Why 5 units

[martin goddard]

A good question about "how many units" has arisen.
I think I can clear this up with some background thinking?

Having 4,5,6 units forces a player to make them mostly significant in terms of points spent.
If there were more, say 7 units then there is an opportunity to have a couple of worthless units. e.g a pair of AT guns or a single tank.

This makes "take 2 units off table" a nice option for those players.
ie. My pair of AT guns and my single tank are off table.
Not a problem , that only cost me 50 points (or less) in total. Thus I can deploy 350 points of my force, hardly damaged at all.

If a player tries this with a 5 unit force he must make the remaining 3 units very good indeed.

 The initial on table and off table units use a simple  "defender has 2 on and attacker has 2 off".
2 out of 4,5 or 6 units is a significant chunk. 2 out of 7 less so.

The two on and two off is intended to be simpler than calculating a proportion of a force to be off/on table. The 2 unit should create a similar(not exact) effect  to all forces.

The rules could say something along the lines of "the units off table should total between 100 and 160 points, or similar. far too complicated for little return.
It must be remembered that many PBI players will be occasional dippers. They will not spend time to read the rules fully.

Five units usually generates about 13 moving parts. Quite enough or too many for the majority of gamers I think. 13 moving parts means 13 command decisions each turn. Probably a maximum  for most players? The problem being compounded by players who have no plan just a reaction and assessment at the start of each turn of what is going on (becoming more prevalent due to card activated games).

As clear as something not very clear?

martin

[Colonel Kilgore]

This is very helpful,  thank you Martin.

Simon

[John Watson]

I'd prefer the 100+ point option to two units. Or give the choice of units to the opponent. Or dice to see who chooses each of the units with maybe a + or - 1 on the die roll to reflect the piggy chase difference.
Regarding the argument that you don't want to put off the occasional player I'm afraid I don't agree. I know we want to encourage them but it seems that the rules are being compromised for the benefit of those that don't play it much.
John

[martin goddard]

Because each unit is such a big part of a company that any D6 rolls might allow too many or too few units on table.

A player with a plan should still beat a  player with no plan.  That is the main aim.
Let us continue to continue.
It is not done until most of the people are pleased for most of the time(?)

martin