Schrodinger's Combat

[ImperatorAugustus]

There is a massive flaw in the combat engine as to way the way retreats and units with multiple weapons are treated, creating two separate cases, I will refer to them as "Schrodinger's Limbering" (SL) and "Schrodinger's Hands" (SH).

For SL I first realized this was an issue with Artillery divisions. These divisions were intended to support large offensives with the guns rolling forward behind the front providing indirect and direct fire. They have no dedicated screening or recon elements, which would be vital to make artillery effective at all. So the problem comes when they are on the defense by themselves. Not only are they able to withstand attacks in any terrain regardless against a moderate strength German infantry division by themselves, but even in fairly high odds 2 Full strength German infantry divisions attacking and overunning the artillery positions, the artillery takes low casualties, often lower than the Germans that essentially would be able to just sprint through and collapse the entire formation IRL. This is because there is no real retreat phase or decision. Units are able to both fire at full effect and be driving away on their trucks at the same time. This is the egregious case, but applies across the board.

Solution: Retreats should be made on commander decision. Lowering element participation massively thereafter, but greatly reducing casualties in the retreat. If units are pushed back by sheer force it should cause a 'Forced' Retreat. Essentially between a retreat and a route. The unit pulls back like normal but support units, vehicles, and cannons take multiple times damage. Leader death check is rolled. Unit loses a portion of their supplies.

For SH combat elements can have a single man potentially firing multiple weapons at the same time. This is best seen in grenade and cannons having an entire rifle squad to both fire the gun and the rifles at the same time. This can also be seen in units with lots of equipment like German Pioneers.

Solution: Add a maximum action, action requirement, and priority list to each element.