Fictional DAR to demonstrate CM/PzC operational play

[noob]

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

Lol....i will get there soon, i wanted to cover contested maps as they are probably going to occur quite often given the probable reluctance to push CM units to the extremes like in a one off battle.

[noob]

Carrying on from where i left off we will look at the unsuccessful Allied forces that failed to fully capture the village of Bray.

As i've already covered CM headcount, fatigue and supply modification with the Axis i want to look at the motivation modification to the non Broken / Panicked units.

Therefore as the Allied forces started the CM battle with a PzC morale level of B, which is a CM motivation level of Extreme, they will now drop one level to High for the next CM battle they fight.

Once both players have modified their CM units in their respective CM master OOB's, they now need to apply those modifications to the equivalent PzC units in the PzC OOB editor.

Therefore, the player that moved that operational turn will modify his PzC units in the PzC OOB editor, in this case the Allied player, once the Allied PzC units are modified they are saved by overwriting the PzC OOB and are sent to the Axis player who does likewise, the PzC.oob file is now up to date, which now allows the Axis player to perform his operational moves.

Below are pictures showing how the PzC OOB of one of the Allied companies is changed to reflect the combat effects of the CM battle at Bray if the unit lost 37 men KIA/WIA and failed to capture the terrain objective at the end of the battle.

The final picture shows where the combat effects for CM headcount (strength), Motivation (quality) and Fatigue are applied, showing that the unit now has 85 men, an operational morale of C = CM motivation High and is Weakened (*).

After these modifications the PzC unit will now display these new values in the saved PzC PBEM file.

more to come.....

[noob]

Now all the combat effects of the first CM battle for Bray have been added to the CM master OOB and the PzC OOB the Allied player can finish the PzC movement phase by clicking the Next Turn button to bring up a save game file window.

The Allied player saves the turn then sends the PBEM to the Axis player who is asked if he wishes to watch a replay of any Allied operational movements his units observed.

Now we can see the all Axis PzC forces, with the modified Axis company in Bray.

We can see that the now Weakened (*) Axis force in Bray suffered 44 casualties and lost one AT gun.

[76mm]

Another question: how can the Axis player tell that the Allied player attacked Bray rather than just moved next to it? (I guess he will have played the CM battle, but still if there were several battles it could be hard to remember which PzC hexes involved a CM battle?

[Erwin]

Really interesting concepts, noob.

[noob]

Another question: how can the Axis player tell that the Allied player attacked Bray rather than just moved next to it? (I guess he will have played the CM battle, but still if there were several battles it could be hard to remember which PzC hexes involved a CM battle?

Only the player that has moved can attack, so after a player has completed his operational movement he declares an assault on any eligible hexes by sending an email to his opponent, if his opponent accepts the battle, the attacker then sets up the CM map by creating his set up zone and exit zone as i have described in the thread, then he places his forces in the set up zone, saves the battle file and sends it to his opponent to do likewise.

Playing this system without an umpire requires an opponent that one can trust, however i will offering myself up as an umpire for anyone that wants to try it out, i'm willing to umpire up to four operations as i am at the keyboard pretty much 24/7 due to a non lethal health condition, so i'm the perfect person to run these things

[noob]

Really interesting concepts, noob.

Thanks, i'm slowly approaching a final set of rules which i will be writing up as a PDF manual to add to a PzC scenario with CM map pack and CM OOB for the PzC scenario, when this is finished i will post it up at the repository.

If people like it when they try it, i will be editing the whole PzC OOB for Normandy 44 and Sicily 43 to be compatible with CMBN and CMFI, so if people decide to buy the full PzC games, they will have access to a CM/PzC.oob file, and can start playing any of the PzC scenarios as umpired or H2H games once they have created the CM OOB for the participating forces.

I recently bought PzC Sicily 43 from HPS software for 39 dollars as a dowloadable.exe file, which works fine, and in conversations i have had with Rich from HPS they are offering a 40% discount on five titles if bought as one bulk order.

[Denis1973]

Very interesting. Continue, please.

2 76mm Have you receive my PM?

[76mm]

Denis, sorry, didn't see your pm until you mentioned it...

[noob]

Now it is the turn of the Axis forces to move, so the Axis forces at Bray calls on reinforcements.

The Axis commander decides he will move two companies and a tank platoon to Bray.

The standard procedure for checking the reachable hexes is performed.

Unable to reach Bray in combat formation the Axis infantry must drive there in Travel formation.

Once arrived the player tries to dismount them, they look like they could have enough movement points for this task.

They have, so the Axis infantry can now enter the CM map anywhere in the deployment area in any formation,

[noob]

The tank platoon is then checked to see if it can reach Bray in Combat formation.

It cannot, therefore it changes to Travel formation and makes the move.

The tank platoon tries to change to Combat formation but it does not have enough movement points, therefore it must be deployed on the CM map in column.

