Seahawk-vfa201

You can do it the editor way, but unfortunately there's a bug in the editor that resets all your ammo to full. The influence of ammo on the battle (esp in the crucial winter and counter offensive dates) is so important that it cannot be discarded. [...] The chance that Charles will be fixing the ammo bug is quite slim, but hold thumbs - the new patch will be out quite soon I believe. </font>

Yes, that is what we are doing to track faithfully squads/units experience. There is no other known way. Drawnbacks: you cannot set ammo level. You end up with full whatever you set as soon as QB loads the map with your units.

Just finished Kiev Outskirt. Nice map, pretty easy advance. All my squads but 1 are Regular now. PzIII crew is close to become veteran as well. AAR being sent to EasyCo for his Journal of Hauptmann Hawk.

I wondered: The Editor is able to open battles and operations (works with some of the provided ones) but cannot load the QB battle generated. Why? If i could I might eb able to re-set all the correct ammo levels for the imported units. Anyone knows why Editor refuses to Load an QB battle?

You were right to ask. The QB level drives. units follow what I put in the QB: if FULL then everybody is full. The ammo level is what I put in the QB, not what I set in the Editor. So the patch only fixes the ammo level as per QB not as per the Editor. It's % is forgotten in favor of QB setting.

Am at work now I will do the test you asked. But for sure if on the editor I set my units at less than FULL they do not show a full green bar as ammo level when I start the battle. :-{ I'll do more detailed tests later and report. [ March 20, 2003, 12:07 PM: Message edited by: Seahawk-vfa201 ]

On Mac seems to be working correctly, even when in the Editor (what I use to setup each battle): I definitely have seen an increase of return fire on my troops from early stages to now (I am on the 13th o September). Looks like PC version does not take into account any Ammo level. I strongly suggest you move to 1.0.2: should fix the problem for PCs on the QB (but reportedly not on the Editor) [ March 20, 2003, 08:07 AM: Message edited by: Seahawk-vfa201 ]

:eek: Looks like you all are going appreciate/hate my literary vein in describing my BCR campaign. I am doomed!!!! EasyCo showed me his idea and since I like write down my impressions from the field, why not...

That sounds reasonable to do. One could add a rule so that the capabilities might improve as well if the HQ experience is upgraded. Probably only in exceptional cases as those bonuses are more on the inherent qualities of the character that can be better indeed with time, but a CO or HW without those characteristics I doubt has any great chance of developing. I would favor though some 10% ~15% good luck chance of getting bonuses upgraded as well. WIth Editor would be indeed possible and add to the realism. Good idea.

And stronger they are, especially now that I practically have handicap Allied +25% and even +50% in the current battle since I was promoted Veteran. 8 September 1941 - Sgt Frederick Boer of the Hauptmann Fuhrer Hawk KampfGruppe. We keep killing them and they keep coming. For the most we are LOW on ammo and Ivan keeps coming... and keeps dying. Will they ever stop? Between us and our own death there are only well placed barbed wire and minefields. But they keep coming... they keep coming... they keep coming...

No bother at all. Usually people post here to: 1) ask for help, 2) provide help 3) share thoughts I took your post as 1) and replied with 2). 3): we do it all the time. No hard feelings. Keep posting type 3)

I count (and BiltAid) one prisoner favor point per additional squad. Since you said you are using BiltAid prisoners are counted per squad so you should put in as poer method B in the prisoners field.

gee, i wouldn't be boasting about that [ba-dum-bump] but seriously: please read my post again. I'm talking about the entire process between battles. I don't think an hour is so long of a time to get all of that work done, which I now am [mostly] convinced is correct and i can SEE it on paper. </font>

Truth be told, I never went over to Biltaid; I'm certain that it's a great timesaving device [...] And Biltong is right; after a few times the whole process between battles -- AAR, computing Favor, reassigning squad personnel, rolling up the next battle, adding new task force and deploying troops -- takes less than an hour now. </font>

The defaulted option is highlighted (on my version there is a little green square around the default value). Click on the default value and no favor is spent. Click on any other and you'll soend the amount BiltAid asks you: "Do you want to spend 10 pts (or else) to change .. blah blah. Can't be easier, really Well, that's Excell. There is also available a PDF version of the rules. Any Excell user available? My take is that Biltaid is quite handy in tracking the exp level and generate parameters. Sure, it is not updated to latest version of BCRs and nevr will be (unless of some parallel effort). In the beginning I was following BiltAid and the printed rules to check what difference in results I would have with the two methods. Some issues are definitely not covered (yet?) like the Kiev battle but for that it is not difficult to go *manual* for a while and then *autopilot* subsequentely. My advice: check for yourself what would be following the printed rules or the tool and see what you would get with both methods. Then stick with what suit you more.

:confused: Sorry guys: multiple posts were not a silly trick to BUMP the thread.

