Biltong's Campaign Rules

[Biltong]

Biltong’s Campaign Rules

41 South v2.2 and 42 South v1.1

Player Guide v2.2

A complete walk-through of the first battle, the more difficult rules explained in some detail and lots of lovely pictures

BiltAid (41 South v2.2 compliant)

For those of you who hate paperwork SeaHawk's Magic Java tool will have you dieing in no time

BCR Map Packs with over 220 maps!!

All of the above - Get it here:

SuperSulo's Site

or here

Scooby's Site - including PDF versions for the non-MS compliant individuals

If this is the first time you hear about BCR… :confused:

BCR is a set of Campaign rules that enable you to play a series of battles from Barbarossa to Berlin.

BCR 41 & 42 South is the set of Rules covering the months June 41 to December 42 in the Army Group “South” Theatre of Operations.

Operation Barbarossa erupts on 22 June 1941 and you and your Battle Group storm through the Soviet ranks through the long months of summer in the steppe and the mud and rain of October. You take your men all the way to Rostov, Khar’kov and the Crimea before the incredible cold of November halt you in your tracks. Then the Soviet counter attacks start.

You are the commanding officer of a company of German Mechanized Infantry and some armor that you take through the whole CMBB time frame. As you lead your company and armor into Russia most of the parameters of the battles are dictated by historically accurate data, e.g. on the 4th week of October 41 it suddenly turns bitterly cold and the German advance freezes to a halt.

You, your men and armor gain or lose experience throughout the Campaign. You start off with Regular troops, but after a year it becomes obvious that the quality of your replacements are getting worse... How your men grow in experience will depend on how they fare in each battle… how many men did they lose; did they get rattled; did they take out a MG pillbox or maybe even a tank?

You yourself, as the CO, learn and slowly gain or lose Favor with your own commanding officer. If you screw up, you lose favor... Favor that you could have used to avoid launching an Immediate Assault straight after your last battle without even getting reinforcements.

You also get a Task Force to support your Battle Group: Infantry, Support, Vehicles, Armor, Arty or Air, depending on factors such as who assaults or attack who, weather etc.

With designed scenarios you quite often have ‘balanced’ forces, but with BCR you’ll get the real thing: Sometimes you know who your opponent is; sometimes you are facing unknown odds. Sometimes you have an easy go of it - hammering low on ammo and decimated green Partisans, but later that night you might face a counter-attack from 3 companies of Guards Mech, before you had chance to get reinforcements... You have to think on your feet and learn to retreat when necessary... no more heroic defenses or assaults till the last man!!

Your men's survival is of the utmost importance... even to the extent that you'll rather lose a battle than lose too many men! The objectives still matter – you still want to win, but not at the cost and risk of decimating your men. Here realism rules for the first time.

As a learning tool this is unsurpassed.... You learn to think and act like a real commander... If you think you’ve got your tactics down pat, – Think again… You will get into situations that you’ve never encountered before… and never will with normal scenarios and QB’s.

BCR is just for yourself… the battle is between yourself and an enemy who grows stronger every year… You will have to become a better commander for you and your men to survive till the end.

If you have any questions - post in this thread and I or one of the old hands will answer you within a day or 2.

Enjoy!!

Biltong

[ April 23, 2003, 04:17 PM: Message edited by: Biltong ]

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Time to add to the BCR news and rules a statement on

BilAid Java tool, BCR '41 South v2.2 compliant.

Soon to be extended to cover the whole war period.

[Biltong]

Originally posted by Seahawk-vfa201:

Time to add to the BCR news and rules a statement on BilAid ...

Done

[Snowbart]

Biltong,

I read that line over and over again, and to be honest, it could be made a little clearer. I am using just the standard rules, the pencil and paper deal, not Biltaid. So what does Biltaid do for you? Just bought a 10 sided die so I could quit stabbing my pencil with closed eyes at the random number sheet! :cool:

[Biltong]

Originally posted by Snowbart:

Biltong,

I read that line over and over again, and to be honest, it could be made a little clearer.

Had another look and you're right. I'm an old programmer - used to the If...not... type statements. Most people will find it a bit confusing.

Problem is, the alternative is not much better and it's a lot longer: listing all the things that are ok and if they are all ok, then go ahead and buy air.

