I must congratulate you on the resourcefulness of your Intelligence gathers!Perhaps 1 dice per two bases, or part thereof?
DB
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This is such a fascinating post, and super timely since I just finished reading "War Games" by Leo Murray, all about the psychology of combat. I strongly recommend it, you may find some great gems here to work into brainstorming for new rules. Keep up the great work by the way, your wargame rules are fantastic. I wish I could play them all, I'm limited by how much I can paint and store, the typical wargamer's curse.DCRBrown wrote: ↑Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:12 pm The Hesitant debate is very interesting.
First, Hesitancy does drop to barely 11% when using a Brigade attachment. So, down from 33% to 11% if you are focusing on command. Suddenly just a 1 chance in 9 seems pretty reasonable, if you are choosing this command decision above others.
I think the fact that GdA does not have a "command bonus" for troops beyond a certain distance from the enemy ruling, as found in some other rule sets, can cause a furrowed brow to some gamers. So perhaps it's an opportune moment to illustrate my rationale regarding Hesitant.
First, Hesitant does not represent a Brigade suddenly stopping and doing absolutely nothing for the turn, rather like Grouchy eating strawberries from the film Waterloo! Things will be happening but either more slowly or far more likely it's other factors taking over as explained below.
Hesitant when close to the Enemy.
When a brigade is in close proximity to the enemy it has limited options. It can still move and fire but obviously it can't "move" very well because it's basically in contact with the enemy. Suddenly commands such as changing formation or redeploying battalions become far more difficult. A brigade will likely go "Hesitant" simply because it's committed to combat and in combat things do go wrong.
Hesitant when not close to the Enemy.
There is however, quite a bit of evidence to suggest that units further away from battle were no more likely to move more efficiently than units closer to the battle lines, in fact they had far more opportunity to be slower. Why?
When separated from the enemy by a reasonable distance Brigadiers had the opportunity to take a far more wary stance precisely because they are not up close and personal with the enemy. They knew that they would only get one shot at an attack once they closed in, so they needed to get it right! And it's that "fear" or "determination" to make sure your command has done everything it can to ensure success that causes Hesitancy.
It's not proximity to the enemy at all; in fact it's the reverse IMHO. Being further way from the enemy gives commanders the time to prepare and double-check resulting in Hesitancy whilst they ensure Brigade readiness – a luxury they will not get when closer to the enemy. So what are they doing? When further way they have the opportunity to get formations right, have a final orders check with officers, ensure all officers are correctly positioned, double-check battalion alignments, ensure the officer in charge of the skirmishers has deployed correctly, etc, etc, i.e. to dither, to fuss about or do the final command checks prior to an attacking or defensive action- thus to "Hesitate".
After all if the Brigadier fails, very direct and public questions will be asked by the C-in-C about why the attack or defence failed!
I certainly accept the fact that when moving a brigade well outside enemy contact it could move faster and quicker than those brigades in the battle line. But this does not remove or even reduce the chance that the Brigadier will "Hesitate" as already stated being further away simply provides the opportunity to hesitate. Perhaps this is why some French units took ages to deploy at Quatre Bras. And why D'Erlon's approach to form up at Waterloo also took ages. Perhaps the best example of this is, I think at the Battle of Chattanooga, where the right flank of the Confederate army was supposed to attack at dawn but had not even moved out several hours later!
Personally, I've been in numerous "command situations" where there was a great deal of fussing about prior to zero hour. Senior officers coming up to me and double checking my orders, my deployments, where my reserves where, etc, etc. Why did they do this - because they wanted to get it right and if it when wrong they would take the blame and any promotion chances they had would disappear! And I think that is exactly what our Napoleonic brigadiers are doing when they go "Hesitant".
Also Napoleonic Brigadiers do not have the helicopter view that gamers have, so although you might know that there are no enemy within a certain distance your poor general does not and might well be halting the brigade to ensure that that sound of cavalry across to the left is in fact friendly!
GdA acknowledges the fact that there is simply more opportunity for commanders to delay or micro-manage when further away from the enemy, as this opportunity for final adjustments was lost as soon as the brigade closed up on the enemy and it also accounts for the fact they do not have a God like view over the battlefield.
DB