Staff Officers

What do you think of the following rule:

New officer type: Adjutant.
An Adjutant assists a General or Commander in strategic planning. A General or Commander may substitute the Adjutant’s Strategic Ability for his own. There is a -1 point penalty due to the inefficiencies of communication between command and staff.

Example: Mustafa (INT 18, Cha 7, Military Strategy 2) is assigned as Adjutant to General Carolus (INT 10, WIS 9, Cha 16, Military Strategy 1, Leadership, Command).
Mustafa has Strategic Ability +5, Leadership Ability 3, Morale Modifier -1.
Carolus has Strategic Ability +1, Leadership Ability 7, Morale Modifier +4.
The combined team of Carolus and Mustafa has Strategic Ability +4, Leadership 7, Morale Modifier +4.

The idea is to simulate Blucher/Scarnhorst, Hidenberg/Ludenforff, and other examples of the charismatic leader and clever staff officer.

I dig it. It’s sure as heck worth the cost of salary for the Adjutant if you can find a good one.

It’s got fiction support as well…Bragi? Ragnarson and whomever the Queen was from Glen Cook’s Dread Empire, perhaps, though I’m not sure if they were ever on the field at the same time. I expect there’s a pair-up in the Black Company or Erikson’s Malazan series I’m forgetting as well.

Lady and Croaker could be an example (with Croaker as the general and Lady as the adjutant), as could the White Rose and Croaker (with White Rose as the general and Croaker as the adjutant), or Sleepy and Croaker late in the series (Sleepy as the general, Croaker as the adjutant again).

It almost feels like the Black Company flips between the Captain as general and the Annalist as adjutant and vice versa, depending on whose expertise lies in each field. Croaker (in my opinion) is slightly above average on both sets of stats, so he takes whichever role his counterpart is weaker in - both White Rose and Sleepy are good “faces” but mediocre to poor tacticians, while Lady is a very good tactician but somewhat less than trusted.

It could also work with David Drake’s Lord of the Isles, where Garric often gets advice from others who have more expertise in a particular area, whether it be Tenoctris, Liane bos-Benliman, Lord Waldron, or Lord Attaper (or King Carus, but he’d have to be a special rule, since you don’t have to pay a disembodied spirit). Tenoctris and Liane would probably fall into a slightly different area, though, since their expertise is in magic, while the other three are all tacticians.

Sounds good!

Great. I’m glad the idea is well-received.

Space and time limit me from including the Adjutant rules in D@W’s draft but I will include them in one of our follow up products.

Ah! That’s disappointing. Was really hoping this would make it in.

Indeed. However, it’d be a neat rule to include first in a naval combat supplement - captain and first mate.

When’s the Kickstarter?
:wink: