James Sterrett

I believe you could set up the situation you describe, with three players and the fourth computer set to run on automatic with Red run by the AI.

The umpire could set the range for those units under the umpire's control. It is possible to set individual units to have a different ROE setting. In any event, the time to change is under the players' control, to the extent to deciding to fire first or not, since the player can also change force-wide ROEs on any given turn. [ July 12, 2002, 11:51 PM: Message edited by: James Sterrett ]

Valadictum: It's been done. In fact, there are a number of variants of chess floating about, which vary from the sublime to the riduculous.

Answered my own question, perhaps: I went looking on Major H's Military Reference CD for engineering manuals and found: FM 5-7-30 Brigade Engineer and Engineer ompany Combat Operations (Airborne, Air Assault, Light) FM 5-10 Combat Engineer Platoon FM 5-30x Engineer Intelligence FM 5-34 Engineer Field Data FM 5-71-2 Armored Task-Force Engineer Operations FM 5-71-3 Brigade Engineer combat Operations (Armored) FM 5-71-100 Division Engineer Combat Operations FM 5-100-15 Corps Engineer Operations FM 5-101 Mobility FM 5-102 Countermobility FM 5-103 Survivability FM 5-104 General Engineering FM 5-105 Topographic Operations FM 5-114 Engineering Operations Short of War FM 5-116 Engineer Operations Echelons Above Corps FM 5-170 Engineer Reconnaisance FM 20-32 Mine/Countermine Operations FM 90-7 Combined Arms Obstacle Integration FM 90-13 River Crossing Operations FM 90-13-1 Combined Arms Breaching Operations Seems I have some reading to do. 8)

The trial and error wasn't regarding tactical eomployment, but "what button do I push?" Are those Army FMs on Major H's Military Reference CD? (Which FMs are they?)

Hopefully. Learning to use them in testing has involved a distinct degree of trial and error. However, if the manual's explanation prove insufficient, ask away here or on the mailing list, and somebody will help you.

Um.... One pixel is ten meters. The default unit display size makes a unit marker 10x10 pixels, of 100 meters acress. I'm not sure that entirely answers your question; units are considered to be at the middle of the unit marker (see the smallest unit marker size). You can, theoretically, pack an entire division into a single pixel in TacOps. If you do so, your opponent will probably have the rather unique experience of shelling an entire division into oblivion.

TacOps units are often not too bright about avoiding mines, even when told to do so. 8) In v3: When a unit crosses a pixel of minefield without hitting a mine, that pixel is cleared. You can see the cleared lanes with the View Cleared Lanes map menu item. You can't see the other guy's lanes, though. Engineer infantry clears mines much more safely. In v4 things get a lot more complex. I'm not sure about the clearing-pixels routine, but I think it is much the same. In addition, you have far greater complexity in the density and types of minefields, how well they are camoflaged, and who knows about their location. You also have obstacle markers for ditches (with or without wire), ramparts (with or without wire) and wire alone, all of which can be rated for their difficulty of clearing and impact on leg, wheel, and track mobility. You have Volcano and GMZ minelaying systems on truck, AFV, and helicopter mountings. To clear these, both sides have plows and rollers to mount on tanks, line charge vechicles, and bridging vehicles. Both sides also have bulldozers, though I'm not sure if these are able to clear obstacles. You also still have the engineer infantry. Engineering gets a lot more interesting in v4. 8)

That's it. Serves me right for forgetting Google, while leaving my head mired in my own (then-inaccessible) bookamrks file.

Thanks! I'll get in touch with the GPO. 8)

Are you talking about "Red Thrust Star", the US Opfor publication (which I understood had been forced to shut down 8( ), or "Krasnaia Zvezda", the Soviet (now Russian) Army publication? If the latter, do they provide it in Russian as well as in translation? Cheap access to Soviet/Russian publication is pretty rare, so if it's the latter, I'm *very* interested! 8) (Red Thrust Star had some pretty good material too. A couple of its issues used to be available online, but I've mislaid the link.) "Krasnaia Zvezda" used to be aimed at a soldier-level audience and did contain a fair amount of rah-rah (zampolit speak being merely one manifestation of that horrid disease...) The officer's publication was/is "Voennaia Misl'" (Military Thought).

Also remember that in an umpired game you can add any morale model and effects you desire, with the umpire putting them into effect as necessary by deleting units, forcing them to retreat, restricting their ability to fire by setting their ranges to zero, and so forth.

