Review of Adjutant Introuvable and Test Game

Adjutant Introuvable by Nic Birt is billed as an "Auto Strategy System for Miniature Wargames". 

Adjustant Introuvable (AI) aims to provide a strategy (the overall plan) to the absent opponent when engaging in solo wargames. AI attempts to maintain a reactive and dynamic plan throughout the battle through some general tactical guidance.

Strategy is fairly generic across historical military periods and therefore this system is appropriate for most ages from ancient to modern. However, the tactics have changed … and for this reason the tactical level of AI is provided in simple generic terms that will require interpretation to suite (sic) particular armies.

So now we understand what the rules are trying to accomplish, let's review what I think a good programmed opponent provide. Generally speaking, it must answer these four questions:

• Which side gets to act next?
• Which unit gets to act next?
• Which actions will the acting unit take?
• How will the acting unit execute those actions?

As previously noted, so rules answer these questions automatically, without the use of special "solo gaming" mechanisms. For example, if you are using rules that are IGO-UGO the answer to the question "Which side gets to act next?" is taken care of. Whatever side is the active side gets to act next until their turn is complete.

For games where the turn sequence consists of phases where all units perform the same actions at once, in any order the player likes (most IGO-UGO rules), the question of "Which unit gets to act next?" is also generally moot. This usually only comes up when two units are trying to move through the same physical space, in which the player generally moves the unit that can move the farthest first, so its movement is not blocked by the slower unit.

For rules where a unit can move, fire, and conduct close combat all in a single turn, the question "Which actions will the acting unit take?" tends to be less critical of a decision than in rules where, say, a unit can only move or fire. Nonetheless, this is where the programmed opponent starts to come into play as you need to know what the objective the unit is trying to accomplish.

Finally, few solo game systems answer the last question. In order to specify "How will the acting unit execute those actions?" they likely need to be written specifically for the rules you are using and possibly even the scenario and side you are playing. (The new Undaunted: Reinforcements, which I hope to be reviewing and testing here soon, would be an example.)

Before we take a look at how AI handles these questions, we note that "AI has been designed to work with wargame rule systems that operate with an alternating turn sequence (one side moves, then the opponent moves, and repeat). It is assumed the average game length will be between 6 and 12 of these double turns. For an effective use of the strategy plans it is best to have at least 10 units that are deployed by the AI side." For this reason I will be using the rules One-Hour Wargames (OHW), which I have reviewed here, only modified for using a 6" square grid.

Setup

The first task is to divide the board into a three-by-three grid. Given that out board is already nicely divided into a six-by-six grid, the AI grid cell will contain four cells of the board. Note that this makes counting terrain values (see later) much easier.

Set up the battlefield as normal and deploy the player's forces while also providing orders for the first turn. If the player wishes to simply react to the programmed opponent then the player may not make any moves for the first two turns.

In this test game I have decided to play the defending side in a battle similar to Guilford Courthouse, of the American War of Independence. The Patriots are therefore initially passive, firing at the advancing British, so counting them as passive seems the better option.

AI provides nine strategy cards, which outline the plan for how the programmed opponent will conduct battlefield operations (at a high level). The rules direct you to draw three randomly and then perform a calculation for each strategy to determine which of the three to use. The strategies are named: Equal Attack; Center Attack; Left Flank Attack; Right Flank Attack; Envelop From Left; Envelop From Right; Oblique Left Attack; Oblique Right Attack; and Ambush. I chose randomly and drew Envelop From Left, Envelop From Right; and Center Attack.

The strategy calculation consists of looking at the aggressiveness of the strategy on the left, center, and right and comparing it to the terrain in the left, center, and right. Here is what the board looks like, set up.

As shown in the image above, the map contains a grid for easy reference to terrain, units, movement, and combat.

• E1 contains a Town. (In this scale, it is a Courthouse and outbuildings.)
• B2 contains the West side of a Hill and a Patriot Infantry unit with 15 hits remaining.
• C2 contains the East side of a Hill and a Patriot Infantry unit with 15 hits remaining.
• D2 contains a Patriot Artillery unit with 15 hits remaining.
• E2 contains the North side of a Plowed Field.
• F2 contains a Patriot Cavalry unit with 15 hits remaining.
• E3 contains the South side of a Plowed Field.
• A4 contains the West side of a Woods.
• B4 contains the East side of a Woods and a Patriot Skirmisher (Rifle) unit with 10 hits remaining.
• C4 contains a Stone Wall and a Patriot Infantry (Militia) unit with 10 hits remaining.
• D4 contains a Stone Wall and a Patriot Infantry (Militia) unit with 10 hits remaining.
• E4 contains a Woods and a Patriot Skirmisher unit with 10 hits remaining.

With the terrain set up and the player's units deployed, it is time to determine which strategy AI will use. You start by calculating the strength of each strategy versus the terrain it is facing. Each strategy card shows whether the left, center, and right sectors (indicated by the red grid) are moving rapidly, advancing, ambushing, or holding. You use a table that compares that strategy to the terrain found in that sector to derive a score, which is then combined to determine how effective the strategy is to this scenario. The highest score of the three selected strategies is the strategy that the programmed opponent will use.

Without going into the details of the formulas (that is what the $5 price is for), the Envelop From Left strategy calls for a rapid advance on the left, holding in the center, and an advance on the right. The Envelop From Right is the mirror to that. Finally, Center Attack is an advance on the left and right and a rapid advance in the center. The significance of the movement (hold, advance, etc.) is how far through the board the program intends to advance. Hold only considers the programmed opponent's baseline ares (rows 5 and 6 in this case). Advance considers up through no man's land (rows 3 through 6), and rapid advance considers all rows in the sector. Let's compare the scores.

Envelop From Left

The Rapid Advance on the left starts (reading from the opponent's baseline) with Open terrain (0 points), then moves through the Woods (-1 point), then ends in Hill terrain (-1 point) for a total of -2 points.

The Hold action in the center only considers the Open terrain on its baseline, which gives it a score of -1.

The Advance on the right scores 0 points for the Open terrain and -1 for the Woods in no man's land, for a total of -1.

After scoring each sector a random factor of 0-3 points is added for a total. This strategy earned a -3 (after rolling +1 point for the random factor).

Envelope From Right

I will condense these down to Left -1, Center -1, and Right -2, Random 0 for a total of -4.

Center Attack

Left -1, Center -2, Right -1, Random +1 for a total of -3.

Because Envelop From Left and Center Attack are tied, there would normally be a roll off. However, I have decided to go with a Center Attack because Woods in OHW are essentially impassable terrain to five of the six units that the British have, thus attacking troops would have to flow through to the center, making this a Center Attack of sorts anyway.

With the strategy decided we now need to deploy the units to either the left flank, center, right flank, or the reserves. Troops are categorized as either Regular, Mobile, or Support. This is cross-referenced with the mission (Advance, Rapid Advance, Hold, or Ambush) and the target terrain (the terrain in the grid indicated by the mission). This yields a die roll to indicate if the unit is deployed in that sector or not.

