Q-Ball
Posts: 5261
Joined: 6/25/2002 From: Chicago, Illinois Status: offline
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In my view "Morale" does not represent "Bravery". Certainly Romanians fought bravely, as did Italians and others that in game terms have low game Morale. But I don't think Morale represents "bravery". What it represents is an overall rating of military efficiency. Beyond equipment, this is a function of training, tactics, general staff quality, the overall quality of the officer corps, the quality of manpower being drawn from, and national will. The early Wehrmacht ranked extremely high in training, tactics, general staff, and quality of it's officer corps, much higher than the Soviets or even Western Allies. The Wehrmacht slowly degraded over time, as it had to incorporate less-desirable manpower, and as it's leadership quality was diluted through losses, and a general moral rot as it became increasingly Nazi-fied, at the expense of it's professional officer class. Look at the Italians. They were brave soldiers. They fought well in the desert, despite abysmal leadership, an officer corps that advanced you more on nepotism than merit, poor staff work, and an unclear national objective. By the time the Allies invaded Sicily, the average Italian was asking themselves why they were shooting at Americans, a country where many Italians had emigrated to and was looked upon positively. As a result, they surrendered in droves; I don't think this was "Cowardly"; I would call it "Sensible". I think the low morale of the Romanians is justified. That doesn't mean at all that Romanian soldiers were cowardly, far from it. It means they had poor tactics, not very good training, and above all an officer corps that promoted more on social and political connections than merit. That is not a failure of Romanians, it is a failure of the 1941 institution called the Romanian Army. The Soviets get a bump simply from getting rid of the political commissars, which did much to increase staff and leadership efficiency. I'm fine with the way things are, basically, and think National Morale properly simulates gradual changes in military efficiency.
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