Biltong

Gentlemen, A last word on the Casualties die-roll: I, myself hate it when things outside my control dictate important factors of a game I play. If the AI cheats or there’s a bug! The Casualties die-roll might seem to fit in this category, but it’s not a bug or ‘somefink’. As a German CO on the East Front and esp. in winter, you would have found an enormous amount of factors out of your control. If BCR was purely about ‘fun’, I would not even have included the Casualties parameter, but BCR is also about giving you a historical ‘ride’. For the first couple of years the Main features of Operation Barbarossa, was the German Summer offensives followed by the Russian counter offensives. To exclude these or to water them down, would destroy BCR’s credibility IMHO. The only way one can experience what the Germans went through – esp. in that 1st winter of 42 – is through a campaign like BCR. The absolute Frustration; Anger; Fear and Horror of having to reach objectives or defend against an ever increasing enemy and you don’t know when you wake up in the morning how many of your men and armor will be available or in fighting condition. This is what will separate the men from the boys… Those who can handle this, who can make do with nothing and still survive till spring If this is too much historical accuracy for you - Simply up your Date die-roll by 2 and rush through the winter, but do try and stick to the casualty die-roll. An easy campaign with no challenges will soon become boring and grind to a halt. Put yourself in the boots of a CO at the mercy of Hitler’s poor judgement. Learn how to handle a series of mishaps that is out of your control… How & when to fight retreating actions and if necessary, how & when to run & hide.. See it as a challenge… You will only have this opportunity with BCR.

Yep - The Soviet Winter offensive: Operation Saturn (includig Stalingrad) must be to blame. The Soviets destroyed 40 to 45 German and satelite divisions - a quarter of the forces facing them!!

Good ideas! And they are already on the list. In fact, what is happening is that the armor portion of 'c' is already scheduled to be implimented in Jan 43. I'm portioning all new rules into batches to be added every 6 'war' months as Addendums. These addendums can be retrofitted to previous years if the players want to. I don't want to make 41 into a massive tome that will scare all new players off. Gradually they will discover new rules that they can impliment or ignore as they see fit.

You have to spend them, but you can upgrade later when you get more points and if all 3 positions are filled. 1 Platoon = 1 unit. Edit: The rules have been updated to make this clearer. Thanx DB Biltong [ May 03, 2003, 07:59 AM: Message edited by: Biltong ]

Good - Good. Also having a bit of a problem with RL at the moment - It's 4:30am - Only time I get to answer some posts

Hmm SS - Not quite correct. If you look again at the site you quote you'll see that those weren't 'losses', but deaths! This has been discussed a number of times, but lets have one more go for all the newbies "By Dec 41 German losses on land reached 830,903 officers, NCO's and men - roughly 25.9 perecent of the forces which had been alloted to Operation Barbarossa" (This from Brig Gen J.L. Collins Chief of Military Hist, US Dept of the Army) Now take into account that front line troops that BCR represent only make up between 1/7th to 1/10th of the forces deployed - the rest in support roles or on training/being refitted etc etc and you'll see that BCR's figures are very lenient BTW - Soviet losses in prisoners alone were 2,800,000 from June to Dec!! Here's some more random thoughts and quotes: "On Nov 14th Gen Guderian improvised a Brigade of only 50 tanks out of what was left of the 350 tanks from the 3rd & 4th Pz Divisions." Once the winter struck "the Soviet Army's main advantage lay not in numbers, but in fresh, well-clad troops where the Germans were exhausted, ill-fed, demoralised and freezing." German clothing were worn from 5 months in the field, lacked a balaclava helmet, earflaps, padded tunic, fur gloves or camouflage overalls. Boots had only room for one pair of socks. The result: Frostbite: In the 112th Div there were +-400 in EACH inf. regiment on Nov 17th! The lack of anti-freeze meant engines had to be kept running while fuel supplies were having enourmous trouble in getting through. Crampons for tank tracks had not yet reached the front and tracks were too narrow for the snow. Automatic arms jammed. German horses died in droves, because they were not used to digging in snow like their Russian cousins. etc etc. The percentages I decided on came from various sources... after a while you get the same type of data over and again. I also ran it passed some grogs. I personally think they are lenient and I adjusted them so, to make the game more playable. Most players think the 'Casualties' represent 'wounded', but this is not the case. Our little Battle Group is a microcosm of what happened all over the Southern Front. In our case Casualties represent: Sickness Frostbite Wounded Lost; Troops delayed because of disorganisation; roads impassable with snow or mud; detroyed railway lines/bridges etc etc Troops without ammo/weapons to fight Armor & vehicles (esp horse drawn) broken down; stranded in snow or mud; stuck without fuel (food for horses), spare parts or ammo etc etc etc These and a host of other smaller factors cut into the German forces when the going got tough. One final quote: "On Nov 12th the temperature was -12 deg C; On Dec 4th it fell to -35deg and a strong north-east wind made it far worse." The term wind-chill wasn't invented yet If you'll look at the rules, you'll see that the extreme casualties (50%) are restricted to the these 'bad' cold days. Hint: Build up favor during the good months and use them to stay out of trouble when the winter comes: "Please Sir, My men are stuffed! We need a break!!" "OK - You've proven yourself over and over - Off you go for a 2 week refit" Most quotes from: The Hist of World War II, Orbis - London, i966/84/85, Lt-Col. E Bauer [ May 02, 2003, 10:17 PM: Message edited by: Biltong ]