Essentially you are rolling a die for each unit to determine if it is assigned to a specific mission, rolling for them in the order of Ambush, Rapid Advance, Advance, and Hold. Any units not assigned to those missions are placed in the Reserve.

So I have four Infantry, one Cavalry, and one Skirmisher. Starting with the Infantry (Regular) and rolling to assign to the Rapid Advance in the Center, with the target terrain of the Hill, I would need a 5+ to have a unit assigned. I roll 2, 2, 3, 5 so one Infantry unit is assigned to the Center. Next rolling for the Cavalry and Skirmisher (Mobile), still for the Center, I would need 4+ to have a unit assigned. I roll 2, 3 so neither is assigned.

Now I do the same for the Left, which is an Advance to the Woods. Infantry needs a 4+ and Mobile needs a 6. Because one Infantry is already assigned to the Center, I only have three Infantry remaining to assign. I roll 1, 1, 6 so one Infantry is assigned. I roll 5, 5 so no Mobile is assigned to the Left.

Finally I do the Right, which is an Advance to the Woods. Only two Infantry to assign and I roll 3, 6 so one gets assigned to the Right. I roll 2, 6 for the Mobile and the Cavalry gets assigned to the Right. (I rolled off to see whether it was the Skirmisher or the Cavalry.)

The remaining Infantry and Skirmisher unit gets assigned to the Reserve, which according to the strategy card, is behind the Center.

So Now What?

Now, it is time to start fighting the battle. When it is their time to act each mission force (sector) will roll a die, cross reference it to their mission, add or subtract 1 based on how well the mission is going, and get a Tactic to use for that turn. (Troops in the Reserve will deploy on a 5+.) The tactics are as follows.

• Charge - move rapidly towards objective, initiate combat whenever a win is possible, and bypass strong opposition.
• Engage - move steadily toward objective, initiate combat only when favorable results are probable.
• Probe - move cautiously, initiate limited disruptive combat when favorable result is most likely.
• React - hold ground, initiate combat only against weakened or breaking opponent.
• Relieve - retire to advantage, make defensive formations and positions.

These tactics are listed on each strategy card, along with the die rolls needed for each action.

Some of these will be hard to interpret, especially where in this scenario the programmed opponent starts within musket range of my troops. Here is the final setup.

As you can see, two of the British Infantry are Elite, and thus have 20 hits remaining, while all other units have 15 hits remaining.

There is a tendency in rules to make militia and elite troops overly weak or strong, in comparison to regular troops. For example, I have seen them being given modifiers to hit, i.e. the ability to inflict casualties, while simultaneously giving them morale modifiers, i.e. the ability to withstand casualties. Although many would say this is correct, I believe it is not in that the accuracy of the musket is horrendous (especially after fouling from a few shots) and thus the difference in the three types to inflict casualties is negligible. To me, the best way to represent quality of troops is to rate their ability to stay combat effective, which in terms of OHW, it the number of hits it can sustain.

Turn 1

The British start first. Looking at my strategy card the Center will Charge on a 4+, Engage on a 1-3, and Probe on a 0-. This is a D6 roll with a -1 because it is one British (Elite) Infantry against two Patriot (Militia) Infantry behind cover. I roll a 1 making it 0, thus the British decide to stand and fire.

On the left and right flanks they are advancing, so the cards says to Engage on a 5+, Probe on a 2-4, and React on a 1-. Both the left and right flanks get a Probe result. The Infantry will stand and fire while the Cavalry will hold in place.

Because this is the first turn, there is no roll for reinforcements.

As stated earlier, the best solo systems answer all four questions in some way. What action the units will take has been answered (firing instead of moving, for all three cases), but the answer to the last question, which is how to execute the action, i.e. which unit do I fire at, may not be clear. The rules do state that the combat should have a "favorable result". So, what is that?

In OHW I often analyze combat in terms of Average Turns to Eliminate (ATE), or the number of turns, on average, it takes to eliminate the enemy unit. In this case the British Infantry roll 1D6 to determine the number of hits inflicted on the enemy, so 3.5 hits per turn. Units in cover, such as in Woods or behind a Stone Wall, take 1/2 the hits, rounded up. If the target has 15 hits then Infantry's ATE is 5 if the target is not in cover and 8 if the target is.

In the case of the left flank Infantry firing, both targets in range are in cover so both are equally valid. One could next look at the hits remaining (essentially the ATE) to determine the weakest target, and thus the most vulnerable and therefore the higher chance of success. Again, both targets have the same number of hits, so the ATE is tied. At this point either target is equally valid and the rules are thus silent on selection, so presumably a die roll would be in order. However, one additional difference to not is which target can inflict more damage (thus making them more of a threat), i.e. what is the target's ATE against you. In this case the Patriot (Militia) Infantry is lower and therefore the greatest threat. That said, I am going to shoot straight forward and into the sector where my mission is located.

On the right flank the case is largely the same: fire at a Skirmisher in the Woods or an Infantry behind a Stone Wall? The difference is that if the Infantry fires on the enemy Infantry, it is potentially doubling up its fire against that target.

Here is the result of the British first turn.

Remember, because I did not write order before the British set up, I am hampered from making any moves for turn 1 and 2, which is acceptable as I am simply going to fire at the attacking British. Here is the end of turn 1.

While the Skirmishers on the left muffed their shot, the right taught the enemy Infantry to ignore it at its own peril. The two Militia Infantry in the center absolutely pounded the center British Infantry. Had it not been an elite unit (starting with 20 hits), it would now be within one good die roll of being eliminated.

Turn 2

As with the first turn, each sector needs to roll its tactics, and reinforcements can be rolled for.

Left - Probe; Center - Charge; Right - Engage; Reserve - no reinforcements.

The Center charges as the British realize that they cannot afford to slug it out with the two Militia units. Because it moves forward, the British Infantry moving to D5 now blocks the Infantry in E6 from firing on the Militia in D4.

On the Right the Cavalry moves forward. If it moved to F4 it risks being fired upon by the Artillery and charged by the enemy Cavalry, so it only moves to F5.

This is the last turn in which the Patriots cannot react, so all they do is fire.

The British Grenadiers in D5 are looking pretty bad. With it being 'outnumbered', it is unlikely to be able to roll a 'Charge' result. This is one thing I have a criticism about with chance-oriented programs. It sometimes feels like 'morale' is baked into the results. Shouldn't the core rules cover morale, rather than the solo mechanics?

Turn 3

As with last turn, each sector needs to roll its tactics, and reinforcements can be rolled for.

Left - Engage; Center - Charge; Right - React; Reserve - no reinforcements.

The British on the left and right flanks continue to fire, but the cavalry stands. The British Grenadiers in the center rolled well and can continue the charge. Had they rolled less, they would have stood and fired, which would have been a bad result.

