"Army Characteristics in Wargames" Topic

Today on the podcast, Edward and Josh dive into army or national characteristics in wargames. They discuss their uses, merits, and different historical periods that do or do not benefit from their inclusion.
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Guys, got a question for yah. It is a mix of historical plus gaming.
Working on my game, coming along nicely, on the strategic level. The way I have the game mechanics now if you try and move a large army across a large river with an enemy nearby you are only allowed to use half the army strength the first turn, each turn represents roughly 4 hours.
My question is, as a gamer, would that seem like a "fair" penalty or would you consider it to harsh or to easy??? I had debated about only allowing half the army to be used for the whole day but didn't know if that would seem to harsh from the player POV or feel historical??? Yes I know its a general question but it is a general rule meant to cover lots of little things that are not worth the time and effort to include on a game of that large a scale. Thanks, happy gaming!!!

Da Bug, Boss! Da Bug!

I can cross half my army in 4 hours, the whole thing in 8? I assume that does not include the wagon train….

I guess it depends on how large "large" is, and how close "close" is. As noted above, I would not expect the trains to be part of the crossing force. Without knowing any details, a large crossing can easily take an entire day or more.

It rather depends on how easy the access to ford/bridging sites is, width and depth of river etc, but for game purposes I'm sure the suggestion is fine.

Bridges or ferries? How many? And have the crossing side used any feints to draw off the defender?

Holy cow! The entire thread was transported.

Gamer1, I am no expert in Civil War river crossings, so I can't comment on the historical accuracy of the mechanic, but I assume you want it to be fairly punishing. I think that half the army in one turn might be too forgiving, but again I'm not super well read on the subject.