Fictional DAR to demonstrate CM/PzC operational play

[noob]

Below are a series of pictures showing how CMBN can be used with John Tiller's Panzer Campaigns Normandy '44, they show how two players would play a PzC PBEM scenario using CMBN as the tactical resolution tool.

The scenario is a tiny one for demonstration purposes.

The first picture shows the dispositions of the Canadian forces on the PzC operational map, with place names which appear when shift is pressed, each hex is 1x1km and each game turn 2 hours real time.

The victory location is the village of Bray which is owned by the Axis and is worth 100 points.

The next two pictures show the OOB of the Canadian forces, consisting of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles battalion, and elements of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers, with support from the 12th Canadian Field Regiment.

The Infantry is Crack with a CM motivation level of Extreme and the armor and artillery are Veteran with a CM motivation level of High.

The pre fixes CK (Crack) and VT (Veteran) have been added to the PzC unit namebox by me in the PzC OOB editor, the reason being is because in PzC a unit does not have a hard factor for experience displayed, so i use the PzC units starting morale level to determine the units CM experience level using the key - PzC morale A = CM Elite to PzC morale F = CM Conscipt, once this CM experience level is added to the PzC unit, the PzC morale level can be used as a CM motivation tracker using the key - PzC morale A = CM motivation level Fanatic to PzC morale F = CM motivation level Poor.

So when the Allied player starts the game it is his movement phase, therefore he sends a platoon of Stuart V's to recce the victory location at Bray as shown below.

To workout if the Stuarts have enough move points to make it there in combat formation, as opposed to travel formation, the reachable hex tool (white arrow) is activated, showing the maximum distance in hexes the Stuarts can travel in combat formation.

According to the reachable hex tool they will have enough movement points to do this move so they do it.

The result of the move order is shown below.

The results of the recce uncover an Axis force at Bray, due to the limit of pictures i can post i will continue in another thread called PART 2

[noob]

You get 5 picutres per post, not 5 per thread. You might want to just continue in this thread.

I see, thanks for the info, i will.

[noob]

There is a limited amount of information available to the Stuarts about the OOB of the Axis forces in Bray as shown below.

Given the information about enemy dispositions in Bray, and because the Allies will be able to declare a CM assault against the Bray hex before the Axis movement phase the Allied player decides to move two companies and a platoon of Sherman's to the hex occupied by the Stuarts.

However before that happens the Allied player checks the reachable hexes for the infantry in combat formation as shown below.

The reachable hex tool shows they will not have enough movement points in combat fromation to make it to an adjacent hex to Bray, therefore they have to be put in travel formation as shown below.

The arrows show the change formation tool and a T for travel mode next to the units movement points.

In travel formation the infantry are able to move to the hex occupied by the Stuarts, so this move is done as shown below.

It should be noted that the infantry did not have enough movement points to revert back to combat mode so they must enter the CM battle in column, however there is a function in PzC that allows, if selected, units to save enough movement allowance to revert to combat formation after their movement.

The save movement to change formation tool is shown with the arrow.

[noob]

The Allied player wants to move a platoon of Sherman's to attack Bray as well so he checks their reachable hex distance if they were to travel in combat mode as shown below.

As they cannot reach Bray in combat mode they to need to change to travel mode.

Now they can move to the hex occupied by the Stuarts.

The Sherman's still have enough movement points to revert back to combat formations which they do, so now they may deploy in the CM battle set up zone anyway they want.

Finally the Allied player checks his artillery to see if they are within range (in hexes) of the hex occupied by the Axis unit.

The player checks the artillery range by looking at the assault reading by right clicking on the PzC unit info box.

Usually in PzC, the assault reading shows the units melee value, however, as i have removed all combat values from the PzC units, i use the assault reading in the case of indirect fire weapons, to display the hex range of those weapons by changing the assault value to conform to the range value in the PzC OOB editor.

So in the case of the Priests, their hex range is 11 and the target hex is 8 hexes away, therwefore they are within range and can be added to the CM OOB for the Allied attack on Bray.

[noob]

So after the Allied movement turn the Allied player can now declare a CM assault on any adjacent hex occupied by an enemy unit, in this case Bray.

