Joachim

Victory levels depend on how fast you reach the board edge or how far you progress - depending on the parameter setting. It is in the manual. Gruß Joachim

Andreas, now this is a totaly different question... While I think that it helps a lot if you have suppressive fire in all case, there is an abundance of factors to compare the moral effects for attacking or retrating: Attackers have some moral benefit, as they usually have local superiority. If they attack blind with bad leadership, I don't know if that effect holds. OTOH if you just pin, the others will do the dirty work. Routing and running is only bad (in terms of incoming) if the others pin. Standard troops retreating to a 2nd line should have the added benefit of knowing that they get probably pulled out of the line once they reach the 2nd line. Pinning will keep them in danger. Routing but running to safety would be ok. Plus all the other factors - like penal btn. But I have no experience, no abundance of data and thus all is just a theory. My point is just that suppressive fire is not a solution to the problem - though it definitely helps. Gruß Joachim

Me, too. When compared to a built-in campaign mode, BCR comes in 2nd Gruß Joachim

Maybe he has the opinion that suppressive fire should work for advance and retreat exactly the same, so the result of his test that retreating causes more causalties (and suppression) than advancing will hold with suppressive fire alike. But the firing Soviet plt represents just the unsuppressed element of the enemy. For the retreat a viable test would see 3 Soviet plts firing on that 1 moving GE plt while a single other GE plt and maybe a HMG42 provide covering fire. I'd bet that there is at least one plt of the Soviets firing unsuppressed. Thus I would expect more or less the same results as in MASTA_KSF's (sorry, just had to change those letters) test (Force ratio about 1:1.5). On the advance, I'd put 2-3 MG34 and a mortar in support, have null unsuppressed enemies and expect less casualties (and suppression). (Force ratio about 1.5:1). If there is a favorable local force ratio for the defenders, suppressive fire would reduce the effects on the moving plt, too. But I'd guess the overall tendency would still hold - the effect increases with the amount of unsuppressed fire until a threshold, when there is so much incoming that every squad gets annihilated or pinned fast and there is no difference between attack and retreat Gruß Joachim </font>

Maybe he has the opinion that suppressive fire should work for advance and retreat exactly the same, so the result of his test that retreating causes more causalties (and suppression) than advancing will hold with suppressive fire alike. But the firing Soviet plt represents just the unsuppressed element of the enemy. For the retreat a viable test would see 3 Soviet plts firing on that 1 moving GE plt while a single other GE plt and maybe a HMG42 provide covering fire. I'd bet that there is at least one plt of the Soviets firing unsuppressed. Thus I would expect more or less the same results as in MASTA_KSF's (sorry, just had to change those letters) test (Force ratio about 1:1.5). On the advance, I'd put 2-3 MG34 and a mortar in support, have null unsuppressed enemies and expect less casualties (and suppression). (Force ratio about 1.5:1). If there is a favorable local force ratio for the defenders, suppressive fire would reduce the effects on the moving plt, too. But I'd guess the overall tendency would still hold - the effect is proportional to the amount of unsuppressed fire. Gruß Joachim

First guess is the command delay well above 1 minute. 2nd guess is a bug. If you are in the corner of a large stone bldg which is in a row of large stone buildings, moving out across that corner sometimes does not work. I had a lot of these problems in a city battle, until I moved the first waypoint a bit. Maybe it is a restriction for the path finding algorithm. In similar situations (moving out of a local optimum when there is a step threshold near), I expect many optimizazion routines to lock up. A more common example is the behavior of vehicles near bridges, they often seem to hang around and do weird things instead of just moving onto the bridges if you don't set a waypoint where they are to enter the bridge and into the middle of the bridge. Gruß Joachim

Second this. Gruß Joachim

Casualty rates do not affect the effective force you can buy: If you have 1000pts at 20% casualties, you can buy 1250 points, of which approx. 20% or 250 pts will be casualties. Thus you have about 1000 pts left for setup. Nevertheless casualty rates help a little bit as you can often buy bigger formations, whose parts are cheaper than bought on its own. (Read: 3 single companies cost more than a btn with exactly those coys plus the btn HQ). Gruß Joachim

