Re: Platoon Leaders in SG2

You wrote: 

>It's just a game thing. 24" is pretty easy to remember, it's a 
multiple of 6,>and it represents about 250 metres. It's an attempt to 
push the commanders >closer to the front. It's within radio range, but 
the entire battlefield is >within radio range. After 100 metres, seeing 
what's happening to your troops >is difficult. 

Tactical leadership is a very personal issue.  Past 100 meters, the 
platoon leader will have no clue what's going on.  But I'd break it 
down further.  Those are the ranges in open terrain.  A significant 
terrain feature (anything that blocks LOS to squad leader, say) should 
upp it to the 24+ category.  He hasn't got a clue, and is just 
confusing the situation giving orders.	I've never heard of a platoon 
leader trying to fight his platoon outside of visual range.  If he 
needs to split his platoon up, he gives the PSG command of the detached 
element and lets him do his thing.  When I've worked with the 
infantry[1], the platoon leader generally follows the lead squad.  And 
tends to get waxed regularly--every study of warfare in the past 
century has indicated the most hazardous job in the military is 
Infantry platoon leader.

John M. Atkinson
[1]Light Combat Engineer, so _my_ platoon leader is playing Batallion 
Engineer.