Morale

[Lord_Valentai]

Got a question; trying to get my hand in playing Waterloo.

I send skirmishers into a town and fight some French cavalry...my troops get disrupted, being Coldstream Guards they don't flee.

But they don't undisrupt either! They have quality 7 or 8...why aren't they undisrupting, even on turns without moving or shooting?

Do I need a leader there to get them working?

[Gary McClellan]

Hm... I know that to get them to rally from rout, you need to have their parent unit nearby (3-5 hexes, I forget the correct number). I'm not sure if the same is true for undisrupt.

[AlAmos]

Do they need to be in clear terrain?

[Gary McClellan]

Al, not that I recall.

[Lord_Valentai]

What about if it was the parent unit, detached and disrupted, but still quality 7 or 8? Wouldn't that mean it should always logically rally? That bit of the manual always confused me.

[FM WarB]

Recovery from disruption is based on the chain of command. The unit's morale rating is irrelevant. You must have the unit's commander pass its command test and be within command range of the unit attempting to re-order. If that brigade commander failed his command test or is too far away, that skirmish company's morale is treated as one for a "six sided dice roll" and must "roll a one" to get undisordered.

[Lord_Valentai]

So it's a base 1/6th of a chance to recover regardless of whether they have quality F or A?

[FM WarB]

Unit quality does not affect recovery from disorder. Its all based on chain of command.

[Sgt_Rock]

You must read the rules for Morale concerning the Command value.

For instance:

If you are the French:

Napoleon: 6
D'Erlon: 5
Division leader: 4
Brigade leader: 3

If all of the above pass their check then the unit will have a value of:

1 + 4 = 5

If on the other hand if D'Erlon fails his test then only +2 or 3 for a value.

It all hinges on the Brigade leader check. If he fails his check the unit doesnt get any bonus. And of course you must be in command control range to begin with in order for all of the bonuses to apply. Thus if the brigade leader is out of range then he can only pass down a +1 to his units that are in command control and are disordered.

[Lord_Valentai]

Okay, thanks. Appreciate the help.