It was the principles of force composition that I consider to have eventually made Warhammer Fantasy unbearably unplayable for me. My friends and I got to a point where we were essentially playing tournament style warhammer, building the strongest, most effective armies possible. The inevitable result was that whenever you made an army there were required components, without which you weren't making the most of what you had available to you and would almost inevitably lose - or so we thought at the time. This led to tedium setting in and the magic that had once gone hand-in-hand with Warhammer Fantasy for dispelled.
It's only been in recent years that I've taken time to consider this and come to a conclusion that, firstly, we were fools to fall into this style of play, but secondly, that the system has very few restrictions and leaves players to use everything their army list allows in every battle.
Effectively, my point is straightforward, when playing tabletop wargames, if you can integrate an element of random or restricted composition to a general's forces, preferably in a logical and thematic way, it will help to create a more believable engagement. For example, a player controlling a british force in a peninsular war would love to have a battalion Coldstream Guards to sit at the centre of his front line, but when making this request the player is offered a battalion of riflemen; they are still elite infantry, but fight in a completely different way, thus requiring the general to adapt their battle plans.
Now, I understand this is purely theoretical, there are very few gamers out there with enough variety in their collection to be able to allow for such random selection. However, I maintain that this can be implemented at smaller scales, with random allocation of magic items to a hero in a fantasy wargame, or with random variations of similar types of regiments.Equally, it could be implemented in a way that allows players to pick freely, but the more elite the regiment, the less likely they will receive all the numbers they've "paid" for. When then scaled across each player's entire formations, it would balance to a certain extent, as each force would have varying numbers in every battalion, artillery battery and cavalry squadron, forcing each commander to assess how and where to use troops.
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When combined with my post regarding deployment and terrain, I think these principles could lead to an interesting and dynamic gaming experience, without necessarily having to rely on narrative or storytelling to give it substance.
