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 Brigade Orders, Automatic Orders, Runners, and Other Associated and Miscellaneous Crap Right then. First I owe thanks to everyone in both sides' Roll20 for letting me talk at them for a while yesterday, which has really helped me nail down the flaws in the original presentation of the rules and get them closer to what I was intending. I'll go back and revise the original rules now. HOW TO WRITE BRIGADE ORDERS You must include a map with an arrow indicating how your forces will move. The arrow is non-negotiable. I cannot properly adjudicate moves without an arrow. Any orders without an arrow are invalid and will fail. You should include pictures of all Battle Order formations you wish to use (or at least a link to them; perhaps Corps HQ could collate a list of formations that everyone could refer to and not clog their orders up with too many images?). You may use more than one at various points; transitioning from one formation to another occurs "on the move". Any orders given without reference to a formation shall use the default formation and attached assets will be deployed at my discretion. You should tell me what the brigade is to do when it arrives at its finishing point, and you are encouraged to be as exact as possible about the final location of Brigade HQ. When a brigade arrives at the finishing point of its orders it will automatically switch to Defend, and entrench itself. Conditionals It is allowed to include in your orders a condition for your brigade to follow: for instance "If an enemy is sighted, retreat in direction X; otherwise, continue to [TOWN_NAME]." However, please remember that I have a lot of brigades to move around the board. The more complicated your orders, the more conditions they include, the more likely I am to misunderstand something, forget a particular permutation, or implement the orders in a way other than you intended. I will not re-adjudicate turns if this happens; you are responsible for giving clear orders. You may not use conditionals to vary the Standing Orders or override game rules, such as the firing Order of Priority. It is invalid to, for instance, order infantry companies to "Fire first on artillery, then on machine guns"; they will always obey the rules. There is one exception: I will in certain situations accept "Hold your fire unless..." orders if, for instance, you want to fully bait the enemy into a trap before firing on them. Breaking Off It is permissible to, when writing a Change of Orders, give orders for "Break Off and then move as follows:" you will switch to Attack at the end of the break-off and move accordingly. You may not write a break-off conditional in your initial orders. However, if you break off due to a Standing Order, your men lose their orders, automatically switch to Defend stance, and must receive a Change of Orders to move again. Attack and Defend stance, and obligatory movement As a general principle: an infantry company on Attack must move its full movement on every turn. An MG or artillery company must move its full movement unless there is an enemy company within firing range, in which case it stops to fire. All three types of company must remain stationary on Defend stance. These rules are interpreted very loosely when a brigade arrives at a point where it intends to stay; as long as the brigade is coming to a stop, it's permitted to have e.g. companies who arrived at their final point last turn, who do not move on this turn, while other companies are still moving into their final positions because they lacked the movement to make it all the way last turn. Standing Orders Standing Orders cover the following common situations. When the condition is triggered, the brigade automatically reacts as specified without the need for intervention by you. If you've played isometric RPGs like Baldur's Gate, think of them as being kind of like auto-pause settings. Please note that you may not add extra Standing Orders, or change the options available to you. If what you want to do is not listed below, you are not setting a Standing Order, you're adding a conditional to your orders. They're at risk of being disregarded or misinterpreted if you've put them in with your Standing Orders. The list of Standing Orders is as follows. If you do not explicitly set a Standing Order, it automatically is set to the default. It is always best to use the wording that I give here. Default order Optional order quote:When sighting an enemy 12" or less away on Attack stance: If you select "turn and move", a new arrow will be drawn pointing directly at the enemy and your formation turns to face its new direction. Once no enemy companies remain in spotting range, your brigade will move back towards the path of its original movement arrow, re-adopt my closest approximation of your original formation, and continue moving towards its destination. (This, and all procedures, assumes that you have not in the meantime made a Change of Orders.) quote:When attacking the enemy: Brigades default to charging, but may advance using rifle fire if you want. Brigades on Defend stance must remain stationary and use rifle fire to defend themselves. Only rifle companies charge; MG and artillery companies remain stationary and support the charge. quote:When an enemy company Breaks Off or Retreats Suppressed: The brigade suspends its original orders and chases after the retreating companies until they're no longer spottable. The same rule for returning to its original arrow applies to automatic pursuit as it does for "turn and move" up above - the pursuit continues until the enemy is gone and then you return to your original orders. The Senlac Hill Rule says that Brigades on Defend stance do not pursue retreats regardless of this setting; to do that you need a Change of Orders and a switch to Attack stance. You cannot tempt a defender out of good defensive positions by attacking and immediately breaking off to trigger a Standing Order; if a brigade is going to do that, it needs a human to order it. quote:Break Off automatically when: This is to allow Brigades to set how aggressive they want to be. As mentioned above, Brigades which Break Off due to a Standing Order switch to Defend and require a Change of Orders before they can move again. [SUPERCEDED INFORMATION ABOUT RUNNERS DELETED] In-Character Orders, or, Fluff vs Crunch I like people who roleplay a bit and give their orders in character. This is Cool and Good and I approve of it. However, it is absolutely critical to not allow your fluff to make your crunch unclear. By all means give orders in character, but please make sure you write in gameplay and rules terms when appropriate - again, I'm adjudicating a lot of brigades every turn and if I can't understand quickly where I'm physically supposed to move your chits, I'll take a best guess and get on with it. I do believe I'm done. Feel free to keep asking questions, but hopefully all the big holes are closed and now we're just looking at edge cases. Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Mar 9, 2017 |
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