The Commander Series Forum

Where poss I like my armies to reflect historical formations, albeit at quite a high level - ie inf battn of HQ, 9 rifle stands and some support. Question is - should this be a single "formation" under the rules, or do we apply the rule allowing an HQ to issue orders to a small "formation", then start at full CV with a new "formation" and so on. The question arose when someone queried the rigid doctrine "+1 for all units in formation receiving the same order", suggesting that this should be for a single battalion order.
I think the rules are clear enough on this (as am I), but allowing multi orders to multi formations does slow things down in multi player games and curious to see if anyone has house rules for this, or just play as written

I'd have 2 HQs for that many I think.

A British '44 "foot" infantry bttn should be 12 inf, 1 engineer, 1 mortar, 1 6pdr, 1 tow for the 6pdr plus 1-2 carriers. That might be 18 units.

If the unit's in transport then you might want another HQ to command them as well?

The +1 for all doing the same thing often comes up. It's confusing as worded but Pete has clarified this on a few occasions. For Rigid doctrine you allocate the troops to an HQ and that's FIXED for the game. The +1 applies when ALL* of those troops in the entire FIXED formation are doing the same thing. Hence, DO NOT mix infantry and tanks in a fixed formation. They rarely do the same thing, i.e. the tanks all fire but the infantry might be out of range. If it's a Russian infantry unit I'd have an HQ for the and an HQ for the "supports": MGs, ATG, mortar?

*excludes recce, AA, supressed and KO!

I usually try to look at an HQ per approx half a dozen to eight or so stands. For a single nine "fighting stand" battalion plus a couple of supports you might get way with one HQ BUT once you get larger it's a huge chunk of troops left at the mercy of the dice rolls, and distance, and not all wanting to do the same thing.

It might help to think of the battalion as two sections, one under the Battalion commander and one under the senior company commander/XO/whatever, and split them up with appropriate support for whatever mission you're tasking them with on table on the day.

For the big Brit infantry battalions you DEFINITELY need more HQs - you'll barely fit that number of stands within command distance

Rigid is clarified and works as Dr Dave says - the formation the bonus refers to is the entire group of units under that HQ at game start (excepting only recce, AA, suppressed and KO but also unarmed soft skin transport IIRC!).

Reading again, my question looks a bit garbled and should really have been split in 2. HQ numbers for the first part, (thanks for helpful comments), but the second question is around the use of the HQ ordering one formation, then starting at full CV for a second formation and so on. This does make sense but seems to slow the game down a bit?

It's a core part of the command mechanism - how far do you push a successful streak before you stop and move on to the next group...

Except with small formations, all in the same place, doing the same thing, you'll find it's necessary all the time and leads to some tense decisions