Re: Morale Issues
Hello all. I concur with hoplitis and narwan, it is assumed these routed/retreating men are trained soldiers and not "civilians with guns". By firing small arms on your tanks, they're trying to button up the crew to reduce their situational awareness and to silence externally mounted crew machineguns. This will allow any nearby "friendlies" that may have anti-armor rounds remaining to try and get a shot at the offending tanks. The objective is to either disable/disrupt the enemy tank formation, or at least slow them down so the "friendlies" can make good their escape. It is also assumed that the victory hexes are a rally point, so maybe the cut-off elements are trying to retreat to that location; this will allow surviving elements of shattered units to consolidate and mount a solid defense (strength in numbers, which is a lot better than dying alone, and surrendering to an enemy is no guarantee of survival so why not continue the fight?). We have to remember that prior to battlefield computer networks, most of these units had no idea where all the enemy and friendlies were, unlike the "God-view" we players enjoy, so they're reacting to what they can see, what they know.
In mustang's defense, though, in the case of NATO vs WP, morale rules may need to be modified depending on who they're fighting against. Despite what their kommissars may want, line East Germans facing West Germans may be more amenable to surrender than say Czechs or Poles. This was an ongoing debate before the end of the Cold War, how non-Soviet Warsaw Pact (NSWP) troops would fight against certain NATO nationalities. The speed at which Poles, Czechs, and Hungarians were integrated into NATO during the '90s may be an indication of how they felt in this regard. Certainly no love was lost between certain NSWP and the Russians after the ruthless suppressions of uprisings in 1956 and 1968. Despite this, there were more nasty incidents along the Czech border during the Cold War than along the inner German border, so it's not a given either way. Protecting their homeland would have been one thing, an invasion of West Germany could have brought "chinks in the armor" of the Warsaw Pact to the surface. It's hard to quantify. In the absence of such data, it must be assumed that they would fight as well as they were trained, and as trained soldiers anywhere would when faced with a reverse on the battlefield.
Basileus
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