Max BrauHaus
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Posts posted by Max BrauHaus
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My opinion - aAssuming I don't have to buy the 175 unit, which of the below options should I use?a- 50+50 and 75 of my choice.
b- 50+50 and 75 are lost.
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I'd like to look into the use of Favor points to improve one's force.
The current model allows for the player to increase their points in one of the 4 or 5 areas for Aux. units based on a random roll. However, every increase the user pays for in Favor points, the AI also gets (because it is before the determination of the Force Size), so there is little value in using Favor in this way (IMHO). Also, sometimes the increase in points is only 20 for Inf/Support, which may only allow you to pick up a sharpshooter or flamethrower. When I think about how favor with your CO would have been used, I think about asking (begging?) that 1st platoon from Company C, or the heavy weapons platoon, be attached to your Company for whatever action you are going into. For vehicles and armor, I'd think the smallest unit would be a single tank, or maybe a pair of armored cars for recon.
What I'm looking at is use of Favor to allow you to purchase up to # of points allowed by the QB, after the force size is generated using the new rules. Every battle has some leeway in this area, for example, you are allowed to purchase up to 1720 points for an Axis Assault by the QB, but your rolled forces are only 1660. This would allow for up to 60 points used for Favor purchases. This amount will change for every battle - sometimes you'll have a lot of points left over, other times very few, reflecting the availability of forces on the front maybe.
Anyways, just a thought, and there is still a lot of balance to be thought out here. Any comments?
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SuperSulo - hmm, you are correct, sir!
I guess what I meant to say was that I set the QB to Unrestricted, then purchase my Core using the experience they should have (Green at the beginning) and then have bought the Aux. as the computer bought them - quality and all. So if the computer bought Crack, so did I. If there were points left over I bought what I wanted to, with different levels of quality if necessary.
Guess I missed the meaning of all of the rest of that stuff. Not the first time.
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We may need Biltong's expert knowledge to step in here. I use the rolled Quality in the QB setup, and then buy them that way in the actual battle (so in your case I would buy crack troops). Left over points, I use to buy whatever I want in that area....you should use the correct setting for Quality when you do the Auto QB, not Random or Unrestricted. Use the 56 Normal Replacement and Appendix A to see what Experience Level you should use.I thought rule 56 was the experience of troops coming in as replacements to your Core. So you might get lucky and get some Green replacements (10 exp.) instead of all Conscript (0 exp.). I don't use this rule during battle generation, only during experience calculation.
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I had a very similar thing happen to me. I won't play a Flat map if it comes up in the parameters. I think they are nearly a geographic impossibility (other than in the DisneyLand parking lot) as well as being impossible to play on. At a minimum I make it Gentle Slopes, which is still difficult to find cover on some times. That should suit for steppe just as well.Three battles ago I got a lot of armor, mainly light stuff, but the Soviets had armor as well. Not a problem in itself, but I got a Flat, open map. Within two turns (when I retreated) 9 of my 11 tanks/AFVs were burning due to the Soviets 21 tanks (incl. 3 T-34). I was utterly chanceless.Really makes you see how much the geography could change the outcome of a battle.
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This I am not sure of, because in December, the Allies should have the advantage in numbers, and you can only select one Handicap value either in favor of the Allies or Axis.It should always be set at 'Axis +200%'. Here is why...Anyway, Biltong's Rule say that if you don't get enough points in one category to purchase what was allocated, ... tough, that's war!
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I've done some cursory looks into this. Page 77 of the manual says: "Valid sewer entry and exit points are only the large heavy 2-story houses usually found in cities." No other limitation is listed as far as I can see. I haven't looked into if the QB map generator will use these buildings in anything other than a Large Town. However, since Biltong has maps coming in, we may have some of these buildings in something slightly smaller than urban combat zones. Probably most likely sewer movement only needs to be considered in a Large Town.6. Investigate Sewer movement.On the Purchase Points problem, I agree with both Stalin's Organ and Mare. Apache and I both put together some suggestions along these lines for Biltong. I think we'll see something like this come out soon. It should be relatively harmless calculation wise, so it can be done manually (maybe a calculator will be helpful
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I tested the Auto Parameters quickly with the Excel Viewer and had no luck with them updating. Apparently the formulas are converted to the last value they were saved in, making the Auto Parameter sheet pretty much useless. Can anyone else verify?What about us scrubs with no Excel, or We have the Excel Viewer, but no printer?BTW, I think it would be great if someone could automate the parameters in another fashion more widely available. Then I could play more and automate less.
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Completely agree SuperSulo. Played an Axis Attack on a Soviet Armor force and had 1000 pts of Big Air. Bought the ones with multiple bombing runs. Result - not one noticable armor kill. Potentially some casualties from straffing runs.
Would rather have spent the 1000 pts on 2 platoons of tanks, myself.
