People's Tactics/Command & Officers

Without a chain of command, your units will not be able to receive supply or be directed in battle. The basic chain of command is that a formation has a tactical HQ, that a tactical HQ has a Strategic HQ and that towns deliver their production and supply to the Strategic HQ.

Change Command Button You can set the chain of command for formations and THQ’s using the change command button. Doing this will use up the rest of the unit’s movement points, also, it will give a small readiness penalty.

It is vital that you set up a THQ for each formation, a SHQ for each THQ and a SHQ for each town. The counters of formations that have a broken chain of command will turn red to warn the player they are not receiving enough supplies to sustain them.

Example of an officer The chain of command is not abstract. Officers play an important role in Peoples Tactics. Officers have skill levels between one and nine in three different theatres of war. As a rule of thumb, a unit with a level nine officer will be one-and-a-half times more effective than a unit with a level 1 officer. Next to that, fame points also have an effect. 1 fame point is about 20% improvement, 10 fame points about 60% improvement and 25 fame points about 100% improvement. Fame points are earned by destroying enemy units in combat. The higher the officer’s body count, the more skilled and deadly he will become.

However, it is not as simple as that. During a battle, all the officers in the chain of command are taken in to account. The officer of the formation has a 50% influence, the THQ’s officer has an influence of 33%, and the SHQ’s officer has an influence of 16%.

Each officer also has a retreat value. However, all the officers in the chain of command, not just the one in direct control, once again influence the unit in combat.

Officer Pool Button You can swap officers using the officer pool button. It is possible to keep officers in the officer pool, or to dismiss them forever.

Mind you, that in larger scenarios it is an intelligent strategic choice to put your best people as high in the chain of command as possible. 16% bonus (SHQ) over 20 units or 33% bonus (THQ) over 4 units is more than 50% bonus over 1 unit.

Disruption occurs when you play with the chain of command. So make changes in officers and bosses sparingly otherwise your whole army will become disrupted and fight poorly.