kohlenklau

Page 235 in "Ortona" says that the real RCR got down to such a folding in! Note: I will have some 25% of the wounded soldiers return from medical treatment in the following turn(s). I will tell you how many you get back from each nominal Coy and you can allocate them back to the Coys as you see fit. I am looking in "Ortona" for any note about replacements. Don't see any mention yet!

I can do either way. It is up to Nathan and where he decides to go with what units. There are pluses and minuses to the 2 methods. A. Multiple players on one huge map. Takes a bit to get used to the saving the of file name. Requires coordination. But it is kind of cool to see it all mesh. It is more dynamic. It decreases the effect of the map edge being the end of the world. Takes some thought to make it all click. or B. The usual one player vs one player on a map. Easier to ping pong the files back and forth. Some compartmentalized portion of the overall operation can be fought out cleanly. But you have the map edge and it is less realistic to have no effect from some enemy unit that is SUPPOSED to be right over there. Easier to write!

No, the battle is not over yet. About halfway through. But it takes time to set up the next so I try and see where you guys want to go with your operational plans and the PBEM type. A. Multiple players on one huge map. or B. The usual one player vs one player on a map.

Working the next map. 4km wide by 3km tall... Cider Crossroads, the Gulley, Casa Berardi, Sterlin Castle, roads leading to the north edge of San Leonardo.

I just popped a hot fresh home-made PBEM out of the oven...over at the CMPzC Nyakleves Operation. It is a blast to do since it is so much less work versus a scenario with briefings and AI plans.

OK, the allied commander has the battle file 002 to do his defensive set-up. Your turn file will be 003 when he is done. Same password as before. PM me if you forgot it. On map at start. You in your King Tiger, 2 panthers with a platoon of troops, FO's and some kubelwagens. Reinforcements: R1 thru R6 every 5 minutes until your entire force is on map. Special present for volunteering to be axis CO: A Wirbelwind at T=20. Hint: You might need it! Exit zones to send away your empty trucks and save them from being destroyed, Good luck to you soldier! AAR is not mandatory but we sure would love to see some simple screenshots and brief description of your plan of attack or whatever. EDIT: Some burning vehicles on map at start represent carnage from the previous battle in this area.

@Snols OK, the file 002 is in the dropbox for you to do a set-up. Good luck soldier! Same password as before. PM me if you forgot... Reinforcements Schedule (As your point units return to the area to engage the enemy....) R1: Sturmovik, T=20-40 R2: Sturmovik, T=30-50 R3: SU's with troops on their backs. T=5 R4: SU's with troops on their backs. T=10 R5: SU's with troops on their backs. T=15 R6: SU's with troops on their backs. T=20 R7: SU's with troops on their backs. T=25 You have 2 exit zones to get rid of trucks and save them from being destroyed. Some burning vehicles on map at start represent carnage from the previous battle in this area. EDIT: AAR is not mandatory but we sure would love to see some simple screenshots and brief description of your plan of attack or whatever.

Thanks Mark. But I guess we need CM Bulge to get its fat a$$ out the kitchen door first! Also I would need to then see what master maps it ships with (thanks in advance @benpark !)...

CMPzC CO Training Session 4: The Operational Level Map This is an earlier version of the Op Map for CMPzC "The Road to Eindhoven" as eventually I tweaked some Victory Locations and points. It is 6 hexes wide by 13 hexes tall. 6x13=78 so within the 10x10 ceiling. Which, again, we can go above easily IF WE HAVE THE CO's! For example, Odin over at FGM has his fingers itching to do a big baztard of a CMBN Goodwood map using PzC Normandy 44.... And the hex numbering system uses the TOP LEFT HEX AS (0,0) and then as like for Algebra (x,y) x is the left-right column number and y is your up-down row number. Like as notated on a few hexes below. Got it? Oh, and the below map shows the new VL's we settled with. The PzC editor is fun and easy. The below map from PzC Market-Garden 44 could be used for even a CMRT Operation on the eastern front. But I do have PzC Budapest so it is not necessary. Remember each hex is 1km x 1km. Each hex has characteristics that cause a cost in movement from where you start to where you finish and what type unit in what movement mode. Here are some examples from the CMPzC Nyakleves Operation. EDIT: Also up above you can see that PzC has a couple different viewing modes for the Op Map. 3D and 2D. I have the Eindhoven Op using the 3D mode but the Ortona and Nyakleves Ops are using the 2D mode. Mostly. Sometimes the 3D mode is misleading on where a village is. You see the little houses but which hex is the village in?

