"Elite Assault Troops" start with 100 Morale?

[Ranger]

This has been bugging me since I first played the D-Day scenarios.

Why do "Rangers" only have 100 Morale? Battle Academy describes them as "Elite Assault Troops". Every other elite unit that game that is described as elite, in the game, has a 125 Morale.

U.S. Airborne, Waffen SS, Falschemjager, British Paras all have 125 morale.

It's a historical fact that the U.S. Army Ranger Battalions of WW2 were some of the most elite and specialized, and successful, light infantry raiding units the Allies had. A cursory review of WW2 and Ranger history will bear this out.

I'd appreciate a response from someone at the BA team. I'd like to know if this was an oversite or intentional.

Thanks,

Thomas

[IainMcNeil]

Hi Thomas

it sounds like an oversite. Assault troops tend to have higher assault ratings and higher morale but Rangers probably should have 125 morale.

My only concern with changing it now is it will effect the balance of all scenarios with Rangers in which could make them too easy or hard or unbalance multiplayer.

I'm not sure what the best options is at this stage.

Cheers

Iain

[DocMogs]

if it makes any difference, US rangers have the highest HE assault rating of any infantry unit.

When looking through the stats of the different assault troops i assumed the drop in moral was just balancing the immense power of the Rangers in close.

[Old_Warrior]

I would change it .. it's obv. an oversight and should be righted.

I doubt that it will offset the scenarios that much. You do not see them in missions that often anyway.

[Ranger]

Thanks for your reply Iain.

US rangers have the highest HE assault rating of any infantry unit.
...balancing the immense power of the Rangers in close.

perhaps DocMogs is on to something here....

For the sake of partial full disclosure, it would be reasonable for anyone to accuse me of Ranger bias etc etc... (and yes, I am biased but history etc backs me up etc). Anyway, I agree with Old Warrior. My vote would be to increase the morale to 125 for the sake of "realism", historical accuracy etc, and reflect the Rangers elite status etc etc etc...

I've been sitting here stewing about this Ranger morale deficit issue for months. At first I told myself it was just a game and that it didn't matter and that it wasn't worth any emotional investment and time. That all changed when two things happened to me:
1) I recently had a chance meeting with surviving elderly WW2 Ranger veteran....
2) I realized that way too many people (the young and/or the ignorant) get their history from entertainment types of media.

From what I've seen, I think Slitherine does a very good job of producing games that are historically accurate and responsible etc. I guess that's why I brought this up.

Cheers,

Thomas

[jcb989]

I had toyed with the idea of giving them some sort of scouting ability but leave morale at 100. probably a poor compromise; and I have not found a scenario where Ranger assault highlights the action..