Rick Barber - 10:12am May 13, 1999 PST (#104 of 105)
Illustrator/Cartographer/Designer (Summer Storm - the Friendly Monster!)- No
Question too small - No Answer too big ---- Looking forward to playing WAR
GALLEY & GRINGOS

Hampton,

Just glued up my counters for Chantilly, and am having a lot of fun with the
game! Great system!

Hope you won't think the following is too presumptive, but I've been
tinkering around with splicing in a couple of ideas from my own SUMMER STORM,
and I thought I'd post 'em here for any that might be interested. All are just
'tweakings' to what I think is one of the best brigade level systems I've seen
in years, and don't change any of your basic rules. Anyway, here goes:

COMMAND POINTS. A new Command Phase goes in front of the Orders Phase, with
each player rolling a d6 to see how many CPs they have available for the turn.
If you have spares, you could also use the same d6 as the bookkeeping method,
simply by rotating it as you use the CPs up. I've just tried it with a straight
roll, but a couple of simple DRMs based on the individual Commanders and
situations would be very easy to work in, just so you never end up with more
than 6 per turn. CPs would then be spent on: Extra Select Chits for individual
Divisions, Direct Command and Initiative (+2 DRM per CP).

SELECT Chits. Since I glue up your counters 'double weight' (meaning I peel
the backs, glue them down on board, then glue front to back once I've cut them
all out) there's no problem providing TWO Select Chits for each formation just
by leaving the backs blank. You could also just make your own out of blank
counters.

At a cost of 1 CP, you can 'buy' a SECOND Select chit for a given Division,
with it's availability subject to the same delay as orders.

DIRECT COMMAND. Instead of only one cup from which ALL Select markers are
drawn, EACH side now has their own. All Select Markers active for your side
for the current turn are either placed in your Army's cup, or, at a cost of
1 CP per, placed at the top of your Army's Orders chart (Direct Command).

INITIATIVE. as the last part of the COMMAND Phase, each side rolls 1d6,
modified by any CPs you choose to spend as a DRM. The winner gets the
initiative for the turn, with the one who held it the previous turn
winning any tied roll (Simply reroll any ties on the first turn).

5.0 DIVISION COMMANDER SELECTION

Instead of simply pulling one Chit from the common cup, each now roll 1d6
(with the player holding the initiative winning all tied rolls!) The winner
then gets to either: Play the Chit for a specific Division off of the Orders
Card (if he's spent the CP to put it there as Direct Command), pull a random
Chit fron his Army's cup, or force the enemy to do play one of his own
Divisions (on RARE occasion, that's actually the best move)

FINISHED PLAYER. If the 'finished' player (ie., has no remaining unplayed
SELECT Chits) wins the roll, his opponent must either A/take any 'Direct
Command' Chit off of his Orders card and put it into his Randon Draw Cup,
or B/ pull a Chit from that random Cup. If so, all units of the Division
selected may only move 1 hex (may be OUT of enemy ZOC), and may NOT move
into an enemy ZOC unless there's already another friendly unit (from the
now active Division) adjacent to the enemy unit in question. All units of
the Active Division may then conduct Combat against those adjacent enemy
units. This way there's no automatic advantage for a player with units
yet to move after his opponent is finished for the turn!

This may sound like a lot of complexity, but actually dovetails very nicely
with your existing rules, and the only 'bookkeeping' is the extra d6 needed
for the CPs and the possibility of putting an extra Select Chit or two on
the Orders Card. I think that it adds some interesting decision making to
an already great system, and would be very interested in hearing from any
of you that might be willing to try it out.

Rick (El Carto) Barber