George Gush has problems! He says that he is very preoccupied wth the problem of trying to bring his battles to a decision - even the decision of a stalemate - without having unrealistically high losses in proportion to numbers engaged. Obviously, morale rules of the type suggested in Featherstone's book (plus the fact that a battle should be part of a campaign so that both sides have to think of reserving troops) help in this regard, but, he has found in two campaigns (fought solo between the imaginary countries Of Myopia and Weltschmerzia) under the conditions of roughly the first half of the 19th century - that loss rate tend to run at 30-40% although he returns 1/4 casualties immediately and another 1/2 as woundrd recovering in 21 days. Essentially, it is a question of stiffening up morale rules, but it is necessary to first do this without introducing an excessive chance element. Also, formations ought to a affect morale - in particular, the column was used for so long, (though inferior in firepower) largely because of its superior movement and morale levels. Line formations required very high standards for training and morale. At the moment, George allows for this, firstly, by saying that a unit in line which breaks can affect its neighbours, and a unit in column can have the effects of a losing morale throw cancelled if the unit behind them stand. Secondly, by giving an additional impetus bonus in a melee to troops attacking in column if their opponents are in line - also gives some benefits. He finds that these methods seem to produce ap[propriate results. If the morale of troops in line does hold, they can almost always beat off a column, which has a numerical auvautage of about 3:1. There are other situations which need similiar treatment, especially cavalry fights. On the basis of Napoleonic and Crimean experience, it would appear firstly that halted cavalry would usually be overthrown if charged even by smaller numbers, and that victory in a reasonably equal cavalry melee usually went to the side which the last to retain a reserve body of troops to throw in. George says that he has not yet made suitable adjustments to allow for these factors. He would be most interested to have the views of others on these points - write direct as space here in WN gets a bit short. If anything really vital comes out of this perhaps an article could be written around it. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 25 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1964 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com