Chaos of War or Fumble Fingers

[Zinzan]

Morning all,

Just ruminating on a couple of incidents in 2 of my recent PBeM games - I twice (through fumble fingers and hurry) in both scenarios gave effective "all out attack" orders to 2 platoons (and in one my Main Tank asset anzer: ).

What I did was whilst reviewing the formations locations (to establish their line of comms and chain of command) gave the HQ quick move orders to reposition them - therby ordering the troops to advance MUCH more rapidly than planned . Something that happens to us all I know!!

Now in one scenario this had the affect of establishing a more weaker defence than i had expected and I immediately exploited the gap to win the scenario , brilliant tactics on my part I know .

In the other it lead to the loss of my only remaining Tank asset (a KING TIGER no less ), and me having to settle for getting a draw or minor defeat rather than the hoped for minor victory .

Whilst reviewing these battles it occurred to me that such fumblings approximate the friction in real war caused by Fog of war, preconceptions and faulty intelligence (amongst other things) and I should not beat myself up too much over these - after all 50% of the time it benefited me . I also came into wargaming from a historical interest rather than a competitive one and I game H2H to learn more about the human aspects of warfare rather than to win.


Anyone else see the game this way or am I the only bizarre one?

ps. for friction see Charge Light Brigade, Market Garden, Pearl Harbour etc.......

 

[mjkerner]

Zinzan, I always view my many screw ups (and the AI when it does) as FOW/C'est la Guerre friction. I will sometimes even make a quick backstory as to why and how it came to be. I came to wargaming from the same perspective. That's why I prefer to play in campaigns like Operation Overlord here against real people. When it's the AI, I don't care about winning, just how well I played, followed tactics, etc.