Paperless Tracking System for Volley and Bayonet

A Volley & Bayonet variant developed by Ed Mueller.

Although I like Volley and Bayonet (VnB), I'm not a big fan of rosters, which I associate more with paper-based gaming. I like my miniatures on the table, literally, and I'm a lazy, lazy man, so I came up with a way to keep track of things on the table and without paper. This system also was intended to show information "at a glance," which is good for use during conventions. So far, I've run several games using this system, and players have picked up on the system fairly painlessly (so they said). For a more aesthetically pleasing game, of course, I can still play with clean stands and rosters.

I offer my paperless system for your consideration. It can obviously be modified to suit (I use small painted magnets for markers, but other kinds of markers will do, for instance) Regardless of the physical methods used, my paperless system presents some basic things (which I think any paperless VnB system would have to do):

1. Unit information
2. Command relationships
3. Unit strength
4. Track losses, routs, and division exhaustion status

Unit information: 

I use different letters and background-color for each side (mine happen to be Nine Year's War), and I include nice stuff, like the nationality, name of the unit or units (if cavalry) represented on the stand (of course, there are more "real" units in the stands than are represented, but it gives a name to the stand/unit and also lets folks know what units they are looking at). As a minimum, though, what needs to show is the morale and any special qualities of the unit (for this era, the weight of cavalry, and whether its a shock unit or without elites, if infantry; for other eras, there might be other considerations, like rifle armed or not). In my variant, there are different kinds of infantry (pike and fusilier) as well. I take care of this distinction with the figures, but this sort of thing could be on the labels if not evident in the figures.

Note: For a complete discussion of my label system, see my LOA Variant.

Command Relationships and Unit Strengths: 

I color coded my division command stands (strip of color at the back and also the banners are in division color). Each division has corresponding color-coded markers, which I place on the units (I use small circular magnets that I picked up at my local hardware store). Under the flocking on the back of the unit stands and on the corps command stand I've got paper steel so the magnets will adhere. (note that I also use round command stands, which stand out quite nicely from the unit stands--see my League of Augsburg Variant).

The number of markers on the stand is the unit's strength. The color indicates the organization. To keep track of corps organization, I place a marker of thecomponent divisions on the corps command stand. For corps- and army-level units, I use two-color magnets (the black and yellow in this illustration).

Below is a two division (yellow and light blue) corps with a single corps unit (the dragoon regiment to the right with the black and yellow marker). When a divisional unit takes a loss, the marker goes from the unit stand to the division camp (see below).

To mark unit status, like disorganized, routed, static, etc, I place status markers on the unit stands to the right (where there is room). Army level units I designate with two color markers without placing a corresponding marker on any corps commander. My Army command stand has four figures (as opposed to three for corps) and remains "clean" (no markers).

Division Status and Losses: 

However you actually manage it, your on-table division tracking system needs to display the unit's exhaustion level, the turn's losses (which is the hardest thing, since it changes), the running total losses, and running total of routed strength points.

This illustration is of a division that has an exhaustion level of 5 (I use blank wargame counters to indicate exhaustion level). It has taken 2 losses this turn (placed to the left of the road).

It has one strength point routed (the red disorganized marker, which is always placed to the right of the road). The cumulative loss to the division prior to this turn was 2 strength points (to the right of the road). This division is exhausted (total: 4 losses plus 1 routed strength point =5). I put the exhaustion marker by the commander rather than on the camp because it's easy to overlook otherwise (could put it in both places, I suppose). Looking at this camp during the rally phase, you can see that it has reached exhaustion and that the collapse roll is 2 (the number of markers to the left of the road).

Following the division above, it succeeds in avoiding collapse by rolling a 3 at the end of the turn. All markers are then moved to the right of the road in preparation for the next turn.

To the left we see the camp at the end of the following turn, during which it suffered no losses and rallied the 1 routed strength point, thus removing the red disorder marker. Looking at it, you can see that it is now below its exhaustion level, so the marker has been removed from its command stand. For simplicity, this division tracking system could be done with index or other cards that are simply divided into two areas. Hope it works for you!