If you'd say "cannon" and point in a direction, holding up 3 fingers, I guess the Panther crew and the Romanian would understand. But you have to be damn close to hear it. Gruß Joachim

It only works as first command on the ground floor of two-story stone bulidngs if the scenario allows for it. Only then this command shows on the command menu. To test if you find the command, play a QB in a large town with sewer movement allowed. Caveat: - 10 m in 1 minute... very slow - 10% will lose their way and perish in the sewers (see manual) - experienced troops are better at finding their way (not sure if the manual is right with that...) - only regulars under comand or veterans out of command (IIRC, but OTOH RTFM ) - units pop up in odd places, approx a third are back where they were a few minutes later (Make sure a Coy HQ is there to send them on their way again) - I once lost a crack squad on its way to the next buildng. Gruß Joachim

Just a few ideas - this is no walkthru. Make up your mind and think about the ideas. Put them together with other info. You can improve your tactics, the AI can't (until CMAK or CM2, that is) Borg spotting only works in the command phase. Make sure the team attacking the tank is not seen in the turn before and the tank is buttoned (sharpshooters, MGs, infantry). A suppressed team or squad will not fire as accurate as an unsuppressed team - I guess threats to tanks are a high priority target once discovered by the tank. Make sure the quality of the infantry is good. Having them in command of a stealth or combat bonus HQ helps. Keep the tank occupied by other threats. If he goes for another tank or a speeding AC a mile away, the squad will have much better chances. Hunt like animals do: separate a tank from the herd (ie infantry and other tanks), and then attack it. Creating local superiority to get an unsuppressed shot at the tank is key. (Local superiorty means to have more and better units involved in the fight than the enemy, not to have more men in the region[/]. If it is a hidden ambush by one team, you have local superiority. If your arty pins the accompanying infantry and you move in to kill the tank that is a bit too much forward, this will do. If you have an AI that coordinates its units, you have to coordinate your units even better. The AI does not coordinate its formations as good as a human player, so this should be possible. Gruß Joachim

First heard of these Panthers in SP3 (maybe a mod), SPWaW or SPWW2. It was fun to include them in your battles. Gruß Joachim

An organized withdrawal of scouts or single squads - yes. (IE keep running if shoot at as it is safer to run that stay behind). No reduction of command delay - this is organized, after all. A company has to organize its withdrawal all by itself by using boundary overwatch in reverse. If troops keep running backwards, this is possible. Apart from the occassional panicked squad, of course. Organization under fire is very rare. Gruß Joachim

[ July 18, 2003, 10:40 AM: Message edited by: Scarhead ]

ad 1) For the real battle, you select unrestricted forces, unrestricted division type at unrestricted quality. Thus you can buy your core forces and the auxiliary troops ad 2) In the paper rules there is the provisional force size. This is a) your core force the attached troops (that stay with you for a while, bought from attachment points awarded after battle) c) your auxiliary forces specific for that one battle, e.g. from Romania The value of a) for the first battle is about 653 (rarity standard), but can vary due to more experienced units or weakened troops The value for varies, for the first battle it is 0 The value of c) is say 300 inf, 150 vehicles, 100 armor and 150 arty = 700pts. Your provisional force size is 1353. You have no casualties, the battle is assault (battle type factor =1.7) Exp = regular and fit troops So you get force size for CM battle = 1353 * (1- 0 casualties)/1.7 = 795.88 points. As you cannot select 795 points, you have to choose the next higher value, which for this example is 800. If you select an allied assualt, CM will award you with 1.7 times the points as the defender, who gets 800. Thus, from thos 1360 pts you should be able to buy your 653pt core and thos 700 auxiliary troops Now you make a mock battle with only 700 pts (auxiliary) from the battle parameters per Biltaid or the rules sheet. You get 2 security companies, several HMGs, a 81mm and a 105 mm spotter, a lone SdKfz 221 but no armor. Write down the forces for that battle. The real thing is the unrestricted battle, where you buy your core, 300 inf or support, at least the SdKfz 222 and some other vehicles of your choice for a sum of at most 150 pts (if the AI in the auto-generated batlte did not spend all pts in one category, you can buy what you like), then you chose to buy the 81mm FO (87 or something) and can't afford the 105mm anymore (148 IIRC, 148+87>150), so you add some cheapo 75mm FO at 54 pts. You choose whichever tanks you want, but spend less than 100 pts. Now there should be some pts left, but these are a hidden bonus for the AI. Oops... 2) should be answered above, probably you did not notice the attacker gets mor epoints or to calculate the provisional force size for the real battle or that there is a mock battle before. 3)and 4) The real battle is unrestricted, see above. Have fun! Gruß Joachim

