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Operational Companion for CMBN (Demonstration) AAR


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thanks for posting this. I'm interested how you're doing the combat resolution, I thought that went beyond vassal's capabilities? Also, I assume that vassal still cannot take movement points into account as you move units through hexes? (ie, as you move units, you have to manually count how many MPs they have left, and the MP cost of entering each hex)

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I'm interested to know about game saving for this. This process is surely facilitated by vassal itself and outputted in a standard format for all vassal modules. Actually, I'd really like to examine the save data format for myself, would you be kind enough to post a game save file (from your module) here on the forum so I can download it and take a look.

Thanks in advance

I have been changing a lot lately. As soon as I have everything in place I'll make a save file avaliable..

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thanks for posting this. I'm interested how you're doing the combat resolution, I thought that went beyond vassal's capabilities? Also, I assume that vassal still cannot take movement points into account as you move units through hexes? (ie, as you move units, you have to manually count how many MPs they have left, and the MP cost of entering each hex)

I'm simulating combat using automated dices. The battle result is based on unit strength, type of terrain and the dice result. The attacker has to get a certain dice number which is calculated by comparing odds between the attacker and the defender. The odds are based on unit strengths and type of terrain.

You are correct about movement; Vassal has no built in capability to know which terrain a certain hex occupies. Movement reduction must be done by the player using keyboard shortcut as he moves across the map. There are only few types of terrain so that part is actually pretty straight forward and easy.

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I have lately been thinking about unit sizes. What you have seen so far has been action between companies and platoons. I'm just not sure that size will cut it anymore. It might be better to use Battalions and Companies, Battalions being the main size with the possibility to split certain units into Companies?

What do you guys think? Personally I favor smaller battles in CM. I'll do Battalion sized engagements sometimes but I prefer to keep it smaller especially when playing PBEM.

Having Battalions would make the strategical layer easier to manage and maybe even more historically accurate. There is nothing that can stop players to play smaller battles anyway, they could just decide to fight a part of a bigger battle..

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The biggest factor in the scale of the battles is the size of the map you'll need (and the time). Broadsword and I have mostly fought around BN size battles based on our OP layer. In our case Broadsword is making custom maps for each battle based on as much as possible real terrain.

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Tank Hunter does vassal allow for an umpire.

That way unit size does not matter as much, you can have companies and platoons.

With an umpire who can move units where he wants at any time then battles transfered to CM could then be a representation of multiple Hexs. eg: 4 hexs = 2x2 km CM map or 4x1

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Been a couple of years since I built something but IIRC... VASSAL can have any number of players and you can define rights for each depending on their choice of side. This can be from specific restrictions on what counters a player can move and see to allowing all players to move and see anything. In this case an umpire would just be one of the sides selectable when you start the game. Differing levels of control for each side definition adds more ground work for the module builder though. It's easy to just let anyone move anything and I found this was fine. If cheating is a concern then I guess this might not be the best, guess if depends on who you're playing with. Besides hidden movement each player can see everything being moved and most modules I've toyed with have moves reported in the chat buffer as well.

-F

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  • 2 weeks later...
Tank Hunter, hi,

Just to say that I am still enthusiastically waiting to see this one mature to its full potential... :).

We all have to do lots of real life stuff too.... but when you have time do update us on how things are going...

All the best,

Kip.

I have taken a small break in order to regroup.. :) Weather has been nice and I'm back to work again after my vacation so I've just tried to enjoy the sun while it lasts. I will definately go back to the project. The last thing I was exploring were Battalions which would speed up the process significantly and allow for a faster operational game.

Best Regards

TH

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  • 1 month later...

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