Leader Tactical combat modifiers

[RB_Owl]

Hello all,

From what I have read this game will be based off of Empires in Arms (EIA).
I would like to submit this for consideration and debate on how to handle leader tactical ratings for the resolution land combat. Leaders have a tactical rating between 1 (lowest) and 5 (highest). Instead of using the leader tactical matrix in EIA I think leader’s tactical values should be assigned to modify some or all of the follow:

Attacker’s Casualty die roll
Attacker’s Morale die roll
Defender’s Casualty die roll
Defender’s Morale die roll

You can assign as many points as your leader has, however the maximum the die could be modified is +/- 1. For example Davout (4.5.2), the defender, with 20,000 men is involved in a battle vs. Brunswick (2.1.3, I think…I’m going from distant memory here), the attacker, with 50,000.

Davout knowing he has better morale but less men would want to keep his casualties low and break the Prussians as quickly as possible so he would use his 5 tactical points in the following manner;

Attacker’s Casualty die roll: 2 (this is affects French casualties) Prussian die roll
Attacker’s Morale die roll: 1 Prussian die roll
Defender’s Casualty die roll: 0 French die roll
Defender’s Morale die roll: 2 (applied towards Prussian morale) French die roll

Meanwhile Brunswick knowing he has only 1 tactical point to use figures he will try to stay in the battle as long as he can to maximize French casualties (and hoping Davout has spread his points out evenly) places his point to minimize the effect on his own troops morale;

Attacker’s Casualty die roll: 0 Prussian die roll
Attacker’s Morale die roll: 0 Prussian die roll
Defender’s Casualty die roll: 0 French die roll
Defender’s Morale die roll: 1 French die roll

The results would be:
Attacker’s Casualty die roll (Prussian roll) = -1
Attacker’s Morale die roll (Prussian roll) = -1
Defender’s Casualty die roll (French roll) = 0
Defender’s Morale die roll (French roll) = -1

I think this would give players more control over what type of battle they would fight, defensive or offensive.

Some leaders ought to be able to only assign part of their tactical ratings to either attack or defense. Two prime examples are Wellington (a great defensive leader) and Blucher (who only attacked).

I also think cavalry superiority of +1 should be added on as an additional (in conjunction with the leader modifiers) die modifier for a potential total die roll modifier of +/- 2.

I think this would be easy to incorporate in any type of game, PBEM, on-line or single player.

Thanks,

Owl

<grabs shield, winces, and waits for the flames>