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Brent Pollock

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Posts posted by Brent Pollock

    Hordes of halfsquads

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Oh yeah...well...at least I can SPELL, yah "looser" ;)

    Face it, you're really just GreenAsEnvyForBrent'sHalfsquadHordeKnowledge tongue.gif;)

    Mandatory, obligatory HS content:

    Anyone who does NOT like the halfsquad horde should stay clear of my "WBRP - Company Town" battle wherein both sides start fully deployed to mimic lack of cohesion whilst poking their noses into a new town.

    Originally posted by GreenAsJade:

    </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Brent Pollock:

    Obviously you need to widen the playtesting team - I started doing it from the get-go ;)

    And Brent looses all the time, so it can't be that much of a strategy worth worrying about :D:D:D </font>
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    ahistorical dilemma

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    yyyyuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmm...spatzel...but I don't know what kind of wine to have with Pzdufflebags III...

    Originally posted by rune:

    Pzdufflebags III mit Spatzel. Rune

    Having tried my hand desiging a few CM/ASL scenarioes now, I'm of the opinion that "Semi-Historical" is as accurate as you're going to get.
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    What does Squad Leader do better than CM?

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    It was usually very unlikely that a building would get dropped after absorbing quite a lot of HE. It was also possible for a single round/salvo to drop a house.

    The chance of a 75 mm HE round rubbling a wooden shack in SL is 1/36 * 1/6 = 1/216. It had zero chance for a stone building.

    150mm HE versus stone is:

    3/36*1/6 + 2/36*2/6 + 1/36*3/6 = 10/216

    ...[although with my current headache, that might be the wrong-way-round for calculating probability.]

    Some of us felt this made them a tad too tough, without comparing it to actual data, of course. However, there's this quote from Doyle, Chamberlain & Jentz regarding the 150 HE from the StuG 33B:

    "capable of demolishing houses with two or three rounds"

    This seems much more in tune with the CM model than the SL one.

    Originally posted by Ace Pilot:

    </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Brent Pollock:

    That counts as a strike against SL for some folks, including myself.

    </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Ace Pilot:

    </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

    [qb] multi-level rubble (ie rubble only the upper storey of a building, or blow out a single wall

    I also liked how the chance to rubble a building was more randow than the predictable nature of CM buildings.

    </font>

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    What does Squad Leader do better than CM?

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    That counts as a strike against SL for some folks, including myself.

    Originally posted by Ace Pilot:

    </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

    [qb] multi-level rubble (ie rubble only the upper storey of a building, or blow out a single wall

    I also liked how the chance to rubble a building was more randow than the predictable nature of CM buildings.

    </font>

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    Hordes of halfsquads

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    Amen!

    ...and the Germans (the very genesis for adopting the LMG 34)...and the Italians (not one but two LMGs in the LMG section)...and Americans (BARs, BARs and more BARS)...and the French (BAR)...and the Finns/Hungarians/Romanians/Russians...Japanese/Chinese/Siamese/Polish/Ethiopians/Greeks/Bulgarians/Yugoslavians/Czechoslovakians I'm not so certain of...along with anyone else I forgot.

    As to someone's comment about it not adding anything to the enjoyment... tongue.gif ...I LOVE it. It gives me that micro-managing buzz of having the firebase and assault sections...well...ummm...act like firebase and assault sections. Add to that the layered zone approach (assault section up front with short cover arc; firebase behind another 50m or so with an appropriately extended cover arc) and the Up Stairs/Downstairs split in buildings.

    Love it, love it, love it.

    Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

    You are so incorrect, I don't know where to begin. [redacted by Brent] My section on WW II tactics is thin for now, but you couldn't be more wrong in your assumptions about fire and movement in WW II, at least with respect to the Canadians and British. [/QB]

    [ January 20, 2005, 12:36 PM: Message edited by: Brent Pollock ]

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    Hordes of halfsquads

    in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

    Posted

    I'll step in as a dedicated "Spawner of Half Squads".

    Gamey - hell no! This seems like an accurate reflection of proper squad tactics; assault section moves in while the firebase lays covering fire. Second nature to players of Up Front. Moreover, you gain in coverage and manoeuvre but lose in bulk firepower and morale, so there is a trade-off.

