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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5850999" data-attributes="member: 54877">&quot;Concentration of mass&quot; evolved into &quot;concentration of fire&quot;--the rifles of the US Civil War (and the Crimean War, and the 1870 French/Prussion conflict) being roughly the 30 years over which it solidified into the new form--before machine guns and tanks shuffled it around again. You get there firstest with the mostest so that you can make the other guy have some bad decisions. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin&nbsp; &nbsp; :D"&nbsp; data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />&nbsp;But even &quot;Concentration of mass&quot; was not about ganging up on a single target. It was about having more shots being delivered in a given area than your opponent. If the Roman Legion is disciplined enough to fight in a tight formation, there are more sword whacking people in a given area than otherwise. If your archers can shoot over the line, on top of your swords in the front going one-on-one, you have more firepower. But it is still relatively spread out. &nbsp;What you don't want is to totally ignore the calvary or slingers trying to get around your flanks. Someone better get on them. This leads to interesting decisions. Maybe those cannon up on the ridge are a serious enough threat that you'll charge them anyway, even though that leaves the infantry on their left free to wheel into your flanks. But in return for taking those cannon out, your guys are going to get hit hard.&nbsp;Of course, &quot;hit hard&quot; is relative. If the foes are a dragon and his 9 common kobolds, you might prefer +50% or +100% damage from the kobolds over several rounds to letting the dragon last any longer than absolutely necessary. Or you might not. Or you might be ok with that once you've whittled them down to 4 kobolds. Or you were ok with it, until the dragon cast a spell on the kobolds and made them hit that much harder. Thing is, most of the time, you do have a decision to make. It isn't, &quot;duh, dragon, kill it!&quot; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue&nbsp; &nbsp; :p"&nbsp; data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />&nbsp;I don't know of any real-world or story-based combat situation where some thoughtful participants thought it was a good idea to let any competent combatant run free for any length of time--except the ones in RPGs or clearly derived from them. There are a few instances were it was deemed a &quot;lesser, necessary evil&quot; than the alternatives available, but not &quot;good&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 5850999, member: 54877"] "Concentration of mass" evolved into "concentration of fire"--the rifles of the US Civil War (and the Crimean War, and the 1870 French/Prussion conflict) being roughly the 30 years over which it solidified into the new form--before machine guns and tanks shuffled it around again. You get there firstest with the mostest so that you can make the other guy have some bad decisions. :D But even "Concentration of mass" was not about ganging up on a single target. It was about having more shots being delivered in a given area than your opponent. If the Roman Legion is disciplined enough to fight in a tight formation, there are more sword whacking people in a given area than otherwise. If your archers can shoot over the line, on top of your swords in the front going one-on-one, you have more firepower. But it is still relatively spread out. What you don't want is to totally ignore the calvary or slingers trying to get around your flanks. Someone better get on them. This leads to interesting decisions. [B]Maybe[/B] those cannon up on the ridge are a serious enough threat that you'll charge them anyway, even though that leaves the infantry on their left free to wheel into your flanks. But in return for taking those cannon out, your guys are going to get hit hard. Of course, "hit hard" is relative. If the foes are a dragon and his 9 common kobolds, you might prefer +50% or +100% damage from the kobolds over several rounds to letting the dragon last any longer than absolutely necessary. Or you might not. Or you might be ok with that once you've whittled them down to 4 kobolds. Or you were ok with it, until the dragon cast a spell on the kobolds and made them hit that much harder. Thing is, most of the time, you do have a decision to make. It isn't, "duh, dragon, kill it!" :p I don't know of [B]any[/B] real-world [B]or[/B] story-based combat situation where some thoughtful participants thought it was a good idea to let any competent combatant run free for any length of time--except the ones in RPGs or clearly derived from them. There are a few instances were it was deemed a "lesser, necessary evil" than the alternatives available, but not "good". [/QUOTE]

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