Decisive Ratings
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
January 2014

Any game's "engine" rests on a number of interlocking design decisions, and for traditional wargames these normally include map scale, unit scale, time scale, and the ratings of the units. The games we used to call "Decisive Battles" and pretty much gave up on branding as a series have more ratings than most.

The series, such as it is, began in 1994 with two examples currently in print, Alamein and Island of Death. We bill the series as "battalion scale," and that's technically accurate: most of the units are battalions. However, they are almost always grouped into divisions (about six to nine battalions, plus support units) and most of the important decisions made by players concern what the divisions will do. Placing the battalions and assigning them individual tasks within the division's overall mission is detail work.

To emphasize that concept, we rarely let battalions vary in quality within a division — that would encourage players to pick and choose between them, and also give them a level of information not available to their historical counterparts. Army commanders, then as now, couch their orders in terms of "send three battalions to Hill 242," and usually do not pick out the division's three best by name.

There are exceptions. The 2nd New Zealand Division's excellent 28th Maori Battalion is portrayed as a much more capable unit than the division's other infantry battalions as seen in Alamein. The first and second battalions of Romanian Frontier Guard regiments, seen in the long out-of-print Red Steel, are better than the third: The first two were composed of long-service regulars, the third mostly of reservists.

The units themselves follow an ancient principle of wargame design, handed down to me from John Prados many years ago, who probably got it from Prometheus himself: the number 4. Four is a magic number for game design. Rarely will a unit be four times as powerful as another in the same game (if it were, it would more than likely be represented as two or more separate units). Therefore, you have very few units at a strength of 1 and no need to represent any at less than that strength. At the opposite end of the same, not many units will be two and a half times as strong as a standard, average unit, and so you avoid unit strengths in double digits (something that maddens graphic designers, and is often the sign of inelegant game design as well).

I don't like violating this principle, but the series does manage to do so for its more powerful units. This is due to the concept of "step reduction." Battalions at full strength have three or four "steps," or levels of strength, in this game system. They rarely evaporate completely as the result of a single action, instead wearing away gradually over some time. This is one of the series' real strengths as a means to portray historical battles, as players see their divisions gradually lose strength the longer they remain in combat. But is also means that some of the more powerful battalions (usually tank units) do have attack or defense strengths of 10 or more at full power. Fortunately, battalions of that size are usually deployed at company strength (the battalion piece is "broken down" and replaced on the map with three or four smaller units) and will usually suffer combat losses fairly quickly, as it will no doubt be at the center of the action.

Because of the step loss mechanic, I tend to look at the second step as the "average" strength of more powerful battalions. Thus German infantry battalions in Red Steel have a full-strength rating of 7-6 (combat-movement), but are at 5-6 once they've lost a step. Romanian infantry battalions are rated at 5-6-6 (attack-defense-movement) or 5-7-6, but only 3-4-6 at their second step, and Soviet ones at 4-6 (and usually only have two steps). Combat is odds-based, and this means that these small differences are much more likely to show up when multiple battalions are involved in battle. One Romanian battalion attacks one Soviet battalion at odds of 1:1, but four Romanian battalions attacking that same Soviet battalion rate odds of 5:1 instead of just 4:1.

Just how those numbers are derived usually depends on the battalion's parent formation. Commonwealth infantry battalions in Alamein are usually rated at 6-7-6. Some are a little better (Australians and New Zealanders are 7-6), some are a little worse (the British 44th Division and Indian 10th Division are 6-6). Italian troops of the 102nd "Trento" Division, a good unit, are also 6-6, but those of the 27th "Brescia" Division are only 4-5-6.

Differences between the units are based on size, weapons and some slight variations for experience and ability. In a larger sense, this is almost always a direct reflection of their country's wealth and the strength of its military/industrial complex. Units from modern industrial economies usually go to war with more automatic weapons, greater stocks of ammunition, and better training. Thus German, British and American troops are rated very highly compared to those of Italy, Romania or the Soviet Union.

But numbers and weapons do not tell the whole story, or even most of it. Units are also rated for morale, which reflects small-unit leadership, unit coherence and general ability in combat. That tough Maori battalion is rated 8-6, but has a morale of 6. When attacking a 4-6 Italian infantry battalion, the odds would begin at 2:1. But since the Italians only have a morale of 3, the differential would raise the combat odds to 5:1 (up three levels for the difference in morale). That's an extreme example, but illustrates the impact of morale ratings.

The usual morale rating is 4, continuing the magic number principle, which also allows for game mechanics built around a single die roll (a player must roll a die and get a result less than or equal to the unit's morale rating for it to perform certain functions). Some units receive a 5: Australian and New Zealand regulars, the tough Italian Ariete Division, many German divisions, Soviet Guards. A 6 is very rare, held by the German Afrika Korps divisions and Italian paratroopers in Alamein (I would have given it to the New Zealander myself, and rated the Maoris a 7, but that's the designer's decision). The only units with a 7 rating are some German parachute battalions. On the negative end of the scale, Italian line infantry divisions usually only rate a 3.

All of those ratings interact with armor and artillery to model World War Two-era combat very well. A smaller force with superior morale and armor can inflict massive damage on a large opponent.

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