American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Just wondering if anyone else feels this way about morale. To me having only 3 morale states is very extreme and unrealistic. There was a civil war boardgame series that had the following states. Normal,shaken,disorganized, and routed. The only difference between normal and shaken was that shaken units couldn't melee. Disorganized was the same as hps's disrupted. I understand that is all a computer's die-roll, but I tend to get very frustrated when an opposing artillery section fires on my unit from 10 hexes away and causes 1 casualty, and next thing you know my unit is disrupted. and no they weren't high fatigue and they were in line. I could see something along the lines as shaken or rattled, but disrupted?

Captain Ken Turner
"Dixie" Battalion
"Guns of the Alamo" III Corps Artillery
Army of Alabama

I'm not sure "more is better" in these games. I think you have to look at results over a period of turns, and in a sense a unit that stays disrupted for a number of turns was "at a higher level" then a unit that recovers after one -- my experience is that artillery, if not in the front line will recover quickly.

As for suffering the disruption in the first place. I think the game should increase a units chances of disruption/routing when it takes artillery fire. As it is, it basically treats the effect, although they can obviously result over longer distances, the same as any other type of fire. I think units that suffered the same number of casualties from artillery as rifle fire were more likely to incur bad effects.

With regard to your artillery disrupting from a single casualty, indeed a rare situation -- I think it has about a 4% chance. However if there was a nearby unit that disrupts/routs, the "odds" go up - in particular if that shot on the artilery was a flank shot. There are a number of what ifs, but let's say it was a flank shot and an adjacent unit disrupts/routs, and the artillery is B quality, then I think the chances of it disrupting could now be as high as 50% -- big difference.

Lt Gen Bob Breen
Commanding XIX Corps, AoS
"Defenders of the Right"

I agree the disrupt/route system in HPS needs to be moved into the 21st Century.[:D] Computers should be able to handle a much more complex system than boardgames that had to take into consideration how much cardboard would be required to implement.

System ought to reflect "degrees" of disruption and route with the number of casualties factored in as well as how it was caused. Like fire from rear, is unit surrounded, out of command, artillery fire, etc.

As is routes occur to often and have to severe an effect. Few regiments actually routed during a battle and then rarely for over a few minutes while they fell back to supporting lines. Units however were easily disordered by fire resulting in them seeking cover or stopping to fire rather than closing with the enemy. Something poorly modeled in the games.

MG. Kennon Whitehead
Chatham Grays
III Corps, AoM (CSA)