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Zarquon

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Posts posted by Zarquon

    Who's up for an experiment?

    in Combat Mission Campaigns

    Posted

    AH yes swamps! Joining Onion Wars on a wave of excitement [ diminished slghtly by having to observe protocol and get my correct Russian identity] my first two battles were infantry in the same swamp taking attacks. Very boring and if one were to measure pleasure to time it was a definite fail.

    That was you in sector 228, back in 2003? Hehe. I *almost* kicked your ass in those fights...

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    Who's up for an experiment?

    in Combat Mission Campaigns

    Posted

    When I say 'set up a comm net', I mean the player to indicate which units share frequencies, and where he wants the X kilometers of phone line he has to be laid. This is important to see which forces could or could not react in time to enemy developments, and whether or not communications can be cut by shrewd operating. The ref must keep track, not together with the player but for him.

    Just one more point: almost all players who joined the Onion Wars campaign over the years were interested in playing tactical battles, very few were willing to put in some extra time, learn the system and do the planning, bookkeeping etc. If one of those players drops out, your campaign can be finished. Keep that in mind when writing the rules.

    If in doubt, why not start small and simple? Describe what kind of campaign you have in mind, then see how many players you can find. And only then discuss adding more complex rules. Begin with a simple system, a small map, few forces and a campaign that lasts only five turns. If your players stay with you, try something bigger.

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    Who's up for an experiment?

    in Combat Mission Campaigns

    Posted

    At Onion Wars, we've been campaigning for 7 1/2 years now. The first turns took about 6 weeks each, now it's more like 6 months. There was some rule creep, but that didn't make much of a difference. We had perhaps over a hundred players involved over the years, but the ones still playing are mostly veterans of the early years. If tactical players drop out, they're easier to replace. Finding new GMs is what can make or break the campaign.

    And yes, the most important bottleneck is GM time. As you said, it needs to be simple, or it'll never get off the ground, or worse, you'll invest a lot of time and then it dies after the first turn.

    Then the ref asks him where he wants to send his troops, put fieldworks, headquarters, how he wants to organise standing orders, comm nets, repair shops, scouting, AA, transport, muster areas, etc.

    Repair shops and comm nets? That's the opposite of KISS. I'd advise against any sort of logistics, except a rule saying for cut-off troops. That's because a) they don't matter much in terms of fun and B) one of the most crucial factors eating up GM time is communication.

    At first you might think it's fun to engage in endless debates with players about how a repair shop should be able to repair 8 trucks a turn instead of 4 tanks (unfortunately you forgot to include a detailed repair shop rule). But that discussion alone can take up a substantial amount of time. Hours become days. Keep it as simple as possible, then drop half of what you have and take it from there.

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    Onion Wars Campaign is recruiting

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Hi everybody!

    Ten months later, the campaign is seven and a half years old, Turn 27 is almost finished, and we're still playing! (If you don't know about the OW campaign, please read the first posts in this thread)

    But we've run into a problem lately: out of four GM's, three have been unable to contribute much in the past months. Illness in the family, too much work in the office, not enough time to run a fictional war. That's life. But after all this time and literally hundreds of battles, we're not ready to give up. That's why we're looking for GM's who'd like to help running this campaign.

    There's a lot to do - evaluating team orders, writing espionage reports, figuring out which forces run into each other, setting up a battle, creating a scenario, watching the players fight it out, writing the after-action reports, answering idiotic team questions, answering some more idiotic team questions, you name it. But we have separate theaters and every GM is in charge of only one of them.

    We're not one of those campaigns where the senior adjutant to the chief of supply operations submits a draft of next turn's weather report to his superior officer every month, according to rule §131, article 4, subsection B. Actually, the supply rules take up about two paragraphs in the rulebook, and I couldn't even name them. That's probably why we are still in business. That doesn't mean we're unsophisticated hacks, we just try to avoid bookkeeping paralysis and rule creep. In the end, it's all about strategy and good CM play.

    If you've ever been involved with running a campaign and long for a little more than a series of unrelated fights, come and have a look. We're in the process of easing GM work by streamlining some more and making player teams shoulder more of the work, e.g. map making and most of the bean counting. And some of us have been doing this for seven and a half years (did I mention that?), so it's not like you'd be left on your own if you join. You might even meet some of the old-timers of this board there. If you have an IQ of less than room temperature, don't worry, that's just what we expect from our GM's.