I have one of them. They are interesting, but the provenance is somewhat questionable (done up from the notes of an Afghan Army officer defector, supposedly) and I'd say you'd be better off reading Glantz, Simpkin, Naveh, et al, unless you're doing fairly indepth research. A more useful selection of material "from the horse's mouth" is the two-volume set, "The Evolution of Soviet Opertional Art". It's got a selection of book excerpts and articles from 1917 - 1991 that range from good to great, and Orenstein is a careful translator. For key late-1920s works on operational art and strategy, Triandafillov's "The Nature of the Operations of Modern Armies" is also out in a solid translation, and Svechin's "Strategy" is out as well; I think both are still in print. I'm not thrilled by some parts of the translation in "Strategy" - it's careful but fails to capture the power of Svechin's prose in Russian. Svechin coined the term "operational art" ("operativnoe iskusstvo")and Triandafillov was Tukhachevskii's right-hand theorist, concretizing a lot of Tukhy's dreaming until he died in an air crash (in 1933 IIRC.)

Regarding doctrinal differences - "and artillery is a little different"... In v4, you can alter the different artillery timing parameters at will using the umpire tools. Thus Red is no longer stuck with a longer called fire delay than Blue, unless you want it to be.

Improved warheads and thremals are two different settings. Improved warheads basically means that most Opfor HEAT rounds can kill and M-1 from the front; without this, none of them can. (Even with it the T-80's missile cannot.) Thermals for Opfor means that they have thermals. It's up to you what you use. However, the game gets a lot easier if you have M-1s, and Opfor has no thermals. You can pop smoke and become invulnerable while still being able to fire. Not using advanced warheads has much the same effect: BMPs and the like suddenly become largely impotent against M-1s.

The "standard" pairing for PPCLI would be Lord Strathcona's Light Horse, but I've no idea if that's happened this time.

Try asking on the TacOps mailing list. I know somebody on it made a listing of unit speeds in various terrains, and it usually gets posted up when asked for.

It's an RTFM, but here's a quick explanation because you need to think in TacOps terms, and not think of DF TRPs interacting with arty TRPs. 8) Your example won't work in TacOps - though to get a good TRP you'll need the infantry to spot for the mortar! When you set an indirect fire unit (on or off map) so it is not firing FFE - and not FFE is the default - then it fires registration shots. These are no different from the FFE except it uses a lot less ammo and nobody gets hurt. Each time the registration or FFE shot lands in the LOS of a friendly unit that is not suppressed, the accuracy level goes up by 1 (maximum is 5, minimum is 0) and it drops when nobody can see the fall of shot. See the "register as TRP" button on the arty orders window? That stores a TRP at the arty unit's current target location, with the current accuracy level. You can then shift to that TRP ("shift to trp" button)and immediately gain its accuracy. Thus a level 3 TRP at gridref 123456 lets any arty unit (on map or off map but the two don't mix) shift to that target point and immedaitely have level 3 accuracy. Obviously, level 5 TRPs are a good thing and players tend to register lots as they go. The DF TRPs are not interchangeable with the arty TRPs. Pick a unit, click the button, click a point on the map, give a range. The unit will prefer to engage enemy units inside the resulting circle. (Click and hold on the small yellow light next to the DF TRP button to see the circle.) Hold down control while you click your way through the setting procedure, and you'll get a wee red light - and the unit will *only* engage enemy units inside that circle.