So the Allied player then loads the CM map of Bray into the CM scenario editor and then creates his set up zone and exit zone (how map sizes are determined is explained in the tutorial linked at my signature).

The attackers set up zone in a CM/PzC game is 250 meters deep, with a one tile wide exit zone running the entire length of the rear friendly map edge as shown below.

You will see a one tile wide blank strip between the set up zone and exit zone, this is to stop accidental overspill resulting in premature exiting.

Now this battle might not happen as the Axis player has the option of making an operational forced retreat, this will be explained later, for now we will assume the Axis player wishes to fight so i will show the Axis players set up zone.

Now he must add the CM units, thsi is done by importing the master Allied OOB into the CM scenario editor

and then removing any units not present in the battle, thus leaving, in this case, two companies of infantry, two sections of Stuarts, and one troop of Sherman's plus artillery support.

The battle length will be 60 turns.

Just to mention that the master Allied OOB can be used as a casualty tracker, so when the CM battle at Bray is over, the Allied player can load the master Allied OOB into the scenario editor and apply the combat effects to his fought units, as well as doing likewise in the PzC OOB editor for the CM units equivalent operational icons.

If the Axis player decides to defend the hex at Bray the Axis deployment zone will be 1000m deep with an exit zone strip running the entire length of the friendly rear map edge.

At this point i must mention that the Axis player does not have to fight the CM battle, he can make a forced operational retreat, however this comes with morale penalties that i will explain later.

[JonS]

Finally the Allied player checks his artillery to see if they are within range (in hexes) of the hex occupied by the Axis unit.

The player checks the artillery range by looking at the assault reading by right clicking on the PzC unit info box.

Usually in PzC the assault reading shows the units melee factors, however as i have removed all combat values from the PzC units i use the assault reading in the case of indirect fire weapons to display the hex range of those weapons.

So in the case of the Priests, their hex range is 11, which is enough for them to be placed in the CM OOB for the Allied attack on Bray.

Doesn't PzC have a range function, that shows all the hexes indirect units can fire to by shading all the ones it can't (rather like the 'can I move to this hex?' shading)?

[noob]

Doesn't PzC have a range function, that shows all the hexes indirect units can fire to by shading all the ones it can't (rather like the 'can I move to this hex?' shading)?

No, it has an artillery dialog window that shows all the artillery that is in range of spotted enemy units, but that's more complicated to use than just right clicking on the info box.

[StoneAge]

How many seperate units are in this scenario for each side.

And the size of the map looks like it is 18km x ?

Why 60 minute not 120 or more

[noob]

How many seperate units are in this scenario for each side.

And the size of the map looks like it is 18km x ?

This scenario is one i made just to demonstrate the system so it is tiny compared to a standard PzC scenario.

The total forces for the Allies are three infantry companies (122 men per company), 12 Sherman's, 4 Stuarts and 8 Priests.

In this PzC scenario the Stuarts are in a group of 4, the Shermans are in a group of 6, and the Priests in groups of 8.

So there are 122 x 3 = 366 men, and 24 tracked vehicles, however the Priests can be on or off map.

As for the map size, it shows on the screenshot that the map is 1080 metres x 1856 metres.

[StoneAge]

Sorry I ment the tac map you said each hex was 1km

[noob]

Sorry I ment the tac map you said each hex was 1km

The operational map for this demonstration scenario is 20 x 18 KM, 360 square kilometres, however in the DAR you can only see part of it, i had to do this to make the images big enough see unit details.

[noob]

Continuing on from where i left off, if the Axis player decides to make a stand and defend the hex at Bray, a CM battle is fought.

The victory conditions for the attacker are as follows:

In each CM battle there will be a single terrain objective that must be occupied by the attacker for the attacker to claim a victory, if this terrain objective is captured, the defender loses the map and thus the operational hex and must vacate the hex during their upcoming PzC movement phase.

So in our example the Allied terrain objective will be the village of Bray.

The negative morale effects of a CM battle after the battle has finished are as follows:

Any unit from any side, where over half of it's men exit or remain on a CM battle Broken or Panicking drop to a PzC morale level of F / CM motivational level of Poor.