Finally the Axis commander calls on the indirect 105mm artillery support of 3 Wespes, the range in hexes is checked to see if fire support can be used on the target hex, it can as the Wespe has a maximum range of 9 hexes.

Next, i will show how the Axis commander sets up the CM battle for the counter attack on Bray.

[noob]

Before i carry on with the Axis counter attack at Bray, i want to point out a significant change to my system, mainly for tracking a units morale.

Previously i was going to use PzC to track morale, however compared to the CM scenario editor / Units section, it is extremely crude, this is because, in PzC, the smallest level of organisation for foot units is the company, therefore a PzC unit info box can only display the morale for a company, where the CM SE/Units editor can display the morale (motivation) of individual squads, sections, and vehicles.

Therefore i am not going to use the PzC unit Quality value as a morale tracker, i'm going to use it as it was meant to be, a quality indicator.

Therefore, a PzC units morale (quality) value will now indicate it's equivalent CM units Experience level, which will be a hard factor given the short time lengths of most of the PzC scenarios in PzC Normandy '44.

Consequently i am now going to dispense with the two letter prefix before the PzC units name as a CM Experience indicator.

So from now on the only thing a PzC unit info box will display is the units CM Experience, Headcount and Fatigue.

This means that the CM master OOB's for each sides PzC units will be the only tracker for morale (motivation).

So with that in mind we can now look at the Axis forces that fought in Bray after the Allied PzC move turn.

The Axis forces in Bray consisted of one SS Panzer Grenadier Company (1/I/SS.PzG.25) and one three gun section of Pak40 AT guns (4/I/SS.PzG.25).

These units fought a hard battle and managed to retain a foothold in the village of Bray, however they suffered considerable combat effects as i will describe.

At the end of the CM battle every Axis unit was either rattled or shaken, with the exception of two squads who were broken.

Also the entire force used up nearly all of it's ammo over the 60 turn battle.

The Infantry company lost 44 out of 144 men and the AT gun section lost one of their three guns.

Therefore when the Axis player applies these combat effects to his master CM OOB in the units section of the scenario editor, he will modify the squads in the following way:

All the participating Axis forces will have their Motivation reduced to Low, as my new morale system makes any unit that exits or finishes a CM battle in a state of rattled or shaken have Low motivation until adequately rested.

All the participating Axis forces will have their Fitness reduced to Weakened, and their Supply to Scarce until adequately rested and resupplied.

Next, the two squads that finished Broken will have their motivation level reduced to Poor until adequately rested.

Poor motivation is applied to any unit finishing or exiting a CM battle broken or panicked.

Later i will show the dispositions of the Axis forces in Bray and their reinforcements based on their mode of travel to the battlefield.

Also i will talk about the new victory conditions i have come up with, and how motivation is increased.

And to let 76mm off the hook , i will explain what happens when the Allies decide to retreat and avoid a CM battle when they realise the Axis have been reinforced.

[noob]

Before i carry on with the how i set up the CM battle for the Axis counter attack on Bray, i would like to go back in time to when the Allies declared an assault on Bray.

This time, rather than stand and fight, the Axis forces decide to make a strategical withdrawal, this is done by the Axis player informing the Allied player by email of his intent.

If there are no more CM battles to be created during that turn, the game progresses to the Axis PzC movement phase, and the retreat is made by the Axis player using the following rule:

"The retreating unit has to move to either a friendly occupied hex, or it's furthest movement allowance in travel mode, whichever is the shortest."

This rule is there to avoid the gamey tactic of using small PzC forces as blockers by retreating one hex at a time.

Because a strategic retreat can only be performed by the side that will be the next to do their operational moves, vacating the hex is not a problem for the Axis unit, what is potentially problematic is the inability of the Allied unit to occupy the vacated hex until their next movement turn.

Therefore the vacated hex is regarded as occupied by the Allied unit, and consequently the six adjacent hexes to that hex are now regarded as under the influence of the Allied unit, therefore any enemy unit that occupies one of those hexes loses their remaining move allowance as explained in the Zone of Control rules in my tutorial and the PzC manual.

As far as morale penalties for strategical retreats are concerned, i was going to impose morale penalties for doing so to stop blocking, however because a strategical retreat is a rational move if a/ the opposing forces are too overwhelming, and b/ the retreating player is allowing the attacking player to move into a trap, then i would impose no morale penalty.

Obviously once the unit that is theoretically occupying the hex can actually physically move into it when it comes to do it's operational moves it must, irrespective of any enemy units it will become adjacent too, thus using it's movement allowance and being open to a CM counter attack. however it now would be able to use the strategic retreat move.

[StoneAge]

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

Why not put one or two high walls across the back of the map with space behind it where units can retreat. That way you do not need to worry about keeping track of units retreating off the board, not being on the board at the end of the game.

The other thing I liked from Broadswords ARR was that each side was assigned a casualty threshold in the CM game. If a side reached its casualty level before the time limit that was the end of the game. Gives the game an extra level of realism.

At the moment there does not seem to be a way that the attacking force can be repulsed. i.e the defenders put up such a fight that the attacker had to retreat back out of the Victory location to their Starting position (1 Hex away).

Great work so far noob

[Broadsword56]

Why not put one or two high walls across the back of the map with space behind it where units can retreat. That way you do not need to worry about keeping track of units retreating off the board, not being on the board at the end of the game.

The other thing I liked from Broadswords ARR was that each side was assigned a casualty threshold in the CM game. If a side reached its casualty level before the time limit that was the end of the game. Gives the game an extra level of realism.

At the moment there does not seem to be a way that the attacking force can be repulsed. i.e the defenders put up such a fight that the attacker had to retreat back out of the Victory location to their Starting position (1 Hex away).

Great work so far noob

Just a correction (but thanks for the compliment StoneAge):

I don't actually or always let casualty thresholds end battles automatically.

In my operational rules, companies and battalions have various casualty level "breakpoints" in a CMBN battle that trigger a step loss when the units to back into the operational game.

So the player can decide whether to press an attack past that breakpoint and sacrifice the step, or break it off and preserve his forces (as I did as the US player in Hamel Vallee).

But, since companies only have one step, they'd be eliminated. So hitting a breakpoint effectively ends the battle for an attacking or defending company.

A battalion, if it has two operational steps, can take more punishment and keep fighting. But a reduced battalion, like a company, has only one step and will be eliminated if it exceeds a breakpoint.

[noob]

Why not put one or two high walls across the back of the map with space behind it where units can retreat. That way you do not need to worry about keeping track of units retreating off the board, not being on the board at the end of the game.

I've thought of that, but i don't like spoiling the maps as they so nice, it offends my artistic sensibilities

It's not to difficult anyway, all the player has to do is note down the units morale and headcount and apply that to the master CM OOB for that side just before the unit exits.

The other thing I liked from Broadswords ARR was that each side was assigned a casualty threshold in the CM game. If a side reached its casualty level before the time limit that was the end of the game. Gives the game an extra level of realism.

I don't like the idea of a third party shutting the game down when an artificially created threshold is reached, in a CMPzC battle.

In CMPzC the players will be aware that they have to use their units again in future CM battles, therefore the operational situation will determine what level of casualties the player is willing to sustain in a CM battle, because, if it is not absolutely essential that a section of a CM map be held as a foothold for a counter attack, the player will naturally retreat and exit, if necessary, any troops that are nearing a Panicked or Broken state given the huge CM motivation level drop such a state brings with it if the unit finishes or exits a CM battle in such a state i.e. the units motivation level would then be Poor for future CM battles unless rested.

To underline the price a player has to pay for blowing his troops, a unit needs to avoid a CM battle for one operational turn to go from Poor to Low, and two to go from Low to Normal, where it will stay unless it wins a CM battle, which will be explained later.

At the moment there does not seem to be a way that the attacking force can be repulsed. i.e the defenders put up such a fight that the attacker had to retreat back out of the Victory location to their Starting position (1 Hex away).

There is a way, if the defender in a CMPzC battle is successful in avoiding being forced to exit the CM map after the CM battle has finished, it will be his sides operational movement phase, that way he can bring up reinforcements to either scare away the attacker by forcing him to make a strategic retreat as i explained in an earlier post, or to force him to exit a certain amount of his units from the CM map.

The details of CMPzC battle victory conditions will be explained in my next post about the Axis counterattack at Bray.

Great work so far noob

Thanks

[noob]

This is a different map than the one i started this thread with, the reason is that i want to demonstrate how i intend to modify the custom maps i have been given permission to use in my upcoming CMPzC H2H Operation Package.

This map will represent Buron in the final product but for now it's Bray.

I have reduced the size of this map in such a way as to position the village in a central position, this is so any side attacking it from N/S has to move an equal distance to reach the cross roads in the viallge centre, and likewise for W/E attacks.

There is no terrain objective for the map, the only objective for any attacker is to force the defender to exit his forces off the map, or leave them such a tenuous foothold that they would be loathe to reinforce it given the potential enemy deployment area overwatch an attacking force could attain at the battles end, therefore prompting them to vacate the hex at the operational level.

Also, the attacker has the opportunity to flank the defender and gain a position between it and it's exit zone, so both force and maneouver can be used to dislodge an enemy from a hex via a CM battle.

So returning to the Axis situation at Bray, the CM battle ended after 60 turns with the defending Axis company somewhat blown as they all have Low motivation, are Weakened, and are out of ammo as a result of the previous battle, however they can resupply if necessary, as their trucks are parked at the rear map edge.