I am working on these CMPzC CO Training Sessions so perhaps folks will see it is not really so much work. The CO doesn't have to make any battles, he doesn't have to hunt down people and remind them or really do any significant chores. Main CO duties: Have the leadership using your brain and intellect and creativity of developing the operational plan and reacting to subsequent events and ability to make a command decision of where and when who will attack. The CO can summarize his orders in a very short PM to me. Unit X will proceed to hex (2,3) via (1,1) and (2,2). Once at (2,3) it will assault into hex (2,4). Unit Y will provide fire support. IF the CO wanted to do any graphics, that is nice. But I can do all that stuff. THE CO DOES NOT NEED TO DO ANY GRAPHICS. So, to answer your question. Perhaps a CO can use a PM thread for his side to bounce ideas and if you step up to be a good sounding board for ideas, then perhaps you are acting as an XO. But I don't really have an XO role. If the CO had to go away for months and you became the CO in his place then I guess you indeed WERE the XO all along!

Hi Cap! Well, to tell you the truth, I don't own CMBS so I am not sure what would work best!

CMPzC CO Training Session 3: How does a CO come up with an operational plan so his side can win? PzC has a very nice scenario editor and OOB editor so I can create an operational situation on the selected map. You have your usual things in the scenario. Some victory point hexes or victory locations. 5, 10, 15, 50, 100 points. Maybe just a few for the smaller scenarios we play. You also have some supply source hexes so that supply can enter to be an issue. We play on the shorter side but it can still raise its head "Low on Ammo", "Out of Supply" can impact operational mobility and then carryover to the CM battlefield. Having 105's but only a few shells is not fun. But realistic! And of course...destroy the enemy. I will issue you an Org Chart and the Op Map with the above features (VL's and Supply sources). So, at this point in some ways it is like your rectangular CM battlefield. You look at it and see what you have and where you need to go or what to defend and create a plan and successively reevaluate and roll with the punches. CM clock might say 30 minutes..well the Op Map says 6 or 7 turns so that is 2x6=12 or 2x7=14 hours. etc. There is a demo for PzC you can download to fart around with. http://www.johntillersoftware.com/Demos.php At least you can develop some understanding of movement at the operational level. That is probably the biggest hurdle to overcome. Get that down and you will feel more comfortable in our CMPzC arena.

Attack! Attack! Attack! That's the fighting spirit I was talking about! Listen to that guy! If he was a major, he's a colonel now! Get my vehicle and driver around here. You get my box of medals. I'll decorate every man in this penetration, whoever they are. They've saved the reputation of this entire Army.

CMPzC CO Training Session 2: How big is a CMPzC operation? I usually follow my favorite sanity maintenance protocol of what I call "10-10-10x10" (ten-ten-ten by ten). A handy way to remember to fight my urge to make it too big an operation and have some freaking discipline and keep it an achievable 10 PzC turns max, 10 units per side max, 100 total hexes max map size. Of course this can fudge a bit up as the units part is not so much of the work. But all together, this seems to keep a lid on the party. Now with some turns under my belt, it is proving to be very sanity maintaining! Folks run out of steam. Some of these PBEMs can take months. So really as the CO of a side, your workload is only occasional in between PBEMs. Players can number in the dozen who get excited and say they are interested but only a half dozen answer the call to arms. As a PBEM is winding down and your turn for movement is approaching, you can be watching the PBEM and determine who will gain the hex and such to help refine your movements and future assaults. It reminds me of that game of chess those 2 dudes were playing in Bladerunner. If you have an operational plan as the CO, then you can pull away for weeks or months and then return to freshen up on what you had intended and then resume your role and press onward to victory.

