[WarInEur] Optional strategic Suprise rule.

[sgminfo]

One of the features/problems(depending on your viewpoint with the 
simulation) is the problem of surprise.

One has to bear in mind with the cardstock game...

No surprise was really possible in the original design.
It was chess  using the numbers,
and the only surpises available were those offered on the chess board,
indirection,
and misdirection.


Now because of that there were problems in gaining a sudden attack 
advantage.

But the game itself,
with weekly turns
had to be strongly conservative.
Should the attacker achieve a strategic surprise,
the defender was too far behind the curve to catch up and recover,
to do so required an active defense,
which, with the strictures of the board game, counter mix, and the crt 
were  almost impossible to do.

Combat resolution had to effectively do service for both sides' active 
manoeuvring at the point of decision.

Hence the crt really is a joint resolution device, substituting in both 
these roles.

With the computer game, FOW enables that holy grail of the concealed 
surprise application of the mailed fist.
And the battle for freedom of manoeuvre.

Where this desired edge breaks down,
is that at given odds resolutions,
The results of the battle are often wholly one sided,
where firepower and concentration are achieved in time and space.
at 10-12 to 1 odds,
the attacker only gets stronger,
and the defender usually gets wiped out.

At lower odds,
below 6-1 on good crts
the inbuilt attrition causes the agressor to suffer greater challenges
and have his combat superiority erode away.

But these assume,
good knowledge on both sides.

With full fow and a low density of units, the agressor can achieve 
concentration and deliver the critical odds to fight a battle of 
annihilation
without the defender being able to react to counter in time
>
>
So with full fow, the game is ever more dependant on high unit density 
on the board, to prevent the runaway equation crunching the defender...

Attrition, as an option, was hoped to redress this element, the 
advancing attacker, would wear away his success, using it, substituting 
this brake for the one lost in FOW. By taking the balance of combat 
advantage outside the straight mathematical model, a leve;l of manoeuvre 
and comand planning, plays lip service once again.

With perfect knowledge all that one could really do was apply the force 
equations at the key points and wind the handle, to get the results the 
authors intended.
Breakthroughs were only intended in exceptional circumstances,
and the strictures of oos and aex, were the coarse modifiers if you 
(inevitably) exceeded your boundaries, to bring the rampaging agressor 
back under control.


-|steve|-