Re: Stargrunt 2 Morale Questions and Comments

At 11:30 PM 8/19/98 GMT, you wrote:
[snip intro]
>However, I have noticed some weird things. In particular, total
casualties to
>a unit has no bearing on the unit's drop in morale. I had a unit lose
one or
>two figures per turn until the commanding officer was all that
remained. She
>kept her morale status as Confident. Okay, she was a veteran, but even
still
>this seemed very strange. 

I know it wouldn't make me happy...

>You take a major morale hit if you lose more figures in one attack than
you
>have left over after the attack. This is good. A major loss of life in
one
>quick burst should lower morale drasticall. If you lose the men
piecemeal,
>though, this has a very small effect. This doesn't seem right.

Another related effect is how casualties only effect the unit's morale
if 
the soldiers are screaming in agony. The vacant stare of death in your 
comrade's eyes has no effect on TL. I don't really understand the logic 
behind it... it just seems wrong. There is a lot of literature on the 
psychological effects of combat. IIRC, hiding from gunfire with dead 
squadmates all around you had a profound negative impact on morale.

[snip GenCon rules]
>Has this been common with other groups? Is this a problem, or do people
>generally prefer a game where morale isn't that big a deal? Or am I
just
>playing with too many "veteran" units on the table?

Personally, I would like to see a system where morale played a much
higher 
role than in any of the systems I have used so far. The group I game
with 
has been doing some experimenting [see below]. Morale is starting to 
play a higher role (most units try to run away before being wiped out), 
but morale still is a bit too "static" IMO.

What we have started using is the idea that a unit is required to pass
its
morale check. For each failed check, reduce the TL by one and roll
again.
Once the TL is below 0 the test is automatically passed. For example, 
a squad is required to make a confidence test at TL+3. It fails, and has

to immediately roll again at TL+2. It passes, so only drops one (or two)
confidence levels. Another example is a unit making a confidence test at
TL+1. Again, it fails its first test, and rolls again at TL+0, which it 
also fails. It doesn't roll a third time, since a TL-1 test is
automatically
passed.

Note that we don't (at least not yet) use this for any of the rolls 
required during close combat. In practice this has worked quite well 
for us. No noticable increase in game time, it fits in very well 
with the current system, and it is easy to remember. One thing that 
we haven't really looked at is the different effects of being "dead"
as opposed to being "wounded". One step at a time, I guess.

One side effect is that it is possible for a unit to drop from CO to RO
in one
go, although it isn't very likely, which is something that is not
possible 
in the vanilla SG rules. This is especially appropriate for greens, as
they 
could quite easily be routed by the loss of the squad commander.

>I'm thinking that something along the lines of a morale test or a panic
test
>should be done when a unit loses more than half its strength. Currently
a
unit
>takes a TL 4 test when it loses more figures than it has left at the
end of
>the combat. Perhaps a TL2 test when the unit drops below half strength,
and a
>TL4 test when it drops below one quarter strength is needed.
>
>For that matter, perhaps a straight +1 to the TL per casualty is in
order.
The
>squad data card has a space for the unit's full strength complement, so
we
>might as well use it. If this is used, I suggest scrapping the TL2 and
TL4
>tests listed above.

I think that the latter suggestion is better, since "one half" and "one
quarter"
are quite arbitrary, whereas enemy fire isn't. I'm assuming that you
mean a 
TL+1 per casualty inflicted during a particular attack? I would also set
limits
on the maximum TL according to mission motivation, e.g. +3 for High MM,
+4 for
Medium MM, and +5 for Low MM.

>Finally, I noticed that the condition of the rest of the force on the
table
>has no effect on the morale of a given unit. That is, the whole platoon
could
>be taking a beating, but the morale of an individual squad that still
hasn't
>seen action hasn't been affected. I know that this was a bit of a sore
point
>with me in DS2, but it doesn't seem to be that big an issue in SG2.
Still,
has
>anyone found this to be an issue, and if so have you looked at it?

Haven't looked at this one yet.

>
>Allan Goodall		agoodall@sympatico.ca
>
>"We come into the world and take our chances
> Fate is just the weight of circumstances
> That's the way that Lady Luck dances
> Roll the bones." - N. Peart

I hope this helps,

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