The positive morale effects of a CM battle after the battle has finished are as follows:

Any unit that succeeds in defending / contesting or taking a terrain objective, and is not Broken or Panicking after the battle, increases their PzC morale / CM motivation level by one.

The only units that never increase their PzC morale / CM motivation are non SS units that started the battle with a PzC morale level of B / CM motivation level Extreme, this is because only SS units can be Fanatic.

The victory conditions for a CM battle are as follows:

If the attacker fails to take the terrain objective at the end of the battle (contested is a failure) the battle will resume during the next assault phase if the defender chooses to remain on the hex or counter attacks with fresh forces.

If the defender fails to defend the terrain objective (contested is not failure) their units must exit the PzC hex during their upcoming PzC movement phase.

So for example, if the Allied attack on Bray fails to capture the terrain objective, the battle will continue after the Axis PzC movement phase, if the Axis decide to remain on the hex or reinforce it.

Therefore, in the event of a new CM battle the units that remained on the CM map at the end of the previous battle will be placed in the same positions as they were when the battle ended, with the relevant headcount, fatigue, ammo and motivation modifications.

Units low on ammo will be able to re supply at re supply vehicles placed at the back of the map, these vehicles can also be used to transport troops if the units are motorised, if not they must remain as purely re supply points, the only exception are AFV's, any AFV's that remain on a contested CM map and are low or out of ammo cannot be re supplied so they will need to be moved away from combat.

Any reinforcements that moved to the hex during the previous PzC movement phase will deploy no further than 250 metres onto the CM map.

If the attack on Bray succeeds, the Axis force must leave the hex during their PzC movement phase, although the hex can be counter attacked by fresh Axis forces as we shall see.

With this in mind it's probably wise for any attacking force to bring defensive units onto a CM battle, just in case of a counter attack, as the side that initiated the original attack will be "stuck" on the hex they attacked and ripe for an enemy counter attack.

So in the case of the attack on Bray the Allies have no chance of receiving reinforcement until the Axis have completed a move and assault phase.

[76mm]

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Just to mention that the master Allied OOB can be used as a casualty tracker, so when the CM battle at Bray is over, the Allied player can load the master Allied OOB into the scenario editor and apply the combat effects to his fought units, as well as doing likewise in the PzC OOB editor for the CM units equivalent operational icons.

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Noob, sorry, I have not played much with campaign units in CMBN, how do you do this? That is, how do you "apply the combat effects to the fought units"? You do this manually?

[noob]

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Just to mention that the master Allied OOB can be used as a casualty tracker, so when the CM battle at Bray is over, the Allied player can load the master Allied OOB into the scenario editor and apply the combat effects to his fought units, as well as doing likewise in the PzC OOB editor for the CM units equivalent operational icons.

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Noob, sorry, I have not played much with campaign units in CMBN, how do you do this? That is, how do you "apply the combat effects to the fought units"? You do this manually?

You have to do it manually, so if you lose 30% of a company, and over half ot the men in that company finish the CM battle Broken or Panicking, their CM headcount, fatigue and motivation level will be changed to 60%, Weakened and Poor respectively, and their PzC strength will be modified, as will their morale, which will be manually downgraded to F in the PzC OOB editor, also a * symbol will be added to the PzC units namebox to show the player it is Weakened or a ~ to show it is Unfit.

About the import campaign units function, basically it just allows you to add a ready made CM OOB to any map you want in the scenario editor, so in the H2H CM/PzC Buron scenario i intend to release after the 2.0 upgrade, i have the CM OOB's for elements of the 3rd Canadian Division, the 12th Panzer Division and the 716th Infantry Division, so anybody playing it just needs to load the relevant OOB in the editor using the import campaign units function, then remove any non participating units, and a CM battle is then ready to go after both sides have done this.

There will be a section on it in this thread.

[Frankster65]

Very cool stuff noob! Two thumbs up!

[noob]

Very cool stuff noob! Two thumbs up!

Thanks for the compliment, by writing this thread i think i'm actually getting together a set of rules that i will finally be happy with, as i've changed them so many times, the main change is connecting operational morale with the CM state of Broken / Panicking, this is so easy to track, and makes more sense than any other way of transferring tactical morale to operational morale, because if a squad is Broken, it's CM motivation level, if it fights again too soon, is going to be Poor unless it gets time to rest and refit.

