Morale and random

[Iñaki Harrizabalagatar]

2 wishes for the game
1) Some sort of army morale, so that an army could collapse before turn limit
2) Not too high random in the battle system, so that all the factors include in the game are not finally made irrelevant by a sheer luck, as it is the case in some wargames.

[DavidI]

Tim,
Inaki has got a good idea on his first point. In the old BON and in HPS's games, armies fight literally to the death. A combination of allowing units to rout off the map and some sort of graduated army morale would do the trick. If an army reaches X% casualties/units routed then a negitive modifier effects attempts to rally. If an Army reaches X+% casualties/units routed then it can no longer attempt to rally units. If an Army reaches X++% casualties/units routed then all units check morale each turn failure leads to routing off the map. An Army's morale status could even improve using this system. Say you make an attack that results in a large % of units routing, thus triggering the negitive modifier, but you charismatic General rallies enough troops so that you dip back below the X% then the negitive modifier no longer applies (until such time as you excede the % again). You would need to make the % variable and not just dependent on size of Army (for example some of the large Spanish Armies might be more inclined to leave the field than a smaller British Army even though they lost the same number of men). Maybe make this an optional (but highly recommended) rule.
DavidI

[sol_invictus]

I agree; I played some old boardgames that incorporated Army Morale and it worked really well. Armies shouldn't fight to the last man.

[Tim Coakley]

1) Army morale is included as a set figure for each side. It is fixed and does not change through the scenario. It is used to modify ever morale test during the game however. It also effects the Action Points each unit recieves. God info you provided but may be too late to implement initially.

2) There is a level of randomness to combat and morale, but it is only one of the many factors in each formula.

[jnier]

ORIGINAL: Arinvald

I agree; I played some old boardgames that incorporated Army Morale and it worked really well. Armies shouldn't fight to the last man.

Ney vs. Wellington & Wellington's Victory incorporated army morale pretty elegantly. Still my favorite tactical-level Nappy games.

[Tim Coakley]

I have a dogeared copy of Wellington's Victory on my shelf. I bought it used from e-bay just to get a better feel for boardgame Napoleonics.

[jnier]

ORIGINAL: Double Shot Design

I have a dogeared copy of Wellington's Victory on my shelf. I bought it used from e-bay just to get a better feel for boardgame Napoleonics.

Hope you get a chance to play it sometime...it rocks.[:)]

[DavidI]

I played Wellington's Victory many times and it probably was the best of the Napoleonic Boardgames. My only gripe with it was that formed infantry was too fragile, mainly due to the 1 - 6 morale system combined with the 1 - 6 effeciency system. As I recall this made large battalions liabilities. A 800 man Guards Regiment with a 6 effeciency (best you can get) would lose one morale point for deploying a skirmisher making him a 5, loses 100 men makes him a 4 thus giving him 1/3 chance of disordering/routing. If that battalion lost 3 steps to loses he would have a 2/3 chance of disordering/routing. A regular line unit with 800 men and a 4 effeciency losing one morale point for deploying skirmisher, and 1 morale point for losing 100 men results in a 1/2 chance of disordering/routing.
Losing 300 men to combat would result in a 100% chance of disordering/routing. Landwehr/Militia units with a 2 effeciency taking any loss became totally useless. This resulted in the game becoming a battle between skirmishers, cavalry and artillery with both players refusing to commit any of their formed infantry battalions to direct action.
The other great Napoleonic system was the L'Battile d'Whatever system, it's great downfall was that it totally rewarded you for forming massive columns and meleeing like a mad man. No line formation could stand and win a battle with such columns.
By far the best Napoleonic game I have ever played was the old BON for the computer, and the new one looks like it will be even better.

DavidI

[steveh11Matrix]

David: your observations tally with mine; however I got the feeling from the Designers' Notes that it was intentional. Not saying it was dead right, though!

Steve.

[sabreman1966mcs]

I used to be mainly a Napoleonic miniature player, though I did end up buying and enjoying La Bataille de la Moskova (sp.) which was a GDW reissue of an older game of the same name. The version I picked up was one of a limited edition run of 1500. Sadly, I have now married and don't have the space or time to get in a serious game of it [:@]