In a one- or two-day JTS/HPS battle scenario with lots of combat action you probably wouldn't notice all of the effects of the Higher Fatigue Recovery Rates option if it is turned on, especially if you consistently play all of your games with that option turned on out of habit. You'd be used to seeing your units fighting, accruing and recovering fatigue as a result, and then fighting some more unless you've bled their fatigue levels white (or is it red?)! The point is, as long as there's plenty of combat action going on, you'd be missing an important, element of command: husbanding your troops' actual combat ability.
(If we define fatigue, as it has been done on this forum and in the game notes, as an overall reflection of both a unit's physical and psychological (battle stress) profile, then we are speaking more nearly of that unit's actual combat ability. A unit's size, or manpower strength of course, only represents the starting point for assessing a unit's combat ability.)
In a closely fought, single-day battle, wherein the Higher Fatigue Recovery Rates option has been selected, physical strength seems to be synonymous with manpower strength: that is, a unit may fight throughout much of day, losing fatigue only due to combat, and then reclaiming that fatigue in a consistent manner as the situation may warrant, as long as it hasn't completely gone into the High Fatigue level. It is only when one becomes involved with a truly large, multiple-day scenario, especially one in which extended marching and maneuver is an integral part, that this option begins to beg for legitimacy. It then becomes possible to experience the IRON SOLDIER!
Quite simply the commander may order his troops to move all night long, feigning any rest whatsoever, and then watch the miraculous regeneration of his minions within the first five or six turns of the new day as they continue marching happily down their roads of destiny. They become, in effect, IRON SOLDIERS, men who only temporarily feel the discomfort of deprived sleep as they continue marching and who, by the noonday meal, feel just as refreshed and ready to do battle as those who halted for the night. Moreover, they may retain their remarkable constitutions for days on end with nary any ill effects. To be sure they will exhibit lower fatigue levels as the night wears on, but they won't lose a step in the process, no matter how many moonlight marches they make. If you've graduated from the academy and are not quite confident of your skills in keeping your troops rested, ready and poised for combat, just activate the Higher Fatigue Recovery Rates option. Then you can simply sit on the roadside fence and receive the reassurances from your boys as they go swinging on by at the route step, "Don't worry, General! We can do this all night long without too much trouble at all!"
But use that option in something like the 140+ turn, Sherman's Advance on Atlanta, July 20th-23rd, 1864 scenario of HPS Campaign Atlanta, the 400+ turn, THE SEVEN DAYS: June 25 - July 1, 1862 scenario of HPS Campaign Peninsula or the monster 1300+ turn Campaign Overland May-June 1864 [H] scenario of JTS Campaign Overland, and you begin to realize that you're depriving yourself of a crucial element in these games. In fact, it may just impel you to disregard the Higher Fatigue Recovery Rates option all together!
Or, maybe not.
Its up to you and your opponent from the git go!
_________________ General Jos. C. Meyer, ACWGC Union Army Chief of Staff Commander, Army of the Shenandoah Commander, Army of the Tennessee (2011-2014 UA CoA/GinC)
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