CMPzC CO Training Session 1: What is CMPzC? CMPzC is a hybrid combination of the 2 separate game families. BFC's Combat Mission and JTS (John Tiller Software) Panzer Campaign. A BFC forumite noob first (I think) gave birth to the idea in the back of a shot up kubelwagen. Others took the baby and added their own ideas as I have done as well. Fizou, Kuderian and others. I will gladly add to the "thank you list" if I unintentionally leave anyone out. Panzer Campaign (PzC) is hex based "you go-I go" style with 1km x 1km hexes and 2 hour turns (1 hour per side). Here is the online manual: http://www.johntillersoftware.com/PanzerCampaigns/user/index.html The PzC series has many areas and timeframes covered. I bought "Salerno" for $20 on e-bay. The PzC maps have limited editability. If you find the exact area you want, then it is golden. But you must change town names and shop around for a certain map look to become an area that the game series does not cover. You gotta be flexible in life! Like I made an Ortona PzC Op Map from Salerno's Crete sub-module. There are other threads here in the BFC forum that discuss the pluses and minuses of various ways of hitching CM to an op layer. Vassal and some others games have been used. I use PzC. It has limitations but the more I use it, the easier it becomes.

I honestly need more people to stretch and take on the CO role at the op layer or these things just can't happen as meaningfully. If we have a pool of capable Op Layer CO's for each side, perhaps we can deal better with people having to take a short break due to RL issues.

I had a few thoughts on the way home from work... I will put together a CMPzC CO guidebook with some training situations based on past Operations. Perhaps this will demystify the process and knock down the apprehension. It doesn't have to be a hard job. AND you can still grab an actual PBEM along the way. If we can get a pool of trained and confident and dedicated CO's then perhaps we can expand the operational layer map and even have multiple CO's per side. Like a regimental CO over 2 Bn CO's who then have the PBEM foot soldiers under them. The regimental CO has to allocate limited resources such as artillery, ATG's, roadnet, etc. Hmmm. Sounds like it is perfect for a Bulge CMPzC Operation!

The best situation is having a CO for each side who is familiar with the CMPzC system and how to use the op layer to advance his side's cause. The CO doesn't have to own the actual PzC game. It is great if he does so he can see the results of his moves first hand and for the given terrain conditions he can see how far his units can move operationally versus going through the umpire and missing out on some aspect that I accidentally fail to pass on. I have added some familiar wargaming concepts to CMPzC such as "leader units", "mini-battles" and "action cards" . And now we are playing larger multiplayer battles on 3km x 3km maps with 2 hour timeframes. Many kind folks have assisted me with ideas, mapmaking and excel spreadsheets to track headcounts.

Alright Joakim! Tux jacket with flowery shorts! Can I also see by show of hands who is interested to take on the role as CO of their side and make the operational decisions?

Hello everyone, I have 3 of these CMPzC operations in progress. 1 each in CMBN, CMFI and CMRT. I wanted to take an informal survey to see what the interest level is in doing another. I believe the participants all have a bloody good time. The below photo is from a recent gathering. There is Chappy and mjkerner giving each other a good natured taunting over a cognac. I admit they are not perfect. I am not perfect and we have had a few bumps in the road. But for those folks who do dig this type of system I guess here at BFC there is not much else available. Over at FGM there are several ongoing of a similar nature. So, here at BFC, who is interested to commit to see a 6 turn Operation from start to finish? Probably in 2016. Probably something with the new Bulge title!

Here is the operational picture, more or less. Except the one Rifle Coy has moved up from the bridge hex.... If Nathan wants it, the next battle map could be a huge map that covers what you see now in "Dommelen Part Deux" plus towards the east to that mined area and on to the north for all of Valkenswaard. Engineers could march in at some time T, Stuarts also. Clear the mines. Attack and take the built up areas. Run the huns out of town!

Your little armored car arrived on map!

@nathangun Yes! A huge map and extended time period (2 hours) with preplanned reinforcements to enter on map based on movements of offmap units being ordered there. Multiple players per side doing the save file renaming technique before a "tail end charlie", designated team's last man to enter his moves, pushes the big red button.

The Sturmoviks spotted the axis force while returning to base to rearm. So they will be back to support you sometime later on in your 55 minute battle.

The battle creation is almost complete. Your forces will arrive in 3 equal size groupings at a map edge T=0, T=5 and T=10. You will have an exit zone to send off any unwanted trucks after disembarking your troops. Be cautious to stay away from it except for units you want to exit away for safety!