Recently, I was asked to explain why I choose the Optional Rules that I do. Below is what I send the individual. I'm posting them here for a couple of reasons. One to give our many new players some ideas to ponder, and two ... nuthin' better than a good barfight, and not many ways easier to start one with than with this topic! [:D]
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QFM:ON - Quality Fire Modifier gives A & B rated units a bonus when firing. I think this is reasonable, although the armies are rated very poorly in the canned scenarios, therefore, I create my own scenarios. (Meaning too many A & B units exist in the canned scenarios.)
VPFLC:ON Victory Points for Leader Casualties on may cause players to think twice before being too reckless with GWashington. I hate to see him killed or captured.
QMM:ON - Quality Melee Modifier gives A & B rated units a bonus when meleeing. I think this is reasonable, although the armies are rated very poorly in the canned scenarios, therefore, I create my own scenarios. (Meaning too many A & B units exist in the canned scenarios.)
IR:ON - Isolation Rules being on forces players to fall back, or protect their flanks otherwise the fighting abilities of their units and leaders could suffer.
PR:ON - Partial Retreat helps units to stay around a bit longer, especially if it has one man too many. Without this optional rule the following can happen. Assume 200 men are allowed to stack in a hex. Assume a unit of 176 men in hex A has to retreat from melee, and can only retreat into hex B. Assume hex B has a 25 man unit in it already. Without this optional rule on, the 176 man unit disappears because 176 + 25 = 201, one over the limit.
ADF:ON - Automatic Defensive Fire enables my troops to defend themselves from those players who use terrain all too well.
Many players in the club are quite adapt at WWII tactics, and can advance a English army at Brandywine without ever exposing their troops to fire in the open. Against historically minded players it allows the defense to fire point blank range, and perhaps break up an incoming charge.
FMM: ON - Flank Morale Modifier helps to show why the flank companies were elites. The hat companies, if one forms units well, will receive a morale bonus since they have units to each side of them, while the flank companies will not and must rely upon their own courage to stand up to the stress of battle. I think it captures the spirit of the era.
LMD:ON - Line Movement Disruption only works with a modified PDT file. In my home-brewed PDT file I have 2% for Brits and 3% for Americans. With the percentages this low then well trained troops can cross open fields in line without too much disruption, but trying to keep order while crossing obstacles or non-clear ground will see troops become disordered.
WZOC:ON - Weak zones of control help to keep players from massive ZOC kills. Without WZOC on I have had opponents stack as many men as possible and attack one of my units in line during a turn by pushing back the flanks then getting a ZOC kill on the middle. My feeling is that all the melees would be simultaneous, and therefore the middle should be able to fall back as well as the flanks.
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OKay if this doesn't start a good bru-ha-hah, then I guess we'll have to grab the poodle and shave it. [:0]