Tactics & Tactical: Tactics is battlefighting. The tactical level of war typically involves units of up to brigade, sometimes divisional level. Tactics is concerned with accomplishing the missions handed down by the operational level of war. Strategy, Grand strategy, & Strategic: Strategy is warfighting. Grand strategy arranges the political, economic, andd social preconditions for continuation of a war. Grand strategy translates political objectives into broad courses of action. Strategy is concerned with the broad scope of the employment of forces in a theater, translating grand strategic overall intents into desired campaigns. This typically extends down to the level of theaters and Army Groups. Operations and Operational: The operational level of war translates between strategy and tactics. It translates the desired campaigns of strategy into a series of battles orchestrated to create overall campaign victory. Operations is the concern of Army Groups down through Corps and sometimes divisions. Logistics: Logistics covers the critical but unloved and boring services that ensure that the rest of the military can accomplish its tasks. Without logistics, all of your beans, bullets, POL, medical supplies, etc ad nauseam are left sitting uselessly at the factory. Edit: added another definition and examples. Definition by Aleksandr Svechin, who coined the term "operational art" (operativnoe iskusstvo) on the basis of Moltke's term "operativ" (quoted form <u>Strategiia</u>, 1928): 'All the levels of war are closely interrelated: tactics makes the steps of which operational leaps are assembled; strategy points out the path.' Tactics is battle-fighting; Operational Art is choosing, ordering, and arranging the battles to achieve a strategic goal. Example: A great example of the difference between a tactical and an operational point of view is provided by von Mellenthin's book Panzer Battles and its famed descriptions of the 48th Panzer Corps's defense of the Chir River line against the Soviet 5th Tank Army. 48th Panzer's tactical successes against the half-strength 5th Tank Army are well-described in the book. What is not explained is of greater importance. 48th Panzer's tactical successes must be seen against 5th Tank Army's mission: pinning 48th Panzer Corps so that it could not interfere with the Middle Don Operation. That operation was a success: 49 Axis divisions wiped off their order of battle, the the Italian 8th Army and Army Detachment Hollidt shattered, and the Axis driven from the middle Don, in significant part because 48th Panzer Corps was very successfully fighting the wrong battle. [ 01-27-2002: Message edited by: James Sterrett ]</p>

The Misc LOS block is an interesting idea, but it leads to other problems, such as both sides using the LOS bloack to cover maneuver around the line (Red cannot See Blue across the line either, so Blue maneuvers closer tothe line for better shots?) Even giant maps (see some of the NTC maps) eventually run into the End-Of-The-World problem. (Though bigger maps do help.) The best solution is to agree on a set of rules with your opponent that do in the gamey tactics. For example, when I'm playing TF Gallagher, there's usually a rule that forbids Blue from moving more than recon forces east of the delpoyment area, and forbidding indirect fires and arty east of easting 13 or 13.5 - all of which means Red has time to deploy, though Blue can still run a decent counter-recon battle.

I'm one of the fans of SB. It's solid as both a sim and a wargame. The scale is not the same as that of TacOps; a TacOps scenario in which you command one company is small. An SB scenario in which you control one company is large. Equally, TacOps lets you sit and ponder your moves, while SB makes you do everything in real-time. There's room on my hard drive for both programs. 8)

Well, you're on the track of some of the ways to increase the difficulty. Try making the T-80s T-80 w/ ATGM instead of TFO. BMP2 to BMP3 is not necessarily harder, since even the improved BMP3 ATGM won't kill and M-1. The BMP-2's will, IIRC. Give Opfor more 152mm arty, increase its resupply rate to maximum, and give it plenty of ICM. Increase its airstrike regeneration rate to maximum. Remove all of your own artillery. Remove all your Stingers. In scenarios where Opfor enters the map, you may not move within 5km of their entry edge; give them time to deploy. (Killing them at the entry edge is pretty cheap, IMO.) Don't use any resupply.

The most variance is probably BCT, which appears to use digital maps of real-world locations. Then again, BCT doesn't handle anywhere near as many types of terrain on top of the elevation as TacOps....

RT's massive MBX is on hold because his internet service is off visiting La-la Land. In the meantime, a group of us sub-umpires are putting on a combined CPX and mini-MBX. For those in RT's MBX, this is a taste of some of what may happen in stages II and III. For the rest of you, it's a chance to sign in for a CPX. 8) The two sides in the MBX are, as usual, Red and Blue. The CPX battle will take place on Map 323 (Jamaica). There will also be a concurrent Harpoon battle. Blue will those elements of a Medium Brigade that it can fly into the theater, trying to counter an uncertain Red threat. Please let all the umpires know if you want to play: jscm@voicenet.com, opfor_6@yahoo.com, bjenning@swbell.net, opfor@kalamazoo.net, archipelago@worldnet.att.net, kuban8@realtime.net Please note that the situation in this CPX/Mini-MBX bears *no relation* to the events in RT's MBX. The game is slated for: Saturday, March 10, 1500 GMT, IRC server wind.hal.varese.it, open channel #tacops Players on Blue, especially, should expect to play through extensive deployment & planning stages prior to the 10th.

You can tell TacOps to automatically save the game every turn - set "Auto Save All Turns", under the File menu. Also note the existence of the Overlay feature. This generates a snapshot of the TacOps game that you can view later, and which can be passworded such that it can be seen only by Red or Blue if desired. The overlay is usually rather smaller than the savegame. The overlay cannot be used to restart the game, however!