Break points and assymetric fighting styles.

It’s spring, the time of year when a young man’s fancy turns to kleine kreig.

I think that my sub-conscious must have been grinding away at this topic in the background. because I was cycling to work this morning and (as seems to be the case with me) apropos of nothing in particular I started thinking about Croats and Prussian Infantry.

Lets say a battalion (or any formed, regular unit, has six break points. Let’s also assume that a unit of Croats would be furnished with only five. I’m only plucking that number out of the air because it works agreeably with dice. The name “break points” could just as easily be substituted for “cohesion” points or “disruption points”.

What if, thought I, a commander of line Infantry was able to choose to open his order out at the cost of two break points? They could then act just like those rascally Croats and counter-skirmish but would be much closer to the point (let’s say three break points) where they would start to suffer unlovely consequences such as at the start of every move a dice is thrown and the number indicated is equivalent to the number of figures who have decided that now is as good a time as any to abandon the ferocious discipline of IR13 for a more felicitous regime.

Break points could be lost as a result of line losses and Officer casualties. Chaps lost to the flight to the rear would be counted as casualties. A large number of casualties in a move would lead to the loss of a DP. No officers left would equal another lost DP. Being exposed to cannon-fire might be worth a DP over and above the casualties caused.

Fleeing/ fled troops could be rallied by being joined by an officer.
Going back to our infantry sacrificing a couple of DPs to get to grips with the Croats, they’d find their advantage lay in having a higher starting number of DPs to play with. Also, as things got tricky for the line infantry, they could re-form their ranks and recover the sacrificed DPs. The Croats would not be allowed to form ranks, and would be at a fire disadvantage against formed troops in the open.