This was a good turn for the British. Both the Infantry units on the left and right flanks scored a '6', resulting in 3 hits each on the Patriot Skirmish units. The British Grenadiers charged, inflicting a single hit and forcing the Patriot Militia to retreat.

Note: British Infantry being able to charge into hand-to-hand combat and forcing Patriot Infantry and Skirmishers to retreat from hand-to-hand combat is not a normal rule for the OHW Horse and Musket rules, but is added by my AWI variant.

Now that the first two turns are up, I can finally order my Patriot units freely. At this point, however, I am going to leave the battle report. The idea was to test the AI system and see it in action.

Summary

Let me start by saying these rules are a mere $5, can be purchased online, and are delivered as a PDF. It is value for money. All of that said, to me it is an 'idea generator' rather than a full blown system of a programmed opponent. I see that these sort of systems can cover the following mechanics: overall battle plan; distribution of forces; unit deployment; unit mission; and unit tactics.

Overall Battle Plan

Basically the goal is to help the player come up with a basic strategy for the programmed opponent. AI does this providing you nine basic battle plans. Providing you a formula to calculate the best attack strategy based on terrain is very valuable. If fact, I think that is the singular best idea in these rules. For once a system takes terrain into account, giving it a value. Most points systems, for example, do not take the value of terrain into account, unless it is man-made like an entrenchment or a fortification. AI looks at the terrain within reach of your mission (how deep onto the battlefield you intend to take) and evaluates the difficulty of achieving it.

The only issue I take with the formula is that there are certain unstated value judgments built into that formula. For example, one element that kept coming up while using AI was that the rules I was using, OHW, does not allow most units to enter woods at all. Many rules take the approach that woods slow movement and provide cover, so the idea that you can attack a woods with any unit is somewhat universal. If you are using something like OHW where you can shoot at units defending a woods, but can never take it, the formulation should actually be harsher for the woods being present.

In the example above, if your mission is to rapidly advance on the left, i.e. advance to the enemy's row, the presence of the woods in row 2 makes this impossible if, say, your line infantry, cavalry, and artillery cannot pass through the woods and only your light infantry can. You could put infantry units in row 3 to shoot out the defenders, but at some point your infantry, cavalry, and artillery will have to bypass the woods through the center, while your light infantry moves in to occupy the woods, keeping the enemy light infantry out while your other forces pass by through the center.

So, is it perfect? No. It is naturally generic. That is why I say that these rules are great as a starting point, a template from which to build a more specific program that meet your scenario, forces, and rules needs and restrictions.

One final note: I am not sure why the author wants you to randomly select three possible battle plans, calculate the most effective one, and then use that, rather than having you calculate all of them. Given that you are playing solo, time is one factor that you have on your side. All of this work can be done before you actually lay out the terrain and troops on the board, so even if your time is limited in how long you can keep the game set up, this time calculating does not count against it and can even be done the night before.

Distribution of Forces

Again, my experience with this aspect may be colored by OHW not allowing certain unit types to move into Woods, but having a random roll to determine if a unit will be in a given sector feels … random. That said, I don't have a better way of changing the charts so that it makes more sense for OHW.

Unit Deployment

This was something that seemed missing. Although AI helped you determine which sector of the battlefield your units were going to be assigned to, no mention on how that unit would be deployed in relation to the other units also assigned to that sector. As I sit here and ponder that question, any such rules would probably be very complex and not work well for all rules, so it is probably just as well that it was not addressed.

Unit Mission

I felt like this aspect was something I had not considered, which is the mission of the unit. Granted, the same mission is given to all units in the sector, but the idea a unit would intentionally only advance so far (if at all) until the mission was interesting. Note that missions are always to occupy the terrain in the sector. Generally these might be the objectives in a scenario, so I could see reverse-engineering the overall battle plan based on scenario objectives and victory points.

Unit Tactics

This was the one area I felt worked the least because there was so much interpretation as to what each tactic – Charge, Engage, Probe, React, and Relieve – really means. Take a game like OHW. The basic decision is first "Do I move or fire?" This is something many rules avoid as they allow a unit to move and fire in a single turn. It seems like the tactics should be more aligned with how the unit fights. Does it primarily inflict casualties by fire or hand-to-hand combat? If the former, are you in range yet? Do you have range 'bands' (short, medium, long, etc.) which affect effectiveness? If so, which band are you in?

Considering these types of factors would lead more to rule-based decision making system, rather than one driven by chance elements, but I think it is something to consider.

As stated previously, there is also an element of morale sprinkled into the tactics table, with less aggressive tactics implying a partial failure of morale being the cause for the less aggressive approach.

Final Analysis

Overall, how can you say that this is not good value for money at $5? (I hope Nic does not raise his prices after this review! 😄) There are far better, well thought out ideas that are actually useful to gaming solo than many of the books I have purchased that promise to tell me how to wargame solo. Just consider that, unless the main rules you play fit well into the model published in these solo rules, you should consider this a template for how to convert this process to the rules you use most often; it is a starting point.

Digging into the Solo Mechanics of Space Marine Adventures

So, before I lose you because you don't like Games Workshop, Warhammer 40,000 (WH40K), or the space fantasy genre in general let me just say that this is not so much about those subjects, but how Games Workshop approached solo and cooperative play in their board game (with miniatures) Space Marine Adventures (SMA). It is my intent to dig into the solo game mechanics and show how you can apply it to other genres and historical periods, even without buying the game.

Overview of the Game

The U.S. bookseller Barnes & Noble has licensed a few Games Workshop properties for sale in their bookstores and online store exclusively. (Some titles may also be exclusively in the U.S.) Most of these games are very simple "gateway" games designed to introduce young players to the miniatures gaming hobby by providing the board, terrain pieces, miniatures, tokens, dice, rules and scenarios all in a book shelf-sized box. In the case of SMA it is intended to introduce new players to the world of WH40K in a format simpler than even Kill Team. Games Workshop has done this before with a number of boxed games, such as Space Crusade, Space Hulk, and others this format is definitely more compact and simpler. Further, this is not a competitive game but rather a co-operative game for 1-4 players, with all of the players playing Space Marines. The enemy, in this case the Necrons (killer zombie robots), are programmed completely, and thus is ultimately a solo game system.

The goal of the game is for the player to progress through a series of three missions, each progressively harder than the previous, with a roster of five Space Marines. Each scenario follows the same basic pattern: the Space Marines enter the game board and have to reach a specific square or eliminate a specific enemy, at which point an exit from the board will be revealed, which the Space Marines will need to pass through in order to win the scenario and progress to the next mission. While the players are attempting to accomplish this more enemies will appear on the board in an attempt to wound and ultimately stop the players from accomplishing the mission.