I was just trying to be funny with the 'pissed' statement - no harm meant.

I am using just the standard rules, the pencil and paper deal, not Biltaid. So what does Biltaid do for you?

For me? That's private between consenting adults

SeaHawk - you want to tell him?

Just bought a 10 sided die so I could quit stabbing my pencil with closed eyes at the random number sheet! :cool:

Hmmm... Stabbing... I just tick the numbers as I go down the rows. Stabbing does sound a lot more exciting. I think I'll try that for a while.

[Sardaukar]

Interestingly, WinZip and WinRAR open Stuffit file just nicely, but totally differently...and it won't work. I downloaded Stuffit and managed to make newest version of BiltAid to work fine.

Cheers,

M.S.

[ April 23, 2003, 07:35 PM: Message edited by: Sardaukar ]

[OBJ]

Biltong-

I'm using excel and so modified the BG tab to calculate after replacements experience applying my formula.

I've added a tab to calculate and record unit potential and starting experience, and leadership trait potential.

I've added another tab to track unit/leader progress toward and crossing of experience/trait award thresholds.

I use the editor before each battle to set individual leader traits and unit experience.

Part of the reason I changed the replacement system was my armor gaining experience two or three times as fast as my infantry. My infantry keeps taking casualties and has few opportunities to knock out enemy vehicles or pillboxes. On the other hand my armor takes few casualties and has more opportunities to take out enemy vehicles, armor, and pillboxes. My impression is the casualties suffered are historically accurate but the lagging infantry experience is not. As I mentioned in the previous post, it's my thought the old system greatly understates the effect squad/team/crew veterans have on future unit performance.

[Snowbart]

Biltong,

No prob about the pissed comment. I wasn't even sure you were talking to me! I hope I haven't come across as being bitchy in these posts.

Well, thanks for all the help you and Seahawk have given me. I think I've got the hang of this , and bammm!....another question comes up.

Time to get ready for battle #4...............

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Originally posted by Sardaukar:

Interestingly, WinZip and WinRAR open Stuffit file just nicely, but totally differently...and it won't work. I downloaded Stuffit and managed to make newest version of BiltAid to work fine.

Cheers,

M.S.

Weird, zip and rar should simply state the archive is not what they do expect rather then expand it.

Anyway, good you got stuffit and run BiltAid fine.

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Originally posted by Snowbart:

[...] So what does Biltaid do for you? [...]

Nothing more than doing all the calculations for you and present all BCR parameters on the screen, computing results from the AAR outcome and keeping track of units. Hard copy (printout) or soft copy (saved files) for the current situation is available as well.

Although it may be used right away without even a look at the rules altogether it is always good to know what BCR is for at least having a grasp of what happens behind the scenes when BiltAid spits out results or awards you medals and gets you a dispatch from Berlin with new orders and/or a promotion or simply gives you bad news: your CO is dead and the inept protegée of Himler has been assigned as your commander :mad:

[ April 24, 2003, 03:34 AM: Message edited by: Seahawk-vfa201 ]

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Originally posted by Biltong:

[...]. I'm an old programmer...

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> I am using just the standard rules, the pencil and paper deal, not Biltaid. So what does Biltaid do for you?

For me? That's private between consenting adults </font>

[Joachim]

Well, I once said my nick was due to me banging my head on the desk when taking losses to my beloved core (in SP (1/2/3/WaW/WW2) campaings) . Seems BCR is bringing that back. Banging the head on the desk had another effect: Not only did I get the idea to try my nick after several unsuccessfil attempts to register, I even remembered my pwd

Am now playing my 30th battle with the tanks all crack- the IIIg even has 100 points, mostly from two AI armored attack scenarios - 40 tanks littering the area after the last of those.

First some AARs to honor the crew, question comes afterwards:

The last three battles where Large town - a meeting on the Kiev_ME map saw me supported by 2 Inf Co's, a plt of 222, IIc and IVf each plus 6 251, several mortar spotters and a 105 spotter vs about 3000 Soviet grunts. They all went for the rightmost bridge, and I used the alley to fire long distance with my attached sIG. In turn 30 I concentrated most of my forces - 2 plts and my core armor on my side of the river, 5 plts of Inf and the rest of the armor crossed to exercise a flanking attack. Aftermath: 1500 casualties in the area between the Theater square and the double bridge. Own losses: 10. sIG performance: great!

