Reply To: Rules that offer historically accurate movement rates – are there any?

[McLaddie]

Dan:

Thanks for the post-vacation explanation.  That is what I was interested in.

Everyone is hitting on some very delicate issues to which they feel they might know best…. says whom?

That, I think, is the problem.  The conversation devolved into a question of who had the right [fill in whatever personal trait you want] to comment on game design rather than the what.  It became a issue of personalities and ‘my experience is better than your experience’ etc. rather than a discussion of game mechanics and history, as though who was giving their opinion was all there was to game design rather than what was being said.

So back to the topic at hand:

time or distance…. and rate… that is a HUGE variable…. troops move quickly when not under fire, but how they slooooooooooooow when under fire is directly related to morale, discipline and leadership…. you can factor these in…. each leader has their own ratings in both leadership (tactical prowess) and charisma (motivation)…. couple that with the different types of troops having their own morale levels…. from conscript/green to elite and old guard…. a simple “under fire” morale check for motivation can be adapted to reflect the troops unwillingness to advance under fire.. this, of course, is affected by the leader’s ability to lead…. all modifiers that can be accurately assigned based upon actual recorded accounts… and not “abstracted away”….

Do troops slow down when under fire?  How do troop quality and leadership change the average speed or the variability?  Those are testable questions with the historical evidence providing generalizations that correspond to history.  And who provides the evidence or works out the answer really isn’t important–its the quality of the evidence and answers.  Games work according to game mechanics and rules, regardless of who designs the game or who plays it.

Bill