The Competition & Teaser Thread

[Strela]

I don't entirely like the current fatigue mechanics for 2 reasons:

1) As losses in active parts of the front are much higher than in real world operations, fatigue can also rise to a level where a unit becomes combat ineffective way before its historical counterpart. Taking a battle like Korsun as an example, both German corps inside the pocket seem to have suffered only ~300 losses per day KIA/long term WIA/MIA, combined. It's always surprising to read just how low combat casualties were compared to wargames. In a wargame, you destroy division after division. In the real war, a battalion suffering 50 casualties in a single day was extreme, at least for the Germans.

Comrade P,

I couldn't agree more. In war games (board or PC) players will usually push their units to destruction whether they are attacking or defending.

That said I rationalise losses at this scale as being more than the traditional KIA/WIA/MIA. From the Panzer Battles FAQ;

Losses of men in Panzer Battles represent more than the traditional KIA/WIA/MIA. At the platoon/company scale, unit strength was eroded quickly due to combatants being out of command, cut off, losing weaponry or drifting to the rear. Losses also represent men who are ‘beyond’ disrupted and no longer playing an active role in the formation. Many formations were able to recover these stragglers and cut off soldiers overnight and reintegrate them back into the platoon/company.

The number of accounts I have read where troops were detached to take POW's or wounded to the rear or collect ammunition and supplies was surprising.

Fatigue as a mechanism is not used in many games systems and at least helps to show when a unit is approaching breaking point - before it loses every man. As a scenario designer we can lower objective VP's to put more emphasis on losses but that only goes so far.

Personally, I don't think this is a problem unique to Tiller games but all war games in general and its something that has to be taken into account when playing them - there is an inability to align losses with 'official records'.

Finally, in extended operations it's not the loss of 'grunts' that matters but the combat leadership - NCO's through to Captains, the lifeblood of any army. The more days in direct conflict the more chance these irreplaceable personnel are lost.

David