jrv
Forum Guru
I have always felt that there should be a separate modifier for kindling. Even the most brilliant combat leader may not be a natural-born Boy Scout.
JR
JR
The -2 represents the leaders ability to recognize the need for action as well as knowing the biggest pyro in the platoon.I have always felt that there should be a separate modifier for kindling. Even the most brilliant combat leader may not be a natural-born Boy Scout.
JR
Perhaps, but if that is true, wouldn't that apply to combat results vs. rallying results? Minus three leaders know to send Audie Murphy to fire the .50 cal and Desmond Doss to rally the broken troops.The -2 represents the leaders ability to recognize the need for action as well as knowing the biggest pyro in the platoon.
I've gone far in the Mayhem in Manila DASL scen by giving the FT to the 10-2.I'll use them without a second thought if the circumstances warrant.
They are powerful but just one unit.
There are ways to mitigate their effects as well, For example, I just designed one with British paratroops on D-Day that uses a 9-2. His best SW is a single LMG, and his troops will be spread too thin for a kill stack to be good play in most cases. And he spent most of the first playtest game pinned.The risk of them somewhat unbalancing a game is admittedly somewhat greater than compared to other units. But a working FT or a HMG with a ROF tear can do just the same.
von Marwitz
When was the last war movie you saw where the NCO in charge didn't have a match or a lighter for his cigarette?!?!? (After all, brilliant combat leaders and commissioned officers are not capable of being one and the same .. ) And ASL is nothing if not a simulation of war movies.I have always felt that there should be a separate modifier for kindling. Even the most brilliant combat leader may not be a natural-born Boy Scout.
JR
I like to play around with alternate rules and one rule I'm particularly fond of is capping all leadership mods at -1 except for a designated 'talent' that gets the full -3. Most superleaders would be "morale" leaders. So, a 10-3 morale leader would modify IFT/CC and ambush at -1, but uses the full -3 for rallies/MC. He's not great at everything, but his men will walk thru fire for him. An ambush leader is a commando type, a close quarters specialist, who is -1 for all things, but -3 for ambush. And lastly -3 fire control leader is... discouraged... but they are possible and I'm sure you get the concept. What I like is the SSR improves balance and realism and still preserves some of the legitimate excitement the super leaders create. It's not burdensome records wise either. Ob's rarely have more than two -2's or -3's, so It's no challenge to remember your -2's are morale leaders. Anyone else think this idea is as attractive as I do? Consider the SSR.I feel that 9-2, 10-2 and 10-3 are a major problem in scenario balance: when directing fire they reduce stone building to woods, in ambush pull out ambushes that completely modify the landscape, normal units bounce back from broken status as if they were fanatic, not to mention those fanatic which you are almost guarantee to have immediately back.
So I stay well away from -2 when desigining scenarios, in case the episode really deserve a -2 I tend to minimize the impact making him heroic, this usually reduce his permanence on the battlefield if used too aggressively.
and you?
kind of illustrates in my mind the purpose of a 7-1 or a 10-1 for all nationalities.I really would've preferred leaders having a second modifier to separate morale effects from tactical skill.
It would make the higher modifier leaders less problematic in scenario design.
For example, a 9-2-1 would have -2 modifier for all morale dependent DR and a -1 modifier for all attack based DR.
This would allow much greater variety in leaders.
Those 10-3 and 6+1 leaders that currently occupied a plastic counter tray prison would see more play if they were 10-3-1 or 10-3-2 or even 10-3+1 and 6+1-2 might be useful on a rear MG nest.
And, as a bonus, this change could easily be added to the game by simply stating that a leader with only one modifier number has the same value for both...making reissuing old counters unnecessary.
+1 on the ROAR shoutout to JRV.I'm a newbie designer, but in DB116 I used a Heroic 9-2 leader to make him a bit more brittle. Balance has proven pretty even on ROAR (thanks for maintaining that, JRV!)....
He was the captain of a company later taken over by the author of _Company Commander_.