Dead and Wounded

[Childress]

The battle end screen shows X amount of wounded and Y amount of dead. These numbers, typically high, tend to be a-historically skewed in favor of the dead. Posters point out that very minor wounds and yellow icons are not included in the tally. Okay...

You wonder why the game bothers differentiating Wounded and Killed troops during a battle. Why not simply 'Casualties'? A dead trooper and one with a fractured leg are equally hors de combat for game purposes. The game could simply apply a formula that plausibly- and immersively- distributes the dead and wounded (and perhaps surrendered) at battle's conclusion modified by the nature of the engagement. Buddy Aid continues as usual for the retrievable cases.

[MikeyD]

Most historical casualties were from artillery, often occurring well back from the line of contact. Most game casualties occur at the 'tip of the spear' from direct combat. That alters the proportion of wounded to dead. Also, most players are typically bloodthirsty generals and rather incompetent to boot. The game isn't producing the high dead-to-wounded ratio, we are. Theater wide statistic don't mean much when you're running your platoon over open ground into the teeth of a MG-42.

[Michael Emrys]

Plus, if you rigorously apply buddy aid to the wounded, the final count of dead is much lower.

Michael

[Childress]

My idea, which is a minor one, aims to enhance the 'feel' of the game, the immersion factor. Desultory, theater wide shelling doesn't account for the discrepancy. Additionally, it was a fact that the number of dead was not known until several hours or days post battle as the severely wounded expired.

(this is getting ghoulish )

[db_zero]

There is also the time factor. I think the game time limits to complete objectives is ahistorical, but given its a sim/game understandable. It does have the effect of making players far more aggressive than was probably the case in real life.

[BLSTK]

...most players are typically bloodthirsty generals and rather incompetent to boot.

AI, is that you? Let's keep my shoe size out of this, shall we?

[db_zero]

Getting towards the end of book Army at Dawn before I jump into Day of Battle.

After the debacle of Kasserine, it was said that a general needed to lose a division of men before he could be considered experienced, so applying that metric when you've suffered your 10,000 or so casualty in CM you can join the ranks of the elite players.

[womble]

The battle end screen shows X amount of wounded and Y amount of dead. These numbers, typically high, tend to be a-historically skewed in favor of the dead. Posters point out that very minor wounds and yellow icons are not included in the tally. Okay...

The reasons for the discrepancies some people (especially the AI) see between "game end screen" W/KIA ratios have been endlessly rehashed, and the yellow wounded are, in the times I've ever bothered to count, significant contributors to the "W" column. I've seen a battle where there were 2 or 3 times as many yellow as "red cross" WIA, and those brought the ratios beyond, the "expected" 3:1 ratio of W:K. If you get wiped out, your figures will be "worse", but then you're not seeing a "typical" situation, so there's no real reason for the "typical" W:K ratio to apply.

You wonder why the game bothers differentiating Wounded and Killed troops during a battle. Why not simply 'Casualties'?

So that buddy aid can make a difference in the probability of "red base" wounded converting to KIA for the end screen. If they were all just marked "dead", the only reason for buddy aid would be to snag weapons.

Or so that a difference can be made in the time it takes to render aid. A wounded soldier takes significantly longer to give aid to than a dead one (where all you're doing is going through his webbing for ammo).

That's two reasons that seem pretty obvious.

Buddy Aid continues as usual for the retrievable cases.

Which ones are retrievable though? I've left dead markers til last (and sometimes not gotten round to them) for the XO to visit, on numerous occasions. Without that distinction, there's no triage.

[Lt Belenko]

My only gripe off board arty stats for KIA/WIA don't show up on post game stats.

[Michael Emrys]

One change I'd like to see in the end game screen is a listing and points awarded for destroying guns, mortars and MGs. In real war AARs, these were routinely listed so far as were known, and obviously were important. At present, trucks, KWs, etc. are listed, but heavy weapons of all types are not.

Michael

[Heirloom_Tomato]

I will second the vote for being able to see the off board arty KIA/WIA stats.