The age old question wargame rules authors, how do we reflect the difference commanders had on the wars they fought in. Do you give the player representing Napoleon a large bonus, or do you allow them to see if they can capture the genius of the Emperor themselves. We will examine both sides of the argument in this article, as both have great merit.
Give Exceptional Leaders Bonuses and Penalties to sub-par commanders
The main benefit of this method is that it can capture the disparity of the historical commanders, ignoring the abilities of your players. This could simply be solved by giving the better players the commands of the more competent leaders, but that’s a pretty socially awkward solution. Sometimes it just doesn’t feel right to have Darius III commanding his troops just as well as Alexander for example. Some players can feel like they shouldn’t be penalized for the ineptness of their historical counterpart.
Let players carve their own path
This is the other option, which has its own pros and cons. Give the players no penalties/bonuses for their leaders, and see how a commander with a different skillset would handle the challenge. This can lead to some really interesting match-ups and what ifs. Back to our Darius and Alexander example, what would happen if the roles switched. If the Greeks were led by an ok commander, and the Persians by a genius.
A Case Study
So my personal choice in my Thirty Years War rules that I’m currently designing was with the former position, give historically skillful figures a bonus. And with an average sized army this means a command rating of 3 in the rules being average to good, 2 being sub-par, and 4 being excellent. This means it is not a massive disparity, but it does give more command resources to the historically better leaders. I went with this choice because I wanted to capture the huge figures of the period, like Gustavus Adolphus, Wallenstein, and Mansfeld, and to give those great men a gameplay advantage over their peers.
Conclusion
Just some brief thought from me on the subject, I hope y’all enjoyed,
Thanks for reading, comment down below to let me know your feedback as it means the world to me. Stay tuned, we’ve got more quality, entertaining wargaming content coming your way. Please tell EVERYONE you know about the blog.
Make sure to stay informed with email notifications when there is a new blog post by filling out this form.
or consider supporting the blog at https://www.patreon.com/user?u=48406313
Until next time- Joshua, The Napoleon of the West
