Stress, reactions, skill, cohesion, trust

9.1. Stress runs from none to breaking. Each perceived event adds stress: more for a severe event, more for a man of low composure, more the closer it was and the more directly it was sensed, and less for a crew that has held together and for a man who has been through it before. Steadiness is campaign state (14.2) and is nothing for any crew raised for a single battle.

What shakes a crew, from least to most: a period passing in contact; an enemy anti-tank gun spotted; an enemy tank spotted; a shell landing near; the ready rack running empty under fire; being ordered into a known kill zone; a Tiger spotted or reported; a friendly tank hit, seen; the tank immobilised; the tank hit without penetration; a near miss; a friendly tank brewed up, seen; a close assault begun; a casualty in the tank; the tank penetrated; and, worst of all, the commander killed.

Proximity is full at the event, falling to half at the edge of its range. Sense is full for things seen, else from 4.4.

9.2. Stress decays slowly when no enemy is in the tank’s knowledge as seen within the last period, faster when the tank is well away from any known contact, and not at all while the tank is under fire.

9.3. Each tick, each crewman rolls for a reaction. Every man has a threshold set by his nerve, and below it nothing happens. Above it the chance grows with how far past it his stress has climbed, and a disciplined man holds out longer than a careless one. When the roll succeeds, the reaction’s tier is minor, major or extreme by how far past his threshold he is. A reaction is drawn from the seat’s table for that tier. All reactions are events.

A commander’s minor reaction is to button up, losing his head-out devices; his major, to stop reporting for the period, or to fixate on one contact and give no new fire command; his extreme, to bail the crew out of a tank that could still fight, or to freeze. A gunner rushes a shot, at a much lower chance to hit; fixates, keeping his lay on the current contact while a nearer one appears; or freezes. A loader fumbles a round, loads the wrong shell type, or freezes. A driver stops short of the ordered point; refuses to enter a cell with a known contact near it, or reverses without orders; or reverses at fast speed until out of line of sight of all contacts, or freezes. A bow gunner fires wildly to no effect, freezes, or attempts a panic bail-out. Any man’s extreme reaction may be a panic bail-out attempt, resisted by the commander’s discipline roll.

A frozen seat does nothing for its duration, a matter of seconds. A reaction does not remove stress.

9.4. Effective skill is skill reduced by stress: a man at breaking works at about half his skill. All gunnery, driving, and spotting use effective skill.

9.5. Skill grows. Each action performed while an enemy is in knowledge (a shot, a round loaded, a move, a contact gained, a fire command) adds a little to that seat’s skill, more for an intelligent man, capped per battle and capped overall.

9.6. Cohesion is one value per crew, starting low for a crew that trained together and at nothing for one assembled from replacements. Each period survived with an enemy in knowledge adds a little. Each casualty in the crew takes a good deal away. A replacement joining costs the crew a fifth of what held them together, since he is one man in five; a crew with no survivors is assembled fresh rather than multiplied down. Cohesion reduces stress gain per 9.1 and shortens the commander’s fire command.

9.7. Trust. Each crewman holds trust in his commander; each commander holds trust in the lieutenant. Both start in the middle. A period in contact that ends with no casualty after following an order raises it a little. A casualty soon after following a move or engage order lowers it a good deal; an order rejected as impossible lowers it a little. The lieutenant’s tank moving ahead of the platoon into contact raises every commander’s trust; the lieutenant ordering a withdrawal from a losing fight raises it more; a tank lost while the lieutenant’s tank is out of contact lowers every commander’s trust most of all.

9.8. Disposition. Each period the simulation writes for each commander: stress band (steady, strained, shaken, breaking), trust band (hostile, wary, steady, loyal), losses this battle, contacts he holds, whether he would refuse a risky order (stress past his threshold and trust low), and whether he has stopped reporting. The language model receives this and nothing more about his mind.

9.9. Talk in camp. Between battles the commanders of the platoon’s tanks may come to the lieutenant, at most two of an evening, each about the weightiest thing the day or the last action did to him, in this order: a man of his crew killed or evacuated; his own promotion to the seat that morning; a stranger from the depot joining his crew that day; his trust in the lieutenant in the hostile band; coming out of the last action shaken or breaking; an order to his tank rejected as impossible or a kill zone refused; a kill credited or a decoration earned; and, some evenings, nothing in particular. A commander comes as long as he holds the seat: a tank lost or a light wound is no reason to stay away — the reverse; a man evacuated is off the roster and gone. He says what he came to say; the lieutenant answers in his own words, twice at most; the man takes it as the man he is and goes. His trust in the lieutenant moves by how he took it: heartened, satisfied, unmoved or stung; a man promoted that morning is heartened the moment he comes in, before a word. A man not seen before the platoon moves out is unmoved. Nothing else about a visit moves any number.