(August 5, 2015 at 12:34 pm)abaris Wrote:(August 5, 2015 at 12:16 pm)Minimalist Wrote: The ultimate survival motive would be to run away!
You know, I used to work as a medic some 20 years ago. And there was this volunteer, 60something back then, probably long dead now. And once we sat together and for some reason we discussed the war. And one of my collegues asked that man, why they didn't run away. His answer was, there was always the chance to be shot in the back by an officer if you didn't move forward. That's how they indoctrinated them. And I'm sure it's not that different today. Combine it with peer pressure and you got your reason why they don't run.
Many years ago there was a monstrosity of a board game called Wellington's Victory...although it was about Waterloo, not Vittoria. When set up on 4 full sized maps it was utterly beautiful but one thing you noted was that the infantry set up with the cavalry behind them. Shortly after the game was released someone wrote an article for a gaming magazine which discussed the set up and pointed out that one of the cavalry's duties was to serve as a battlefield goon squad to keep the infantry pointed in the right direction.
