Richard Knoetel's Death of Winterfeldt. Has the infantry unit in question checked its morale?
Taking care of lots of little stuff this afternoon, but since I am at a good stopping point (The Young Master arrives home from school in a little while), I thought I'd share the emerging morale rule, or rather a 'working draft' of it here. It's basically a two step process:
A) Check morale using our old friend the venerable D6:
Troop Quality
|
Passes Morale Check / Rally. . .
|
Check Morale When. . .
|
A – Guard/Elite/Grenadiers/Kleist Freicorps
|
2, 3, 4, 5, 6
|
-35% (Meets Charge 4,5,6)
|
B – Veteran Line/Artillery/Jaeger
|
3, 4, 5, 6
|
-25% (5,6)
|
C – Average Line of Major Powers/ Freibattalions/
Croats
|
4, 5, 6
|
-15% (6)
|
D – Smaller States’ Line (i.e.
Reichsarmee)
|
5, 6
|
-5% (6)
|
E – Miliz/Garnison/Burgerwehr/1740s
Panduren
|
6
|
-1-2% (6)
|
B) If a unit fails to pass its morale check above, then toss a second D6 to see what happens next:
6
|
Advance. . . A confused, spontaneous advance ½ move
forward by center, right, or left flank (dice to decide which)
|
5
|
Halt. . . Halt current activity for one turn. Order and cohesion still intact.
|
4
|
Falter. . . Retires ½ move to rear by center, right, or one flank (dice to
decide which). Order still intact. Officers and NCOs sort unit
out and return to fray next turn.
|
3
|
Retire. . . Retire one move to rear. Order (cohesion and discipline) still
intact. Officers and NCOs sort unit
out and return to fray next turn.
|
2
|
Retreat.
. . Retreat in disorder two moves to
rear. Cohesion and discipline
temporarily limited. Unit may attempt
to rally in two turns.
|
1
|
Rout. . . Rout in disorder to nearest table
edge. Unit broken. Cohesion and discipline lost. No rallying. Remove from game when it reaches table edge.
|
What I am trying to do with this rule are two things. First, whittle down and reign in the old '50% Rule,' since we know that most of the time, units cease to be an effective fighting force long before they have been reduced by half. Second, I aim to reflect -- in a purely gaming sense -- some of the confusion, disorder, and gradually eroding control over troops, and resulting frustration experienced by army commanders and unit officers on period battlefields after extended contact with the enemy and related mounting casualties. Our troops will not always behave as we intend. Of all this, more anon, but I must hustle outside to meet the school bus since it is now 3:45pm!
-- Stokes
Gunther Dorn's Battle of Prague. Clearly, The Austrians' morale must be exceptionally high since they didn't run away before the Prussians closed in. A loaded D6 perhaps?
Comments
Best Regards,
Stokes