From: Edward Lipsett <translation@i...>
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2000 09:16:05 +0900
Subject: Professionalism and quality in FT ->Leaders
In response to Tony's nice piece on the application of professionalism and quality (P&Q, as in Watch your Ps and Qs), I think you need to consider leadership applications in morale. There are any number of instances in history, not to mention Honor Harrington, where a superb leader can get 150% from his (or her) crew, and a dramatically poor leader can convince his crew to surrender (or shoot him) at the slightest opportunity. Starfire touches on this point, first breaking crews into five grades (poor, green, average, crack and elite). Crews can be trained to average. Crack and elite crews can only be achieved through actual combat experience. Poor: Crews which have suffered heavy casualties in a prior engagement, or been disorganized by loss of command control. They have bad (-2) initiative and hit rolls, repair rolls, and state-of-readiness rolls. It takes longer to launch fighters from carriers. If they survive one engagement or merely stay in commission for 6 strategic turns, they automatically into Green. Green: Limited experience and still shaking down. Also minus (-1) for all the same things as Poor, but less so. They become Average by surviving one engagement, or staying in commission for 18 strategic turns. Average: Stats as per the book (+/-0). Average crews who survive five engagements become Crack. Crack: Stats are +1. If they survive five more engagements, they become Elite. Elite: Stats +2 Under the rules, an engagement is defined as a battle in which the opposing side's force point total is at least 25% of your own. Each grade above Average adds 10% to rolling for surrender or breakoff, and below average subtracts 10%. Initiative roll adjustments only apply to individual ships, not to fleets, unless the ship rolling for the fleet is the flagship. Any unit which surrenders is automatically Poor. Damage can drop the grade of a unit. Now the interesting point, which is an optional rule (Graded Admirals). A crack ship captain may be promoted to admiral with Average grade, an Elite captain to a Crack admiral.. An admiral earns grade for battles in which his flagship makes an initiative roll (and survives, of course). 2 rolls: Green to average 4 rolls: Average to Crack 6 rolls: Crack to Elite No graded admiral ever loses grade (ship captains, however, do). For every 3 strategic turns a graded admiral is on a given flagship, the ship's grade rises one (command staff competence), witha maximum of the admiral's grade. If he spends one month drilling a poor fleet, it becomes Green. (The entire fleet must be in one star system at Alert readiness). If he spends two months drilling a green fleet (same conditions, it becomes Average. An elite admiral can spend 6 months drilling an average fleet to raise it to Crack status. No amount of drilling can raise fleet grade above Crack. During breakoff and surrender rolls, a graded admiral can use his own rolls instead of the fleet's. In addition, admirals receive a 20% bonus for each grade above Average. This last line is especially interesting, and I think it would be a nice thing to add to Tony's suggestion. The role of ship command and high command is critical in determining fleet (crew) morale.