Ground Rules

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How Ground Combat Works

This is still the age of battles, usually 1-3 days for the big ones, 1 day or less for the little ones. Campaigns are generally several battles. We don’t have to worry about air power, mechanized units or machine guns. But muskets and massed cannons are murderous, and later on we have rifled muskets, gatling guns, rifled artillery, and bolt action rifles.

Die rolls:
Units must roll their attack strength or less to inflict a hit on the enemy. A hit automatically shatters a unit.  The side with better generals, training or whomever the referee thinks is simply a better army gets a +1 to their attack values (the other side does not get this). Really bad armies get a -1 to their attack values (and yes, that means an attack value of 0 has no chance of inflicting damage). They also get a -1 if attacking TL3 in rugged, fortified or urban terrain.

Shattered units are considered present on the battlefield, but cannot fire back if attacked, and if hit, are eliminated completely.  

How Battles Work
All attacking units and defending units get a mutual attack phase. At that point the referee determines which side would want to break off the battle (using common sense, sometimes neither would). Surviving attacking units then can launch another attack, and another mutual fire with the defenders occurs.  Generally this is where reserves are committed.  

Special Circumstances:

Cavalry Charges
Cavalry and Lancers can attack a shattered brigade and automatically eliminate it if a defending army has had all of its units shattered. This is called pursuit, and why cavalry are to be feared.  You keep a reserve so that you have something to provide a rear guard in case of pursuit, or a heavy hitting force to maul the enemy if it is shattered.

Up until the mid 1840s, a decisive battle could be fought that eliminated an enemy army. This is why battles are risky and nations built fortifications on their frontiers to slow down the enemy or perhaps even stop him without having to risk the army in battle.  

Fighting Savages
Any TL3 unit attacked by a TL2.5 or lower unit gets one free fire phase prior to the first mutual combat phase, but does not get the same benefit if attacking. The same applies if a 2.5 is attacking a TL 2. TL2 or lower units cannot have a firepower rating higher than 1 per brigade.  

Defending entrenchments, fortresses and forts
A fort unit, or an army that is entrenched, gets one free fire phase if attacked prior to the first mutual combat phase.  Which is why attacking a dug in enemy force can be risky.  An entrenched army cannot move that season, which is why armies are often unwilling to entrench and usually only do so if conducting a siege or defending against a siege.

Casualties
Generally a unit that is shattered takes 50% casualties (very loosely defined; only about 5% will be killed in battle, then maybe another 10% die of subsequent infection, 15% wounded, 20% desert). If a shattered unit is destroyed, it takes another 50% casualties, and the referee makes a decision on how many are likely prisoners (usually about 30% of the total, plus most of the wounded become prisoners too).


Regrouping
Shattered units may be regrouped. If you have 5 shattered regiments of 12, you can combine 4 regiments to form 2 whole units, with the excess written off as providing replacements for all the other damaged units in the army that aren’t represented but are real nonetheless.

Always assume that generals regroup as soon as the battle is over.

Sieges  
Although less common than the previous centuries, they are still a fixture of 18th Century warfare and not uncommon in the 19th Century.  Sieges are usually lengthy, weeks at least, sometimes months and occasionally years. Conducting a siege requires that at least 2,000 soldiers invest the target.  This requires those units to entrench.   Each month of the siege, a die is rolled and on a 6 (1d6) the target surrenders (becomes demoralized, or food supplies fail for some reason, or disease is a problem).   On a 1 (1d6), a besieging unit takes a hit (so you might need more than one unit to conduct a siege), representing casualties from disease or poor morale causing desertions etc.   Each season the odds worsen for the besieged, so on the first month of the new season, on a 5 or 6, it surrenders, while they do not worsen for the besieging troops (still only take a loss on a 1).  You can indeed launch your siege in June (technically Spring) and in July (which is technically Summer) get an immediate bonus.  The siege is lifted if the besieging units are all shattered, or no unit is entrenched (and thus the investment is broken).  (a unit beseiged for 3 seasons thus surrenders on a 3,4,5 or 6, and automatically surrenders after 5 seasons)

You can always launch an assault, but this might be costly (or even too costly).

Attrition and Status
Regiments start off at full strength, if shattered, they are reduced in strength to a remnant, and are disrupted (unable to attack) for a few days (in other words, are out of action for the battle they are in). Once no longer disrupted, they either merge with other remnants to reconstitute a full regiment, or are reduced to companies.

If shattered again (say, during pursuit) or a regiment is shattered, if there are no other shattered regiments with which to reconstitute, the unit is destroyed.

Supply
An army needs to be kept in supply; it can forage off the land to stay fed, but needs other supplies (such as ammunition and powder) from a friendly source. They can trace those lines of communication back to friendly territory by land or by waterway; however, if the army's supply line is cut, it will face an increase attrition penalty and drop in effectiveness.

Breadth of Combat
Brigades, upon scoring a hit, shatter 1 regiment or 3 companies.

Not Paying!*Major Change*
It turns out that, surprisingly, people don't always pay their debts. You can elect to pay part or none of the necessary maintenance for a unit if your financial situation has become just too dire. However, this will have effects; morale obviously decreases, leading to a drop in effectiveness (at mod discretion, determined by both time unpaid and how much they're underpaid) and raising the possibility of a mutiny. However, you must keep track of owed wages.

Militia-Based Armies *Major Change*
The newly independent Americans are a highly militia-based military system. As such, militia units do not cost anything to maintain or build in peacetime. Militia units are, in fact, assumed to be in existence as any given point across a given state. However, in the event of wartime, militia maintenance must be paid by the state if they are mobilized for anything other than purely defensive actions. A purely defensive action includes being used to defend their immediate vicinity, generally within a few days march from their home--this is why militia assignments are important. If a militia unit is destroyed in a given year, it doesn't return until two years later. That is, if a unit is destroyed in February of Year 1, it can't operate again until February of Year 3. Keep track of whether your militia have been destroyed and the year it happened (don't worry about the month).

Force Limits *Minor Change*
Populations are split into free and slave, and these have two differing force-limits. For sake of convenience, the slave population doesn't factor into force limits if it is below 10%. This does not represent arming the slaves, but rather represents the fact that slave-labor has freed-up whites for other service. However, there is a unique limitation on militia derived from the slave population, in that these units are usually required to maintain order in the slave populations. If these units are moved out of their local areas and are not being used for slave-patrol, then there is increased risk of insubordination or even rebellion.
Free Population: 3% in regular service (army and navy), 6% in militia service
Slave Population: .5% in regular service, 2% in militia service

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Rules Update, 6/23

I made a change to the militia rules; to prevent carelessly throwing about militia, because they would just come back the next year, I've instituted a modification: "If a militia unit is destroyed in a given year, it doesn't return until two years later. That is, if a unit is destroyed in February of Year 1, it can't operate again until February of Year 3. Keep track of whether your militia have been destroyed and the year it happened (don't worry about the month)."