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The more the merrier! I'd like the automated parameters to be available to everyone, and I haven't tested if the Excel Viewer available at Microsoft can use my parameters spreadsheet. I also think automating the parameters is critical to deal with the calculations required to get the right balance.The AutoParameter sheet helps if you have Excel. Unfortunately I use OpenOffice at home, and so some of the functionality is missing. It also looks to me that it is rather difficult to modify the AutoParameter worksheet to implement alternative rule sets.For anyone interested, modifying the parameters (within the existing structure) is really rather easy:
1) The leftmost set of columns (on the Parameter Calcs sheet) represents the result of a particular role (after applying modifications). All you would need to do is modify the column that is displayed (column B, I think) after a lookup is performed.
2) As you look at one item (like Date) as a row, the first item is obviously explained above. The rest of the column pairs (roll and resulting modifier) are how changes in that item (i.e., Date) affect other things, like Weather. The modifiers themselves read directly from Biltong's rules. Date is complicated a little bit by the fact that some of the modifiers are based not just on month, but week and month. That requires an array of values, the first column being the first week, second column, second week, etc., and the rows coorespond the the month as shown in column B.
That may not turn out to be as easy as I make it sound, but look at it a little, and it may.
Applying additional modifiers to parameters would be more difficult for someone not involved with it as much as I am.
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I'm glad you are having such good luck. I keep getting my rear handed to me by the AI as I follow the current Force Size guidelines. Sheesh!I know this has been harped on enough and I know your working on it Biltong, but my force is Crack after 6 batles even after I edited the rules to give my men the least exp per battle -
I think what you are looking at are some month calculations that are dependent on not just the month, but also the week of the month. L21 is the week. It is used in a HLOOKUP to determine which column of a table you find the right data in. In the same formula you should see L22+1, which is the row (or month).Please note that I was checking out some of your calcs, and found that some of your month modifiers refer to cell "L21" instead of "L22", such as the formulae in cells "v40-42". -
Is that a "Grease" reference I see (hear) on the CM Boards?
I think Brent is right in his suggestion that we take the total points the player is going to be allowed to buy (Core + Scrounged + Aux), and divide it my the appropriate multiplier for the Battle Type (Axis Assault, Axis Attack, Axis Probe, etc.). This would make the Force Size value you place in the QB less than you will actually end up being allowed to buy by the QB. Because the QB itself applies a modifier.
Then based on the setting the player puts in for his own skill level (equivalent to Easy, Medium, and Hard on other lesser games
) we decide on some additional value to divide the Force Size by.Example:
Conscript Player in an Axis Assault rolls 984 total points. You should normally then select 1000 point size. By Brent's #s, the QB will allow you to purchase 1700 points (as does the AI), but the current rules allow only the player to buy 984. So you are right away out numbered by nearly 2.
Instead, we could take 984/1.7 = (reaches for calculator) 579. Then we multiply that by the Player Experience modifier (for Conscript = 1) to get 579 (did that one w/o the calculator
). The Force Size setting would be 700.Now the QB allows the player 1190 points, of which he can use 984. The AI gets 700 points, so the player still has the advantage, but a lesser advantage than normal. That doesn't take into account the possible Handicap against the player as well.
The multipliers would have to worked out to get the right balance.
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Along these same lines, I'd like to see the rules incorporate the "Player Experience" modifier as a force multiplier. If the an Assault QB allows for the attacker to have 1.72x more forces than the AI defender, then maybe that is what a Conscript player should have (we can't give him any more).
But a Regular player maybe should only have 1.5x as many force points, and a Veteran 1.25x.
The multiplier may be a way to adjust force points instead of adding Arty for Consrcipt and Green players. As I found out yesterday, this rsults in the AI defender having that many more points as well to distribute between all of the forces, in this case an armor group that my arty was pretty ineffectual against.
The other balance option is Handicap which is already modified by Player Experience.
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I found an error in the Auto Parameters (if anyone is using them).
When you roll the Big Air, as I like to call it, but the tree coverage or weather is not conducive to air power, you get to roll for Large Arty. I have it displaying currently so that it doesn't appear in the purchase point total or Force Size.
Please take note.
I'll correct it in the next version.
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I've just sent off the latest version of my Auto Rules to Biltong with some questions for clarification. When we get those resolved, I don't see anything blocking them from being posted (I did some pretty thourough testing tonight), but I'll let Biltong have the final say.
) we decide on some additional value to divide the Force Size by.
Pre-Game Parameters: Why Leave Out All The Important Ones?
in Combat Mission Archive #4 (2002)
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In all fairness to BFC, changes in casualties to one side or the other doesn't effect the overall # of points that the player has to fight the battle with. It only makes them have more squads/etc. at reduced effectiveness, but with overall points remaining equivalent on both sides (excluding any Handicap).