Some thoughts about Elites in T&T

[Doomhippie]

Following the discussion about a British Army List I had some thoughts about the elite status of troops. Actually, Bj?rn and I had a little talk about that and here are some ideas we came up with. Note however that this is my personal opinion on the topic and by no means an "official" rule. But than again T&T was never meant to be a strict set of rules so feel free to ignore this post.

Elite: The elite status of troops is not permanent. Elite means the best possible preparation for a specific objective. Example: the British and US airborne troops an D-Day. Each platoon basically knew by heart their specific assignement. Maps were memorized, the whole drop trained again and again, tabletop simulations were prepared. This preparation took several months. Obviously the troopers were at an elite status as their preparation by far exceeded any every day routine preparation (which would be the trained status).

Why is elite not a permanent status? Easy: Troops with the above kind of preparations can only use this knowledge for a limited timel. As soon as said airborne divisions had to take over the role of regular infantry as the battle commenced, two things happened:

First: The troops where used in situations dictated by circumstances, in other words they did not have time to prepare for every little aspect of the coming situations.

Second: The troops suffered losses. Replacements were rushed in and those new men of course did not have the same experience as the men they replaced. Hence we have an overall decline of experience.

So are there no elites around?
Of course! Otherwise why have an elite status in the rules? All I'm saying is think about it before distributing it too liberally. Don't generalize. The old clichee the troopers of the Waffen-SS were all elites is simply not true. Think about your specific units and what they can possibly know about what they are about to do. People from Middle Europe being rushed into a tropic environment will probably loose a lot of their quality until they have time to come to grips with the new situation. Lots of reasons why even so called elite units are actually not so elite after all.

However, use common sense and most important: get ready to play a fun game! If you need elites for this scenario because it's part of the story, by all means have elites. It could be just as much fun to have a so-called elite unit finding itself at a loss what this is all about - thus reducing them to the status of trained men. It's the game that counts.

[Plynkes]

You know, I think I'm too far the other way. I don't think I've ever used elite troops, in T&T or any other game. I think I must have some kind of mental block or something, but I always seem to discount the top troop type in any game as just some fantasy hypothetical best-case scenario, not something that you would actually see in real life.

It seems I always think accounts of such troops are exagerated, and nobody gets to be better than 'veteran' in my games. Something in me always says "nah, they can't have been that good."


Silly, really.

[NurgleHH]

Funny, made some thought on thursday about elite. Introduced T&T to a friend. For me elite ist not a question of permanent or no. Is a question of numbers. For example the special forces are ver rare in every army of the world. GSG9 (now splittet in military and police units), seals, etc. are small units in whole armys. So I try to use it in this way. Easy to handle. Every time asking myself about the status (elite/veteran) for a special unit is to hard to handle...

[Driscoles]

Lars ideas are great and make sense. They definately help to create units for a T+T scenario.

The idea Grimm had for the British unit during our epic Mao Li game was good. The British player only had two units. One was the Hero and the other was a group of specialists like the guys from the Guns at Navarone movie.

I rarely use Elite units. Never use them in my troops. I see it a little bit like Plynkes. On the other hand I believe Elite must be inside the T+T game. Especially if you use the rules for a pulp games.

I currently write the Colonial T+T supplement and will not use elite units. Probably using special unit skills for some units.

Cheers
Bj?rn

[Grimm]

you are right Doomhippie
But where is the problem ?
In TaT Elite units are not so much better then other units for the same price of a elite unit I get 2 units of rew troops with rifels and these units will do a lot of damage on the elite unit .
Or if they come in close combat it can be worse too .

In my eyes I am not only think ``why they are elite `` I think what can be the best gameplay and sure most of the time  ltd. elite is the better    choice.

But think about that

example
I have to forces one British colonial troops (all traind with rifles) and one native warrior (all traind or row with spears ) .
The tribe can only win if have the chance to get in close combat but the colonial troops have Byonets and with that they are as much as good like the tribsmen in close combat.

So it was a cool thing to give the natives one elite unit ( the best chosen warriors of the tribe) .
 
You will ask me why not make the elite tribemen vetran ?
Because vetrans diden?t have a better Score and you need that for makeing the native unit a better close combat unit .

 In my opinion elite are the best of the best men but some time you have to make a compromise for a better gameplay .

cheers Grimm