[A Canadian Cat]

Can you explain your decision regarding the rule for translating the operational level morale / training into the game? I do not think that units with high morale should also get a high level of experience. I can see operational morale modifying the CMBN motivation but not the CMBN experience level.

The CMBN experience level might change over the course of an operation but I do not think it should vary so much as morale. Perhaps some determination of starting experience level for a campaign and then based on some number of combat exposures that experience could be adjusted up while replacement of losses could adjust the level as well (possibly down).

[Rake]

Doesn't PzC have a range function, that shows all the hexes indirect units can fire to by shading all the ones it can't (rather like the 'can I move to this hex?' shading)?

No, it has an artillery dialog window that shows all the artillery that is in range of spotted enemy units, but that's more complicated to use than just right clicking on the info box.

Yes you can, Noob. The selected arty unit is highlighted below with it's range shaded.

Just click "View > Shade > Maximum Range" and JTPC games will shade the range for any unit in the game just as it will shade reachable hexes, visible hexes, command range, etc.

[sburke]

Can you explain your decision regarding the rule for translating the operational level morale / training into the game? I do not think that units with high morale should also get a high level of experience. I can see operational morale modifying the CMBN motivation but not the CMBN experience level.

The CMBN experience level might change over the course of an operation but I do not think it should vary so much as morale. Perhaps some determination of starting experience level for a campaign and then based on some number of combat exposures that experience could be adjusted up while replacement of losses could adjust the level as well (possibly down).

I'd agree. Experience could actually be done a little simpler, particularly at the beginning of the Normandy Campaign. Very few American units could actually be considered experienced (1st ID comes to mind). The 29th was well trained, but not experienced. Their morale would I think tend to be high as should fitness and maybe even leadership. The 1st ID on the other hand might even be considered to have some morale issues. The unit had struggled with continuing in combat after coming out of the Med and the decision to yank Terry Allen.

[noob]

Can you explain your decision regarding the rule for translating the operational level morale / training into the game? I do not think that units with high morale should also get a high level of experience. I can see operational morale modifying the CMBN motivation but not the CMBN experience level.

The CMBN experience level might change over the course of an operation but I do not think it should vary so much as morale. Perhaps some determination of starting experience level for a campaign and then based on some number of combat exposures that experience could be adjusted up while replacement of losses could adjust the level as well (possibly down).

Actually i have to agree with you, i just did a quick Wiki on the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, and according to that, they never fought until D Day, therefore they might have a high motivation level, but their experience would be Green, but in the PzC sceanrio Buron they they have a PzC morale level of B which i translated as Crack, which is wrong, so i will have to scrap that rule and have a PzC units CM Experience level dependant on the units combat experience prior to the specific PzC scenario being played, i just assumed the morale setting could be translated to experience as a starting CM level, but now thats not feasible, which shows just how much i know about the history of the units in the scenarios i am creating, a good lesson, so thanks Ian

I will now change the CM experience levels for all the units in the PzC Normandy 44 oob based on further historical research and not whatever is the most conveneient method for me

[noob]

Yes you can, Noob. The selected arty unit is highlighted below with it's range shaded.

Just click "View > Shade > Maximum Range" and JTPC games will shade the range for any unit in the game just as it will shade reachable hexes, visible hexes, command range, etc.

I found the maximum range function you pointed out, however because i have removed the soft and hard attack values for the PzC units it doesn't work now, so players will have to right click the unit info box and get the range reading i have swapped with the assault factor.

[sburke]

I will now change the CM experience levels for all the units in the PzC Normandy 44 oob based on further historical research and not whatever is the most conveneient method for me

Well the nice thing is it is a one shot setting and generally not many units can actually be noted as being experienced. Where you may have some more work is handling regimental differences for example in the 82nd airborne.

Where it will get more problematic is deciding how long into the Normandy campaign before you decide units should jump experience levels and at the same time do losses incurred till then balance that out and/or have an impact on morale or leadership.

