Dispatch Riders!

 

Just the other day I was reading an old Armed Forces magazine from December 1989 which had a report of Exercise “Roaring Lion” which was a 5^th Airborne Brigade exercise on Salisbury Plain.  Towards the end of the article the CO states the following:

“Command and control generally came together reasonably well, including the use of an aircraft as a command post.  Imposition of radio silence worked especially beneficially and that, and the inevitable communication glitches illustrated the continuing need for dispatch riders and liaison officers to get round such problems”

It got me thinking about Dispatch riders in Battlegroup and that maybe they needed a few more options in AirLand Battlegroup

Here’s the WW2 Dispatches Special Rule:

If radios and telephones won’t work, send a messenger.  A unit with the Dispatch special rule automatically passes a Communications check, because they have gone in person.  Remove the unit from play once they have been used.  It costs one order to send a Dispatch unit.

Currently in AirLand Battlegroup a unit with the Dispatches special rule looks like this:

I’m thinking of increasing the cost of a Dispatch Rider by about +5 points and making them Unique. I’m also thinking of replacing the Dispatches special rule in AirLand Battlegroup with this:

If radios and telephones won’t work, send a messenger.  A unit with the Dispatches special rule is Unique.  A unit with the Dispatches special rule can be used once per game.  Remove the unit from play once they have been used.  It costs one order to use a unit with the Dispatches special rule.  The employing player must select one of the following options:

- Automatically pass a Communications check as per the standard Battlegroup Rules

- Re-roll an Orders Dice after a roll of +3 on a D6

- Re-roll a D6 to determine the number of units arriving from reserve after a roll of +3 on a D6

This gives the Dispatch rider more of a role in Command and Control, rather than just dealing with Indirect Fire.  It will cost a bit more, but gives you some more options – with dice rolls so it doesn’t guarantee outcomes.

What do you think?

Thanks for looking

Richard