Part of an ongoing series of posts on adapting the Flames of War rules for 6mm Wargaming
Command
Command Distance is one of the few areas of the rules that have given me serious pause for thought when considering how to convert the FOW rules to 6mm wargaming. The 'official' command distances given in the rulebook always seemd very tight to me when I played with 15mm models. However when I used the same distances with 6mm models the distances look very exagerated.
Maintaining existing command distances (4" for Conscripts, 6" for Trained and 8" for Veterans) does have the effect of allowing the stretching out teams within a platoon. This looks better with armour (no Panzer Parking lots!) but could potentially thin infantry platoons out considerably. However when I playetested this I felt that in practice most players would probably keep their platoon teams tighter together. Stretching a unit out may allow a defender to 'hold' more ground but a well placed enemy assualt against a platoon deployed like this would mean the defender would have a hard time holding that ground.
One alternative that I have experimented with is halving the command distances given in the rulebook. This has the effect of tighten up the units and bring them back towards something resembling the dispersal in a 15mm game. The main problem with halving command distances like this is that it would force units to bunch up, and with the 'footprint' of Artillery and Smoke Bombardment templates remaining unchanged, this could massively increase platoon vulnerability to such attacks.
In the end I decided not to reduce command distances because I concluded it would adversely impact upon dispersal and would make infantry much more vulnerable to bombardments and assaults and would therefore unbalance the game. As always I'm open to suggestions as this 'conversion' of the rules is very much a work in progress.
 |
| 'Trained' Infantry and Armour have different command distances |
| Experience | Tank Teams | Others |
| Conscript | 4" | 2" |
| Trained | 6" | 4" |
| Veteran | 8" | 6" |
Maintaining existing command distances (4" for Conscripts, 6" for Trained and 8" for Veterans) does have the effect of allowing the stretching out teams within a platoon. This looks better with armour (no Panzer Parking lots!) but could potentially thin infantry platoons out considerably. However when I playetested this I felt that in practice most players would probably keep their platoon teams tighter together. Stretching a unit out may allow a defender to 'hold' more ground but a well placed enemy assualt against a platoon deployed like this would mean the defender would have a hard time holding that ground.
In the end I decided not to reduce command distances because I concluded it would adversely impact upon dispersal and would make infantry much more vulnerable to bombardments and assaults and would therefore unbalance the game. As always I'm open to suggestions as this 'conversion' of the rules is very much a work in progress.
Arguably in defence, infantry would be relatively dispersed. Given that the typical battalion defensive frontage was 500-1000m with a 2-up/1-back deployment at all levels, a company frontage would be 250-500m; 125-250m for a platoon and 62.5-125m for a section.
ReplyDeleteSounds good to me big fella, see you Sunday!
ReplyDeleteGive it a go as is and we'll see how it works.
ReplyDeleteAs you point out if you are keeping the artillery templates the same and the move distance the same then keeping the command distances the same will keep it consistent. I would have made the same choice as well.
ReplyDelete