A common complaint I hear from CWB players is "My army commander is right there. Surely he can see the corps commander isn't doing anything. Why doesn't he do something?" This stems from a basic misconception of the role of the army commander vis a vis the player.

The player is not the army commander himself. He is something like the army commander's Super Ego. The player knows things the army commander can only dream about-how long roads are, where enemy columns are moving, when he can expect combat, which formations are dragging their heals. All of these things you know (as the player) but the commander does not. Besides, there is another, deeper level of difference between the two of you-you know what you want to accomplish and he cannot be privy to that same set of goals. It is as if the army commander is trying to conform to your wishes, but does not really know what it is you want. A difficult situation indeed for a commander with the responsibilities he hasone requiring a bit more sympathy and understanding than most gamers afford. The player can be either a kind or wrathful god-or as Calvin put it: "Calvin isn't a kind and loving god, he's one of the old gods. A god that demands sacrifice..." The army commander is in the position of serving a wrathful, secretive (at least from the commander's angle) god who is uncooperative and quite a bit bitter.

Don't get me wrong, your army commander wants to win the battle as much as you do-he just does not share the same amount of information about the battle and therefore cannot react as if he did. He is unaware of the critical nature of the commands you have him send as he does not know as much about the situation. For instance, if you issue emergency orders to counter an enemy column you see flanking the line, there is no assurance at all that your army commander appreciates (or is even aware) of the gravity of the situation. The commander, for his pan, gets a hunch that something is up-but that is all. Perhaps he has noted some dust in the distance, or a patrol is late in returning. He is not really sure of what is going on-even should the attacking column come into view from his own location. At that point, he may be confused as to the nature of the attack (is it a feint?) or perhaps he envisions the attack as failing into a trap of his own making and wants to egg it on. The player should understand the tough position the commander is in. His world is a life and death struggle with the enemy army. The lonesome responsibility is enormous. Actually, you are more than a little lucky that you can whisper in his ear at all to get the orders out on the game table-but that is another matter.

Many have complained when they see both the army commander and the corps leader milling about in the same hex when the corps leader has delayed orders and "is so obviously not jumping to it." There is no reason to believe the army commander senses that anything is wrong. Perhaps he feels the corps leader is doing all he can to be ready, maybe he got permission from the army commander to await some other event before moving, and maybe, just maybe, the army commander really hasn't given any such orders yet for his own reasons. The point is, the player knows the army commander is not doing what he should, the army commander is not so enlightened.

The game's command system exists to limit your ability to influence game events with your all-seeing knowledge of the game. It acts as a filter between you and the game map. Sure, you know all about that enemy flanking column, but the game itself is keeping you from making your army function as if they know too (within limits of course, but that is the intent). Your ability to reach the guys on the map to express your desires and will is exactly what the game aims at reducing.

A while back I wrote on the game's feature of "limited foretell" which is the part of the game that adds a limited intelligence factor to the mix. It is not (nor was ever intended to be) a limitation on the ability of the player to know what is on the map (that given as limited intel in other games) but a system that denies the player's ability to fully use the knowledge he has but shouldn't. The game acts as a filter between the player's desires and the game-world's battle, so that the player's omnipotence does not interfere unduly. In essence, limited foretell means that a player cannot make direct use of the information he has about the game's situation, but must issue instructions which apply in some future (and unknown) situation. The player is constrained in his ability to use present-turn information when it is "hot" and forced to use it in some future period he sees "through a glass darkly."

Part of the interference process is the army commander who sometimes cannot quite make out what you are saying, or might have ideas of his own.

So, if the army commander is not the player, what exactly is this guy and what is his relationship to the game player? The army commander is the player's agent in the game world, He does the bidding of the player in an incomplete manner and sometimes issues orders for his own reasons that defy explanation to the god-like presence of the player. Sometimes he appears to be doing absolutely nothing when the player is demanding action. When this occurs, remember he does not know what you know (or even necessarily agree with what you are doing), but he has the best interests of the army at heart and does want to win as much as you do.