Solo Game Mechanics

For me, When I evaluate a game's "programming" for the enemy side I look at how do the rules answer the following questions:

1. How do I (the player) determine which side has the next turn?
2. How do I determine which unit on the enemy (programmed) side acts when it is their turn?
3. How do I determine what action(s) the enemy unit takes when it is their turn (or if the rules allow it, reactions the unit takes when it is not their turn)?
4. How do I determine how the enemy unit executes the action(s), e.g. which path it moves along, which target it shoots at or charges, etc.?

Which Side Acts Next

In SMA order of acting is determined by a deck of cards. There are two cards in an activation deck for each individual Space Marine and six cards for all of the Necrons. Each round the player draws a card to determine which side acts next, Space Marines or Necrons. Once all cards are drawn a new turn starts.

Note that neither side gets to react (act during the other's turn), so this question does not need to be considered.

Which Unit Acts Next

As indicated above the activation deck determines order. The card drawn indicates either a specific Space Marine that is to act or all Necrons.

What Actions do the Units Take

I will ignore the player's units for the moment and focus on only the Necrons, as that is what is part of the enemy "program". As I said earlier, SMA is a very simple game. Unlike Arcadia Quest (which I reviewed its solo rules in a previous post) the enemy does not move and attack in their turn. A Necron's turn consists of drawing a card from the mission card deck (called the Labyrinth deck) and following the instructions written there.

Scattered on the boards included with the game are six spawn points (called "translocation squares") numbered one through six. On some of the mission cards it indicates which spawn points new Necrons will come in at, as indicated in the image above. In that example by the red arrow, it instructs the player to place a Necron at translocation square "1".

In the image below, the player has drawn a card indicating that Necrons should be placed at squares "1" and "3".

When Necrons are placed, they are placed in the order indicated on the card (typically from the lowest number to the highest). A counter is placed on the translocation square if it is empty of Necrons. If it is not, it is placed on an adjacent square if that is empty of Necrons. If that is not you look at the next adjacent square, and so on, until it is placed. Additionally, if the translocation square already has a counter, you place one Necron in each direction adjacent to it.

In the example above, when it comes to placing the Necron on "1", because that square is empty the counter will be placed on that square.

For "3" however, there is already a Necron there so there should be one Necron placed in each adjacent square, labeled "A", "B", and "C".

Because "A" has a Necron you then check square "D", which is empty, so the Necron is placed in square "D".

For square "C" there is no Necron, so the new Necron is placed there also.

Finally, in square "B" there is a player's Space Marine. Because the square is empty of Necrons it would normally be placed there, but because there is an enemy, that placement is considered an attack. The new Necron is eliminated and the Space Marine player takes a wound.

Coming back to the question: what action(s) do the programmed unit(s) take? The answer is "placement". Placing a unit essentially indicates where future enemy units can be placed and which player units can be attacked.

How Do the Units Execute Actions

As indicated above, placement is the only "action" allowed to the enemy program. If the placement is on the same square as a player's unit, it is considered an attack. The strict placement rules define how the units execute those placement actions. Thus the decision is taken away from the player.

Application to Other Genres

Okay, so now you have the basics of the solo gaming mechanism, how can you apply this to other genres?

The Board

The first component to consider is the game board or tabletop. There are three elements to account for:

1. The paths that the player's units can take and the enemy unit's can be placed.
2. The points where the enemy's units can enter the board.
3. The locations of the objectives.

Personally I think this system needs a grid, whether square or hex, in order to constrain the player's movement (no geometry tricks in order to avoid an enemy attack) and control the enemy placement.

The Reinforcements (Labyrinth) Deck

To recap a little, each round a card is drawn from the activation deck to determine which side - and in the case of the player, which unit - acts next. When it is the enemy's turn to act, a card is drawn from the labyrinth deck, which acts as a reinforcements and events deck, to determine which enemy reinforcements come on and where they enter.

Researching out, say, a historical battle you could use the orders of battle and the arrival schedule of units to create the values in the reinforcement deck. As a variant, you might even not randomize the order of the cards in the deck in order to reflect the historical order of appearance of units.

All each card need do is indicate the reinforcement point(s) where reinforcements will enter. How many will enter can either be dictated by the position of existing friendly and enemy units on the board, as it is with SMA, or it could be stated on the card.

The Reinforcement Pool

One aspect of SMA that I glossed over is which specific unit type is deployed to the spawn point when the labyrinth deck indicates new units are arriving. Each scenario defined the number of types of units that are in play, e.g. 10 Necron Warriors and 10 Necron Immortals. These units are tossed into a bag and when the card calls for a unit to be deployed, one is randomly pulled from the bag and deployed on the board at the location specified by program.

The same sort of concept could be employed in other genres, of if playing a historical scenario, you could combine the reinforcement location and unit composition in the reinforcements deck.

The Units

The Necron units in SMA really only differ in their defense values. As there is no movement, and attacking is by placement automatically inflicting a single wound to the player's unit, the only values a Necron unit has are its type and its defense value. When a player's unit attacks the player rolls a D6, adds or subtracts modifiers, and is looking to equal or exceed the Necron unit's defense value. If it does, the unit is eliminated.

All units of the same type have the same defense value. Some cards in the labyrinth deck will temporarily modify that value for all units of the indicated type, generally making them tougher to kill.

The two elements of combat, that an enemy unit inflicts one wound 100% of the time and that a player unit that inflicts a hit on the enemy will destroy it in a single hit, can easily be changed. Both sides' attack and defense values could be created and used, with die rolls determining the outcome of hits and damage for both sides.

Summary

The basic structure of SMA provides for an interesting method of programming opponents. In turn, there are a number of variations you can consider.

• If you don't like making cards you can easily convert the deck to a table where you make rolls. It does change the dynamics some as, once a card is played it cannot be played again. (Once the deck is played, the game is over, so all cards are only played once, at most.)
• Some people do not like deterministic combat so you can inject any sort of chance element you like, or even your favorite combat system.
• There is another variation of SMA called Space Marine Adventures - Rise of the Orks, which allows the enemy units to move by program, so this is an obvious change that can be made, rather than having reinforcements reflect "movement" of sorts.

The final point is that a good programmed opponent takes work. It is basically a game in and of itself. I think the more you write these programs, the easier the next one becomes.

Hostile Tactical A.I. Review – Part 2

This is part 2 of my review of Hostile Tactical A.I. (HTAI). You can find part 1 here.

Before I get started with the test game I need to make one other point about the Hostile Tactical A.I. (HTAI) product. When I mentioned the shards I forgot to mention that the cards, Aces and Jacks through Kings, are not in equal proportions. There are more Aces than Kings, which have more than Queens, etc. resulting in about twice as many Aces as Jacks. This is important to know if you are going to use the shards mechanic for anything.

As I used that mechanic for determining which model would act next, I had to assign a card to each model. That allowed me to prioritize which models acted more often. In the scenario I had the following forces on the programmed side:

• Rifle Leader
• Rifle Sniper
• Rifle Soldier (x2)
• Line Leader
• Line Brawler
• Line Soldier (x5)

An interesting aspect of One-Hour Skirmish Wargames (OHSW) is that Leaders are better than Soldiers because their bonuses are added when attacking and defending, but it is the only type that also adds their bonus when checking morale. So being aggressive and losing a Leader severely impacts your force's morale. An interesting question to ask is should Leaders have a priority to acting (be associated with an Ace or King) or should they hold back (be associated with a Queen or Jack)?

