First Impressions: IGaBC

Hot on the heals of Graham Evans’ To Ur is Human, a second set of rules emerges from his rules’ backlog.  Sticking to the road less traveled, Graham turns his attention to the New World and the 1879-1884 South American conflict know as the War in the Pacific.

The author has a penchant for tackling obscure conflicts and the War in the Pacific is no different.  How does one develop an interest in such an obscure theater of warfare?  Well, like me, travel can be the catalyst for a new project.  For Evans, a trip to Peru was that igniter for inspiration.  I came away from my Peruvian adventure with thoughts of modeling various conflicts too but, for me, those thoughts passed.  Not for Graham.  The result of that spark of motivation led to his It’s Getting a Bit Chile (IGaBC).

While IGaBC states that it is a set of Tabletop Wargame Rules for the Land Conflict in the War of the Pacific 1879-1884, it really is much more than that.  IGaBC is almost a complete package in the tradition of a wargamer’s guide.  At 76 pages in length, this represents an impressive work.  Rules comprise the bulk of the book but typeface is large and easy to read.  In addition to the core rules, topics include, a brief history and chronology of the conflict, figure availability, painting guide, and a useful bibliography. Really, IGaBC provides enough information to get going on a new project straight away.

On to the rules.  IGaBC is an Igo-Ugo system played on a grid.  Options are available and described for non-grid play.  Basic Maneuver Unit (BMU) is the infantry battalion, cavalry squadron, and artillery battery.  Ground scale is 250 yards per square.  An infantry BMU consists of four bases with cavalry and artillery BMUs comprising two stands.  There is no figure/base removal for casualties except in unusual circumstances.  Entire units are either on table or removed from play when ineffective.  This is how I like it.  I prefer figures and units to remain on table as long as possible.  It takes effort to build a collection.  No reason to have the figures put out on the table and then put back into storage boxes almost immediately upon receiving the first casualties.

The Turn Sequence is typical of many Igo-Ugo wargame rules.  The sequence is,

• Charge Declaration
• Movement
• Rally
• Firing
• Hand-to-Hand Combat

What is interesting in the sequence here is that Rally follows the Movement Phase.  Units attempting to remove Disorder markers do so during the Rally Phase.  Rally attempts count as movement so units later firing do so with the Firers Moved penalty.  Units may attempt to rally off each Disorder a unit has accrued having a one in six chance to do so.  Leaders may aid in recovering disorder as well as offering customizable traits.  A unit must choose which method to rally (self-rally or leader-aided).  Troop quality does not affect the ability to rally.  Poor units rally with the same probability as good troops.  More about disorder later.

What is the essence of the gaming engine for IGaBC? If I strip away all but the essential elements, the rules can be distilled down to three important concepts.  Those are Formation, Support, and Disorder (FSD for short).  Since only infantry may have support, I will focus on the infantry aspects of FSD.

Infantry can be in one of seven formation stances within a square.  Well diagrammed within the rules, each has its own attributes for deployment, density, support, advantages and disadvantages.  Each unique, diagrammed stance shows, at a glance, the attributes of the BMU.  This is a clever visual concept and reminds me somewhat of Weigle’s 1870 series of rules.  What can be gleaned from a BMU’s stance are facing, the number of firing stands, the number of support stands, unit density, and target type.

Besides unit formation, the two key components of a BMU’s attributes are Support and Disorder. Disorder represents a unit’s loss of combat effectiveness as it sustains punishment from fire or close combat.  Disorder is incremental.  As a unit takes punishment, disorder may accrue if not rallied off.  With no Disorder markers, a unit fights with 1D8.  With one Disorder marker, a unit fights using 1D6.  With two Disorder markers, a unit fights using 1D4.  When a unit accrues three Disorders, it may not fire but fights with 1D4 in hand-to-hand.  Any more and the unit either retires, retreats, or routs. This method of disorder accrual reminds me of Santa Anna Rules and its method of modeling the effects of straggling.  Perhaps, rather than having absorbed Disorder markers placed under the support base, IGaBC could take a page out of Santa Anna Rules and rotate a support base to the rear to denote an absorbed Disorder Marker thus eliminating a need to place Disorder markers under a support base? Once rallied off, the support base would return to its normal attitude.

Supporting bases may mitigate disorder.  Some infantry formations offer support; others do not.  Support represents a unit’s ability to absorb friction from combat.  Absorption of disorder by a supporting base is temporary.  Changing formation from a more dense to less dense stance allows a unit to ignore disorder too. That is another interesting twist.

What about combat in IGaBC?  Depending upon the number of participating stands, level of disorder (remember throwing either 1D8, 1D6, or 1D4 per stand), Target Type, and a handful of column shift modifiers, an attacker sums all of the attack dice and scores one disorder for each multiple of the target’s To Hit Multiple.  If a target’s To Hit Multiple is ‘8’ and the attacker’s attack dice total is ‘10’ then the defenders receives one Disorder Marker.  Fractions are ignored.

While the Chilean Army fielded the better quality troops carrying better weapons than her adversaries, Evans’ warns against playing the ratings too literally.  Top Quality troops with New rifles will likely easily overwhelm Poor Quality troops with Old rifles.  As he says, “It may be realistic but it might not be much of a game...”

Does this combat engine model the situation on the ground?  I cannot say but it offers a number of interesting twists to a typical combat engine.  Having multiple, different sided dice (D8,D6,D4) are not something I enjoy.  I understand the rationale for its inclusion but it seems too fiddly to me and ripe for error.  All in all, it looks like it would work despite my personal reservations.

Production quality is good.  While a few typos and errors crept into the final copy, these did not distract from the work.  The rules are well diagrammed to illustrate a number of the key concepts.  Examples of play are numerous too.  One of the inclusions that I appreciated in To Ur is Human and continued here is a comprehensive QRS printed onto the back cover.  This should be a standard practice unless QRS’ are printed separately, detachable, and included in the rules.

Alan Curtis’ painting guide to the war is a very useful addition to IGaBC.  My only complaint is that while the Chileans are listed as having adopted French style uniforms, no mention of the uniform cut for either Bolivia or Peru.  When I ordered IGaBC, I also ordered Esposito and Pinto’s The War of the Pacific.  While not listed in the bibliography, this is an excellent book covering the war, the armies, and uniforms.  Filled with a number of color uniform plates, I wonder how this 170 page work compares with Esposito’s Osprey?

Has this tempted me into a new period?  The jury is still out on that one.  Armies tend to be small and colorful.  Graham has mentioned that FPW French and ACW figures could be pressed into service to field most of the combatants.  This could be an interesting research project to find alternative figures outside of the figures produced by Outpost Wargames Services in 15mm.  That might be worth the effort in and of itself. This work has piqued my interest.

In conclusion, IGaBC is comprehensive piece of work for a little gamed period.  Keep in mind, my First Impressions are just that; first impressions of the rules, themselves. I have yet to try the game in practice.

Well done and thank you, Graham, for opening my eyes to a new frontier!