    There are no health benefits or retirement bonuses, just some good old-fashioned strategy wargaming at a leisurely pace. If that's your cup of tea, jump over to

    http://www.onionwars.net/phpbb/index.php

    and have a look, and we'll throw you in the deep water, I mean, take you by the hand. Show you the ropes. Well, you get the idea.

    Still not convinced? Check out the Salmon Nurse Calendar:

    http://www.onionwars.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1816

    Personally, I have a thing for Miss September 1942, but that's only me.

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    Is the attrition rate in combat mission "accurate"

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    I'm participating in an ongoing campaign (Onion Wars) and I did some light statistics a while ago:

    Counting only committed and lost squads of the Green side in 101 battles, a total of 1886 squads were committed and 480 of these were lost (sometimes the GMs combined casualties in different squads). Average battle size was 19 squads, some had only 5, a few saw 50 or 60, even 90. Most scenarios lasted 30 turns, some 40, a few 50.

    That's a loss rate of 25%, with most battles ranging between 15% and 40%. Although the casualty rate ranged from 0% to 100%, the overall average of 25% was remarkably consistent.

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    Historical Engine technology

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    One tidbit I read about aircraft engines somewhere is that the Me 109 fighter had something like a 700 hp engine in 1939, and a 1800 hp one when the war ended. Unfortunately, the maxed-out late-war engine lasted only about 10-12 hours in flight before it was worn out, but considering that most likely the fighter wouldn't last that long anyway, it made sense. Not sure if it's true, though.

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    How much equipment got lost in battle?

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    I know it's a silly question, but is there a way to tell roughly how much infantry weaponry was lost in combat in a WW2 division after a long month of fighting? I suppose there can't be any precise or even remotely scientific answer to a question like that, but I'm playing in an ongoing CMBB campaign and that got me wondering about replacement rates. People become casualties, but equipment could last much longer than the men crewing it, or couldn't it?

    Suppose a vanilla infantry division took part in some serious fighting for a month and held the field after each fight, so nothing is lost to the enemy. Let's say they began the month with 100 HMGs - would they need one replacement gun or twenty, excluding those that just needed spare parts or simple repairs? How long does your average mortar last before an unlucky hit destroys it or it simply falls off the proverbial truck?

    If there were any statistics on that, the numbers would probably be all over the place, but does anyone have an informed gut feeling on this?

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    de mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est - But Ambrose was asking for it

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    How many would sign a petition that they are 100% sure the dominant climate theory is exact and correct? That number would still be biased due to fundamental beleifs that we have got to fight pollution.

    So much from someone who taught statistics at university (and wouldn't call himself a scientist since 10 years)

    For a good laugh:

    http://www.oism.org/

    "OISM also markets a home-schooling kit for 'parents concerned about socialism in the public schools' and publishes books on how to survive nuclear war."

    When you've stopped laughing, google The Wall Steet's (and other US media) coverage of the annual climate skeptic's conference in NY.

    "The keynote speakers for the three-day conference are:

    • Arthur Robinson, Ph.D. Professor of Chemistry at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine. Among many other duties, Dr. Robinson directs the “Petition Project” that has obtained the signatures of more than 31,000 scientists, including over 9,000 with Ph.D.s, explicitly opposing the hypothesis of “human-caused global warming.”

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    How to simulate a WW1 battle?

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Thanks! I'd have to install CMAK again to try out the scenario, but I might do that.

    Don't you think the LMG increases firepower at range to an unrealistic level?

    What force ratio would a "typical" battle involve? 2:1 in infantry seems too low, but massed arty for the attacker should balance that to some degree.

    Wouldn't the defender have at least some reactive artillery, registered at no-man's-land?

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    How to simulate a WW1 battle?

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    (I know it's been discussed here before, but my search-fu is getting rusty...)

    This is not meant to be ultra-realistic, I'm just playing around with my favourite game again. If the result comes within a lightyear of a WW1 battle, it's fine.

    First, selecting all-rifle platoons should be obvious. There the trouble begins - I can find early Romanians for the Axis, but no rifle-only units in the Russian OOB.