However all they really need to do is hold their position because two companies, a tank platoon and a 3 gun artillery battery have arrived on the map to relieve them within a few turns.

The Axis set up zone is 100 metres deep.

The reinforcements have left their trucks off map, however if they need them for another CM battle after this, they can be deployed on the map for re arming then exited.

So now the scene is set for an Axis counter attack to throw the Allies off the map.

The Allied CO is furious as i forgot to add their heavy weapon support, as they should of had a towed 6 x 6pdr AT gun section, and a 6 x 81mm Mortar Carrier section to add to their remaining three Shermans, two Stuarts, and two fought companies with no artillery support.

The reason the Allies have no artillery support is because the same artillery battery cannot be used for both an attack and defence battle, that means the player has to decide if he is to use all his artillery in an attack battle, or a defence battle, or split it between both, so in this case, the 8 gun Priest off map artillery has been used in the Allied attack on Bray, and is now ineligible to be used in a defensive battle there.

Also i would like to mention that when units move onto a CM map after an operational move, they can be fed on in any order at any time the player wishes, this means that entering maps with open areas (where units appearing on the CM map could come under fire straight away, see CW Colossal Crack) can have scout and FO units start on the map with tanks and vehicles coming on later after the scouts have had time to scout, or the FO's have laid down a smoke screen.

Anyway that concludes my demonstration of a typical operational turn if two players played a PzC scenario using my system.

I am currently writing up the rules discussed on this thread as a PDF manual to be put with the PzC Normandy44 Buron June 7th scenario, along with all the relevant CM maps, and a complete CM OOB for both sides, with historically researched experience and motivation levels.

This will be packaged in a RAR file and put on the battlefront repository when ready.

[StoneAge]

noob can you build your own maps/scenarios in PzC or do you only have access to prebuilt maps and scenarios.

[noob]

noob can you build your own maps/scenarios in PzC or do you only have access to prebuilt maps and scenarios.

You only have access to pre built sub maps and a Grand Campaign map, which is the whole of Normandy.

From Cherbourg

to Caen,

then down to Falaise and Argentan,

then across to Mortain, Avranches, and back up to Cherbourg.

The GC map is cut into more manageable chunks such as Cotenin, Cherbourg, Normandy Beach. etc.

[76mm]

Actually, you can create your own sub-maps from the full campaign map, at least with the demo (so you should be able to with the full game.

Another thing I just realized is that the scenario editor allows you to use summer maps in winter, etc., by changing the ground conditions in the editor (with the map art changing automatically).

You can build your own scenarios with the scenario editor, you can change quite a bit.

I'm just playing around with the demo for now, but it is pretty cool.

[noob]

Actually, you can create your own sub-maps from the full campaign map, at least with the demo (so you should be able to with the full game.

You are right, good find, i found this section in the Normandy44 full game scenario editor manual:

Although the Panzer Campaign games do not have a map editor, it is still possible to create new maps from existing maps using the Submap feature. Submaps are created by hand using a standard text editor such as Notepad. Start by creating a new file with the filename extension map. This file should include the following information which you enter by hand:

· Line 1: The number 0 indicating that this file contains submap information.

· Line 2: The filename of the larger map you are making a submap from.

· Line 3: Four numbers indicating:

· The map coordinates in the larger map of the upper-left-hand corner of the submap, and

· The width and height of the submap in hexes.

Note: the first map coordinate value must be an even number.

Here is an example of a submap called Utah_Sub.map:

0

Normandy.map

48 31 26 17

This file has three text lines:

· The first having the number 0 indicating submap

· The second having the filename Normandy.map indicating the larger map that this submap is taken from

· The third having the map coordinates (48,31), width of 26, and height of 17 indicating that the upper-left-hand corner of the submap is at map coordinates (48,31) of the larger Normandy map.

Once you create a submap, it can be used normally to create new scenarios using the Scenario Editor. When you create a submap file, be sure to save the file in plain text format with no word-processing formatting included. If you can open the file in Notepad and it appears just as you typed it, then it should work fine.

[76mm]

That's the "old" way, although it works. See if your game directory has a file called "pcsub.exe", and if so, open it and it allows you to create submaps very easily.

[noob]

That's the "old" way, although it works. See if your game directory has a file called "pcsub.exe", and if so, open it and it allows you to create submaps very easily.

Found it, nice one.

[StoneAge]

when building a scenario using the editor I have seen scenarios with both 2 hour and 3 hour turns, can you change the turn time length down to say 30 minutes a turn for a scenario.

[noob]

when building a scenario using the editor I have seen scenarios with both 2 hour and 3 hour turns, can you change the turn time length down to say 30 minutes a turn for a scenario.

I just checked the PzC editor / Header Dialog and the Hour drop down menu only allows time increments of one hour.