Hmmm - I see there's a difference between the Rule and the example. Use your 2nd one - same as the Example: Purchase Points: 1000; Casualty: 20%; Battle Type: Assault Provisional Force Size = 1000 * (1 - .2) / 1.72 = 465 (round up) I've fixed the rules - it now reads: Provisional Force Size = Purchase Point Total * (1 - Casualty Percentage) / Battle Type Multiplier Thanx for pointing it out

Some of the best ideas to come out of this board in a long time. Added to my list and will be implimented. Thanx Atiff!!

Yowzer!! Well - lets put it this way: You don't learn much from winning Remember - in BCR running away & hiding is a very good & realistic tactic sometimes Rather lose some favor and keep your men & their exp alive.

Hmm Double post [ May 01, 2003, 05:36 PM: Message edited by: Biltong ]

Hi Snowbart, You can upgrade your battle group, but be very carefull that you don't go overboard. BCR will upgrade your Battle Group in any case as the years progress and within the historical framework. If you go overboard and give yourself some 'mighty' units you will throw out the ballance and end up with too easy & boring battles. As for which points to use: As long as you record the actual points you used to purchase your new Battle group, the normal calcs will take care of the rest. To give you an idea - here's the Battle Group you get to command in Jan 42. 1 Fallschirmjager Company (German/Airborne) - Points: 510 - Regular - Experience: 20. 1 Platoon of 3 x Sturmgeschutz IIIB - Points: 244 - Regular - Experience: 15. 1 Platoon of 4 x Panzer IIIJ (Short) - Points: 306 - Regular - Experience: 10. " 1 Kubelwagen - Points: 22 - Regular - Experience: 17. 1 Truck - Points: (25) - Green - Experience: 8. 1 Truck - Points: (30) - Veteran - Experience: 37. 1 SPW 251/1 - Points: (57) - Regular - Experience: 11. 1 SPW 251/1 - Points: (67) - Veteran - Experience: 48. You might prefer to stay with your Motorized Inf Company that bled with you through the long winter months!! In that case, decline the new command. But, you will still be rewarded: Your Motorized Inf Company has just received some transport: 1 Kubelwagen - Points: 22 - Regular - Experience: 17. 1 Truck - Points: (25) - Green - Experience: 8. 1 Truck - Points: (30) - Veteran - Experience: 37. 1 SPW 251/1 - Points: (57) - Regular - Experience: 11. 1 SPW 251/1 - Points: (67) - Veteran - Experience: 48. Two Tank Hunter Teams have also been assigned permanently to your Company: 1 T/H - Points: 16 - Crack - Experience: 73 1 T/H - Points: 14 - Veteran - Experience: 25 Your armor is also replaced with: 1 Platoon of 3 x Sturmgeschutz IIIB - Points: 244 - Regular - Experience: 15. 1 Platoon of 4 x Panzer IIIJ (Short) - Points: 306 - Regular - Experience: 10.

