Biltong

Guys - I know these rules can be daunting. They started of quite simply, but once we've catered for all the exceptions they turned into a bit of an opera I had to say no-thank you a hundred times to The BCR Team and players who wanted to add on MORE My best advice: Don't read all of the rules in one sitting - it will just scare you. USE THE PLAYER GUIDE AND ROLL UP THE PARAMETERS ONE BY ONE... Once you have played a battle or 2 it will all fall into place. Then rolling up becomes a breeze and actually part of the FUN... finding out what I'm going to get is one of my favourite parts of BCR.

You didn't do anything wrong. You were just very lucky!! By pure fluke you rolled up a Large Battle x 5 ( 1 out of 10 odds) for your first battle - A task force of this size will give your Battle Group a welcome break since they will lead the way. Once the enemy has been routed, bring up the Battle Group and kill the fleeing soldiers to get some experience and favor This won't happen often. The reason for Large Battles: Without the large battle option, most BCR battles will be around 1250, which can become repetative. #29-35 just gives you the amount of points you are allowed to spend on your Task Force Categories, while #18-25 determines what 'type' of task force you will get... So it's not "independant", but I see what you are getting at: Why not just use #18-25 and generate the task force: Problem is: Most of the time your task force will be far too large. Far too easy a game. You need to roll up the purchase points for the categories to keep the Task Force size in check (your situation being an extreme exception and most important to allow the modifiers in Note 7 to take effect: Player Exp; Battle Type & Date. Yes, one would expect that, but: As you found - the QB tends to repeat the same units over and over. So I'm 'nice' and give the Auto more Purchase points so that it will (hopefully) generate a wider variety of units that you can choose from. The main purpose of the Auto QB is to tell you what to buy and to prevent you from buying the same 'pet' units over and over if left to yourself. Remember: You are still restricted by the points you rolled up per category so you can't go to town and buy everything, but at least the QB decided what you can buy. See my post to Apache re the same topic a bit higher up. Basically it's the 'teaching' function of BCR - to force you to buy units which you would not buy if left to yourself...play with them & getting to know them, and still be historically correct in terms of availability and rarity. Hope this helps

Check your inbox for Kiev (Chili Pepper – Extra Strong)… Curious to hear what you find. As for the FO suggestion: Looks good at 1st glace, but… It removes the randomness provided by the QB. (Not that there’s much of it when it comes to FO’s). I prefer that the QB dictates, in most cases, what the player buys – forcing him to play a variety of units and not just keep on choosing his own pet units. This is one of the benefits of BCR: You get to learn the pro’s and con’s of all the units in CMBB… Rarity tends to cut down the choices somewhat, but the Rules cater for that as well: Note 12: “For both the Task Force and Attached Units stick to units that are less than 40% Rare - a die roll of 9 or 10 gives you free reign to buy those rare beauties….” Also: I prefer to keep the same style for all the Task Force categories and avoid hard-coding the units… this allows CMBB to control the availability/rarity of the units/FO’s, as time advances, via the QB. Wreck’s old rules used to do this (hard-coding) and the restriction bugged me: always having just the same few choices… Not such a big problem when it comes to FO’s, but still an unnatural/unhistorical restriction. If I had to hard-code and keep it historically correct – I would have to check what is available for each month/sector and hard-code it in – a lot of work (and modifiers/rules?) already done by BFC. The QB route is the only way of using BFC’s research and coding without reinventing the wheel. In any case: The rules allow a player to buy what you suggest when they are lucky enough to get Large Arty You know most of this already – Just restating the case for all the new guys

Hi Sublime, Here’s another one: Irony But I’ve already provided a whole list of random numbers in a sheet that comes with the rules. See the tab “Random Die Numbers” at the bottom of the Rules… Print it then you don’t have to tab back and forth to the online die generator. There’s 1600 numbers – should be enough for a whole campaign. I just use a felt pen and mark off the numbers as I use them. Far easier me thinks

Hi Lane – Download the Rules and the Players Guide – see the 1st post in this thread for the download addresses. The player Guide will walk you through everything. Enjoy

Spot On Rex!! Yep - I must agree, Manstein puts a lot of effort into it and what really impresses me is that he goes back and revues them and improves them as his abilities improves. This I've hardly ever seen. He's a true fanatic!! Once you played some of them I would love it if you give us some feedback - espp things that you would like to see improved. Potential problem areas are setup zones and flag positions. BTW - Most of these maps have a slight slant towards the Allied side since in BCR the human player playes against the Allied AI... We cheat a bit in favor of the AI. If you're playing against the AI - choose the German side. The slant is slight though, so if you do play the Allied side it won't matter too much

