of the unit
(Example: Line regular units are worth 12) then the unit suffers a catastrophic
loss and is removed from the table-obviously unralliable. If the number is less
than the initial value, then a single black die is rolled to determine the retreat
distance of the affected unit. That Black Die shall then remain with the unit until
a successful rally removes it. That Black die is rolled on every action thereafter
taken and is subtracted from the totals of the other dice rolled by that unit until
it is removed by a rally. If unrallied and another hit of 7 or more occurs, the
unit follows the same procedures, but adds an additional Black Die and uses their
combined totals as the black dice effect. This continues for any subsequent hits to
any number, though 3 black dice generally guarantee the unit is lost from the game.

It affects any fire, melee combat, forward movement, or rally attempt as follows:

a. Fire-simply deducted from the total of other dice.

b. Melee-simply deducted from the total of other dice.
c. Movement-simply deducted from the total of other dice when moving forward toward
the enemy. Added to the total when voluntarily retreating from the enemy. It is the
distance moved (no other dice added) on any combat-caused involuntary retreat. Any
roll of combined Black Dice of 7 or more and the unit is then considered routed,
and will involuntarily retreat to the rear. It cannot initiate any combat. It will
continue doing this until rallied or it exits the field of battle.

d. Rally- A rally can occur on any Reload, Rally, Restore Card or (New Rule)
Officer Action card. The goal as in the regular rules is doubles of a certain
number or higher in a roll made up of Red Dice, Yellow Command Dice, and any Green
dice allowed. However, the Black die or dice eliminate any doubles of the number
rolled on that black die or dice. Example: If a roll of doubles of 4 or higher was
required for a rally, and the rallying unit threw a double 5, but a black die of 5
was rolled, then that rally was not counted! One added rally rule is that any
triple rolled eliminates ALL black dice, and Black dice do not eliminate that roll!
e. If the total of Black Dice rolled by any unit exceeds the total on the red dice
rolled, Command-yellow dice- are NOT counted in the totals for that unit’s
attempted action.

Both armies will have a commander in chief and sub commanders, the exact number
depending on the Nationality of the army and period being played. Each commander is
rated and depending on this rating, may have between 1 to 5 command dice. Unlike
resource dice, these command dice can only be used by the commander that they
belong to, and he can use them to assist units under his command. Any number of
available command dice can be given to a unit to add to the dice it rolls for a
rally attempt, movement, melee attack or defence against missile fire. Once used
the command dice are gone until the rally, restore, reload phase (more on phases
shortly). If a commander is not accompanying the unit he must roll equal to or
greater than the distance in inches to the unit on a number of free dice to add
command dice to it. The free dice are equal to the commanders command dice rating.
If he fails, the dice he wished to add are lost.

Having now covered pretty much most of the rules, I shall mention the turn
sequence, which is broken down into 6 phases;
1) Specialised Actions (engineering for example)
2) Officer Actions
3) Cavalry Actions
4) Infantry Actions
5) Artillery Actions
6) Rally, Restore, Reload Actions

All straightforward enough, but of course, straightforward does not cut it in a Bob
Jones game! Having set out the basic sequence, the author then goes on to explain
various different ways of playing the turn (7 in total I think) – so for example,
you might use Fixed Synchronous Phasing, where a d6 is rolled and the turn starts
at that phase and goes on through the remaining 5 phases where you then roll the d6
again.

Or you could be using Fixed Asynchronous Phasing, with each army rolling it’s own
d6 to see what phase it starts the turn on, re-rolling as above when it has
completed all 6 phases.
And of course, that still leaves 4 other ways of doing it!
During my play test, I used the phase cards that come with the game, assigning each
side its own deck and drawing a card at random each phase, reshuffling once the
turn was completed.
Which side moves first within the phase is determined by a roll off that involves
the commander in chiefs command dice – so the better he is the more chance of
having the initiative.

This approach to the turn sequence, where by both sides can be determining their
order of actions in totally different ways, allows the opportunity to model the
different strengths of the combatants or their leaders.
Things could be arranged, for example to reflect a poorly trained up against a very
good one, so that the inferior force goes from one phase to another in a random
fashion (hoping to get the actions needed) whilst the better army can plot its
actions 5 phases in advance !

Elite +1 free dice

All but poor units can re-roll their lowest multiple
it takes 6" of movement for the battery to unlimber
Column of Route formation, it will get two additional green "free" dice to move
Heavy Cavalry get a free die and re roll the lowest.
entering difficult terrain, 6" (the rule of six) is deducted from their move
Attack column get an extra free Die to move and reroll the lowest
Light infantry get plus one green Die to move

Militia (Landwehr) = 8
Irregulars (Grenz Infantry) = 10
Regular (Line Infantry) = 12
Elite Lt Inf (Legere) = 14
Guards (Grenadiers) = 16

Lt Field Arty = 14
Horse Arty = 16
Hvy Field Arty = 16