Next battle was a rainy night on a self-made city map. Pitch balck with LOS to 65 m. Partisan Inf to attack me. Got a green Inf coy and 3 tanks as support - plus several spotters and 200 points for fortifications spent on TRPs, wire and mines. Setup a perimeter without reserves to cover the stretched front, I did not want the partisans in town. Reserves would have to be drawn out of the line in less endangered areas. 3 251 to shuttle a plt from one end to the other.

TRPs were on my forward positions to cover a retreat - I expected I would have to fall back after initial contact and had wire and AP mine behind my forward line.

When my scouts had just reached their positions, one halfsquad on the right flank immediately got contact. I had ordered them to withdraw, and so they did. I moved my left flank to support the right flank, when scouts reported contact on the left. The 3rd plt went back to its positions, I shifted 2nd plt from the middle and concentrated most of my tanks on the right, with only a few buildings there. The partisans came, were stopped by infantry (1st plt scored almost 200 casualties, with the HQ racking up some 50) and unaimed mortar fire. The the tanks rolled over them and blasted the houses. Then an attack struck my neglected center. Luckily it was weak at first and run into the wire and mines I had placed to cover some outlying 2story stone houses. A TRP proved invaluable, CO hurried to stabilize the front and encourage the green plt over there.

Shifted most of my tanks and 1st plt, 3plt came from the left flank, 2nd plt run back to its old positions. The sIG was towed to a position behind a house. Then I opened up - on 65 m range. Shooting on the edge of a nearby house produced some misses. This way I could shoot up to 200 m from the gun, where I expceted the enemy. Alas, the house came down to soon.

During the 2nd attack, I had offered a cease fire as an end to the slaughter, but the partisans ignored that. When it was over, 1500 of just over 2000 partisans stayed on the battlefield. My CO scored 79 caualties.

Losses: One wounded in the 2nd plt HQ team, several other wounded among the green troops, one of them killed.

Next battle was a small City ME. I had no arty, no inf and only a 221 and a 38(t)E as support - but my sIG was on a churchyard behind a ridge overlooking the whole town. AI was less lucky, had to cross open ground to reach the town. My MGs and the sIG stopped them, my armor raced forward and caught most of Ivan outside the town on open ground. What entered the town, was disorganized and easily dealt with. An arty barrage struck my sIG (sniff) and disabled it, leaving the whole crew intact. Overall losses: 0 vs a total surrender (not that there was much left to surrender).

Now there is one question : Am I allowed to repair my sIG for the next battle (immediate assault vs a town, I selected the one from "White Wave scen" - and I got only 50 in arty) or do I have to make do without it?

rgds

Joachim

[Snowbart]

Originally posted by Seahawk-vfa201:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Biltong:

[...]. I'm an old programmer...

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> I am using just the standard rules, the pencil and paper deal, not Biltaid. So what does Biltaid do for you?

For me? That's private between consenting adults </font>

[Snowbart]

Question time for the newbie:

I was forced into an Emer. Reorg. I took the two remaining crew from my PzIIC and ditributed one to my PzIII and one to my 251/1 HT, bringing them up to full crew. According to the rules, since this unit has below 50% of crew, it is "lost forever". Does this mean the purchase points for that unit have vanished and I just use new attached points to buy another unit, if possible?

Also, I used one of my squads to replace a couple of casualties from other units, leaving this squad with 7 men as the depleted unit. I know i will move it off the board at start of the battle, and that it will get normal replacements after this battle. I suppose when calculating the after replacement experience, I would use 7 for the number of men left and 3 for number of replacements?

[Sardaukar]

Originally posted by Seahawk-vfa201:

Weird, zip and rar should simply state the archive is not what they do expect rather then expand it.

Anyway, good you got stuffit and run BiltAid fine.

It won't work when double-clicking, but with "Open with.." it works. But it opens the biltaid.sit file strangely...there is no biltaid.jar, but biltaid.1 and lot's of subdirectories with files But since Stuffit is only 8+ megs, no big deal. Great program you made, by the way.

Cheers,

M.S.

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Originally posted by Sardaukar:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Seahawk-vfa201:

Weird, zip and rar should simply state the archive is not what they do expect rather then expand it.

