In the Art of War, Sun Tzu talks about Dying Ground. It is a fascinating factor, but one I’ve never seen accounted for in a wargame.
Most soldiers in war do not actually fight. Accuracy on the firing range doesn’t translate into casualties on the battlefield. Why not? At first, you might think the adrenaline rush of battle might being throwing off the marksmanship. Psychologist have determined that the real reason is, that most people don’t want to kill somebody. Even the enemy, in a firefight. -Fine, I’ll serve. I’m not a coward. I won’t desert. I’ll stand with my unit, but you still can’t make me kill someone.
Most soldiers from the Civil War would pull their shots: intentionally fire high over the heads of the enemy. Another trick was to not pull your trigger. Load, level your musket but don’t actually pull the trigger. Just keep reloading and act like you are fighting. That’s why they would find many muskets after a battle that were reloaded 10 times but never fired.
The number of men that actually do shoot to kill in war is very low. Down around 10%, as I remember. Imagine if you could get all the men in a unit to actually fight! This brings us back to Sun Tzu. This is what he called, Dying Ground:
When you cannot press forward or retreat; when you will survive if you fight quickly and will perish if you do not –It is said “Put them on dying ground, and then they will live.”
What would that look like in a wargame?
Dying Ground –Optional Rule
Before resolving a Combat, check to see that your units have an open route to retreat. If their route is blocked by impassible terrain and enemy units, they are on Dying Ground.
Units fighting on Dying Ground get a +1 combat modifier.
They will also ignore a second hit retreat result. They will stay in place and keep fighting. The third hit they take will destroy them as usual.
I have no idea what this will do to the game. It may result in all kinds of trouble. It also adds complication and extra rules to remember. With Pub Battles, we always try to keep that to a minimum. So I don’t expect to see this as an official rule later.
Try this out and let us know what you see. Is it good? Does it work?
I like that idea. I don’t know if I’m going do adopt it, thou, but I like it.
“They’ve got us surrounded…The poor bastards!”
I would file this away under “Possible scenario special rules”
It is a cool idea that becomes part of rules bloat unless it is critical to the battle in question. The game works fine without it.
That being said, I can easily imagine a battle where a critical aspect was when some troops were trapped and caused a lot of casualties. Dying ground would be very appropriate then! Wasn’t there some aspect of the Battle in the Clouds (ACW) where that happened. Oh, my aging mind…;-)