The Commander Series Forum

Some armies are a little hard to play....

At the start of every gameturn you roll a dice for every HQ.

If the HQ has CV7 or less if you roll a 4,5,6 you get a command joker.

CV8 roll at 5,6

CV9 and higher roll at 6

If a HQ fails its first command you can use a joker to give them a command (but only one/ HQ).

If you don´t use the jokers you may keep one to the next turn but have to drop the others.

I'd actually be tempted by some sort of sliding scale on points - CV7 armies pay less for troops than a CV8, and so on. Be a devil to "balance" though.

Yep, if you can't command the men they're almost useless.

I find Toxic and I are often posting on the same topic and always seem to be in agreement. This forum reminds me of "Fight club" sometimes

Dr .....are you starting to believe you are a figment of TP's imagination??

PK.....

(1) Are most CV7 battlegroups under a Rigid tactical doctrine?

(2) Could always also remove the -1 penalty for Commanding Officer rule for Rigid....as they might be used to having to get orders from the CO!

Aj

I dunno, I'm quite worried I may be a figment of Dr Dave's imagination !

It'll be fine so long as neither of us are about to blow up the credit card companies. Although that's not a bad plan... *ahem

AJ - the most obvious probably are (early Sovs), but I think there's plenty of stuff like the minor nations who has a disturbing amount of CV7 commanders on Regular doctrine...

At least with Rigid you can get the +1 for all doing the same thing...

There's too much micromanaging of units in most wargames. Units normally have standing orders, objectives, and a plan they are supposed to be following. (Even in meeting engagements units have specific per planned responses.)

Have players give each formation an objective, a posture, and a timetable at the beginning of the game. If they adhere to that, they get a +2 to activation - but only activate once. If they deviate from the plan (including using Initiative) they thereafter have to roll as normal until they are given a new plan or the previous one is re-activated. That should show both the advantage of planning (especially for poor armies), as well as the way a good opponent can take the initiative and control the tempo.

I would give COs an historical bonus for taking command of a formation - but they are also the only ones who can activate a plan (which should require a Command Roll when they aren't doing anything else).

I do like Spearhead/MSH approach where you plan your battalion movement on a sketch map before the game and the platoons are then tied to that with a very limited ability to change facing or go wandering off. Makes you try and deploy in historical formation (well, the ones that worked...) to cover your own flanks, hold a local reserve etc.

Really winds up a lot of players though.

*Commander does similar with the friction inherent in the command roll system, but low CV armies or infantry formations can get unduly penalised by that, and often Initiative just doesn't compensate.

I do like the idea of troops being able to choose one guaranteed move, instead of dicing against multiple moves...
So long as it obeys previously planned targets/actions/routes.
But I would suggest not allowing it once in combat. A larger modifier OK, but nothing guaranteed.
And it's ideal for dummies (troops, that is, not players).

We've started giving infantry only formations (incl. towed weapons) a minimum single move whilst outside initiative range which seems to work ok.