Anyway, good you got stuffit and run BiltAid fine.

It won't work when double-clicking, but with "Open with.." it works. But it opens the biltaid.sit file strangely...there is no biltaid.jar, but biltaid.1 and lot's of subdirectories with files But since Stuffit is only 8+ megs, no big deal. Great program you made, by the way.

Cheers,

M.S. </font>

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Originally posted by Snowbart:

Question time for the newbie:

I was forced into an Emer. Reorg. I took the two remaining crew from my PzIIC and ditributed one to my PzIII and one to my 251/1 HT, bringing them up to full crew. According to the rules, since this unit has below 50% of crew, it is "lost forever". Does this mean the purchase points for that unit have vanished and I just use new attached points to buy another unit, if possible?

Also, I used one of my squads to replace a couple of casualties from other units, leaving this squad with 7 men as the depleted unit. I know i will move it off the board at start of the battle, and that it will get normal replacements after this battle. I suppose when calculating the after replacement experience, I would use 7 for the number of men left and 3 for number of replacements?

I'll let Biltong chime in on this but the unit is lost for the next battle, ie you will not receive from Berlin replacements and spare parts to reconstitute the Battle Group. So those units will have to leave the map at turn one on next battle in order to get the moral penalty but Battle Group (unless another Emerg. Reorg. happens) will be replensihed (with lower exp) at next battle happening after a resting period.

[Biltong]

Originally posted by Scarhead:

....

Now there is one question : Am I allowed to repair my sIG for the next battle (immediate assault vs a town, I selected the one from "White Wave scen" - and I got only 50 in arty) or do I have to make do without it?

Hi Joachim,

Great AAR's

As the rules stand - your sIG is OK (not abandoned or KO'd) and can join the battle. This is the 2nd time this question has come up and I've just scheduled the following change for 42 South v2.2:

Immobilized vehicles – Normal battle die-roll: 1-8 to be able to be repaired in time; Immediate and Counter Attack 1-3 to be repaired in time.

You can impliment it now, if you want

Couple of questions from my side:

You seem to be winning very easily - Have you upgraded yourself after winning 6 battles in a row (Note 8)?

BTW - What player exp are you playing on?

Do you find that your armor crews gain experience too fast in comparison with your Company. Someone else has remarked on this?

[Biltong]

Originally posted by Snowbart:

Question time for the newbie:

I was forced into an Emer. Reorg. I took the two remaining crew from my PzIIC and ditributed one to my PzIII and one to my 251/1 HT, bringing them up to full crew. According to the rules, since this unit has below 50% of crew, it is "lost forever". Does this mean the purchase points for that unit have vanished and I just use new attached points to buy another unit, if possible?

Also, I used one of my squads to replace a couple of casualties from other units, leaving this squad with 7 men as the depleted unit. I know i will move it off the board at start of the battle, and that it will get normal replacements after this battle. I suppose when calculating the after replacement experience, I would use 7 for the number of men left and 3 for number of replacements?

SeaHawk answered this already... Just to confirm:

All Battle Group units, including armor are replaced during each normal replacement.

As for your 2nd question re the 7 men marched off the map - correct: 7 + 3 replacements

[Biltong]

Originally posted by OBJ:

Biltong-

I'm using excel and so modified the BG tab to calculate after replacements experience applying my formula.

I've added a tab to calculate and record unit potential and starting experience, and leadership trait potential.

I've added another tab to track unit/leader progress toward and crossing of experience/trait award thresholds.

I use the editor before each battle to set individual leader traits and unit experience.

Part of the reason I changed the replacement system was my armor gaining experience two or three times as fast as my infantry. My infantry keeps taking casualties and has few opportunities to knock out enemy vehicles or pillboxes. On the other hand my armor takes few casualties and has more opportunities to take out enemy vehicles, armor, and pillboxes. My impression is the casualties suffered are historically accurate but the lagging infantry experience is not. As I mentioned in the previous post, it's my thought the old system greatly understates the effect squad/team/crew veterans have on future unit performance.

Hi OBJ,

Won't you mail me your sheets - It sounds like something I could use.

biltong@betrim.co.za

I'm also took note of your exp comments.

But isn't it rather a question of the armor gaining exp too easily?

