How do you handle Battalia orders and distance

[skh25]

In the rulebook it says to measure to the farthest unit and apply -1, -2 etc. But as someone mentioned in a game recently they didn’t say if the distance applied to only that unit’s attempt to activate or everyone given the order.  I quite liked playing them both ways actually, one was a limiter of the whole force, the other a great example of attempting to keep a large force together… just wondering if there is a standard interpretation out there.

[Charge The Guns]

Hi skh25.  I think the standard interpretation is, that if you try to issue a battalia order, and it fails, then no one gets the order.  There is no picking and choosing.  In effect, but adding in extra units, beyond command range, you are increasing the risk of no order getting through to anyone. I don’t see there is any other way to interpret this?

[skh25]

I may not have been clear in the question, when it discusses giving orders it says in the modifiers that it is -1 for every 12″ distance to the unit being given the order to. Under Battalia orders it says if giving a battalia order measure to the farthest unit away and apply the deduction to the SR. So if we sort of ignore the verbiage in the modifier table, we should apply the distance modifier to a specific unit only if ordering a single unit and the distance modifier applies to all units regardless of distance from the leader based on the unit farthest away (my initial interpretation).

The question Does anyone play it as all units in a battalia order <12″ away no modifier, 12 to 24 = -1, etc… Hope that is more descriptive.

[Charge The Guns]

Hi Skh25, sorry, I’m a bit confused – but happens easily 🤪!

My understanding is; on each command dice roll, you are either issuing an order to a single unit, or to a group of units at once (a battalia order).  If it is an order to a single unit then you measure the distance to the single unit and apply that modifier.  If you are issuing to a group then you measure to the furthest away unit in the group and apply that modifier. It makes no difference where any other units in the group/battalia receiving the order are – just the one that is furthest away from the commander issuing the order. One modifier, one command roll; all units in the group/battalia must follow that one result.   I think any other approach risks making things more complicated for no benefit.

The rule is there, as I understand it, to mean that you can’t have a long line of units in a group and just give an order to the nearest and assume that the whole group will follow.  This is subtle difference to Black Powder that makes commend slightly less effective in this era of less effective general staff than in, say, the Napoleonic period.

Does this help?

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