Atomic Africa (Pt 4): Orders Phase

The first phase in Atomic Africa involves players drawing playing cards and assigning them to individual units.  Other wargames utilize playing cards to determine which units can activate, but this game uses them differently.  Playing cards in Atomic Africa represent orders from the platoon leader to his troops.  The draw of a limited amount of cards from a randomly shuffled deck simulates the fog and friction of warfare which sometimes results in poor orders, good orders being misunderstood and some orders not being received at all, leaving soldiers to their own initiative.  Before explaining the card draw however, let's examine exactly what makes a unit.

Units

A Unit in Atomic Africa is any group of figures, spatially separated from another group, eligible to receive an orders card and which therefore resolves all its component figures' actions with a single die roll.  Figures comprising each unit should all be individually based, facilitating the game's unconventional movement and line-of-sight (LOS) rules.  Although not a historically accurate number, the movement rules also limit the minimum size of any group of infantry to three figures.  The game definition of a unit is intentionally vague because unit sizes can change, voluntarily and involuntarily, throughout a single battle.  Players get a certain amount of cards to distribute to their platoons, as described below, based on trooper and leader experience.  Since units without orders are at a decided disadvantage, players set their initial units to a manageable number.  For example, a player has a 47 man platoon.  Historically the platoon breaks down into four squads of 11 men each, with the platoon leader, platoon sergeant and RTO acting as a separate command element.  In game terms however, our player decides to move two squads together as one huge 22 figure mass, send another squad around flank as a standard 11 figure package, and split the heavy weapons squad into two teams of 5 and 6 figures respectively, while the command element sits back.

Orders

Atomic Africa uses written orders in the form of standard playing cards to dictate unit actions.  Playing cards preserve the secrecy and simultaneous revelation advantages of actual hand-written orders, while allowing an expedited order assignment.  Additionally, playing cards allow a reaction mechanic, where more experienced units can change their orders and adapt to the battlefield.  The cards dictate units' postures, either as offensive or defensive, which in turn specifies how to resolve their Attack and Defense actions from a dice roll.  Any card with a Spade or a Club rank (i.e. black cards) indicate a defensive posture for the assigned unit.  Any card with a Heart or a Diamond rank (i.e. red cards) indicate an offensive posture for the assigned unit.  Cards featuring denominations of Ace (read as 1) through 10 indicate a bounding overwatch type movement by the troopers, where they slowly advance while laying down covering fire.  Combining this with posture gives a detailed description of the infantry's actions.  For example a 3 of Clubs assigned to a squad would indicate the soldiers are low-crawling, popping their heads up to provide a minimal level of suppressing fire; a 3 of Hearts indicates a crouching advance with the troopers risking exposure to mass destructive firepower.  Face cards allow special actions, and except for the Sprint action, generally simulate the troops sacrificing mobility for some purpose, such as loading and firing a heavy weapon, digging in and hunkering down, or rallying subordinates.  Finally, Jokers reflect a fortunate turn of events on the battlefield, allowing a unit to seize the initiative and react to an enemy, regardless of relative experience levels.  The posts on movement and action resolution explain the specifics of orders cards on figure moving and dice rolls respectively.     

Prior to the first turn, players place their forces on the table in any number of units they desire (respecting the minimum size rule of course).  Players begin each turn by drawing a number of cards off the top of their own shuffled and cut decks.  Table 3 indicates the number of cards to draw; players draw two cards for each level of troop experience, and two for each level of leader experience.  If the leader figure's unit is eliminated during play he no longer contributes cards to the player's draw.  For example, the unit in Figure 1 draws 10 cards at the beginning of each turn, six from the troops' Regular Experience Level and four from the platoon leader's Green level.  The platoon leader's element takes a machine gun burst, eliminating it from the game.  On subsequent turns, the force will only draw six cards, reflecting the loss of their leader and the resultant confusion.

Each player draws the requisite number of cards and then assigns them to his units.  Place order cards face down on the table next to the assigned unit.  Since orders are not revealed at this stage, all players draw and assign orders simultaneously.  A unit may receive only one order card, but a player does not have to assign an order to every unit.  A player who decides not to assign a card to one or more units, or who has drawn more cards than he has units, will end up with an excess of unassigned orders cards.  These cards make up the player's Orders Reserve, or simply his Reserve, and can be set aside face-down for use later in the turn.  The Orders Phase ends when all players complete their order card assignments.  Following the Orders Phase are an indeterminate number of Activation Phases.  The Activation Phase is the meat-and-potatoes of Atomic Africa, when all the action occurs.  The next few posts highlight this phase and its sub-phases.