Re: [eia] French leader checks

[Joel Uckelman <uckelman@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thus spake "Kyle H":
>     Thanks for this historical survey Joel.  Your statistics show pretty
> clearly that leader death/casualties in this game are historically low.  I
> would be in favor of a house rule that says you roll leader casualties for
> *each* leader present at a battle (as Mike and Bill recently did for their
> battle).  That would increase the odds somewhat, getting them closer to
> historical reality.
> 
> kdh
> 
> P.S.  When I played France, I would always send 2 or 3 leaders with Napoleon 
> to make it virtually impossible for Napoleon to be hurt, but I knew it was 
> cheesy when I was doing it.  (I affectionately referred to Jerome and 
> Bernadotte as Napoleon's "bodyguards".)  This proposed houserule would 
> eliminate that cheese.

I doubt that all commanders had equal probability of being killed, though.
Napoleon was likely present at more battles than any other individual who
ever lived, yet the only reference to his ever being wounded that I can
find was when he was besieging Toulon in 1794. How much of this was skill
and how much luck?

How the battle went for each side seems to have had some impact on the
chances of a commander fatality. Of the five battle casualties, Nelson
was the only one to have carried the day.

I think this is one of those cases where the designers hid some of the
complexity at the expense of realism.

A side note: It's always interesting to see how designers handle commander
fatalities. In lots of games, a particular commander has significance beyond
just the battle being fought. E.g., the death of Charles I in battle would
have dramatically altered the English Civil War, since the king himself was
the focus of the war. In AH's Hannibal, the Carthaginian player loses
immediately if Hannibal is killed. Then there are battles where the death
of a commander was the historical outcome, like Lutzen or Quebec. Gustavus
Adolphus was killed at Lutzen, and both Wolfe and Montcalm died at Quebec.
How often should they be killed in replays?

-- 
J.
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