The losses on the East Front was so horrendous that through the years the quality of the German troops (as well as the Soviets) declined. With exceptions of course.

Thanx for the feed-back.

Biltong

[ April 24, 2003, 06:19 PM: Message edited by: Biltong ]

[Snowbart]

Originally posted by Biltong:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Snowbart:

Question time for the newbie:

I was forced into an Emer. Reorg. I took the two remaining crew from my PzIIC and ditributed one to my PzIII and one to my 251/1 HT, bringing them up to full crew. According to the rules, since this unit has below 50% of crew, it is "lost forever". Does this mean the purchase points for that unit have vanished and I just use new attached points to buy another unit, if possible?

Also, I used one of my squads to replace a couple of casualties from other units, leaving this squad with 7 men as the depleted unit. I know i will move it off the board at start of the battle, and that it will get normal replacements after this battle. I suppose when calculating the after replacement experience, I would use 7 for the number of men left and 3 for number of replacements?

SeaHawk answered this already... Just to confirm:

All Battle Group units, including armor are replaced during each normal replacement.

As for your 2nd question re the 7 men marched off the map - correct: 7 + 3 replacements </font>

[Lane]

From Lane,

I threw the towel in on BCR

Removed Bilaid ver 1. Played 14 Battles

Tried to set up new Bilaid Just could not get

set up. I just am a dummy on java Programs.

Last post from Dummy Lane On BCR.

It is a good fun Program who understand it.

Had fun trying to learn some of rules.

Hard to teach a old dog like me age 66 new tricks.

I think this will be it on BCR.

Have fun guys and win your battles

Lane

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Originally posted by Snowbart:

Thanks Biltong and Seahawk. Still have a question about my PzII. Does it return at all since I have ZERO crew for it?

Yep, only the crew will be newcomers. You should spend some time to introduce them to the rest of the KampfGruppe, show them how to start tank's engine and instruct them that when you calmly say "go" it is actually "GO NOW!!!!!"

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Originally posted by Lane:

From Lane,

I threw the towel in on BCR

Removed Bilaid ver 1. Played 14 Battles

Tried to set up new Bilaid Just could not get

set up. I just am a dummy on java Programs.

Last post from Dummy Lane On BCR.

It is a good fun Program who understand it.

Had fun trying to learn some of rules.

Hard to teach a old dog like me age 66 new tricks.

I think this will be it on BCR.

Have fun guys and win your battles

Lane

Sent you directly the JAR file. We might want to switch to this rather then the sit format for future releases (it helped others as well)

[Joachim]

Originally posted by Biltong:

As the rules stand - your sIG is OK (not abandoned or KO'd) and can join the battle. This is the 2nd time this question has come up and I've just scheduled the following change for 42 South v2.2:

Immobilized vehicles – Normal battle die-roll: 1-8 to be able to be repaired in time; Immediate and Counter Attack 1-3 to be repaired in time.

You can impliment it now, if you want

Had the next battle without it - somehow caught the Soviets from the rear, and when they reacted to my two plts inside the town, the MGs had perfect fire lanes. Having some tanks helped

Couple of questions from my side:

You seem to be winning very easily - Have you upgraded yourself after winning 6 battles in a row (Note 8)?

BTW - What player exp are you playing on?

Regular now....

"GREEN - You have played CMBO/CMBB for 2 years and have some other war-game experience as well."

Yes, that's me. CMBO from the start, but CM lay idle quite some time till CMBB came.

"REGULAR - I class myself in this category: 30 years war-gaming on and off with 5 years intensive war-gaming. CMBO/CMBB from the 1st CMBO demo 5+ PBEM's per night."

Nope, never ever a CM PBEM, can't match those 30 years,

:cool:

I find it harder to win big in attacks. I always tried to preserve my men. So a few attacks mean an occasional draw.

Do you find that your armor crews gain experience too fast in comparison with your Company. Someone else has remarked on this?

Definitely. The heavies are both just above 100 now. With some caution (or aux in front) they seldom die. IIc is at 76. Even my attached 231/8 is crack now...

But CO did it, too - 61 points now, a squad has 65. Others are less lucky.

Maybe award only 1/2 point for each tank, give another 1/2 point for guns, halve the points for inf.

Rgds

Joachim