In Historical Gamer # 28, Phil Johnson in his regular column explores command control. He lists the various devices used to represent "command and control" in games today and what's lacking with each. I agree with many his points, but I must respectfully disagree with one assertion: That card draw does little to limit control a player has over his units. This is an oversimplification. What card draw does is to eliminate that "well he's twelve inches away, which puts him in canister range, so I'll give him a shot of canister, then charge him. Since my leader is within command span that will give a +2 to my morale dice so I should make my morale roll to close. Hmm, I can see a ditch directly to my front, better carefully measure my movement so I can skirt it, and still have enough to movement to contact." How many of us have done this? I know, you say the rules allow it so it's done. But let's look at what is really happening: You receive a communication from your commander, "General, you will charge the enemy to your front. I hope to have supporting fire put down on him so he cannot do much damage to your approach, but if this is not executed in time you are to charge anyway. Your's Etc., Etc., Major Gen. Hump" "All right. adjutant, my compliments to my assorted colonels, (all stout men) and inform them that we will advance against that enemy line. You, Lt. Blank, fide over to that supporting battery over there (indicates direction) and find out when they will be ready to fire. You Lt. Gap, nde out to our skirmish line and inform the officer in charge. I believe he is on the fight. (indicates direction) and inform him that we are about to advance against the enemy line he is skirmishing with. At least I think it's the line he is skirmishing with. (Some time passes.) Where is Blank? Why haven't the artillery opened fire`' 1 can't wait any longer. Attention!! Brigade:' Forward March!! Damn! The 43rd (a fine group of lads) is getting ahead of the line. Adjutant! MN compliments to Col. Whose of the 43rd, and will he slow down to allow the rest of the brigade to catch up!" (Little time passes.) "General!" (It's Gap back from the skirmish line ) " Lt. Gee's compliments, there is a large ditch directly to our front 100 paces away!" "Damnation! We will have to move to the flank to pass it And there is no time to do that. We'll have risk breaking up. Attention" Brigade!! Forward March at the Double!!" Well, as we can see the carefully planned maneuver that you evisioned in your mind's eye went to hell in a handbasket. when you encounter the human element. which is what occurs in a command situation. Card draw eliminates some of that certanity that accompanies move counter more turns If the unit moves first fine, great staff work and well executed orders got everything in motion There is still the ditch, but we Will talk about that later. But if the other guy moves first, well, so much for your plan, and if you are still under attack orders, when your card comes up you still must move forward. This means you have a 50/50 chance of catching the guy, and the same chance that something will go wrong. And that's basic fiction. What about command spans? Phil equates a command span to radio telephones. Better generals get longer spans or better radio telephones. I think what a command span should represent is courier gallop and transit time. The best general in the world is limited by how fast he can transmit his orders. The rest of command should be built into the morale system. Why? Because a lousy commander will mess up the best brigade, while competent commander can sort out a poor one. lie may not get it to turn hand springs to outflank the enemy, but he will give some confidence, and confidence goes a long way to winning battles. Combat Friction Finally, what about fiction as in that ditch? This is where a strong gamemaster or judge comes in. If the guy wants charge and oblique simultaneously to avoid the ditch, I would roll I die. He will have a small chance knowing a ditch was there, (his skirmish line uncovered it for him), but likely he charges until he came across it. Now he has two choices, he can keep going, but his unit is now broken up, or he can try to halt the charge. Again he or I would make a die roll. Most of the time the charge will continue, with its further consequences. German staff instuctors were great believers in Clausewitz's friction. They often had their Kregspiels' judges include the unexpected so that their students could learn to cope now rather than waiting for combat. Why can't we follow the example of the German War College? The final way and the best way to illustrate friction is to have big multi-player games. We used to fight "Column, Line & Square" battles every weekend with multi-players. Usually each player ran a division. For those of you that are to young to remember C L & S, it was a Horse & Musket game for the 18th and 19th Century. The scale was 1-30, so a battalion of 600 averaged 20 figures. The rules used simultaneous movement and mental telepathy control. Generals could write orders for each of their units, every turn, no matter where the general was on the field. We found when you add multi-players to the game though, you had true friction. I remember one game where two of the attackers in a two division front hit the wrong target. Don't ask how, the objective was written down. But it was a Russian army. Maybe it wasn't written in Russian. At any rate the hole was punched, but the General commanding (who will rename nameless, but is still pissed) had his cavalry division still stationed in front where the original target was. There was no hole to exploit! Closer to recent times at Rich de Rosa's Mame game during last the fall campaign convention. I as von Kluck told my division commanders how I wanted them to advance. I wanted column of battalions on a one battalion line front. My first, second, and fourth division commanders understood perfectly. My third, because he wanted more firepower (we were hopelessly out of range at the time), advanced in line abreast. When we untangled the resultant traffic jam, the German center had cracked, and my grand offensive had come to an abrupt halt. Loss of Control How to represent this loss of control if you are playing another opponent? Single player battles are the hardest to show fiction because you have so much management. (You are pushing all the castinngs.) I would suggest that you pick one division, if your battle army is corps sized, one brigade, if a division sized game, one regiment if it is a brigade size game. This is the General commanding's favorite officer and formation. Naturally the general commanding can depend on these lads to do the right thing. For rest of the formations I would roll a die. Develop a chart. There should be three options: Maneuver. Hold. Retire. Maneuver means the formation operates as you wish for that turn. Hold means the formation stops this turn, or if no enemy is to its front within engagement range, moves at half speed. Retire means a formation retires out of engagement range, or does not move for the turn if the enemy is not threatening them. If you really want to be daring, there is always Advance, Unordered. This can really mess up your day. Now you too, can experience the frustration that Meade must have felt at Gettysburg. when he heard that Sickle's Third Cords was in the Peach Orchard with no support. It also will remind you that battle is loaded with uncertainties. I believe there isn't a battle plan that survives its first two minutes of encountering the enemy. Then the challenge of the battle is to pick up the pieces of the plan and make them fit. "But what about tournaments," I hear you cry. If you command in a tournament, well, this represents a general with a small army that may exert his will based on the rule limitations. My' friend Dan Carlin prefers this with all his battles. His reasoning is that you are the general in charge, so to you and you alone should go the fruits of victory, or the agony of defeat. Though he admits that this is unrealistic, it satisfies the reason for which he fights. In short, tournaments are a bad place for command control limitations. In closing all I can say if you want to pit your wits against a single opponent, have complete control over your troops, plot and execute intricate maneuvers, and play in tournaments, there is an ideal wargame for you. It's called Chess, and it's available at a store near you. Command: Other Views about Command Realism Back to Table of Contents The Messenger August 1995 Back to The Messenger List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by HMGS/PSW. 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