Matrix Games Forums

I'm curious as to the reason for the command loads for HQs inferior to the on-map boss. Take Heinz Kokott, for example, commander of the 26th VGD. He has a command load of 13, but beneath him in the command chain there are only 4 inferior HQs. If I detach any part of Heinz's force and give it direct orders then it becomes part of the on-map boss's command load, in this case Lutwitz, who has a 35 limit. So Kokott will always be operating at well below his command load, no? he can't, basically, ever get any worse than having to command 4 inferior HQs (since I can't change the OOB in battle). Is there any circumstance in which an HQ inferior to the on-map boss might somehow exceed its command load, assuming it didn't exceed it at scenario start?
More and more I am coming round to tampering with the command loads, because of, inter alia, things like this. When I give direct orders to Kokott's units it should be added to his command load, I feel, not the on-map boss, as if Kokott had given the direct order. Because we're not, surely, simulating that the on-map boss is actually giving all these battalion level orders that we mostly give, are we? Surely what we're simulating is that 'we' step into the shoes of the Bn commander, in fact (and only because, great and groundbreaking as this AI is, we can't, in fact, trust it to do a better job of simulating reality than we can, and nor would we expect it to, given what's involved). And the command load can only be justified, as a game device, presently set-up, if we think that we're actually saying every time you give a direct order it's the on-map boss who is doing that. So why, as I've said before, have the restriction at all? After all, every order I give is one less the AI has to give. If we're simulating the choking effect of too many orders then the total orders would be the thing, and in that case every order I give should be one less given by the AI. A compromise might be to increase the command load of the immediate superior to the unit you give the direct order to. But still. Just thinking aloud, really, about the purpose of command load and what it's meant to simulate. Might be a thought for CO2.

Maybe it should follow the "two levels down" dictum. If the player gives an order to a company to do something, it goes against the regt/bde commander's limit, if it's a bn, then the owning division, and so on.

Also, you can change the OOB- the functional one, anyhow- during the game, and that's what counts against each HQ's command limit. If you rope another regiment from outside 26 VGD's organic command, and who's HQ was operating independently previously under the 26 VGD, it's command limit would go up, and the on map boss would go down.

You mean it's command load (not limit) would go up, and the on-map boss's would go down, Fred? But is that right? Your roping them together would count as you giving a direct order to the highest unit there (within the newly grouped units), as you have to give an order in order to 'change the OOB functionally' and make the new group - and in that case, the top unit would be 26VGD, no? And that would place the entire load represented by that order (whatever it is) onto the on-map boss, no?(because you have, by giving that order, detached 26VGD) Since prior to your order the on-map boss already had 26VGD as part of its (organic) load then the net addition wouldn't be much, I assume (just the extra unit you roped in, perhaps?) - but it would still be an addition to the on-map boss's load, and not 26VGD, if I've understood the rule correctly (which I might not have....)