A Question of Morale...A Campaign Design Process Update

 

 I am not a particular fan of the "morale test" and an additional die roll following combat results. I've always felt that this should be within the realm of combat results, at least as far as individual units are concerned. The army level morale rules of most games are also a bit...stale...in that usually it's just a percentage of losses and there goes the army, with this percentage often quite a bit higher than it would be historically. Although, in many cases, one can find where an army remained in the thick of it, even when a high percentage of its troops have been rendered casualty. 

There are also remarkable stories of certain units that suffered tremendously, in single actions, but they remained on the field; the "Iron Brigade" on 1 July 1863 comes to mind.

So, I am sort of on the fence about including them in my tactical rules, but I do not necessarily rule them out, below army level that is. 

I've considered putting morale tests into the combat results tables, as either a single possible outcome or as an additional outcome, to go along with SP loss, for example. But before I make a final decision, I wanted to post about it and then also playtest it.

Regardless, I do want for any instance that a morale test must be taken to be quite obvious, that it "makes sense" that such a test occur, but that the game be less sensitive to the outcome of a single morale test, to avoid an immediate cessation of the battle because one unit give up the field.

Yes, I understand that is pretty much what can be argued as having occurred at Waterloo, but that was late in the afternoon and only after considerable mental stress had been suffered by the French, not to mention the thousands of casualties.

Morale

When testing morale, a unit must pass a modified d6 roll, scoring under its current SP value. If it fails by 1-2, it must immediately retire; by 3-5, it must immediate retreat; by 6 or more, it is broken.

Brigade Morale

When a brigade is under half strength, having less than half its constituent units unshaken and in play, it must take a pass a brigade morale test. If it passes, the brigade can still carry on the fight. If it fails, the brigade begins to withdraw from the action, with all of its units under mandatory retire orders.

To conduct a brigade morale test, the owning player must score under the current number of units of the brigade still in good order and in play with a modified d6 roll.

Units under mandatory retire orders can only retire during their movement, although they can still perform ranged combat. They may not initiate close combat, but must avoid intervening enemy units, here possible.

A unit under mandatory retire orders must take a morale test during a turn it receives ranged fire or is engaged in close combat.

 

Modifiers for Morale Test

Supported: +1

Brigadier in same square: +1

CinC in same square: +1

In fortification:+1

[special rules that apply to morale tests: various effects]

 

Enemy adjacent: -1

Target of artillery this turn: -1

Disordered: -1

Shaken: -1

Out of command: -1

Terms

Fortification: Unit is within a field fortification or fortress.

Out of command: Unit’s location outside the command range of its brigadier.

Supported: Friendly unengaged unit in same or adjacent square. 

 

Army Morale

My thought as to army morale tests is to have it tied into the losses of units, but also the activation system. Since I already intend to have special actions and random events included with the activation chits/cards, including a unit lost chit would not be out of place.  

Each player adds one event chit "Army Morale Test" or something similarly named, to the cup/deck, before play begins. During the game, whenever the drawing player pulls one of these during activation, that player must immediately test his army's morale.

The Army Morale Test is resolved by the player rolling a single d6, adding the number friendly units that are either currently shaken or have been removed from play to the result. The test is passed if this sum is under the army's Resolve.

Resolve is a combination of national morale, plus that of the components of the army itself, accounting for other factors. This is determined as follows:

Before either side is deployed for battle, each must determine its Resolve, or willingness to stay in the fight. To do so, a number of dice are rolled, one for each brigadier, plus one die if this is the first battle of a campaign or if its side won the last battle, subtracting one if its side lost the last battle. These dice are then rolled and the pips summed, to which is then added the national morale (being 1 to 6). 

Where having a lot of small brigades would help with the Resolve, these very brittle brigades would have a detrimental effect on Army Morale because they're far more likely to withdraw (and thus be removed from play) before a larger brigade.

As units are removed from play, probability of drawing the Army Morale Test chit increases, more so when an entire brigade retires from the field, as its brigadier chit is also removed.

While not exactly elegant, this is the nucleus of the system, and that it follows the other morale tests by rolling below a target number makes for a comforting consistency. The results of the test or even that it takes place is not strictly reliant upon a percentage of losses, but rather the probability of having to test increases as losses mount.

This method also allows for large armies to have a very bad day and for small armies to be highly motivated.

Since I will be using unit and army rosters, including a spot for Resolve on the latter would require not much more effort than before, aside from a quick die roll and some addition.