An army without leadership is an unruly mob. Let’s talk about Officers.
OFFICERS
Why do you need Officers in Battleplan?
- Formations require an Officer to be deployed
- Officers provide bonuses to troops under their command.
SKILLS & BONUSES
Officers pass down ALL stat bonuses (or penalties) to ALL units below them in the chain of command. Every Officer starts with a random skill, and earns additional skills as they gain experience.
Skills are chosen from the SKILL WEB. The web is a graph of interconnected nodes roughly divided into the following areas: Infantry skills, Armour skills, Artillery & Support Gun skills, Air Support skills and all-rounder generalized skills.
PASSIVE SKILLS provide constant stat bonuses to ALL troops under their command. Ex: Assertive Staff: All units gain +5% movement speed and +5% damage. Some skills only affect certain unit types. Ex: Live-Fire Drills: Infantry gain +15% morale.
ACTIVE SKILLS must be activated MANUALLY within a mission. Most skills can only be used ONCE per mission, but provide extremely powerful bonuses for a short period of time.
Lightning Strike: Units within radius gain +300% movement speed, +100% damage, +50% morale
To perform an active skill the Headquarters company must physically move to the designated area, opening them up to risk of enemy fire – leading from the front can be hazardous!
PERSONALITY QUIRKS
Everyone has a personality and quirks and Officers are no different. Each Officer starts with a randomized personality quirk, which offers a stat BONUS and a stat PENALTY. Ex: Timid: -40% morale, +10% defence. They’ll gain more quirks with service. Choose Officer personalities that fit that formation’s purpose! Ex: Aggressive armoured formations should be led by an Officer with an aggressive personality.
CUSTOMIZING OFFICERS
After recruiting an Officer, you can customize them. Select their portrait from dozens of real-world historical Officers and their real-world backgrounds.
You can also edit their name to recreate your favourite division & officers.
HEADQUARTER COMPANIES
A formation can’t be deployed in a mission unless it’s led by Headquarter Company with an attached Officer. Headquarter companies aren’t meant for combat. They have reduced firepower & defence, and will try to disengage and fall back if under attack.
When the company takes casualties, there’s a chance the Officer becomes Wounded, Captured or Killed.
Wounded Officers gain a permanent injury, affecting their future decision making & personality. Ex: Limp: -5% movement speed. They will also be unavailable for the next mission, and their formation must be led by a replacement Officer.
Captured or Killed Officers are gone forever. Keep your headquarters well behind the frontlines lest you lose your favourite veteran Officers!
If an Officer is incapacitated DURING a mission, the entire formation becomes paralyzed for a few hours, freezing all units in place and applying combat penalties. Try to destroy enemy Headquarters to freeze enemies in place whilst encircling & cutting them off.
RECRUITING OFFICERS
You’ll start the campaign with a handful of Officers, but will need more as your army group increases in size. Inexperienced Officers are plentiful and free to recruit. As you progress further in your campaign veteran Officers become available for recruitment, however they cost Requisition based on their skill level.
You can’t command an entire army group alone. Choose the best Officers for the job, keep them alive and this war will be over before you know it.
Next week we’ll be live with the developer to dive into the newest developments of Battleplan. Tune in to Slitherine Next – Checkpoint, live on Twitch on February 23 at 5:00 PM CEST, don’t miss it! Youtube:
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