Command & Control

I INTEND using Bob Cordery's big-battle rules as printed in Battles Of Napoleonic Europe, but omitting most of the section on orders.

In his rules, each turn begins with artillery firing simultaneously.

Then the players issue orders to their units, and there is a dice-off to see who goes first.

The winner reveals the orders he has given, and activates his units, although each unit has to first pass an activation test.

I will be scrapping the issuing of orders, but keeping the activation test.

So, for each unit a die will be rolled, the score reduced by a distance-from-the-general factor.

This is calculated by dividing by three the number of grids the unit is from the general, the result being rounded up.

This factor is deducted from the die roll, a final score of 2 or more being required for activation.

I think this makes for a good command-and-control mechanism, without the time-consuming chore of writing orders (and without the potential arguments around interpreting such orders).