I think there are several ways to resolve that question, one of which is to randomize it. You could draw a card and if the die roll is 1-2 make it an Ace, 3 a King, 4 a Queen. and 5-6 a Jack if you want to focus on the extremes. If you want to focus more on moderate values you could choose 1 is an Ace, 2-3 a King, 4-5 a Queen, and 6 a Jack. Really the choice is yours on what you want to do; this is a toolkit. I thought it was important to point out that the probabilities are not equal.

Also, I also decided to go with a square grid instead of freeform movement because, well, that's my thing. I decided that I would allow one diagonal for every six squares, or fraction thereof. So a normal infantry move (6") gets one diagonal when counting squares, otherwise you must count horizontally or vertically only.

Another change is that I decided to try the 'flintlock option', where models armed with muskets and carbines require 2 action points (AP) to fire and rifles will require 3 AP. This will slow down the action, but that is okay. It allows for more movement and close combat, but de-emphasizes rapid fire. This is more a factor about OHSW and has nothing to do with HTAI.

Setup

I decided to randomize the terrain placement. Last time I noticed that I placed trees in 'bands' rather than randomly. This time I started by dividing the board into quadrants, rolled a die for each tree and rise and placed them in the appropriate section. I then divided each quadrant into smaller quadrants (sexdecrants?) and rolled again. At that point I simply placed them within the appropriate sub-section, aligning the terrain piece with the square grid.

As before, the British (defenders) setup first. They had the bottom half of the board. I did not want to randomize placement of the British forces, as I thought that would make them too ineffective. Additionally, they were supposed to be in defense of the cannon. So, I generally placed them around the cannon, but within cover, as much as possible. The Line troops were mainly to defend the cannon while the Rifles were to sit back and pick off French attackers, as shown in the image below.

The French (attackers) have the top quarter of the board. One change from last scenario was to scatter the cavalry across the board, rather than cluster them into a unit. This would allow for more opportunities to spring forward and take out any aggressive British who had advanced too far forward.

As I indicated at the start of the post because of the probability of drawing Aces over Jacks, assigning cards to models was one way of determining how aggressively a model would be used. I decided to assign the secondary leader (the Line Sergeant) to a King of Spades and the primary leader (the Rifle Sergeant) to a Queen of Spades. The Line would be more active in their defense so they were Aces and Kings (the Ace of Spades being the Brawler) and the Rifles would be all Queens. As you will see, this has an impact on how frequently Line models act compared to Rifles.

In the image above 'S' stands for Spades, 'H' for Hearts, and so on for the suit of the cards. The value of the card – Aces, Kings, and Queens – is shown below the suit. Note that no models are assigned as Jacks, so when these cards were turned for model selection they were ignored and another drawn.

Note, in the commentary below, items in italics indicates text from the HTAI cards or rules. Initially I showed the text on the card, as a means of identifying where it is found, but after a while stopped (I am sure you got the concept by then). As a reminder, here is what an HTAI card looks like.

At the top, in the blue band, is the Reaction order on the left and the shard/card designation on the right.

In the middle (white) section are the main orders. The Patrol order is for when the programmed model is unaware of the enemy while the Attack order is for when it is aware. The text is the actual order. Although there is ample space to include the entire order, only part of it is listed on the card so you must lookup the keyword in the rules to find the full order. In this example Pace is the keyword for the Patrol order and Hostile is the keyword for the Attack order.

The bottom (black) section has three pieces of information: the compass, an enemy selection descriptor, and two movement dice.

The compass is largely used for order that indicate direction and not an enemy, such as the Flank order. The enemy selection descriptor, in this example the keyword Furthest, indicates the enemy model in relation to the model being ordered. Some descriptors are distance-oriented while others are status-oriented. In this play through I will allow any asterisk in the compass to apply to the enemy selection descriptor also.

Finally the movement dice indicate how aggressive a move will be. If 1D6 is indicated, the red die is used. If 2D6 is indicated, then both dice are added together. A sum of 7 or more indicates a foot model will take two Move actions. A sum of 10 or more indicates a mounted model will take two Move actions. If using 2D6 and either die is a '6', the model will take an additional Move action.

Turn 1

British won initiative and drew 11 AP.

Drew the Ace of Clubs, so that identified the Soldier to act.



Another card was drawn to determine the action.

The card indicated under the Attack section that it was to be a Defensive order, moving 1D6 towards the player. The rule for Defensive says the model moves towards the player and then attacks. The model attempts to stay in cover (that is the defensive part). As I was not using the movement indicator (1D6 or 2D6) to determine the actual movement distance, but rather the number of Move actions it will take, 1D6 would always result in a single Move action, so no card was drawn. The Solider moved then fired as shown in the image below. (No card was drawn for determining the target as only one enemy model was in range.)

A Joker was drawn during combat resolution, ending the turn. Here is the situation at the end of the turn.

The early turn end meant the French were now under time pressure as they effectively had only four turns to accomplish their mission. Also note that due to discussions with the author of OHSW, I found out that Jokers are ignored during the End-of-Turn activities (casualty resolution and morale check) and the deck is not re-shuffled between turns, so there are fewer Jokers going into subsequent turns, generally making them longer.

Both sides passed morale and there were no casualties to resolve.

Turn 2

French won initiative and drew 12 AP.

One of the French Soldiers moved twice and fired at the British Soldier in the open, but missed. The French Cavalry then moved twice and charged the same Soldier, killing him in close combat. From that position he snaped off a shot and downed the British Soldier behind the cannon.

Note that I am not trying not to go into much depth for the French as this is more about TSIA than OHSW.

British drew 12 AP.

Amazingly, the British drew the Ace of Clubs again, resulting in the same Soldier acting as in the previous turn. This time, however, his order was Hostile: 2D6 towards player. So a draw of another card revealed the move was '9', so it was two Move actions. Drawing another card for direction it was towards the closest enemy.



The British 'berserker' charged forward two Moves (12 squares) toward the French Soldier and fired from behind a tree, downing his target. That is certainly a move I would not have taken!

The King of Hearts was drawn next, indicating it was the Soldier by the Rifle, directly in front of the charging French Cavalryman.



His order was React: *, meaning another card was drawn to determine the Reaction order. Reaction orders tend to be 'stronger' or 'special'. In this case I drew the Rally reaction.



The rules for a Rally reaction are to recover or help fallen comrade within 2D6. As we saw in the first test game of OHSW, downed models are very suspectible to being charged and automatically eliminated in combat. As the downed Soldier by the cannon was within two Move actions (I drew another card for movement distance and it was a '9', indicating two Moves), I decided that this Soldier would bravely positions himself by the downed Soldier. He then fired on the French Cavalryman, missing.

