Leading from the front, reprise

Allan wrote:

Well, I didn't mean "out of harm's way" 
sense. I meant in the "don't do a
charge into close combat with your 
company commander, thinking he's your 
best soldier" sense. I was trying to show the 
problems with using your commander in
a GW way. 

--> Well, GW has interesting systems where 
it pays to charge into combat because your 
CC range exceeds gun range and silly stuff 
like that. Surely your company commander 
shouldn't be used to lead an attack, except 
in extremis. In WW2 and (as you point out) 
other wars, people of high rank did motivate 
(transfer command, but a lot of times it was 
"with me!") troops to get into a fight. There is 
a time and place for your COs to step up to 
the mike. I find the SG2 rules promote the Lt 
sitting in the far corner of the board using 
his radio all day instead of staying with his 
troops (seen it done many times). Keeps 
him safe and he can still do his job.... <ick!>

And higher. This isn't restricted to WW2. 
Remember how
"Stonewall" Jackson was
mortally wounded...

--> He wasn't the guy saying "They're a mile 
away! No one can hit from.... 
<Bang>...<Thump>"..... I seem to recall 
some general discovering the enemy had a 
new rifle....

Except that the main reason leaders lead 
from the front is to get a better tactical feel 
for the terrain and relative troop positions.

--> This is one major reason. I _really_ don't 
think you should sell short the morale effects 
of leading from the front at platoon level 
though. When officers are seen to not be 
putting it on the line, often their troops 
perform in a very unmotivated fashion. 

--> I think good reasons to lead from the 
front are:
  - Tactical Awareness (spatial and 
situational)
  - Morale and Motivation
  - Faster Decision Loop
  - Less prone to be interfered with 

--> Of course, the downside is you lose 
officers to snipers, artillery, enemy small 
arms, etc. But I have yet to see a terribly 
successful force (all other factors being 
equal) whose line officers in the infantry 
tend to hang back like many people make 
their officers do in SG2 games I've seen at 
conventions. 

Reading Ambrose's "D-Day", it's interesting 
to see that pinned troops were often pinned 
not out of intense fear, but out of fear mixed 
with not knowing what to do. 

--> A training issue perhaps? 

The troops started moving on Omaha beach 
mostly because everyone from Sergeants 
up to Generals started giving them orders.

--> And more than a few Lts. and Captains 
got down on the beach and kicked ass 
personally to get things going. Most poor 
unexperienced grunts don't know what they 
should be doing in odd situations or what 
their officer would want them to do next (or 
more importantly, the NCO!). Once given 
direction, they tend to act. But they tend to 
act with far more zest if they are following 
their leader into something (or he's at least 
there taking some risks) than if they get a 
radio message saying "charge that 
machinegun nest!". 

But as I said, the point of my "not lead from 
the front" comment wasn't in the sense that 
troops don't or shouldn't do it. It's in the 
sense that I like to show the problems with 
doing it in a game sense (versus those 
games that encourage it to the point of 
silliness).

--> Fine, but I think (my opinion) command 
transfers where the officer can't see the unit 
he's attempting to command should have a 
+1 assigned to the tranfer. It's _much_ 
easier to give an order and clarify things by 
pointing or saying "by the tree, 60m 
forward" if you can see the same thing your 
troops can. It also prevents you giving bad 
orders because your whizzo tech mapboard 
doesn't show the gully the ESU are using for 
cover and you figure you've got them cold. 

--> A good way to simulate this sometime 
would be to setup an SG2 game in one 
room. Put two players (enemy commanders) 
in other rooms with just maps. Use either a 
computer network or just radio and make 
their guys communicate with them. You find 
out _really_ fast just how easy it is to garble 
messages, be unclear, execute wrong 
orders (especially if they go through 
someone on the way to you). The way I see 
it, your point man shouldn't be your Lt, but 
he'd darn well better be amidst the platoon to 
see what they're doing. If I see him sitting 
back at the back by himself in the woods, he 
may find the GM inserted surprise enemy 
squad rather .... traumatic.