    Wire is simple, but I'd need trenches and I guess that CM trenches don't really represent WW1 fortifications. Especially infantry behaviour in trenches is a problem - they rout out of them. Still, it's better than nothing and there's nothing one can do to improve that.

    Mines were around, but were AP minefields a common fixture on WW1 battlefields?

    Arty should be 75mm+, liberal quantities, preplanned only. Or shouldn't it? Any tips on that?

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    Using the Pause Command

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Your defending tank has LOS to a target but you know there will be more enemy tanks showing up in about a minute, outnumbering you. Plot a reverse move (getting you behind cover) with a 30-second pause, that lets you get off another 3 rounds. Or plot a move with a 57-second delay: at the beginning of the next turn, your tank has already begun moving but only a few meters. You can now either cancel the move or get out of danger immediately, depending on the new situation. Sometimes you can even move the waypoint and change it to an immediate forward move, if that suits you better.

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    What Is The Cover/Concealment Rating For Graveyards?

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Summer Exposure Exposure Exposure LOS

    Terrain in wire w/ foxhole Distance

    Railroad Tracks 100% N/A N/A Infinite

    Paved Road 100% 98% N/A Infinite

    Bridge 100% N/A N/A Infinite

    Ice 100% N/A N/A Infinite

    Ford 100% N/A N/A Infinite

    Wall (on top) 95% N/A N/A Infinite

    Sandbags (on top) 95% N/A N/A Infinite

    Dirt Road 90% 98% 44% Infinite

    Hedge (on top) 75% N/A N/A Infinite

    Tall Hedge (on top) 75% N/A N/A Infinite

    Wood Fence (on top) 75% N/A N/A Infinite

    Open Ground 75% 98% 44% Infinite

    Soft Ground 75% 98% 44% Infinite

    Roadblock 70% N/A N/A Infinite

    Vineyard 65% 100% 44% Infinite

    Marsh 65% N/A N/A 235m

    Hedge (behind) 60% 60% 42% Infinite

    Wood Fence (behind) 60% 60% 42% Infinite

    Wheatfield 60% 98% 44% 96m

    Brush 53% 98% 44% 158m

    Cemetery 50% 98% 44% Infinite

    Rocky 50% 98% 44% Infinite

    Crater 44% 44% N/A Infinite

    Scattered Trees 33% 75% 24% 54m

    Wall (behind) 30% 30% 30% Infinite

    Sandbags (behind) 30% 30% 30% Infinite

    Tall Hedge (behind) 30% 30% 30% 12m

    Rough 28% N/A N/A 235m

    Rubble 24% N/A N/A 24m

    Light Building (2 story) 20% N/A N/A 20m

    Light Building (1 story) 18% N/A N/A 20m

    Woods 18% 75% 15% 26m

    Tall Pines 18% 75% 15% 36m

    Heavy Building 12% N/A N/A 20m

    Trench 9% N/A N/A Infinite

    Wall (Hiding behind) 0% 0% 0% Infinite

    For CMAK 1.01.

    For Brush, Scattered Trees, etc., exposure numbers are for units on the edge of the tree line. Units further in will have less exposure.

    Units in Rocky or worse terrain tend to try to move (sneak away) when they come under fire. Units in Crater or better are more stalwart.

    LOS Distance is with clear skies during daytime. As LOS decreases FP decreases; as does aiming accuracy for single-shot weapons (e.g. AT guns).

    Winter months (Dec, Jan, Feb) don't change exposure. Ice only appears in frozen scenarios. In frozen scenarios Marsh becomes Ice.

    When snow is on the ground, wheatfields act as open ground. Exposure is 75% and there is no LOS impediment.

    © 2004 by Chris Hare (chare@erols.com) http://users.erols.com/chare/cm/

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    Any way to mod point limit in QBs?

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Do a search for a scenario called "To the Volga". It might be the answer to all your prayers. Anyway, it might show you why that isn't normally done in CM. CM is really in the wrong scale for a battle that big. Something that size needs for the units to be at least platoon-sized. Maybe the tiles should be in the range of 50-100 meters across too.

    In the Onion Wars, we had a battle with about 25,000 points (combined). A lot of it in tanks, so there were probably not as many units than in ToTheV, but if you're playing a really good PBEM, it's worth the computing time.

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