Thanx Scarhead - Guys - got it - just been a bit hectic here the last couple of days - should get to answering some mails/posts tonight

Good idea - get rid of your job, keep your life and make some maps

Yep - Unfortunately frostbite got them, they got lost in a blizzard, couldn't get to the battle in time - no fuel because the supply convoy was stuck in mud etc etc. The East Front was a user-unfriendly place

Wow - Knights Crosses all round - Anybody got a better result with a team or squad? Nice AAR SS

Great AAR's Acarhead Any comments on the maps - what could be changed to make them more difficult/realistic/interesting etc. But e-mail me direct so as not to spoil it for the other guys

If the Battalion could be changed on a regular basis it would be fine. One of the main purposes of the Task Force is to give players the opportunity/force them to play with a variety of units they won't normally choose themselves. Oh - and yes - preferably automated Yes - 2 good ideas there - on the list

LOL... Do mail me some feedback (for each battle if you can). I'm starting with Stalingrad and would like to get it spot-on! I need feedback

This should get done long beforehand - scheduled for 43 South in fact This would be one hell of a task. There are different modifiers for each nation/opponent. A generalized set of rules won't work IMHO - battles will be too easy or difficult. In fact it looks like CMAK might have to be broken into different smaller campaigns, even if playing from the Axis side. Might be an idea to have 2 main campaigns: Axis in the desert and an Allied force in Italy. The Italian campaign worries me, since it could be just one long series of assaults.

Just asked this question in another thread: What would you like from a BCR/CMAK campaign? And specifically: Would you like to play from the Axis side again or from the Allied side? What else?

Welcome back, Lane

This thread is becoming interesting A.E.B. I like your idea, except for one problem: It will increase the red tape factor. You'll have to keep track of the individual Task Force units. For instance: Does Task Force Units ncrease in experience? - If not, they will still be used as cannon fodder. If yes - you'll have to go through all the experience/favor? calculations.. a lot of red tape. I also suspect that programs like Biltaid will find it difficult to handle all the potential variations. But, it should be quite easy to impliment manually and some of you might want to do so. But let's stay general - i.e. not BCR specific. What would one like from a campaign if BFC were to bring one out? I was thinking about CMAK. I would like to bring out a BCR version and my first thought was to take it from the Axis side again. Main reason being that it's easier to take the losing side, since the battles get progressively more difficult and you can keep the player interest. But, won't most players want to play the Allies? So, more specific: What would you like from a BCR or BFC CMAK campaign? Biltong

Kiev Battle Pack Update Bridges of Blood - The last battle map in the Kiev Battle Pack has been updated and is now available from SuperSulo's Site Enjoy

Fok jou en jou rooinek taal BTW - mail me some feedback re Urban Chaos - how I can make it better. SS gave me some great feedback on Bridges of Blood... BTW x 2 - I've just sent an update of Bridges to the web-guys - make sure you have the latest (v2) before playing it. If it's not on the sites by the time you get to it - mail me and I'll send it along. Edit: SS has just mailed me to let me know it's up - the fastest webmaster in the East Biltong [ April 26, 2003, 05:25 PM: Message edited by: Biltong ]

LOL. Oy.. Patience guys!! Two things: Please remember SeaHawk is not being paid for this.. He's doing it because he's a machocist He took Biltaid over just a short while ago and as far as I can see is doing a realy excellent job in getting Biltaid v2.2 compliant, easy to install and esp. as far as support goes. Patience - and make sure you have the latest release notes & version before installing Be nice or he'll go back to playing Diablo or somefink Edit: True to form he jumped in with some support to sort out the problem even as I was typing. Way to go SeaHawk!! The guys mean well - they're just in a hurry to get started. The 1st couple of months of BCR was the same Great to sit and watch it from the sidelines for a change LOL - Patience - it will get there - In fact sounds like it's virtually there [ April 26, 2003, 11:18 AM: Message edited by: Biltong ]