French won initiative and drew 4 AP.

The French Cavalryman charged the British Rifle and cut him down in close combat.

British drew 4 AP.

The British drew an Ace of Diamonds for model selection. Unfortunately that is the Soldier down by the cannon. It took several more draws, but I eventually got the Ace of Hearts, which was the Soldier standing on the left side of the cannon. His order was Defensive: 1D6 towards Objective. As he was at the objective (the cannon) that meant no move was necessary. He was also in cover, which Defensive requires the model to seek. There were two enemies within range to fire at, so I drew a card to determine the target and got Furthest.

As an aside, I like using the card for this. Getting Closest meant he would have been tracking the movement of the Cavalryman, while Furthest would have meant he was letting those to his right handle the Cavalryman, who was now past his periphery, leaving him to track the Soldier that moved up into cover and fired. Leaving these decisions to the system takes any bias out of your hands and puts it into the cards.

Note, however, that the compass (also a part of the directional indicator) contained an asterisk, so a Reaction order had to be taken first. And of course it was a Charge!, which meant the model had to attempt to move into close combat, if possible, otherwise it would fire. As the model was not within close combat range (12 squares, as that was as far as the model could move given the number of AP that was drawn), it simply fired on the original target; the instinct to charge was ignored. (Tell me how you might have interpreted it.) Even though the French soldier was behind solid cover, he was downed by the shot.

With only 2 AP remaining I drew another card to see which model would act. I drew the Ace of Spades and got the Portuguese Brawler. Given that only 2 AP remained, the model could either move once or fire, but not both. The order drawn was Hostile: 2D6 towards Objective, so it was clear that I had to take the Move action.

On reviewing this it appears that I had one more AP remaining, so I should have drawn for another model to act. Oh well.

French won initiative and drew 9 AP.

I had sort of gone on a 'Knight's Gambit' with my Cavalryman. I decided to continue pushing it as one possible path was to take two Move actions to the Soldier guarding the cannon, kill him in close combat, and a third Move to the downed Soldier, automatically killing that model, for a total of 9 AP. If I could take out those two Soldiers it would put the French way ahead in terms of morale.

The first charge, however, resulted in the death of the French Cavalryman. That feisty Soldier with the Rally reaction that went to cover his downed comrade was determined! So much for my plans.

As the Portuguese Brawler had advanced a little it just put him in range of the French Sergeant's musket. The Sergeant fired and downed the Portuguese Soldier.

Another French soldier fired at the 'berserker' British Soldier and, despite having a shot against cover, downed him also.

The final French AP was spent advancing a French Soldier towards the cannon.

As a note, there were at that point two British casualties and three downed, while the French had one casualty and two downed.

British drew 9 AP. (What is it with these duplicate AP draws against two decks!?!)

Drawing the King of Spades the British Line Sergeant finally got to act. His orders were to Flank: 2D6, which the rules say you draw to determine a general direction, heading for cover in that direction. The direction drawn was NW, so to the model's left and towards the enemy. It drew a '9', so two Move actions. An idea I had been toying with is that for if a '6' is drawn on either die, it would indicate a third Move action. In this case it had one, so this model would consume all of the AP moving to that flank position.

French won initiative and drew 8 AP.

The forward French Soldier moved into cover and fired at the British Soldier by the cannon but missed. Another Soldier advanced and took a shot at the Sergeant, also missing. Meanwhile, on the French left flank the French Soldier and the Cavalryman advanced up the flank.

British drew 10 AP.

The British Line Sergeant again got to act, He drew the order Hostile: 2D6 towards Objective. The movement draw was '8', so it was for two Move actions. One thing to note is that there were no enemy at the objective, but there was one near.

So I interpreted the order as indicating the Sergeant would attack the French Soldier after moving twice. He attacked with the bayonet and won. He could still take a Fire action so I drew a card to determine which of the French models it would attack and it came up Closest, but with an asterisk, so I needed to determine the Reaction order. I drew Double Time, which read enemy takes two Moves in a row. Now I do not like solo systems to be able to 'break the rules', allowing a model to act twice in an Action Phase such as Move-Fire then Move again would do. So I determined that, because a model can take three Move actions in a phase, that meant the Sergeant would take a third Move action, rather than a Fire action. (After moving three times there are not enough AP to fire.)

After much card flipping I finally got the Queen of Spades, the Rifle Sergeant, who drew the order Defensive: 1D6 towards Objective, with a Reaction order of Secondary. Secondary means that the model uses any secondary weapons or gear that they possess. In that context it meant nothing (the model had no secondary weapon or gear), so it was ignored. The final result was that he moved out of cover towards the cannon for one Move action.

French won initiative and drew 7 AP.

The French Sergeant fired at the British Line Sergeant, barely downing him. The French Soldier nearby moved up and bayonets the Sergeant, then moved again and bayonets the other British Soldier. Those losses really hurt the British.

Finally, another French Soldier advanced forward to put pressure on the British holding the cannon.

Both player's decks were down to less than 1/2 of their cards, yet still no Joker had appeared, making for a very long turn. The British had lost four models, one being a Leader, and had two downed. The French had lost two models, one being a Cavalryman, and had two models downed.

British won initiative (finally) and drew 12 AP.

A Rifleman on the left-center got to act, drawing the order Retreat: 2D6 (move '3', so only one Move action) towards cover. Note that a Retreat does not have you attack at the end, so this is simply a move. Wow, I guess the French pushing forward and having witnessed the bayoneting of two British took its toll on his nerves! (I did not expect that!)

After a lot of flipping to find a card for someone not dead or downed the Soldier to the left at the cannon got a Flank: 2D6 order. The move indicated three Move actions (because a '6' was in the move dice), direction of East! I guess he saw the threat to his right. He fired at the Weakest enemy, which would be the Cavalryman (as he only gets one card of cover from the rise while the Soldier would get two). A Joker was drawn and the turn ended.

The first thing is a Morale Check. The British have a Motivation of +3 (defined by the scenario) and had four casualties. A 2+ will succeed and they drew a 2! (Cutting it close.) The French have a Motivation of +2 and had two casualties. Any card would suffice, and they passed easily.

When I drew for Casualty Resolution (Red is Dead and Black is Back), both the British Soldier and the Portuguese Brawler were eliminated. For the French it turned out that both of their soldiers were also dead.

At that point the British had lost six models and had five remaining. The deck is a sliver, but one Joker had still not been revealed, so next turn was likely to be a very short turn. The French had lost four models and had 12 remaining. Their deck was also a sliver, but it had shown both Jokers (the second was drawn during Casualty Resolution).

As it takes a long time to document a game, I am going to leave it off at this point as the review is about HTAI, not OHSW, and I have a good enough feel to complete the review. (Oh, all right, the French won as the British failed their morale check on turn 4.)