Play Testers Wanted Peter Molloy has just finished with the 1st two days worth of maps for the Kiev City Battle pack. See Rules mods below. These maps are truly great!! Beautiful! is the right word. Now we need testers to give some feedback re flags/setup zones and game length... If you're interested - send me a mail. The rules changes below will give you an idea: Note (1) Date: " Between 15 and 19 September (Sept.; Week 3; Day 1 to Week 3; Day 5) go to Appendix B Kiev – City Battle.” Appendix B Kiev – City Battle Your Battle Group takes part in the Battle of Kiev. The battle takes place over 5 days. .... For day one choose the closest map (depending on the parameters you rolled up) from the Outskirts' group of maps in the Kiev Map Pack. Day 2: " Suburbs" Day 3: "Worker's Paradise” Day 4: "Urban Chaos" Day 5: "Bridges of Blood" Note that ME's are not allowed - a ME automatically becomes an Axis Assault and Day 5 will always be an Axis Assault. Do not roll up the Infantry/Support (29) and Armor (31) for your Task Force. Instead you are assigned a company of Pioneers and a platoon of Stugs to support your Battle Group. German - Mechanized: Motorized Pioneer Company (572 points); Platoon of 3 x Sturmgeschutz IIIB (205 points) In case of a Large Battle (28) the multipliers there would apply to the Pioneers and IIIB’s as well. Carry on with the rest of the rules as per normal. Biltong biltong@betrim.co.za

Oy!! Didn't want that to leak out, but since you've mentioned it - yep

Apache - You just gave me an idea (AGAIN!) Once you have a Allied version of the rules we'll be able to play a PBEM/human opponent campaign for the next 20 years! Each side takes turns to roll up what type of battle/force size etc and off you go!! Will need some ajustments, but it should be quite easy... You on for a g......a.......m.......e

That's what I did in fact - I was too lazy to tell the guys how to do it, so I just included a sheet with a couple of hundred numbers See the tabs at the bottom of the Excel sheet guys!! Use the favor when you've got it... You might lose it next battle - Or your CO might catch you with his wife

For G-Sake Super - I told you how many times: You dont have to add up all those numbers - you just use them as is!! Oh I like this!!: "In case anyone wants it: My super-duper Die program (100% realistic die simulator DELUXE, )... Very curious to see the download tots... will peep in - good idea [ February 10, 2003, 03:31 PM: Message edited by: Biltong ]

Load it up on a Laptop and fly around the world - East to West, I think

Thank You Sir You don't mention the Player Guide.. That is key for new players. Just reading the rules will confuse Confusius The Excel File comes with 5 sheets - see the tabs at the bottom of the 1st sheet(the Random Die Numbers is one of them). Print the Excel sheets: Rules; Battle Group; Parameters and Random Die sheets - Don't worry about Favor - you will only use it after your battle. The Player Guide is a seperate Word Doc - print that as well. Using the Player Guide as a guide , start with Parameter 1 and carry on... Don't worry about reading it through 1st... Just do it. Once you've rolled up your 1st battle everything should fall into place and how everything fits together will be a lot clearer (I hope) I've still got 14 others to do - South 42 to 45; Central and North 41 - 45. I doubt that I will get to the Allied side before CMIII. The rules are very stable now and to modify them for the Allieds should be very easy - Maybe some enterprising guy will take it upon himself...? With my full blessing

Last count - about 30 of them. Download the Map List - it's already sorted by size - Check the Map Size collumn - choose one that turns you on and enjoy yourself Biltong

As you might have noticed: History Buff a bit higher up mentioned that he had a Captured T35 as an Attached Unit. Strictly against the Rules since BCR only allow you to have Inf/Support or Vehicles!! Why didn’t I jump on him? This might be a good time to introduce new players to BCR’s Goals “BCR’s Goal is to: 1. Enable players to play a Campaign from June 41 through all of the CMBB terrain until the final day of battle in Berlin. 2. Make sure that the Campaign never becomes Boring – the difficulty must increase, it must be varied and the Campaign must end in a climax. 3. Keep the Campaign as Historically accurate as possible. 4. Keep it short and simple enough to allow most players to understand and use it. 5. Enable anyone to Expand or Modify BCR to his own taste. 6. Provide Excitement, Tension and just good old-fashioned Fun! BCR is just for yourself… the battle is between yourself and an enemy who grows stronger every year… You will have to become a better commander for you and your men to survive till the end.” To get back to the T34 – Read 5 again: ‘Expand or modify’ to your hearts desire In fact – one of the BCR Team guys, Apache has developed a whole ‘Expansion Pack’ where you play with a SS Armoured Panzer Grenadier Battalion (Pz) amongst other things. So feel free – This is one place where Anarchy Rules If you like the idea of a really large campaign – e-mail Apache apopen@ntlworld.com : He would love to hear from you.

"Scrounged Units" Wow - that was 4? versions ago... The MG section comes with the Motorized Inf Co. It's not part of the Task Force or an Attached Unit Just below it is a row with a 'Note 8' in it. Note 8 says: "Enter Attached Units, Extra Squads, Teams, etc. here - add more lines as you need them." The Player Guide also has this entry under Battle Group Sheet: "Within the rows are two major groupings: Infantry Company and Armor. Both of these have a row containing a ‘Note 8’. Extra rows can be inserted here so that you can enter any Attached Units that you might obtain after battles.

