Thanks for another excellent book review!

Many of the issues around C-in-C responsibilities in a 3+ player wargame are addressed by Greg Wagman in his ACW Grand Tactical rules, Altar of Freedom. Many, if not indeed most, of the battles are designed to be for more than two players and the Priority Points system guarantees the overall commander a significant influence even in the scenarios that he doesn't have direct control of a corps/wing of the army. If a subordinate 'goes rogue' that commander can be left to his own devices in terms of priority points from the stock the OC feeds down to his corps commanders...at least until he returns to the plan, or convinces the others his actions are necessary/better than the original plan. I'm not sure how widely applicable the approach is to other systems, but it works extremely well in the game that grew from Little Wars TV's club rules for the ACW.

Interesting sounding book, thanks.

If you have not already read it, I can recommend 'Most Secret War' by Professor R.V. Jones. Gives the inside track of the politics and rivalries behind the scenes on the science side.

Well in every battle there are always periods of lulls where no fighting is going on and both sides are evaluating the fight. I think its realistic to at certain points in the game to pause for a lull and allow commanders to confer with one another. A corps commander would have full autonomy of their corps and the army commander would control army level assets and issuing orders to the corps commanders whom in turn are left to accomplish the orders in their own way. Obviously in games where there are battles or wings give a wing or battle to each commander and the overall commander does the same as above.

In same battles the Army Commander is not commanding his own troops, other than perhaps the elite reserves not committed until near the end. So for the majority of the game the commander can "supervise" his sub-commanders, in the nicest possible manner of course!

Each participant should have their own figure and meetings should only be allowed when figures are adjacent. Works best when CO has no other responsibilities other than overall command and/or allocating reserves.

It brings into question the doing away with battlefield orders carried by aides and army standing orders (which will be familiar to 'gamers of a certain age and rules). The army commander should only have limited control once the battle gets under way. The wargames general walking over viewing and giving advice to subordinates, or having a group discussion in the middle of a battle, isn't a realistic scenario. A wargames general figure riding over and doing the same is a different thing. Withdrawing troops is a valid option, but not to reign in a rogue commander. It should be for a valid reason as in obtaining the main objective. If the general needs to do that he allocated wrongly to start with. Keep rolling high! Good when attacking but not when defending with One Page Rules.

I think that this requires a different type of game, which has been addressed with mega games with umpires and multi-player games.