    I tend not to use it with lousy troops because I suspect (no proof) that the morale hit makes them virtually useless. I usually deploy at least half of a platoon. My main reason for doing it is damage minimisation: you only lose half as many guys when scouts hit an ambush or if an OP gets overrun. In tight LOS games (e.g. lots of woods/rubble) the manoeuvring is great as two half squads can outflank a single squad. As to it being gamey because a single squad cannot engage two targets at once - phah! - if you'd had the sense to deploy that squad in the first place, it could've engaged two targets at once :D

    And you can prevent them from recombining by swapping half-squads during set up (e.g. 1A goes with 2B and 1B goes with 2A)...I admit that I find that part gamey ;)

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    keyholed units

    in Combat Mission - Tips and Tricks

    Posted

    Amen - and don't forget to use a shortened cover arc to let the cheap-lure units pass through the LOF unharmed, then expand it in a turn or two to nail the really meaty stuff.

    Originally posted by dieseltaylor:

    Kingfisher should have added that you need to give cover arc orders and ranges also - keyholing does not stop your unit firing at silly targets!!

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    A Scenario without flags - ok or not?

    in Combat Mission - Scenario Talk

    Posted

    Are you certain of this; from what I've read, the AI makes a balls up of Exit for Points unless it is very near the exit edge? Perhaps the flags are what induce that AI confusion?

    Originally posted by Hans:

    You can do it without flags. Try giving each side exit eligiblity and the AI will attack (make sure you make some or all the unit eligible to exit for points)

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    A Scenario without flags - ok or not?

    in Combat Mission - Scenario Talk

    Posted

    Oh Gawds! That's hilarious - I forgot that I'd already designed flagless ones (WBRP = William Brent Robert Pollock...blame my folks for that mouthful) redface.gif I can also agree that #1 is a viable AI fight. I designed them that way because many of the TOBRUK scenarios had damage as the only real victory criterion, so I thought flags would be inappropriate. I only used them when TOBRUK demanded a location to be seized.

    Originally posted by General Colt:

    The scenarios WBRP - TAHGC TOBRUK #X (where X=1thru8) have no flags. They are definitely a 2 player games. They are available at the Scenario Depot. I played #1 as a two player. It played out like any normal game.

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    CMAK effect on German defense

    in Combat Mission: Afrika Korps

    Posted

    Okay let's see if I muddy or clarify the waters here:

    The SOS mission is the same thing as Danger Close for Canadian units (IIRC); essentially, the idea is that your guys are in cover but the enemy is assaulting and, therefore, not always in cover. Also, your position is on the verge of being overrun. SO, the cold-blooded balance sheet say, "if we mortar our own position, we'll end up losing fewer guys to friendly fire than we would to an unhindered enemy overrun".

    The TRPs on your own position are what represent this self-zeroing. 81 mm mortars are mentioned specifically because they are the arty with the fastest response, being directly attached to the battalion. Other calibers would be regimental (105 mm) or divisional on up (150 mm & rockets).

    We're all talking about ways to keep the spotters in positions with lousy LOS so they can only really be effective calling fire on TRPs, rather than perching them in the bell tower wherefrom they can spot all enemy movement and burn all the ammo before the overrun occurs. This still does not prevent FOs from doing a mission planned during the Orders phase for Turn 1 (which is why I suggested having them come on as a reinforcement, so they can't do this pre-planned stuff, which do not require TRPs nor LOS).

    Another of Michael's points is that one company of the battalion can selfishly use up all of a battalion asset, which might be required by brother companies not represented on the map.

    The artillery element of the counter attack is really to induce more chaos in the attackers so you can actually deliver the counter attack; it prevents them from getting settled in to cover your approach.

    Hope that helps...

    Originally posted by willbell:

    Ohhh, groan. I can't even understand what you are saying about 81s? Are you saying that an FO for 81s doesn't need an LOS or TRP to hit a target accurately? Or if not, why 81s in Doroshes' example, can't I do the same thing with a 105 FO? I guess I just don't even get the artillery point to a counter attack, where's the troops?

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