I want the General position. But do you really think that Sun Tzu bothered himself with the equipment quality of every squad within his army? I've actually read him, and everything he says is rather general and abstract. Absolutely no micro-management anywhere in sight.
These RL analogies are cute, but they always fall flat. Sun Tzu had hundreds, or thousands, of people to do the micro-managing for him. People who's entire life revolved around filling the one duty that they had assigned to them. We don't have that, and we're not going to have that. We have a couple people trying to lead their armies and have some fun, with the little bit of time and information they have at hand.
I can see why we've tried to segment information, and tried to spread out power. But I think what we've actually done is concentrate power, but in a different person. Now it's Marshals who issue orders, instead of "anyone in the MC". Put all that power and responsibility in the hands of the marshal, and you burn out the marshal. If the marshal isn't there to give the orders this turn, what happens? Orders don't get sent out, and the army dies. Why? Because we're all conditioned that only marshals can give orders.
And finding marshals is
really, really, really, friggin' hard! It's a !@#$ job. It's the worst possible job in the game. It's even worse than general. No one wants to do it, because they have to be able to be available to give orders twice a day, every day, reliably. Because they're the only ones who can give orders. Sure, you have vice marshals. But when the general gives orders to "All marshals", the Vice Marshals aren't included. (Why not? I've tried to get this fixed several times, but no one ever listens.)
I have seen so many times lately where we've been begging for people to be marshals or vice marshals, and no one ever wants to be general. Probably because they've been neutered and turned impotent. "Marshal Kepler, go deal with the enemy." What fun is that? Why do you even
need a general to do that? And if the general's job is to coordinate with other realms, then yes, the general does need to be able to give orders per turn sometimes, because you're trying to coordinate attacks. And when you do that, you can't afford to be off by half a day. You can't afford any uncertainty.
Some of the best times I've had in BattleMaster, way back when I first started playing, were the military strategy discussions. 10 or 12 people in the military council discussing what we were going to do this turn to counter the enemy's moves. Ideas flying back and forth, and then whoever was there at the required time issuing the orders. It's wasn't necessarily the marshal, or even the general. It could have been the duke, or the banker, or even just a member of the Military Council. But it was a cooperative effort of people working together to address a situation and a problem, and overcome it. We were a team.
We don't seem to be able to get that kind of feeling anymore. Everyone has their assigned roles, and heaven help anyone who tries to step outside the borders of their clearly defined territories. But what if we don't
want to run our armies that way? What if we want to do something different, because the way that you want us to do it just doesn't work for us, for our situation, or for the people we have at hand to run the realm? We only have a certain number of people to do it, and those people may not include those with the time and/or talent to run that way.
And if I sound frustrated and angry, it's because I am.
Very frustrated, and very dismayed. What used to be one of the most fun parts of the game for me, the military campaigns and warfare, has become a long series of additional frustration, irritation, and annoyance. These changes which don't seem to make sense, or don't seem to have any clear purpose behind them. It's gotten to the point where I think I'll just give up on being any kind of Marshal/general at all.
Tom, I'd like to suggest that you try to run an army, and perhaps the armies of an entire realm, the way you envision them to be done. See if you can do it, and if the way that you want them to be done is something that realistically *can* be done. Make a new secret account and do it. I can pretty much guarantee that if you walk into a realm with a new account and claim to be a returning player, that you'll get a marshal position pretty quickly. And then just try and be a marshal in whatever realm you want. But do it from the perspective of a player trying to get it done. See how these changes that you've implemented affect the way that people play the game. I really don't think it's doing what you think it's doing.
