Fire and Dice: Morale

Morale in Fire and Dice is devolved down to the unit level and sometimes individual elements. Whilst units will be affected by the presence or departure of friends in close proximity, unlike other game systems there is no whole-of-force breaking point or greater organisational casualty trigger beyond the immediate team on the ground.

Most games we play are scenario driven - taken from historical encounters or plausible, fictitious encounters in one theatre or another. Generally, we assign victory conditions and time limits based on a number of turns for one side to achieve their objectives and the other side either competes for them or attempts to deny them to the enemy. We find that higher-order morale calculations (at say the battalion level) are not particularly useful or necessary in determining the outcome of a game.

If any further justification for unit level morale is needed, companies or platoons are often isolated from one another in battle. The unit cohesion and ability for soldiers to act collectively rests within the section/platoon or company. Beyond radio communications, one unit within a larger organisation may have little appreciation of what the rest of the units are experiencing.

The TACTICAL UNIT

Depending on your representative troop scale Fire and Dice identifies the company, squadron or platoon as the default tactical unit in a game. Coming from a history of playing Rapid Fire in 20mm, we continue to organise our forces into companies of anything up to 12 figures or squadrons of 3-4 vehicles. If you prefer a lower representative scale game, then our companies can be your platoons or even sections.

Our infantry unit cards represent unit types (companies) which constitute a battalion, but each company is the tactical unit and tests for morale individually. In the case of support elements within a battalion (such as a heavy weapons or support company) the individual element (such as an anti-tank gun and crew) operate independently and tests individually.

We could have generated individual company or element cards but for the sizes of game we play, this would result in too many unit cards which gets in the way of ease of reference. Feel free to change that if your games tend to be smaller, skirmish level encounters.

MORALE Value

Morale values (ML) are assigned according to unit type and according to their strength in numbers. These values may be further modified depending upon the unit Capability and Confidence (CAP and CONF).

In some instances, solitary AFVs may be fielded in which case it's ML is derived from the number of crew rounded up before modifying. You may chose to field and play an artillery battery as a combined pair of guns in which case the ML is derived from totalling the crew across both guns. Be mindful; however, that whilst this provides a larger ML, casualties across either gun crew will affect the result for both guns. 

Capability (CAP) is a modifying factor applied against the base ML which is influenced by skill levels, training, equipment (levels of resourcing) and experience. Obviously, highly trained and experienced soldiers will be more capable than freshly raised or poorly trained and equipped soldiers.

Confidence (CONF) is the psychological state of the unit. Units from armies who are used to winning and expect to win, are well supported organisationally or have a stronger belief in themselves (political ideology or a warrior culture for example) are more capable of taking action. The reverse will make them less inclined to take risks.

Not all units require an identifiable CAP or CONF modifier or they might have just one. Most volunteer citizen soldiers who have received reasonable basic training will not have a particularly identifiable CONF rating and will have the basic TR (trained) CAP - so no morale modifiers.

For another example, a unit of African Ascari Infantry fighting for the Italians might not be particularly well equipped or resourced but are trained, so their capability (CAP) could be at the Trained level (no effect).  Their warrior culture gives them superior sense of themselves; however, and we might assign a CONF rating of Motivated (MOT) which given them a higher morale value.

TESTING

Units only ever test once per turn and that's whenever a player attempts to do something with them. After any testing for observation a unit only tests for Morale when the player wants them to take an action (moving and/or shooting).

Unlike other rule systems, it doesn't matter what happens to a unit during the opposing player's turn. They can come under artillery fire, lose casualties or have vehicles damaged/destroyed during the opposing player's turn but they do not take a test until the owning player's turn and only if that player wants them to take an action.

If an owning player elects not to attempt an action due to the risks of failing the morale test, that unit is effectively paralysed for each turn they chose to avoid taking the test.

Like all rolls in Fire and Dice, Morale rolls are about getting a high number and a player may wish for certain factors to change before attempting an action. For example, you may wait for incoming enemy artillery fire to lapse, recover casualties with a medic team or wait for your supporting infantry to clear an enemy occupied building before attempting to push AFVs into a village.

Unlike Observation or Shooting, the Morale rolls are against the circumstances only and are not a competitive roll against an opponent.

The most significant modifiers will be accumulating casualties or damage a unit suffers. Units will likely start the game at full strength with a full compliment of 'plus factors' - getting to add the strength of the unit by the number of vehicles, crew or infantrymen - so little to no chance of failure to act no matter how low your dice role. As casualties or damage mounts up; however, the consequences of rolling low increases the risk of a morale failure. The 'plus factors' derived from the unit's diminishing strength lessen and will struggle to compensate for low rolling.