In SAGA 71, Pr. Gray has (Giving Orders) has written a nice article about the mechanisms used for command and control in a wargame. While I have no problems with his game-related statements, I feel that he - like many wargamers or authors of popular military books - credits armies with more efficiency than usually displayed.

Anybody who has ever led a bunch of people - as a teacher, a manager, a sports coach - knows that it is no mean feat to get them to do consistently and efficiently what he wants. The reasons for not doing what the leader wants can be many: stupidity, misunderstandings, laziness, bloodymindedness, spite or even because he knows better than the boss (or thinks he knows). And, yes, there are people who behave 'like wind-up toys that need to be checked constantly to ensure that they are still in motion'. If all this can go wrong in the relatively benign environment of an office or a school, things can only be worse in a place where many of your men do not want to be in the first place and with an enemy who is only too happy to spoil your plans. No wonder many ancient military manuals contain good-sized chapters on leadership and discipline.

Murphy's law (or what Clausewitz called 'friction') definitely applies to warfare, and I can only recommend the 'Guinness book of military blunders' to anybody who thinks that armies never operate in an 'illogical manner'.

Even given willing and skilled subordinates, communication on a battlefield wasn't perfect. Look at a map of a typical ancient battle: the front stretched over a few miles. Over such a distance, a human voice didn't carry, visual signals were hard to see before the telescope and drum or horn signals might be heard if all is quiet, but hardly over the din of battle, over war cries, marching men and the clash of steel. So orders had to be relayed, sent by messengers or delivered in person, leading to delays or errors. Not that many orders could be given and executed in the 'several minutes' of a game turn.

Even with perfect communications, the C-in-C is not going to give orders to every single GI Joe in his army, there are just too many Joes for that. A very simple order ('Charge') could be shouted to everybody, but anything else has to go through the chain of command, from general to colonels (or whatever that rank is called in your ancient army) to captains down to the point where the platoon sergeant kicks his men in the *#$ and tells them to point their weapon in the right §$%/$§$ direction and to §$&/&%$/ use it! At every level, the order has to be received, understood, adapted, detailed and re-issued in the appropriate fashion. This leads to massive delays that are very difficult to simulate in play. And this is something that has not really changed with modern communications technology. Tom Clancy's 'Into the Storm' is recommended reading here. It lucidly describes how even in the Gulf War, command delays were inevitable and how a good commander takes them into account.

Given all the above, I am quite happy with a wargame that severely restricts my ability to control an army. And rather than going through a game keeping records of subordinate's indigestions or messenger's accidents, I prefer a heavy dose of chance in command and control and find it perfectly believable. You just have to plan for it: keep it simple and have your general in the right place at the right time.