I feel your pain. Yes, this is the best part of the Map add-on. No silly set-ups. You will realize that you will order your troops differently with BCR. No questions to rush to a flag - or alike - because it will make you win the battle at the price of having your men decimated. These men ARE your KampfGruppe and you will have to protect them as much as you can while going after your war plans: they ARE your men and will stay with you - hopefully - till the end of war. These units are not expendable. You need to think 'WAR' rather than 'BATTLE': you want these units become veterans - a couple of cracks would do good too -. I got my first veteran unit and I am proud of them: my dear PZ IV crew! And yes, you will hate the most when your - dubious - orders will turn in a waste of lives - AND experience - in your KampfGruppe. You will soon stop issuing risky orders and start to weight them under the scrutiny of "WAR" time-span rather then battle (capital and lower case on purpose) As you see maps have an entry for time period (most are 41-43). You should try to match as much as possible with what the parameters have given you. It happened to me though in one occasion I preferred to go with the auto-generated QB map instead. To make things simpler I decided to change the name only if the entire hq squad is killed. Did happens once: I had then a conscript platoon leader replacement, a young LT. which went through his first two battles now and he is green. He is young but he will learn. He acquired newly respect: even the Regulars in his platoon do not call him - among themselves of course - "Miss Lieutenant". For CO apply Rule 52. </font>

I feel your pain. Yes, this is the best part of the Map add-on. No silly set-ups. You will realize that you will order your troops differently with BCR. No questions to rush to a flag - or alike - because it will make you win the battle at the price of having your men decimated. These men ARE your KampfGruppe and you will have to protect them as much as you can while going after your war plans: they ARE your men and will stay with you - hopefully - till the end of war. These units are not expendable. You need to think 'WAR' rather than 'BATTLE': you want these units become veterans - a couple of cracks would do good too -. I got my first veteran unit and I am proud of them: my dear PZ IV crew! And yes, you will hate the most when your - dubious - orders will turn in a waste of lives in your KampfGruppe. You will soon stop issuing risky orders and start to weight them under the scrutiny of "WAR" time-span rather then battle (capital and lower case on purpose) As you see maps have an entry for time period (most are 41-43). You should try to match as much as possible with what the parameters have given you. It happened to me though in one occasion I preferred to go with the auto-generated QB map instead. To make things simpler I decided to change the name only if the entire hq squad is killed. Did happens once: I had then a conscript platoon leader replacement, a young LT. which went through his first two battles now and he is green. He is young but he will learn. He acquired newly respect: even the Regulars in his platoon do not call him - among themselves of course - "Miss Lieutenant". For CO apply Rule 52. </font>

I feel your pain. Yes, this is the best part of the Map add-on. No silly set-ups. You will realize that you will order your troops differently with BCR. No questions to rush to a flag - or alike - because it will you make win the battle at the price of having your men decimated. These men ARE your KampfGruppe and you will have to protect them as much as you can while going after your war plans: they ARE your men and will stay with you - hopefully - till the end of war. These units are not expendable. You need to think 'WAR' rather than 'BATTLE': you want these units become veterans - a couple of cracks would do good too -. I got my first veteran unit and I am proud of them: my dear PZ IV crew! And yes, you will hate the most when your - dubious - orders will turn in a waste of lives in your KampfGruppe. You will soon stop issuing risky orders and start to weight them under the scrutiny of "WAR" time-span rather then battle (capital and lower case on purpose) As you see maps have an entry for time period (most are 41-43). You should try to match as much as possible with what the parameters have given you. It happened to me though in one occasion I preferred to go with the auto-generated QB map instead. To make things simpler I decided to change the name only if the entire hq squad is killed. Did happens once: I had then a conscript platoon leader replacement, a young LT. which went through his first two battles now and he is green. He is young but he will learn. He acquired newly respect: even the Regulars in his platoon do not call him - among themselves of course - "Miss Lieutenant". For CO apply Rule 52.

Is there a new BiltAid coming along? I have not heard from Peterk in ages

That is your support group, not your Battle group. You will spend points on Inf, German, Inf as support group.

Although I already said the contrary and the opposite twice already I had yesterday battle at 90% ammo level and indeed none of my units showed full ammo in the battle. They all had a bit of red bar in the ammo level consistent to what I put on the editor. So it looks like it definitely is working - as Steve G. said - at least on a Mac.

For those I just get what comes with the units themselves. I did not try to find a way to modify those parameters. For small guns (troops) I set the value as from the Ammo % level from the BCR parameters. For tanks I did not make my mind yet and just get what comes as default (which is not max values) With the editor I just buy those units and save them with the map for the next battle. The Rolled Parameter is NOT for your Battle Group but only for the support units. So buy your KampfGruppe completed with tanks and then add the additional support as Infantry only (ie, no tanks in support for your first battle as per your rolled parameter).

I started as Regular, then BCR promoted me to Veteran out of my first month and a half of battles (from 22 June to August). I am playing now battles in September and probably end up fighting the battles of Kiev on mid-September.