Peterk

Look, up a few threads. Great map is courtesy of ASL Veteran.

Oops, double post. Please delete or somefink!

I don't know if many people are still playing CMBB, but this might be of interest to people looking for a very involved PBEM series or solo players who are now doing Rob O or Biltong. I've been fooling around with converting the Red Barricades campaigns to CMBB. The first draft of the starting scenario and rules can be found here... Stalingrad Campaign Game No spreadsheet or force tracker yet (I just use a little text file when I play). You have to be pretty fluent at the Scenario Editor (it's not that scary) to build up the scenarios for each battle, but apart from that it's probably much simpler than either Rob. O or Biltong. Plus, it's Stalingrad. There's special rules for play againt the AI but I have a feeling that this will be really cool againt a human. Still looking for playtesters, so let me know if you're interested. I can probably take on 1-2 people right now, and if I get more offers than that, I can try to pair you up with someone else.

I don't know if many people are still playing CMBB, but this might be of interest to people looking for a very involved PBEM series or solo players who are now doing Rob O or Biltong. I've been fooling around with converting the Red Barricades campaigns to CMBB. The first draft of the starting scenario and rules can be found here... Stalingrad Campaign Game No spreadsheet or force tracker yet (I just use a little text file when I play). You have to be pretty fluent at the Scenario Editor (it's not that scary) to build up the scenarios for each battle, but apart from that it's probably much simpler than either Rob. O or Biltong. Plus, it's Stalingrad. There's special rules for play againt the AI but I have a feeling that this will be really cool againt a human. Still looking for playtesters, so let me know if you're interested. I can probably take on 1-2 people right now, and if I get more offers than that, I can try to pair you up with someone else.

Allow the OOB and state of the units on board after a battle to be exported to a text file of some sort. Allow OOBs to be loaded by text file. This allows motivated people to attempt to program campaigns, simulate battles larger, deeper and more complex than what can be done with operations. Allow maps to be stored seperately from scenario files. You import a map when you build a scenario or operation. Allow a map to be damaged/rubbled or modified in other ways in the scenario and not on the original map. Buildings higher than 2 stories. During replay, if an enemy appears to go to ground or appears to be pinned, display it in a text label as is done for friendly forces. This makes it easier to judge suppression of the opponent in a 2D view without having to click on each enemy unit and see if they're upright or hugging the ground.

Just in case anyone wants to try an early version of this baby out, I've placed the files on-line at Red Barricades Campaign For solo players, it's a similar experience to any of the many solo campaign rules out there. The post-game book-keeping is very quick. Should be a lot of fun for 2 players PBEM as well.

Hi Brent, I am indeed using the excellent map from the Last Bid scenario...and what a godsend it was to stumble onto it. I've been playing since Saturday, and the system works like a charm. I'm currently on day 5 - the Russians just sneak attacked me at night in the fog on a day which I wanted idle and caused major damage - an entire company of Crack troops down the tubes, and I gave up a foothold in one of the factories I was about to use as a springboard. ARGH! Got an idle day right afterward and the weather was perfect for Stukas. ARGH! Even if you don't have time to play, drop me a line anyways and I can send you my frst draft of the rules.

Go into the map editor. Select Preview (I'm assuming that you have a map already and that you've selected your units for the scenario you're making or looking at) You should see the units on the map just like you do when you set up for a scenario when you play. Place them. Get out of Preview Get Out Of The Map Editor Save the battle. Sorry, it's not completely idiot-proof.

Awesome. Thank you!

I can't find this in the manual anywhere. I remember in CMBO, it was possible for a scenario designer to place a tank in such a way that it could not move. Trying to figure out how to do it in CMBB.

Ok, found a very good RB map and started testing my idea. Guess what? It _is_ possible to play a full RB campaign game using CMBB and a very small set of paper rules. Bad news is that it does require carrying a scenario file forward (copying the last one played to a new name and reconfiguring it a bit) and some manual collection of casualties after each battle - so you have to be quite familiar with the sceanrio editor to do it. Good news is, it's pretty simple to do and once I'm even more convinced its a good idea I'll be able to write a little Java app to automate lots of it and get rid of the paper rules. It's also a total blast. I'm on day 3 of CG 1 - Into The Factory and its the most fun I've ever had with CMBB. It's better than an operation on the same subject because _you_ get to decide what forces to call up when and how quick you need them on the front - not the operation designer. I never got into operations for that one reason. I'm testing this against the AI, but if anyone feels like like helping me test in person, drop me a line at peterk@look.ca. Familarity with RB and a machine that can handle huge maps is pretty much a necessity.