Broadsword has a method for this as well resulting in us having battles with units of varying experience, fitness, morale and leadership settings. It has been far more enjoyable than I had expected learning how to cope with the variations (word of advice - fitness seems to be the biggest impact- low fitness units are like trying to fight with Napoleonic units. Everything is done with basic move commands.)

Hey it's all fun right?

[noob]

To carry on where i left off, let us imagine the result of the Allied attack on Bray was a stalemate, so the terrain objective is at least contested, meaning the Axis forces still have a foothold on the Bray map, and have been successful in their defence.

At this point i want to explain the best way to track exited units, for example, on the turn before the squad / section / vehicle exit the map, make a note of their headcount and morale, then apply it to their master CM OOB along with a one level reduction of their CM fatigue level, that way once they exit they can be forgotten about as their new status has been saved in the master CM OOB.btt file, their supply will go to full as it is assumed they fall back to a safe area where there is fresh ammo. (an exception to this is if their supply source is obstructed, then they will receive no resupply and their ammo level must be set to what it was when they exited)

Now only the squads / sections / vehicles that are left on the CM map after the battle need to be modified in the CM master OOB.

So each player must then make a note of the headcount, morale and supply of their CM squads / sections / vehicles and apply any combat effects to their counterparts in the Axis master CM OOB.

So in the case of the battle for Bray, the Axis started with one Elite company of SS Pz Grenadiers numbering 144 men, and three Elite SS Pak40 AT guns, all Fanatic for Motivation and Fit and Full for fatigue and supply.

So once the battle is over, the Axis player then checks all the remaining squads / sections / vehicles and applies their new headcount / motivation / fatigue and supply values to the Axis CM master OOB.

In the CM scenario editor the headcount menu only goes down to 50%, therefore any squad / section that loses over 50% of their men are disbanded and added to the remaining squads.

So for example, if, after a battle, Squad 1 has 6 out of 10 men left, (headcount 60%), Squad 2 has 7 out of 10 men left (headcount of 70%), and Squad 3 has a headcount of 3 out of 10, then the three men left in Squad 3 move to Squads 1 and 2, giving Squad 1 a headcount of 8 (80%) and Squad 2 a headcount of 8 (80%), therefore in the Axis CM master OOB the platoon loses one squad and 20% of the two remaining squads.

To set the Axis forces new motivation levels the squads / sections / vehicles that are Broken / Panicking after the battle have their motivation levels set to Poor in the Axis CM master OOB.

The squads / sections / vehicles that are not Broken / Panicking have their motivation levels increased by one level because they successfully defended / contested the terrain objective.(However in the case of our Elite Fanatics this is impossible as Fanatic is the highest motivation level)

For fatigue, "all" the Axis forces that fought will have their Fatigue level downgraded by one, so in the case of the Axis company and guns they go from Fit to Weakened in the Axis CM master OOB.

For Supply there are five levels of CM supply, Full, Adequate, Limited, Scarce and Severe, so it is up to the players or umpire to divide a squads / sections/ vehicles starting ammo levels by five to calculate what level they are now.

So for example, if a squad started with 500 rounds of rifle ammo, and has 99 or less after the battle, it would be given a new CM supply level of Severe.

However it is possible for the fought units of a CM battle to resupply from trucks if they remain on the map, so it is up to the players to create a safe resupply area at the rear friendly map edge if their vehicles were not present in the previous battle.

[noob]

Where it will get more problematic is deciding how long into the Normandy campaign before you decide units should jump experience levels and at the same time do losses incurred till then balance that out and/or have an impact on morale or leadership.

Good point, let me ask you this question then, as the 3rd Canadian Infantry had not fought prior to D Day they would be Green for experience, however by the time they attacked Buron on the 7th would they be Regular, given they had actually experienced some combat prior to the 7th ?

Broadsword has a method for this

I will ask him about this.

Although working out the experience levels of units will add work to my project, it's worth it, as it's better if the operations are as historically accurate as possible now i have been made to realise the flaw in my system.

[76mm]

To carry on where i left off, let us imagine the result of the Allied attack on Bray was a stalemate, so the terrain objective is at least contested, meaning the Axis forces still have a foothold on the Bray map, and have been successful in their defence.

Aaaargh, I wanted to see how you plan to handle retreats in CM battles on the PzC maps.