Panic

[Lanzfeld]

Just a quick question fellas.

I know the nature and design philosophy of Combat Mission is to sort of "abstract" the squads to a certain degree. I understand that this is required and such due to time and hardware issues. What I am wondering is when a unit panics, is it because the MAJORITY of the squad members paniced? Are we to believe that everybody in a 12 man rifle squad panics at the same time? I know that panic does spread but......please. So are we to believe that when a unit panics it is because MOST of the men have indeed paniced? In that case will there still be shots fired from that unit to reflect the more "level-headed" men of the squad holding it together and fighting?

hehe...these are the things I think about late at night as I wait for the game...or at least the next AAR!!!!!!!

[Black Sabot]

True, the notion of 12 men crapping their pants at the same time is hard to believe.

OTOH, if an 88 send a "warm welcome" whizzing by their faces and 6 of those guys declare "GAME OVER, MAN, GAME OVER!", do you think the other 6 are going to stick around?

[Guest Big Time Software]

Yeah, Black Sabot has got it right there. Either the bulk of the squad decides to get out of there or a few key guys (like the Sarge!) decide to get the Hell out of there. Panicked units generally recover pretty quickly unless they are crappy Experience to begin with. A Broken unit is one whose group will to be in combat is ziltch at the moment, but they to can recover.

Steve

[Miyamoto Musashi]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Big Time Software:

the bulk of the squad decides to get out of there or a few key guys (like the Sarge!) decide to get the Hell out of there.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hey, now there's an idea... include the random "John Wayne" factor, where a unit can panic, then automatically splits. Half of them boogie out, the others led by an invincible hero (who keeps calling everyone "pilgrim")storm the battlements and win the battle singlehandedly... well, then again, maybe not

[Guest Captain Foobar]

That actually sounds like a VERY clever idea to me.

(No request to change CM 1.0 here...just thought that was an interesting concept)

[Guest Seimerst]

For me "panic" is when a unit has encountered an event that has momentaritly left it combat ineffective. Not everyone freezes and screems "Mama!" but enough do until either they get their act together or slide down the slippery slope to a route. There are lots of exmples of one guy bugging out triggering the two he just ran past and the three of them cause the adjacent squad "to get their wind up" and whole thing snowballs into a company commander's nightmare. Solid leadership at the squad and platoon level go a long way to mitigate against the unravelling.

[Guest Big Time Software]

Yeah, what he said Personally, I also picture this as a time when the guys who still "have it together" are yelling or whatever at the guys losing their nerves to "get it together". So far as I know you can't aim, shoot, and slap some guy around who keeps yelling out "it's all over!"

Panic also is an emergency reaction to get the unit to respond FAST to something really bad, like MG fire in an open field. The run to cover is really not a controlled run in most cases. However, as I said above, the units that are basically good will rally fairly quickly. I picture this being the time when Sarge is saying stuff like "awe crap, I told Lt. Dilbert they had MGs in that house! Johnson, you still with us? Kawalski, how far do you make it to that house? Jones, quit your belly aching, you're still here, ain't you?"

This is stuff that is hard to DIRECTLY simulate, so we have abstracted most of it. Basically Panicking, as Siemerst said, is an inbetween state. If the unit is generally of decent quality, and doesn't get hit hard again right away, it will recover. But otherwise it might go to Routed, and that is what no commander wants to see happen!

Steve