As we ended the last post, I had the game ready to go. Pieces were set. Rules established. Now to see how the Sur-Marais invasion of the Valle del Cielo progresses.

Note: I may have mentioned in an earlier post or two that it is important to save your work. Well, I have the list of town names. And I have the map. But if I ever had a key that showed which names went to which town, I have since misplaced it. So, I’m going to proceed and do my best with what I’ve got.

Turn 1

Turn one is fairly simple. The Sur-Marais army corps begins marching east out of Santa Catrina. In one day, their infantry can only march two hexes, but their cavalry contingent can march three. Their cavalry marches on Santa Lucia and attacks the scouts based there; pushing them back.

The battle occurs later in the evening, causing a delay in any warning being sent east.

Turn 2

The Campilesian scouting elements fall back east. A message (the yellow line) is sent ahead, but only makes it halfway to San Martin before night fall.

The Sur-Marais corps stops in Santa Lucia to consolidate and rest. Afterall, they haven’t come across any noticeable opposition.

Turn 3

I stretched the messenger to represent a major effort for the rider to get to San Martin by the end of the day (Stealing or buying more horses, multiple riders, etc). The main characters are now aware of the invasion and are making preparations.

The Sur-Marias corps pushes its cavalry up to skirmish with the enemy cavalry outside of San Miguel. The brigade there is fortifying their positions, but they’re about to be attacked by ten times their number, and by professional soldiers. Everyone is nervous. Their general is a fine man, but he’s not an experienced soldier. Civilians begin fleeing east.

One allied scouting element stays to the north. The southern element drops further south to watch the forest road.

Turn 4

The Sur-Marais corps advances east, marking to Santa Isabella, only a few hours march from San Miguel. Their cavalry is skirmishing heavily with the cavalry between the two settlements. The corps does leave behind some troops to secure the town, but given its size, it’s a battalion of a few hundred troops.

The brigade in San Martin has started to march west, but due their inexperience, most units don’t march more than a miles or so out of town. The brigade doesn’t march out of its starting hex (this represents the difficulty of early American Civil War armies in marching anywhere).

Turn 5

The Sur-Marais corps attacks San Miguel. The battle is short; the Campilesian troops are inexperienced, and between enemy artillery and their mass of troops advancing, they run and fleet east. What remains of the brigade falls back east to Santa Margarita.

The brigade out of San Martin managed to march several miles westward. The main characters are still in San Martin, but they will be leaving soon. There are messages being traded with higher commanders outside the valley for reinforcements and aid. Maybe it will come, maybe it won’t.

Where are we?

Five turns in and I’m already facing a different story than I expected. The enemy corps has advanced halfway up the valley in five days and taken the central settlement. The first battles have been won easily by the more professional force. And the main characters are slowly advancing.

What I had expected was the first battle to occur with both Campilesian brigades on hand, instead of only one. But with what I built, there was no real reason to expect the Sur-Marais corps to hold back at all. An experienced, aggressive general with an easy victory within grasp? Why not attack?

Now, I have two options for how to proceed.

Option One: Rework to match my initial thoughts

Maybe I like my original plan. I need to either slow down the Sur-Marais corps, or speed up the Campilesian response. Of the two, I would slow down the corps. Perhaps weather comes into play, making the roads mud and impassible.

Or the general in charge becomes lazy. Perhaps he chooses to march one day and rest and secure for two or three days, consolidating his lines of communication or interrogating the locals. Maybe he’s scouting more. Or using engineers to build brigdes and improve roads.

The point is, if I want to slow them down, I have many external forces or interna decisions I can use to change their intertia.

Option Two: Consider the story as it would proceed from here

Putting the enemy halfway up the valley in less than a week puts the pressure on the protagonists to throw everything into the next battle to keep the enemy from taking San Martin. Perhaps they’re desperate enough to do something crazy.

With the forest road, there is a chance to get some troops behind the enemy lines. Maybe the characters leave a small skeleton force to hold the line and march around? Doubtful, and militarily stupid given the force disparity, but an option. Sending a cavalry raid is much more likely.

But, let’s also not forget that there are none combat options here to be utilized. They could resort to theatrics (quaker guns or repetitive marches) to convince the enemy there are more troops around than there actually are. Counter operatives could spread false rumors of troop movements. they could burn bridges.

If they want to buy time, there are options. Buying time for reinforcements to come in and fortifications to be built.

The point is, the speed of the first five days can add a strong motivation to the characters to think outside the box and act with conviction. And that can make for a good story.

Conclusion

In only five turns, this game has already shown how my original plan for the story did not take into consideration how quickly the situation could change. I shouldn’t have been too surprised; I know many stories where such things happen in military history. But at least now I know; I have a framework with which to build a timeline for the decisions and their consequences.

The game isn’t meant to tell the story. It’s meant to help me keep it realistic, and to help me track of complex systems that can be easily mixed up. Through this example, I believe I’ve shown how such a game works in the PBRG process.

I’ll see you again for the next Writing Process Post; a review of the PBRG process.