I've had a bit of a concern about terminology and abbreviations for some time, and now that even RBS has used "CMT" = complex move test when he means "CT" = cohesion test, I'll comment.rbodleyscott wrote: This being the case, I think the authors eventually came to the conclusion that there was no need for FRAGMENTED troops that fail a CMT when charged to make an immediate rout move - it should be at the end of the phase.
1. Easy to confuse CMT and CT. I suggest dropping the "complex" and just calling it a Manouevre Test, or changing "complex" to "Difficult" or "Tricky". Also "Morale" is much easier to say than "Cohesion", although it unfortunately starts with M. Maybe a CMT should become a Drill Test and CT become a Morale Test.
2. Easy to confuse "Disordered" with "Disrupted". I suggest changing "Disrupted" to "Shaken".
3. Page 56 defines standard 3-letter abbreviations for the cohesion states (4 letters for disrupted due to the confusion potential) but these abbreviations are never used anywhere else. I suggest either using them universally, or not bothering with them.
4. Troop types and attributes we have "Heavy" foot, "Heavy" weapon and "Heavily" armoured. "Un-drilled" and "Un-protected". Once we start abbreviating in our army lists we'll also have A = Average, or A = Armoured. Ideally I'd like to see terminology with less scope for confusion and unambiguous 2-letter abbreviations. Types of foot could potentially become CF, LF and OF (or SF) for Close Order Foot, Loose Order Foot and Open Order Foot (Or Skirmish Order Foot), which would avoid the theoretical possibility of "Light Foot, Heavily Armoured, Heavy Weapon".
5. Impact foot - jars with me a bit because "Impact" is also the name of the phase. I can't think of a good alternative - "Shock troops" already has a special meaning. "Storm troops" would be good except my legionary skilled swordsmen impact foot would become "SS Storm troops". "Assault foot" perhaps?
6. Forest and woodlands. "Forest" historically has a special meaning in at least the medieval part of our period, which is not "Dense woodland". Those of us from the DBM community are already used to calling such a terrain feature "Woods", which is the English word for that kind of feature. I suggest "Woods" for the feature, "Forest" for the territory type.
Obviously these are not major game issues, but if playtesters and authors are not already too wedded to existing terms, then the sooner they are tidied up the better.
