"Rout and recovery" Topic

I haven't played a lot of different rules, but the ones I do play give the units the ability to recover from a rout and return to the game. One they return, they act like any other unit with no lingering effects.

Did this sort of thing happen?

Which of the following is a possibility in the rules you play? Which is more historically accurate or plausible (whatever that means)?

A. A previously routed unit can recover and thereafter perform just like any other unit
B. A previously routed unit can recover, but will basically just defend in place and won't take offensive actions.
C. Once they run, they're done for the day

C. Once they run, they're done for the day

Recovery from a rout would typically take several hours, more if the enemy pursue.

Recover at a reduced strength.
A lot do with the era being simulated. One factor designers and players need to remember is that the education level of the common soldier was first grade or less. And the further back in history that you go, the less educated.

The second factor is the casting scale. Is it one casting equals 10, 20, 50 or higher. The lower the scale, the less likely the chance of recovery and reactivated, able to renter battle. The higher the scale is more officers are available to rally.
A hit or loss indicates not only killed but wounded, captured and missing. So losses are combat ineffective. The remaining troops are still combat capable which is why I tend not to do C unless it is man skirmish or up to 5 per casting level of action.

No one wants to watch their toy soldiers run off the table. Game-play frequently displaces historical accuracy in a lot of things.

The rules I generally play have multiple morale steps. so a unit would typically go from routed to disordered to okay (sometimes their is another level in there as well). Routed units also have to move their full move to the table edge every turn.

depends on the period. ACW troops did sometimes recover from rout, Napoleonic ones almost never

A rout is a rout – they rout off the table, they are gone for good

Some of the rules we use allow for a rally but we only allow that if they have not retreated beyond the table – on the rare occasion it happens, from experience the rallied units are not that useful tactically having usually been shot to pieces

Good points to ponder. If a unit has been shot to pieces, as Frederick says, then it's probably gone. But, if a unit is less damaged, but routed because its morale is lower, then its officers might rally them and bring it back to the fight.

"Unit" covers a lot of ground. So does "game." I agree with Dexter Ward that ACW units at all levels are more likely to quickly regroup than Napoleonic and with pzivh43 that circumstances make a difference: a unit routing out of an impossible tactical situation will recover more quickly than one shot to pieces. (This is why CLS maintains a difference between "morale"--largely situational--and "combat effectiveness"--a test brought on by percentage losses only. You could rally from a morale failure. CE failures were gone.) Size of unit also makes a difference. Getting a 300 man ACW regiment back into some sort of order was a lot easier and faster than sorting out a Napoleonic corps in the aftermath of Waterloo. And how many hours does your "game" represent?

My take: shot to bits is just gone once they go. They might come back in your campaign, but not in your battle. Tactical stuff--caught in flank, out of ammo, overrun by cavalry--battalions might rally the same day, especially in the ACW. Just maybe brigades. But all such units should be sorted out overnight, though at a reduced strength.

All this is horse & musket. The warranty on my comments expires in 1914.

Depends what you mean by 'rout'.

Many, many units were apparently repulsed or pushed back and sorted themselves out to try again. In the Napoleonic period, routed units were out of action until the next day, usually fleeing for miles unless cut down by pursuing cavalry.

Many wargames rules apparently conflated a temporary push back with legging it in a state of complete disorder.

Definitely depends on what is meant by "rout." In pre-gunpowder battles most casualties were caused by the victors gleefully slaughtering the routing losers.

Musket and bayonet warfare would see units break and run before the enemy line made contact.

Both might be termed a "rout" by wargames rules. The Ancients would not be returning to the field. The musketeers might be able to reform and return during the same battle.

Push back, reform, and return is sometimes modeled as a "recoil" with rout indicating units leaving the battle due to morale failure.

This also gets into the question of what a "destroyed" unit represents and when and why models are removed from the tabletop.

The answer depends on:-
The scale of the game in terms of troops and time
What you mean by rout
I've always made rout mean 'they're gone and they're not coming back', so before a rout troops might retire or retreat with greater or lesser chance of steadying themselves and having another go.