People's Tactics/Command & Officers

People's Tactics has a command, supply and transfer system that is the envy of many commercial games. Without a chain of command, your units will not be able to receive supply, be directed in battle or be reinforced (via transfers). The basic chain of command is that a formation has a tactical HQ, that a tactical HQ has a Strategic HQ and that towns deliver their production and supply to the Strategic HQ.

Command hierarchy

Strategic Headquarters (SHQ)

The Strategic Headquarters (most frequently refered to as SHQ) is a non-combat unit the highest level of command hierarchy. Supply and production is delivered from towns to SHQs. Regimes need at least one SHQ to do anything and can have up to fifty. SHQs are always land units.

Tactical Headquarters (THQ)

The Tactical Headquarters (most frequently refered to as THQ) is a combat unit in the middle of the hierarchy. THQs receive supply and reinforcements from SHQs, and must be assigned to one in order to function effectively. An SHQ may have assigned to it as many THQs as the player sees fit (there are working/efficiency restrictions, that we will discuss later, but at this moment there is no design limit). THQs are always land units.

Formations

Formations are combat units at the bottom of the hierarchy. Formations receive supply from their THQ, and must have one assigned. Formations receive reinforcements from SHQs, but can only receive reinforcements from the SHQ that their THQ is assigned to. A THQ may have assigned to it as many Formations as the player sees fit (there are working/efficiency restrictions, that we will discuss later, but at this moment there is no design limit). Formations may be land, air or sea units.

Changing command

People's Tactics change command button image Change Command Button

You can set the chain of command for formations and THQ’s using the change command button. Doing this will use up the rest of the unit’s movement points, also, it will give a readiness penalty and increase the disruption of the unit. When the command of a THQ is changed, all formations assigned to that THQ will receive disruption, but no readiness penalty.

It is vital that you set up a THQ for each formation, a SHQ for each THQ and a SHQ for each town. The counters of formations that have a broken chain of command will turn red to warn the player they are not receiving enough supplies to sustain them.

Officers

The chain of command is not abstract. Officers play an important role in Peoples Tactics and are defined by the following characteristics: Name, Land/Naval/Air combat skill level, Reputation(Fame points), Retreat level and, if applicable, the Disruption level in the Chain of Command (the white numbers that appear over the Officer’s portrait). Of these characteristics, only Reputation and Disruption change during the game.

Officers have skill levels between one and nine in three different theatres of war. As a rule of thumb, a unit with a level nine officer will be one-and-a-half times more effective than a unit with a level 1 officer.

Next to that, fame points also have an effect. 1 fame point is about 20% improvement, 10 fame points about 60% improvement and 25 fame points about 100% improvement. Fame points are earned by destroying enemy units in combat. The higher the officer’s body count, the more skilled and deadly he will become. Reputation increases at the rate of 1 Fame point per each 4.000 points of net losses inflicted in one combat (in the default rules). Once gained, it is never lost and has no maximum limit.

Disruption is caused by replacing an officer, or by defeat in or retreat from combat. Disruption may grow up to 75%, but no further. It will decrease each turn at the following rate:

Int [ DISRUPTION * ( 1 - OFFICERSKILL/20 ) ] - Int [ Sqr ( OFFICERFAME ) ] - 10

In this formula, Int() and Sqr() are the Integer and Square root funtions, and OFFICERSKILL is the applicable Officer’s skill, i.e. the commanding officer of a Land Unit uses his Land skill value, the commanding officer of a sea formation uses his Sea skill value and the commanding officer of an air formation uses his Air skill value.

During a battle, all the officers in the chain of command are taken into account. The officer of the formation has a 50% influence, the THQ’s officer has an influence of 33%, and the SHQ’s officer has an influence of 16%. For a Formation, the lowest level, the impact of the Chain of Command is given by the formula (1*SHQ+2*THQ+3*UnitCO)/6.

Each officer also has a retreat value. This is expressed as a percentage (i.e. a value between 0 and 100). The lower the value, the less likely the formation is to retreat, the higher the value, the more likely the formation is to retreat. Again, all the officers in the chain of command, not just the one in direct control, influence the unit in combat.

The Officer Pool

People's Tactics officer pool button image Officer Pool Button

The Officer Pool enables you to buy new officers (costing Political Points) and swap officers between the pool button and the currently selected unit. It is possible to store officers in the officer pool (for use later), or to dismiss them forever. To change the commanding officer of a unit already on the map:

• Select the unit whose commanding officer you want to change
• Click on the “Officer pool” button
• Select an officer from the pool
• Click on the “Swap Officer” button

Disruption occurs when you play with the chain of command. So make changes in officers and bosses sparingly otherwise your whole army will become disrupted and fight poorly. Furthermore, due to the Chain of Command, disruption at an higher echelon extends to the units of lower echelons.

In larger scenarios it is an intelligent strategic choice to put your best people as high in the chain of command as possible. 16% bonus (SHQ) over 20 units or 33% bonus (THQ) over 4 units is more than 50% bonus over 1 unit.