Initial Thoughts

First, let's be clear, there is no "artificial intelligence" embedded into this product. It is just a marketing thing and no one really expects that it would actually have 'intelligence', right? In order for it to have intelligence, there has to be some input from the game upon which the system processes.

So now that we got that out of the way, what exactly does the product do? Well, it provides structure to make decisions randomly. Every non-computer-based solo system I have encountered either was simply a random roll to choose from several interesting options or was programmed (i.e. when event X occurred then action Y would be triggered). The former was much more flexible in that it could be used in a variety of situations, whereas the latter was a richer experience but because of its strict inputs was inflexible. (If you have experience with something that has neither of these restrictions, let me know.) HTAI does pretty well in providing interesting orders for your non-player troops.

Rules Ratings

Using the review system from before, here are the game ratings for Hostile: Tactical A.I. (HTAI).

Drama – do the rules create tension during play?

Because we are dealing with just what HTAI adds to rules, I would say that sometimes HTAI makes unexpected moves. For the most part, however, they are not necessarily good moves, just unexpected. It sometimes throws the player off balance, which leads to some drama, but mostly just distracts the player from the mission.

These rules rate 2 out of 5 in Drama.

Uncertainty – are there enough elements that introduce uncertainty into the game?

Because HTAI is, at the heart of it, a way of structuring random elements, it is all about uncertainty. As I said previously, the two core questions a good solo system must answer are: which model acts next, and what will the model do when it is time to act. HTAI answers those questions very clearly. As the rule set I was using is very much oriented towards reacting to your opponent's move while trying to fulfill your mission, this same scenario can play out an untold number of ways using HTAI.

These rules rate 5 out of 5 in Uncertainty.

Engaging – do the rules allow the player to make meaningful decisions that lead to consequences?

The whole point of this product is to take as many of the decisions for the programmed side away from the player as possible, so in this case a low score is probably better, not worse, but that is confusing so I will call this rating Lack of Administration. There were times when I had to interpret what the card meant or whether it should simply be ignored because it did not apply in the current context, so some administration is required.

These rules rate 4 out of 5 in Lack of Administration.

Unobtrusiveness – do the rules get in the way?

No, unless you use HTAI more strictly than I do. For example, I could have used the movement dice to indicate how many inches or squares the model moved, not just how many Move actions they took. Had I done that then some models would have fallen short of cover because they rolled low. Also, I did not allow the programmed models to 'cheat' by breaking the core rules. (Maybe this is necessary as the random selection will never be as smart as you, so the game needs to cheat in order to provide you with a greater challenge. Many video games do this, or are accused of doing this.)

The most obtrusive part is the rules for the keywords and model selection (due to card assignments).

These rules rate 3 out of 5 in Unobtrusiveness.

Heads Up – are the rules playable without frequent reference to a quick reference sheet?

Maybe as you use HTAI more the keywords become second nature, so referring to the rules cards doesn't become necessary. But for me I often double-checked the rules card to ensure I could attack after a move, or whether I was supposed to seek cover or not. Ironically, the rule could easily have been printed in full in the Orders section of the card, so it was not really necessary creating a separate, referenced rule.

Again, the second major hassle was looking up a card and figuring out which model was to act. Unless you use card markers or have some other form of identifier on your models and you create a lookup table, this will be the most tedious part of the game. Because model selection is key to answering one of the two critical questions that a solo system has to answer, I cannot ignore this aspect of HTAI.

These rules rate 3 out of 5 in Heads Up.

Appropriately Flavored – do the rules 'feel' like they represent the period or genre being played?

HTAI is not intended to represent any period or genre, nor is it supposed to add flavor.

These rules are not rated in Appropriately Flavored.

Scalable – can the rules be scaled up or down – in terms of figures or number of units played – from a 'normal' game?

Here, I am changing the definition of the rating a bit. I want to address whether HTAI can be used for larger unit sizes or not. Currently, HTAI is intended to represent the orders in a skirmish game where each unit is a single model. Could it be used to represent the orders of a squad? A company? A battalion? etc.

The farther you move away from the core use – a single figure or model – the more 'interpretation' you are going to have to do with the key words on the card. How does a battalion's actions differ when Defensive: 1D6 move into cover is drawn as opposed to Hostile: 1D6, especially when there is no cover nearby? What if there is cover, but moving into it would disorder the unit? I could easily see where a 'positive' order for a skirmish-level game might act as a 'negative' order for massed combat.

In terms of scaling for using more figures or models, the key limiting factor is that there are only 16 card assignments for determining which model acts next. You would have to group models in order to fit into 16 slots and then draw another card to determine which model in the group would act. At that point it would simply be easier to develop your own system for model selection. Also, if you do not like the differing probabilities of cards appearing you would need to develop your own system.

Given the amount of interpretation that would be required to accommodate other scales, I would have to rate it low.

These rules rate 2 out of 5 in Scalable.

Lacks Fiddly Geometry – do the rules require fiddly measurements or angles?

HTAI adds no elements of measurement or line of sight, etc.

These rules are not rated in Fiddly Geometry.

Tournament Tight™ Rules – are the rules clear and comprehensive, or do the players need to 'fill in the blanks'?

The whole point of HTAI is to game solo, so these would never be used in a tournament. More to the point, rules disagreements largely don't occur if you are playing solo. Nonetheless, what this rating really refers to is ambiguity in the rules. How much do you have to interpret? Actually, a lot less than I expected, but obviously, for a product that is supposed to cover 'any' skirmish scenario it is going to have to have some interpretation left up to the player.

These rules rate 3 out of 5 in Tournament Tight™ Rules.

Solo Suitability – do the rules have elements conducive to solo play?

There are no hidden elements to the game so that alone usually grants the rules high solitaire suitability. Having a mechanism to randomize how a model acts is usually an element that solo gamers inject into other rules, sometimes with disastrous results, so having that mechanism built in and accounted for is just icing on the cake. Because it also has a mechanism for determining which model acts next, it is given a perfect rating.

These rules rate 5 out of 5 in Solo Suitability.

Component Quality – are the components provided made with quality?

This is a new rating, meant primarily for board games and books, which addresses the quality of the physical components.

First, there are three options when ordering this product: have the cards and rules printed; have the cards and rules printed and receive a PDF of the cards and rules; or receive a PDF of the cards and rules. I went with the first so really most of this rating is about the quality of the cards from War-game Vault.

The cards are nice and glossy, but a little thin. Thin cards seem to 'clump' together when shuffling and they usually do not spring back to shape as quickly.

There are several misspellings in the text of the cards and rules, indicating it needs a better editor. (Like my blog.)

These rules rate 3 out of 5 in Component Quality.

Summary

I can't say it enough, but solo systems are not fully fleshed out unless they answer two questions: which model acts next and what do they do when it is their time to act. HTAI does a really good job of that, but there are some ideas that you have to accept, one of which is that some figures will have a higher probability of acting than others. Because that math is burned into the cards, you really cannot change that idea easily. Maybe that is why getting the PDF is such a good idea. With some editing software it would be relatively easy to make the probability of card selection equal or allow for more models than just 16. But, you would have to print the cards out yourself.