Only if we get a different bmp for dirty soldiers afterwards! Gruß Joachim

The worst, yes. The most numerous, certainly not. Memoirs by British soldiers are quite frank about the times they were attacked by their own planes in France, and elsewhere. I fully agree - a TRP for air attack (could be coded in as a nice red smoke signal) should do it, and would make the handling more flexible. Players can either place it themselves during the battle, or it could be pre-placed by a scenario designer. </font>

It seems the AI pulls back his forces. After all, they probably get surrounded and cut off in the next battle. And They do not get resupplied (checked the last and first files fro each battle after an operation), so they are not the best front line troops. If I have troops out of my area, I check their ammo (they don't get supplies!) and use them so they get supplies next time. That usually means taking them back - apart from the occasional team left behind for scouting purposes. Gruß Joachim

The same advantage is given to human attackers. From my experience, I'd guess that a line is drawn between the forces, and the neutral zone is put on both sides of it - with the occasional room for fixed units and small deviations from a straight front line. To me it seems that the line between the players is based on the numbers or values of troops they have close to it, maybe even some kind of least squares approach. As an attacker in a huge CMBB op, I reached the map edges with some recon elements while the mass of my units were finishing off one of the remaining AI pockets. My new setup line was only a few metres behind my forward ACs (their position remained fixed). I got the whole map - and except for some 40m kept it for the next battle - despite lost of SO inf in those pockets. In the first battle of that op, I achieved only a small breakthru with a few recce forces to exploit it - and most of those units foundthemselves fixed in place way outside my new deployment zone - but nevertheless the AI enemy was moved back. The 4th battle had me advancing towards a river. I ignored taking the city, only a foothold to protect my advance from flanking fire. Of course I got the city after the battle. Not to mention I was rewarded with both sides of the river, while I had merely reached my side - far from the bridges. In short: BFC, fix the new front lines in the defenders favor, allow for more flexibility (ie a small breakthru does not shift the whole front), and make them terrain sensitive (esp for rivers!). If this calls for a bigger battle window - this is the designers problem, along with his playtesters. Gruß Joachim

Thanks for the kind words... As I was raised in a region where "not bad" is about the most praise you can get, I just lack the vocabulary to praise BCR. Guess taking over the work says it all. Now to outline what I will do (and what not) a) try to keep the spirit of BCR just as it was. Catering the grogs, those who want to improve their tactics and those just seeking fun. Of course the latter group will automatically be pushed into the other groups. If during a battle you bang your head on the desk out of sheer frustration, I know I did my job right! Just make sure there are no sharp objects on the desk expand the rules further, but I am not sure whether I will buy CMAK - East front is fine for me. So it is more likely to get '45 than El Alamein. c) I will probably not create any battle packs. If anybody feels like doing some special maps and a theme, please mail me (or advertise on the forum) d) I plan to change the rules sheet a bit, partly inspired by Max Bauhaus' autoparameters. If it works as planned, everybody who understood the old rules will be able to understand the new rule sheet, as there should be only slight adjustments necessary to ease maintenance. There should be 3 more sheets: Auto-Rules (where you get auto-generated battle parameters), Auto-Experience-Calculator (for the after battle calculations) and a parameters sheet where the parameters are machine readable. Just like most of the people here, I have a RL that consumes too much time, but 26 workdays left for holidays this year . Gonna see what I can do. BTW: If anybody from BF.C wants to include a campaign system in CMAK or CM2, I'd be happy to volunteer and help. Gruß Joachim

