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A Morale Class Question: Where to Put Croats, Pandours, and Freibattalions???

Austrian pandours, circa 1742.  These might provide an interesting painting reference for 15 or so Minden figures that have been lurking in the leadpile unpainted, as yet, for a number of years now.


Soliciting input this Sunday morning from any visitors to the GD of S who care to comment.  In the ongoing tinkering with my moral rules, I am still not quite certain where to put the aforementioned troops on the A-E continuum.  I know that such troops could be very deadly and cutthroat in the right circumstances, yet run away all too easily in others.  Somehow making them D or E class doesn't seem quite the thing though, so I need some more informed guidance.  What are your views and the reasoning behind them?  Thank you in advance

-- Stokes

Comments

Der Alte Fritz said…
This is a good question, Stokes. I don't believe that the morale of the Croat troops is lacking, but rather they are not keen on getting into close quarters combat with regular troops. Their style of combat reminds me of that of Eastern Woodlands Indians in North America during the 1700s. They will fight, ambush, raid and plunder but are loath to take casualties

As long as they are fighting in cover I'd think that their morale would be fairly good. Maybe they should not be any different from other light troops in your armies or rules. The Croats were very tough defenders of Krchorz during the battle of Kolin and they performed very well fighting the Prussians on the Lobosch Hill at Lobositz.
1:22 PM
Independentwargamesgroup said…
Stokes,
They didnt so much run away as retire from formed troops a bit like your native indians. They were clearly very effective in the 'little wars' but couldnt stand against formed infantry with bayonets. Putting them in a class is difficult. Of course you could complicate it by making then a higher class for shooting but a lower class for standing and fighting. The idea was to hit and run or hide and shoot.Unfortunately when the Austrians made them into regular light infantry they became very ineffective. Clearly they were veruy good irregulars.
2:02 PM
Peter Douglas said…
It’s an age old question, mostly because morale carried from regiment to regiment especially with the fire corps.i could argue b-d depend8ng on the unit and the day.
4:38 PM
StuartInsch said…
I'd go with randomisation too, that way even you don't know how they will perform, until their first test. I'd keep them on the lower half of the table C-E since you shouldn't be sending them charging into melee or getting them caught in one unless you have too.
12:42 AM
warpaintjj said…
I might suggest a random element but positively weighted in rough ground or against other light troops and negatively so if facing formed troops in the open. We face a similar conundrum with Grenzers...
Best wishes,
Jeremy
4:43 AM
Unknown said…
Could you try a “likely to run/fragile” classification with a saving roll to cancel it?
Just a thought.
6:40 AM
caveadsum1471 said…
I recently read an aar where these kind of troops got a random morale rating at the beginning of the game which seemed to work well, you could customize it further by say giving the roll a +1 in broken country or woods and-1 for open fields perhaps?
Best Iain
1:50 PM
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