Cohesion & Movement

[Cromagnonman]

I'm pretty sure I understand that movement is slowed by low cohesion. Question is, what determines the penalty? Is it related to the absolute value of the unit's cohesion? Or to the % of maximum cohesion for that unit? Or to the difference between maximum and current cohesion?

If one unit is at 50/50 and another at 50/100, which will march faster? What about 50/50 and 100/100? Or 25/50 versus 75/100? And is it a law of diminishing returns: is the speed gained by having 90/100 versus 80/100 the same as the speed gained by having 70/100 vs 60/100?

[dolphin]

I have become suspicious that it is not JUST cohesion that effects speed.

I am not sure what the exact ratio, or formula is, but in the two below examples sitting tight and resting multiple turns can sure make a big difference.

Let me explain,

There are occasions where I have a stack just sitting for a very long time and when I finally do decide to move it seems it has alot more get up and go than one at seemingly full cohesion that moves from turn to turn.

In such situations when I have viewed the stacks commander I get a readout of the average cohesion rating at the maximum. I suppose if I went through each and every element in the stack its possible one, or two elements were not totally maxed out, but the calculation is so close that it gives the stack leader the maximum average.

As an example in the PBM game I just finished I had Longstreets Corp gathering strength, resting and defending Springfield against Grant's (attempted) Western advance into the South West.

Longstreet was a hard nut to crack and Grant thought better of attempting it even though our main stacks sitting head to head from each other in adjacent regions seemed to be about equal in strength.

Grant got impationt and decided to bypass Sprringfield and pull a surprise attack on Fayettville where PGT was forming a stack from the trickle of reenforcements that were marching North.

Needless to say it worked and PGT got wasted and lost all of his artillary losing Fayetteville. The following turn he was attacked again destroying his HQ and wounding him for 5 turns, but it did not matter as I will explain.

I destroyed the Springfield Depot and Longstreet force marched all the Way to St Louis with the bulk of his Corp while detaching Quantrell led by Polk to take Rolla, Jefferson City, and Lexington. That left Grant isolated with no supply.

Point is Longstreet was actually able to force march all that way in one turn which thouroughly surprised me when I first tested the possiblility of the move. The Western war had been going on quite some time and I had never had a stack that was fresh enough to travel that kind of distance in a single turn. I am pretty sure my move to abandon Springfield and destroy its depot surprised Grant too.

Longstreet had been sitting there for three turns staring Grant down and daring him to make a move and was obviously maxed out in cohesion with every single element. That very same turn there was a massive battle in Cincinnatti. AS Johnston's army was commanding JEB Stuarts 60,000 man Corp (I promoted him) defending against a massive Union push the turn after I had tried to attack the Union Army threatening me and lost. He must have thought the previous turns battle had weakened me enough and in any case competely missed the fact that I had a fresh division reenforce the same turn I lost that battle.

In that series of events that took two turns total the CSA morale went from 111 to 129. My opponant conceeded the war as he explained that Grants entire army was melting away with no supplies and with the CSA firmly in control of Cincinnatti, all of Kentucky, and St Louis with another CSA army ready to take Cairo and begin flanking the Union forces threatening Cincinnati it was all over. In the East Lee's Army had the Union Forces stalemated at Fredricksberg while J. Johnstons small stack Army commanded the Richmond Garrison. New Orleans and Mobile were very well defended in the South.

I had a similar situation with Jacksons Corp earlier in the game while he was defending Fredricksberg. Union forces in Fort Monroe tried to inch their way inland taking Hampton and Williamasberg to get closer to Richmond. The first time I sent Jackson to push him back he was not able to assault all the way to Fort Monroe, but the second time he was able to. The first time I made the move with him he had just been sitting in Fredricksberg for one turn. The second time he had been sitting for two turns.

The first time I had to forced march to get all the way to Hampton. The second time I was able to reach Fort Monroe without a forced march.


I know; I posted a miny AAR. I could simply not help myself.