This little dream of mine doesn't seem to ever die...I've worked up yet another idea for getting a workable way to play the 3 Red Barricades campaigns with CMBB and an external tool and am anxious to fool around with it to see if it works. But I'd need a copy of the map (I don't need it, but it would speed things along mightily if there was one around that I could start with). Does anyone have/know of a battle (not an operation) that uses a pretty good representation of the entire Red Barricades map?

> The Polish eventually surrendered but with full > military status. Are you sure? I'll have to go back and read up but I don't think their end was quite that honorable...although they definitely deserved it. I don't think anything in World War 2 quite compares in terms of bravery in face of impossible odds. Mila 18 by Leon Uris in case anyone is interested in a good read about this topic.

The defender pretty much has to defend along the entire width of the map on operations - the attacker has more liberty to attack only on a narrow portion and not be penalized too much by the front line algorithm. [ April 06, 2004, 06:28 PM: Message edited by: Peterk ]

You sure it sounded like chipmunks...or was it more like hamsters???

Don't blame the AI. I played this one PBEM against my regular opponent eons ago and we didn't make contact until about turn 25 or so. It was a real snoozer of a scenario once the mystery of sneaking through the woods wore off. p.

This only works if you are running missions as quick-battles which I'm not. It's also not really good for a Stalingrad type map. Infantry will bolt into buildings at the first sign of a plane and on the next passes the planes won't see them any more. Artillery missions take far to long to achieve anything Stalingradesque. The only method I've found which is good is to build the map clean and then rubble every 5th building square and then flame every 7th non-rubbled building square. Total pain in the butt (like so many things are turning out to be).

I'm working on a little campaign that will cover the initial days of the German attack on Stalingrad. The Russians had appx 60 tanks available to defend the city early on but most of them were in such bad shape they were dug in and used as static defense. Is there any way in the scenario editor to define the tank in such a way that it must begin dug-in wherever the player decides to place it??? I've tried a few experiments and haven't found anything. If I dig-in without padlocking on the map-editor, the player still gets the movement orders for those tanks when the game starts. I may end up replacing these damaged T-34's with pillboxes to simulate it. p. [ January 31, 2004, 12:47 PM: Message edited by: Peterk ]

Sounds like what you're asking for is Steel Panthers types of flags where they toggle to one side or the other and don't have to be manned. Makes a lot of sense for larger scenarios and operations (where something was an important objective in the past but the fighting has moved on). I'm working on a large campaign for CMBB and I will in fact ask the player to ignore CMs flag ownership and treat them this way manually instead.

On the attack, keep the HQ's above platoon level close to the action, but a bit back. They can fill in for other HQ's that get nailed. Often makes the difference between getting a platoon back in commission or losing them for the scenario.

> For the missing slice, have you seen this map?: Thanks for the link. Yeah that one's been my wallpaper for a few weeks. The scale's a little too big to do CM maps with. I'm working with the Luftwaffe maps of the city. Lots of detail. p.

FWB, Yeah I do. Just sent you an e-mail. Did you get Mapping Mission going yet? I can send it to you, but just as easy to d/l it on your own. And I want to give you a sample to use and I've been working more on the software than the maps these days. p.

Well, I'm not there yet but yes there will definitely be an AI capable of trying several different strategies - for the Russian side at least. I've written a chess program and a commercially released hockey game with a decent AI in the past so it shouldn't be a big deal.

Definitely A. I'd like to be able to play historic operations at a scale larger and longer than that what is possible with an operation. Things like the Arnhem Offensive, Stalingrad, even the paratroop actions on D-Day would be absolutely fascinating with a thin strategic layer on top of it. [ January 25, 2004, 11:20 PM: Message edited by: Peterk ]

Sergei, I'm working on a piece of software that will let people build campaigns such as this for play against the AI or PBEM. My first test scenario involves Stalingrad and it will keep me busy for a while (28 maps - ARGH) but I might be interested in using your maps for the 2nd scenario. Drop me an e-mail if you want some more info. I've got a really early screenshot of my program in the "Ideas For A Stalingrad Campaign" thread in Scenario talk.