Kharkov 43 Manstein strikes back Alt

[James Ward]

Fatigue is a poor word choice, which is misinterpreted often to describe the physical stamina of the troops.

Fatigue, as described in the design notes, is not a physical state of energy, but more a measure of a unit's cohesion to still function as a unit rather than a large group of individuals.

Constant combat in the line was known to wear down a unit by more than just the casualties inflicted. Even if sufficient replacements were on hand to keep the unit near full strength, this changing of the guard effect would mean the unit would not fight as well as the original unit where the men knew each other much better and trusted the officers.

Dog Soldier

That may be true but in game terms you only gain fatigue by being fired upon unless you are using night fatigue so the game system really reflects cohesion lost due to fire. It doesn't deal with any sort of situational momentum which certainly exists and can raise your spirits regardless of the immediate past. So fooling with the starting morale to account for this even if historically troops were pretty beat up doesn't seem that out of whack.

[Dog Soldier]

James,
I agree manipulating the fatigue and thus the morale levels is valid to achieve an effect for the start of a scenario as described in this thread. True, this method does have limits. Your previous comment seemed to be referring to physical condition of the troops. I wanted to point out that fatigue and morale is more than that.

A commonly asked question I get is why would a unit disrupt when only one casualty or fatigue only is inflicted. My interpretation is a that a key officer bought it or was pinned. The result is the troops lost cohesion in terms of achieving their goal, take a position, lay suppressing fire etc.

Even units with high morale (B) and low fatigue have this happen and it is always at the wrong time.

Troops at A morale level are immune from disruption because and NCO or other soldier will quickly take charge if the leader is felled.

Dog Soldier

[James Ward]

Your previous comment seemed to be referring to physical condition of the troops. I wanted to point out that fatigue and morale is more than that.

I was just saying that momentum is difficult to simulate so making some "manual adjustments" makes sense to me. Of course I don't know of any game that simulated momemtum well so it's not really any sort of problem with the PzC system. It's just one of those things that is difficult to show.
It would be cool if any units within a certain number of hexes got a reduction in fatigue to simulate a morale boost when you captured a victory point hex or vice versa when you lost one.:)