What was believed to be such a unique mechanic turns out to be an overcomplicated mess that morphs into an epic train wreck in slow motion. You may say it is hubris or plain stupidity on my part so I’ll roll it out and see what I need to do with this mess.
The intended purpose behind this mechanic was to represent the chaotic fluidness in combat and to take away the omnipotence of being able to physically look at everything on the board. Normally in a wargame one would have total control of their forces by dictating every action. I wanted to throw in something where you can possibly lose control of your forces once the proverbial crap hits the fan or maybe do something really foolish because some squad leader fell out of his tree. There is a modicum of control you can have over your forces when issuing orders but your HQ is limited on how many orders it can allocate during a command phase.
Orders given during the command phase are intuitive such as “take position” which is a simple move order with a secondary function to deploy infantry if the models are transports. However once these orders are given and executed in the model activation phase it is on its own when it makes enemy contact within its active range. A model’s initiative plays a huge factor in this plus if it has veteracy against an opposing model’s initiative and veteracy. How well you score against or rather how well your opponent score against your initiative will determine how your forces will react.
The model’s reactions is dictated by the army tactical doctrines such as rigid, flexible and standard. A rigid doctrine has weak model initiative but strong command bonuses to represent the need for careful and deliberate planning. The flexible doctrine is the opposite with strong model initiative with weak command bonuses with a lot of breathing room to adapt to a changing situation. The standard doctrine has moderate strength in both model initiative and command bonuses that needs a little finesse in risk factor.
When rolling for the reaction roll 5D6.
Rigid may not discard dice.
Standard may discrd one die.
Flexibile may discard two dice.
Initiative D6 pool
1 = Passive
2 = Passive
3 = Defensive
4 = Defensive
5 = Aggressive
6 = Aggressive
This is where this mechanic blows up. If you roll an aggressive, a defensive and a passive die they nullify each other which this is called a ‘null’ and the model just sits there and waits for orders. Or if there is more passive dice than there are defensive and aggressive dice. Like if you roll a 1,2,2,3,5 there are more passive dice.
However if you roll 1,2,3,3,5 you have two passive and two defensive and one aggressive die. There are more passive and defensive die than aggressive so an action with defensive and passive can be taken.
Initiative actions:
-Request orders: Rolling a null or there are more passive dice than aggressive and defensive dice. This represents your model sitting there like a bump on a log waiting to be told what to do even while it is being shot at.
-Rushed shot: Equal number of aggressive and passive dice.
-Hold ground: Equal number of defensive and passive dice.
-Fall back: More defensive than passive and aggressive.
-Return fire: Equal number of aggressive and defensive dice.
-Pursue Enemy: More aggressive than defensive and passive dice.
Keep everything as you've said it, but disciplined troops are the ones that you take dice away from. This allows you more control with their reaction to the enemy. Undisciplined troops might charge in or retreat on their own, while your trained troops obey your orders with exacting precision.
However, the most disciplined of troops can be intimidated, or lured into a foolhardy charge if the unit commander gets the wrong perception of the battle. They have to roll like the others, but removing dice lets you have a better chance of choosing what you want.
However, circumstances could affect their roll. A critical hit on their position could mean that the player has to roll one less dice, the missing dice being an automatic "defense" or "retreat" result. Same could go for a critical hit when an allied unit hits an adjacent enemy: it could force your unit to roll an automatic "aggressive" result.
This means that the players are forced to play to the situation, and that random factors move the army in ways they didn't anticipate. The fact that they still get to choose the action they take with the circumstances is where the strategy comes in, and in choosing when to commit forces. The moment they're committed, they might be out of your control.
The rigid tactical doctrine and being disciplined are pretty much the same in practice. They intention with the rigidity was to represent a Soviet-style military doctrine that emphasized centralized planning attitude towards military operations to have their troops carry out orders and nothing more outside that.
However, I do like where you're going with the emphasis on undisciplined rabble are likely to blunder into trouble versus seasoned veterans who are better at keeping a cool head under duress, most of the time.
The fact that even the most complex command and control network cannot dictate every action their troops make it is a difference between following orders to the letter versus adapting to the changing situation. I had critical effects in place that makes you discard certain dice in the reaction test but they had rather illogical outcomes.
The problem I run into, to answer X3M directly, is that I feel the mechanic is too cumbersome and bogs the game down.