ACWGC wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 12:08 pm
At the end of the day, the best thing to do at night is rest and stay in place.
On a somewhat related topic, a night movement penalty which affected Movement Points would be cool to discuss. Should units still get full movement points at night? I don't think so. Soldiers hated night marches because they moved at a snail's pace. Something to ponder.
That's the major problem-a routed unit CAN'T rest!
There is already a built-in penalty for moving at night-night turns are an hour vs twenty minutes. Plus the fatigue penalty for moving at night.
"the factors that initiated the rout have disappeared"
Yes, generally true.
"The most important byproduct of this, in my opinion, is the recovery from fatigue during the night, to which they should be entitled."
Yes they should entitled, BUT it gets worse. The unit can have their own leader with them but unless he is at least equal to the unit's rating there is no bonus for having him there. There is also no bonus from having Corps and Army Leaders next to them (or on the same hex unless they have at least an equal rating).
Even A and B units only have a 50% chance of rallying from rout during night even though they may be safe behind their lines with their own leader with them. It gets worse from there.
"At the end of the day, the best thing to do at night is rest and stay in place."
Unfortunately, that does little to help routed units.
Routed units usually have at least a medium level of fatigue. If they fail to recover from rout during the night, as they often do, they start the next day with the same level of fatigue even though they may have been moved all night.
"Night fighting is a bad idea all around."
I couldn't agree more. It should be heavily penalised.
"On a somewhat related topic, a night movement penalty which affected Movement Points would be cool to discuss. Should units still get full movement points at night? I don't think so. Soldiers hated night marches because they moved at a snail's pace. Something to ponder."
I generally like to play with a house rule that prohibits night fighting except in very limited circumstances. Should a player choose to fight in those limited circumstances they, of course, still suffer the game penalties for doing so. Those house rules also prohibit any forward movement except towards that side's own existing lines. It's very unrealistic for a Civil War army to move a force during the night beyond their forward lines to position themselves on the flank or rear of their enemy.
The movement fatigue penalty is insufficient to stop such behaviour. An actual penalty to movement would help stop it. The "snail's pace" is right, perhaps one quarter movement at night would not be excessive.
mihalik2 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 10:52 am
Actually, I believe routed units at night should go immediately to a disordered state in their next rally phase, unless they happen to be adjacent to an enemy unit for the simple reason that the factors that initiated the rout have disappeared. They are not navigating anywhere unless it is to reunite with their comrades or they choose to desert. The most important byproduct of this, in my opinion, is the recovery from fatigue during the night, to which they should be entitled.
The factors which caused the rout have not disappeared at all. A rout is the combination of various factors which are brought about by contact with the enemy. While the contact with the enemy has ceased, the factors which caused the rout remain. These can include being low or out of ammo, being fatigued, not being near a Leader, being Disrupted or bring disorganized. All of these factors would continue to have an effect on a unit even after routing whether the sun is up or not. Therefore, having a unit automatically unrout at night seems unusual. It should be harder to regain control of the unit at night without the obvious benefit of sunlight, and thus I believe WDS made the right call by halving the probability of unit recovery at night.
Men are also less likely to wholeheartedly make an attack at night which is why the Night Attack Penalties are in place. WDS did right here as well. Night fighting is a bad idea all around.
At the end of the day, the best thing to do at night is rest and stay in place.
On a somewhat related topic, a night movement penalty which affected Movement Points would be cool to discuss. Should units still get full movement points at night? I don't think so. Soldiers hated night marches because they moved at a snail's pace. Something to ponder.