Would I use these cards again? Yes. Would I use them to play solo with other unit scales? Probably not, but I would likely take the ideas and build upon them.

Recommended.

Hostile Tactical A.I. Review – Part 1

Hostile Tactical A.I. (HTAI) is an solo gaming system to order enemy units around in skirmish miniature wargames, so you may play solo or co-op against the enemy. These are not intended as a complete set of rules, but rather a game mechanic that you need to graft onto whatever skirmish rules system you are using.

In general I do not like to give away too much information in my reviews, especially about game probabilities, but given that so much information is in the cards and not the rules, I feel like I am not cheating the author in talking a little more about the math behind this system. Let me know if you think I let too many cats out of the bag.

Concept

The system works through a deck of 72 cards each of which is used to tell you where enemy models are to go and what they are to do. This is one of the harder problems to solve when playing solo. If you are using rules where not every model gets to act every turn the second problem to solve is which units get to act. HTAI gives you mechanics to solve that question also.

Included with the deck of 72 cards are three, double-sided rules cards, and three "shard" cards.

The Game Cards

The above image shows some sample cards. At the top left is a Reaction Order.

On the right of the top (blue) section is the symbol for a standard playing card, Jack, Queen, King, or Ace, in any of the four suits. This is used in conjunction with markers on the table of with the symbol assigned to a model.

The middle (white) section contains two orders. Which you use is determined based on a general situation of the model the card is drawn for; whether the model sees an enemy unit (Attack) or not (Patrol). The order text indicates anything special you might do, and how aggressively you do it (1D6 or 2D6).

The bottom (black) section has a compass direction on the left, a bit of text in the center describing an enemy's state or position, and a red and white die on the right. If you need 1D6 you use the red die and if you need 2D6 you add the red and white dice together.

As you can see, it is pretty basic, and every probability is baked into the cards.

Using the Game Cards

There is a tutorial PDF on BoardgameGeek that provides some examples of play. It is still very high level, but it gives you a better understanding of how to use them. Basically, once you have determined which model is to move you draw a card and determine its order based on whether it is in Attack or Patrol mode. Once the order is determined, generally you will need to determine which enemy it is taking that action against. You draw another card and look at the black section and either use the compass or the descriptor to determine the direction of any move. Finally, the original order determines whether the move is 1D6 or 2D6, so you draw a third card to determine the distance, indicated on the dice.

At times you will see an asterisk (*) on the card in the section you are using. This indicates that you should draw another card first, referring to the Reaction section. That card draw may in turn require more cards be drawn, which may in turn trigger more reactions. Just go with it.

Shards

No, we are not talking about a database partition here. The author uses the term "shard" to refer to little markers placed on the table to represent a variety of things, such as objectives, potential locations for enemies, or points of interest. Really, whatever is on the board that you want to randomize. As there are sixteen different shards, that is you maximum range of possibilities. Again, these symbols are on the cards, in the top right corner, so you can use card draws to add a randomizer.

Selecting a Model

As I said earlier, the two largest issues to solve for solo games are: which model (unit) acts next, and what does that model (unit) do? HTAI jumps straight into solving the second issue (what does that model do), but it only lightly touches upon the first.

If the number of models that the automated side has numbers 16 or less, it should be pretty easy to simply assign one of the shards to it, then use the deck draw to first determine which model acts, then follow the process above. If the model count is too high then you could assign shards to groups of models, draw a card to determine the group, assign shards to the models in the group, then draw another card to determine the specific model.

Another possibility is to use the compass on a drawn card to see which area of board will act, then using additional cards to hone in on the model.

In essence, the exact method is up to you, including not randomizing the choice at all.

Toolkit Not a Game

The important thing to recognize is that HTAI is a toolkit that you have to integrate into the specific set of skirmish rules you are using in order for the cards to make sense. Although there are some specifics on the cards that seem to imply a game rule, such as the distance moved (indicated by the order and the dice), these two need to be "translated" into whatever rules you are using in order for it all to make sense.

Test Game

Before I give my rating on HTAI I want to use them in at least one game and see if what it looks like on paper matches what happens on the table. So for my test game I am going to use HTAI with One-Hour Skirmish Wargames (OHSW), which I recently reviewed on my other blog. (Part One, Part Two, Follow-Up) It might help to read at least Part One in order to understand the OHSW rules as essentially I will be integrating HTAI and OHSW together.

In my test game I am going to be running the same scenario run in Part One and Part Two. I will be making one modification to the scenario, which should have no bearing here, regarding the firing rate of gunpowder-era weapons. I will not write out the entire game as I typically do, but focus in detail on how I translate the cards in HTAI into actions for the British side in OHSW.

Integration Notes

Given that the British have fewer than 16 models, I will assign a different shard to each model. This will allow me to draw a HTAI card at the start of each British Action Phase to determine which model will take action. Then based on the orders in HTAI, it will consume a certain number of OHSW action points (AP). If there are points remaining I would then draw an additional HTAI card to determine the next British model to act (it cannot be one of the models that have already acted in that Action Phase). As casualties mount, I will more than likely have to draw multiple cards before I get a shard designating a model still in the game, but that is just a guess.

Given the ground scale of OHSW I will have all British models in Attack mode rather than Patrol mode. This will save me from having to consider who is in and out of line of sight, who that is out of sight has and has not fired, how much noise has been generated, etc. all of which HTAI seemingly takes into account. Too much detail too early on. So, the position designations (text in the center of the black section of the card) will be used to see which model the British model attacks. (An asterisk in the compass will be applied to the position designation.)

Movement distances in OHSW are fixed. Infantry move 6" per move action. I could use the dice roll to simulate a model's hesitancy in moving, but that implies a morale and/or terrain difficulty aspect that takes no other factors into account. I am not sure I like that, especially as the French (player) side would not be bound by that limitation. However, OHSW does have the concept of multiple moves being allowed a model, assuming it has enough action points to complete them. If a 1D6 is indicated, I could allow that to refer to that figure being allowed a maximum of one Move action. The rationale being that even if you rolled a maximum of '6', that is still only a single Move. However, if 2D6 is indicated, if the player draws a '7' or better, this allows for two Move actions to be performed by the model, assuming the British has the necessary action points remaining.

Generally speaking, the Attack Order contains a modifier, indicating the aggressiveness of the order. This will be followed as accurately as possible, but until I play through all of the options, I won't know if I have to fudge a bit.

Many of the order indicate 'objectives'. The intent is to use shards to indicate objectives, so that a card draw can determine which way a model moves, but there is only one physical objective for the British in this scenario, so if the objective is mentioned, it means the cannon in the center of the board.

Well that should cover it for now. The next post will go into playing the game using HTAI as the 'artificial intelligence' for the British player in a scenario using the OHSW rules.