Player Guide p 6 - Parameter 28 (Large Battle): “Now roll up the categories and then multiply the points obtained (if any) by the Large Battle multiplier. If the final (category) points are less than the minimum allowed, use the minimum.” Added the following to make it clearer: “Example: You got 9 for Large Battle and then roll1 for Infantry/Support = None. In this case the Minimum allowed for Large Battle (300) applies. You now roll 7 for Vehicles and get 120 x 3 for Large Battle = 360. Use this (360) since it’s more than the minimum of 300.” In this case you are ‘lucky’. See the note in 49:” If the QB generator does not generate enough (or any) units in a category for which you have Purchase Points - don't worry. This is sorted out later in your favor ” And Note 12 – Generating the real battle: “If you have points left after buying all the units generated for a category or if you have points left, but not enough to buy a specific unit, you can choose what you want to buy from the normal QB unit list (in that category only) until you have used up the purchase points for that category.” Added the following to the Player Guide: “Note that quite often the QB won’t generate enough forces in a specific category. In that case you are lucky since you get to choose what you want to buy. See Note 12 – Generating the Real Battle.” Modified – added that to the rules as well. Thanx for all the feed back – Keep it up. I’ll adjust the Player Guide/Rules as you guys find areas that are not clear enough. Biltong

I mailed Scooby - give it a bit of time - I'm sure he'll fix it soon LATER: My bad - I posted the wrong (old) addy - fixed it up in the meanwhile - Sorry Scooby [ February 10, 2003, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: Biltong ]

Gentlemen, If you are getting a wee bit tired of QB generated maps, you might like to play on a designed map for a change A spin-off from Biltong’s Campaign Rules is 5 map packs with over 140 maps as well as a list of the maps with all the info you need to select the type of map you want: Battle Type (Assault etc.); Year; Size; Width; Height; Map Type (village etc.); Trees; Hills and Suggested Game Length. The main benefit of these maps: 1) Each map was designed spesifically for only one Battle Type, E.g.: Axis Probe or Allied Assault etc. 2) The Set-up Zones have great variety, and will bring more surprises for both sides than a QB can ever hope to do. 3) Flag positions are realistic, not just a random ‘flutter’ of flags 4) The maps are quite beautiful – realistic towns with all the eye-candy: fences; orchards; realistic streets; farms; names etc. etc. 5) Variety of maps: from an open cast mine in a mountain to cities to river crossings to state farms…. The ‘how’ is quite easy – download the latest Map List. When you need a map – check on the list which one you want and import the map. Simple as that. Full instructions come with the list. Download the Excel Map List here: SuperSulo's Site or PDF Map List here: Scooby's Site Enjoy BTW – BCR’s 5th Goal is: “Enable anyone to Expand or Modify BCR to his own taste.” , so you can do with the maps whatever you want… [ February 22, 2003, 02:33 PM: Message edited by: Biltong ]

Just curious - what position do you occupy at MicroSoft? </font>

For those of you who don't have MS Word/Excel - Scooby has broken some records and he's got the PDF versions ready for download here: Scooby's Site [ February 10, 2003, 01:58 PM: Message edited by: Biltong ]

All guys above - check your inboxes Regarding the 'Non-German Task Force' question higher up: I've just adjusted the Player Guide (p5) "Axis Parameters - Game Page 2 From here... The parameters on this page are (mostly) used to determine what type of Task Force will support your Battle Group. All though your Battle Group is German, you might get Romanians (or other Axis forces) as a supporting Task Force. This is deliberate, so that you will have the opportunity to play with them as well." Hope this will clear it up [ February 09, 2003, 10:28 AM: Message edited by: Biltong ]

OK - Guys SuperSulo has got it up on his site get it here: SuperSulo's Site Thanx Super - I was about to get swamped

Don't feel alone - this weird illogical language is not my own either Uhu/Blackhorse - check your inboxes.

Got a question via e-mail. "Got a question with the first battle. I followed the Rules for my first battle and at #19 rolled to get Romanian nationality. I got to #27 Force Type and the notes say the first battle has German/Mechanized and Regular. Where does my roll for the Romanians come into it? Will my first battle have both Romanians and Germans?" Yes - The Task Force that will support your (German) Battle Group wil be Romanian . See Summary (A) in the Player Guide: "At first you will use the Rules sheet in conjunction with the Random Die Numbers to determine parameters that you will fill in on the Parameter sheet. Using the Parameter sheet you will create two Quick Battles (QB’s). The first QB never gets played – it is only use is to automatically generate a Task Force that will help your Battle Group for just that single battle. The 2nd QB is the Real Battle where your Battle Group fights it out against the Allied enemy." BTW - post all your questions here - then everyone can see the question/answer.