This is just for fun. WDS has no plans to change anything that I am aware of.
Right now the units in our games have about a 4% chance of being Low on Ammo with each firing action. WDS states, "Having a full complement of ammunition was never guaranteed in any battle. While most often, a unit had enough ammunition to ensure the ability to fight for some time, breakdowns in command and organization often resulted in ammunition problems. Adding an ammunition level to each unit in the game would simply increase the micromanagement necessary to play the game without adding any benefit and would in fact detract from the game by including information that could hardly be known by higher level commanders."
Okay. I won't argue. But I will have a bit of fun creating an alternate idea.
What if infantry units began with 8 Firing Points (Ammo). Offensive fire would cost you one firing point. Defensive fire (no matter how many times you fired defensively in a single turn) would cost you .5 points. Once you reached 2 points left you would be Low on Ammo and your morale would suffer. Once out of ammo you would be very low on morale and apt to rout. What if the only way to restock your cartridge boxes was to be in column and sharing a hex with a supply wagon for a single turn?
This would mean that a unit could be in a heavy fight for about 1 to 2 hours before needing to be pulled out of line to resupply. That seems about right historically. 60 Rounds of Ammo, maybe two shots a minute... argue about it some if you must... but based on my reading I think it is fair to say a unit heavily engaged can't fight for very long before men begin to look for more rounds off the wounded and dead. Maybe 8 Firing Points is too high in my alternate idea, but that's just a number I chose to give you an idea.
It would really make things quite interesting. No more maddening and unexpected Low on Ammo events. You would be able to gauge your ammo usage instead. As an attacker, you could also try to keep the enemy in place to force them to sweat it out watching their ammo numbers drop dangerously low. Can they resupply in time or bring up reinforcements with full loads of ammo in their pockets?
WDS said, "Adding an ammunition level to each unit in the game would simply increase the micromanagement necessary to play the game without adding any benefit and would in fact detract from the game by including information that could hardly be known by higher level commanders."
Are you kidding? I mean, micromanagement is literally what drives us to play these, lol. I am moving every single unit on the map (infantry, cavalry, artillery), every leader, every wagon, choosing their direction, choosing their formation, and so on and so on. The ammo idea isn't going to bother me one bit, brother! I mean, if I am not already micromanaging my army, what the heck am I doing? Maybe it would be preferable to simply rolling the dice with every fire and hoping it doesn't land on snake eyes.
The idea that high level commanders wouldn't know the unit's ammo levels is fair historically. But not in these video games. As video game General Lee I know EVERY unit's morale, their adjusted morale, their EXACT number of men, their fatigue, and their position, and you're telling me that I can somehow know all of that... but I don't know how much ammo they have? Come on. I've already been granted limitless intel and power over every unit on the map... what's the problem with also telling me how much ammo they have?
If WDS really wants to enforce a real Fog of War on human players with units they command... then let's have some fun! Try putting a Fog of War over all the intel of friendly units. If I can't know ammo levels, then should I know their exact fatigue level, their exact number of men, or other things? Wouldn't the game be brutally more challenging if that info was hidden! What if you had to just see: 11th Illinois, 3XX men, Fatigue 1XX, Morale X. Now THAT would be one heck of a Fog of War. Afterall, it is "information that could hardly be known by higher level commanders." Right? You know I am right
Anyways, that's a lot to think about. Just thought I'd throw that out there for anyone who wants to chew on it and have fun
