But as important – often more important – was the general’s leadership role: inspiring his troops, performing the role of general to their satisfaction and giving them a sense of confidence in the possibility of victory. As we’ll see, the role of the general during the battle can be divided effectively in two parts, which we might term ‘command’ and ‘leadership.’ ‘Command’ is the thing that most video games simulate: the specific tactical choices the general makes concerning the disposition of his army, its movement and so on. This week, we’re going to turn to look at what the general can do with that information, focusing on his actions during the battle itself. What we found was that, in contrast to the broadly omniscient generals of film and video games, actual generals had to work in an information environment which was both unsure (that is, information was frequently false) and substantially incomplete.
Last week, we looked at the information a general might have before and during a battle. This is the second of a four-part ( I) look at the role of the general in a pre-modern army, particularly in the context of a pitched battle.
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