Designer Notes… Command Units
One of the most misunderstood units in the Combat Cards is the Command Unit. Most folks think of the Command Unit as the overall commander of the force, responsible for directing the actions of all other units. With this understandable perception, players are sometimes puzzled by the rather limited command range of the these units – typically only a short distance from the unit itself.
Unfortunately, this isn’t exactly the intended role of these units.
Overall command of a force really resides with the player who is running that force in the battle. Command Units on the battlefield are the subordinates to that overall command who have the respect and experience to lead other units (such as NCO’s), or the stated authority and training to do so (e.g. junior officers). Their role (from the Combat Cards rules) is to “…coordinate the actions of other units, to achieve more effective and efficient results“. This translates in game terms to allowing multiple units to take advantage of a single Action card by “passing” the Action on to them.
The passing of an Action to other nearby units is the secret to getting more mileage out of the limited number of cards in your hand – more units activating from less cards played. A single Action (combined with the Issue Orders Situation) could possibly allow multiple units to open fire simultaneously, coordinate an assault, or recover collectively from the effects of combat. All this could be done with just two cards and a Command Unit!
So while Command Units are not the dominate all powerful overall commanders of a force that some might think them to be, they are a unit which can form a very potent backbone of cohesiveness allowing forces to speedily respond to battlefield developments through an efficient use of the cards at hand. Not too bad for a low point unit with decent combat characteristics!