Go ask Alice. When she was just small. </font>

Now this is something I have to try! Gruß Joachim

Basically, I went through the sheets and made what changes I thought were appropriate (the key word being "thought"; I don't know enough to call these more than educated guesses). It all seems to work OK though. I can send you the Excel file if you like, just let me know. A couple of things I did change was the extent of many of the tables. In BCR 41 v2.3, the tables are all 1-10, but modifers can often take the number outside of this range. So I extended the range to the min and max possible, and added in a few values for variety. EG: the "summer" weather table has Hot weather as far down as "1", but modifier can actually give you a number as low as -3, I think. So I extended the table to -3 as follows (roughly): 1 to -1: Hot, -2 Warm, -3 Hot. The Warm is thrown in for a bit of variety, but usually a low roll will give you Hot weather. Similarly for ammo (and this is also relevant to the psots above), a modified roll of "10" or more in v2.3 gives you 10% ammo, and the modifers can be as bad as +7 IIRC. On my extended table, "10" (and 11) is 40% ammo IIRC, and then 12-13=30%, 14-15=20% and 16-17=10%. So you only get really low ammo if you roll badly in bad conditions (ie, with heavy modifiers) Anyway, that's the deal so far. Like I said, I can post to anyone who wants it but it is still version 1.00. </font>

Remembering the quarter of Jena where I lived a few years ago, there were many coloured buildings: yellow, green and pink. Freshly renovated "Gründerzeit" (ca. 1900) buildings just like in Berlin. Looking at Weimar - same thing Heidelberg, Speyer, Düsseldorf - colours Grey only as a result of air pollution (cars, industrial areas, fire...) and an overdue renovation. More likely in working class neighborhoods, in the industrial regions and in seasoned combat areas. I opt for colours! Even if it is just to tell my troops "Storm that green building while the sIG flattens the pink one!" Gruß Joachim

If I have any favor left, I spend those 10 points for the ammo +1 modifier. That way I get at least 20% of ammo. Some thoughts: If the AI has only 10%, by pressing the "ceasefire" button, you can end the battle immediately. If this happens and you are on the defense, you have a total victory. For a meeting, you have a draw. On the attack, you have a total defeat. In those favourable cases - don't even set up :cool: . But you still have to do the replacements and other after battle calculations... :mad: Conclusion: Guess I have to change the rules so each side gets at least 20% ammo (before favor is spent ). The attacker should get at least 30%. IIRC it is only with immediate attacks the attacker gets less than that. So especially for your dire needs, the customer service of BCR delivers some ammo crates. If you get 10% ammo, boost it to 20%, as attacker boost it to 30%. Not very much, but fire discipline is crucial. Wait till you can see the white in the eyes of the TC. Do not spread out. Only defeat a portion of the attacking enemy. Delay him, do not destroy him while on the defense. On the offense: Concentrate on one flag and wait for the counter. Your casualties before battle are annoying, I know. Your companies exp is dwindling. But remember: 3 consecutive battles with 50% losses and you're decimated. Lose all favor, but jump one month ahead - which ain't so bad after all. As you will likely experience this: Spend any favor you have on where you need it the most. BTW: You do not need to follow each rule in BCR. The most important goal is to have fun! The rules try to be realistic and teach you that this is war, and you don't get what you want. But their full application depends on your personal level of masochism (Yes! beat me! whip me! give me rude names! ). BTW2: At the moment, I can understand your problem. Glad I reached the 2nd week of 3/42. I (3500pts) expect a large random forces assault with +100 (ie some 16000 pts) while I am at 20% ammo on a huge map. Setup is crucial... Gruß Joachim