Re: Stargrunt 2 Morale Questions and Comments

Tony spake thusly upon matters weighty: 

>	Now I haven't played a lot of SGII as yet but if it's your
officers and
> NCO's that don't care (sometimes anyway) about the rest of the squad
buying
> a farm, well that sounds about right to me.

Speaking for myself, and most of the other infantry members I know, I 
don't think the NCOs loved us, but I think it was in their best 
interest to take care of us. If we're fragged, their chances of 
ending up so increase, especially if its due to their lack of 
concern for the wellbeing of their troops. This translates in SG2 to 
crappy motivation and morale levels. I've seen a unit commanded by 
good NCOs and by good Officers who did care about the men (or put on 
an excellent smoke and mirrors show if they didn't) and the units 
performance was head and shoulders above that of one where the 
leadership showed a lack of care. Furthermore, the unit routing has 
more to do with the rank and file deciding to bugger off than 
anything an officer or NCO do...for the most part. A good officer or 
NCO will engender much more desire to stay and fight (if that's what 
they want) than one who you know doesn't give a hoot. And losses can 
even make that irrelevant. The shock and violence of combat can cause 
even experienced soldiers to break and bug out in fear. 

 All studies (that I'm aware of
> anyway) on combat behaviour show that there are two types of people,
> Leaders and followers. Followers keep their heads down, leaders tend
to
> watcg for incoming fire. Followers shooting in the general direction,
> leaders tend to aim. Followers try not to bother anyone too much,
leaders
> tend to kill people. Leaders tend to do heroic and stupid things (4
VC's
> were won by Australians in Vietnam all by officers and NCO's, 2 were
> awarded posthumusly) followers tend to come home.

I note too that Leader personality types don't stay privates all that 
long - they either get killed or get promoted. But the point is a 
unit breaking and leaving has more to do with the morale of the body 
of the squad. 

 Now all of this is
> general and as with everything there are exceptions. The SGII morale
rules
> have a big penalty for losing the leader and it's not everytime that a
lone
> squady is going to hang around. 

The points raised by Allan are fairly valid though. There is no 
morale effect for overall casualties, just for new ones received. 
This negates the cumulative effects of shock, loss, and stress caused 
by seeing buddies dying. Even if I saw one guy I served with killed 
every day for a week, it would chew my morale down. Also, there is no 
concept (and this is something we've wrestled with in AD&D 
Battlesystem and other systems) of formation morale. As Allan said, 
you can have half your platoon dead in front of you, but if they 
aren't in your squad, you can stick till the cows come home. 

Here's a suggestion for unit morale:

If a unit at level X in the command structure fails a morale check 
and loses confidence, routes, or takes casualties (at the some 
breakpoints), the unit commanding this unit at level X+1 must make a 
morale check at a threat level (need to fill in some blanks here). 
The higher level squad should check at a reduced threat level to 
reflect the 'distance of command' that is trained into command staff 
and their awareness of mission priorities. 

So if a squad is eliminated from your platoon by enemy fire or 
routes, your platoon commander must make a morale check. If the 
command squad fails a morale check, it may drop confidence levels. If 
it drops some number (again some work needed here) of confidence 
levels, it either halts its attack (if it is the attacker) or orders 
a withdrawal (defender). If it actually routes, it leaves the board 
without giving such orders. (Unless it rallies). 
("Hey Sarge, we're being overrun here... and look.... there goes 
Major Boniface in his Squad Carrier .... the HQ squad is RUNNING!").  

Now, you can see there are a lot of loose spots in this, but the idea 
might be sound. Also, I think one of the morale triggers that might 
force a test would be seeing a friendly unit in your command 
structure (same platoon or whatever) route or be eliminated. This 
might force a relatively low threat level test. Historically, in some 
situations, units just seeing another unit obliterated have fled 
without firing a shot. 

Tom. 
/************************************************
Thomas Barclay		     
Voice: (613) 831-2018 x 4009
Fax: (613) 831-8255

 "C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot.  C++ makes
 it harder, but when you do, it blows away your whole leg."
 -Bjarne Stroustrup
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