Questions about RobO's Campaign Generator

[Ardem]

Thanks for that Rob,

I changed the site so Opera would work DAMN MS! I am just working in Word and saving it, too much effort to sit and fiddle with code. Anyway found a solution.<smile>

Good idea I will post the additional rules for this campaign, most of it is around the strategic side.

I will wait till I got a few more missions up and the rules and all, thanks for all that. It be interesting to get feedback from other people on how they would go about the missions and what units they would of selected.

[ December 02, 2004, 02:34 PM: Message edited by: Ardem ]

[DzrtFox]

Hi guys,

First a major thanks to RobO for his great campaign generator. I really hope that the next iteration of CM has something like this built in. ROQC has truly helped to make solo play vs. the AI interesting again.

I have a question. In a campaign battle last night with a platoon of T-34s as my core, I was playing a retreat with only one of three tanks available. After the battle is over, where you fill in casualty information on the Core Force sheet (# of returning soldiers), do I need to fill in returning soldiers if they didn't participate in the battle? For one tank, I had 4 units ok before the battle but no equipment, while tank #3 had 3 crew members ok but no tank. In other words, they didn't participate in the battle, but I wasn't sure if they needed to be entered as returning soldiers in the blanks before doing the post-battle rolls. Hopefully that makes sense...

I unfortunately got an auto-ceasefire on like turn 3 or 4 due to low ammo on both sides. If I decide to accept this result and move on, does it count as if my core did not exit at all? Since there was a ceasefire, technically the units didn't die or get captured, but on the Favor sheet I entered 0 out of 18 exiting and lost a lot of favor. It also seemed that I lost the one tank I actually used in the battle.

Thanks in advance for your help, and thanks again for creating such a great system!!

[Robert Olesen]

Originally posted by DzrtFox:

I have a question. In a campaign battle last night with a platoon of T-34s as my core, I was playing a retreat with only one of three tanks available. After the battle is over, where you fill in casualty information on the Core Force sheet (# of returning soldiers), do I need to fill in returning soldiers if they didn't participate in the battle? For one tank, I had 4 units ok before the battle but no equipment, while tank #3 had 3 crew members ok but no tank. In other words, they didn't participate in the battle, but I wasn't sure if they needed to be entered as returning soldiers in the blanks before doing the post-battle rolls. Hopefully that makes sense...

You only need to consider replacements if they don't participate in the battle. The rest can be ignored.

Btw, it seems you're using the pen and paper version (otherwise this woukd have been taken care of automatically). I'm curious about how it works - I changed the battle sheet a good deal not too long ago.

I unfortunately got an auto-ceasefire on like turn 3 or 4 due to low ammo on both sides. If I decide to accept this result and move on, does it count as if my core did not exit at all? Since there was a ceasefire, technically the units didn't die or get captured, but on the Favor sheet I entered 0 out of 18 exiting and lost a lot of favor. It also seemed that I lost the one tank I actually used in the battle.

Thanks in advance for your help, and thanks again for creating such a great system!!

You're welcome. I made it because I needed it myself and because I figured others would want to use it as well.

The rules are quite clear IMO on this question. Let me quote the last part of section 4.7

6. After the Battle

a. If the enemy surrenders, all of your forces still on the map are considered to have exited.

b. Those forces still on the map that have a free run to the proper mad edge are considered to have exited. The unit’s route to the edge must not be impeded by enemy fire that can pin or destroy the unit.

c. If a unit has not exited and cannot do so (see also 4.6.3.1 and 4.6.3.2), roll for returning soldiers, as described in 5.6.1

Units that are considered exited in this manner do not count for Retreat Favor calculation.

However, you hit a situation where the combination of ROQC rules and CMBB programming work against you. I'd be tempted to ease up on the rules myself in this case, or perhaps simply ignore this battle. Retreat battlea are a nice concept, but they're hard to make good rules for.

But I can see you have that in hand already.

Good hunting - with three of four tanks out of action I hope you're due for a rest and refit soon.

[securityguard]

Anyone try to use these .xls files in openoffice.org? I can't seem to get them running.

[DzrtFox]

Rob, I'm actually using the spreadsheet, although you still answered my question. I just wasn't sure if I was supposed to enter returning soldiers after the battle (column 6 on the spreadsheet) if the unit didn't participate. I didn't know if the formula automatically handled that or not, which it does. You did an awesome job on the spreadsheet.

I wonder if putting a cutoff level on ammunition for retreat battles would prevent the early ceasefire problem... It seems almost inevitable in cases of low ammo on both sides. Although a minimum number would be sort of unrealistic, it would still solve a much worse problem...

[Robert Olesen]

I learned a great deal about Excel while developing this.

The ammo/ceasefire problem pops up whenever both sides have a low ammo level, but the consequence of an early ceasefire is more serious in a retreat battle than in other battles. One way to postpone the autoceasefire is to bump up both sides one "level" until the total is at a minimal threshold - something like 100%, perhaps 120%.

Btw, do you mind sending me your spreadsheet? I'm curious to see what yuor campaign is like.

[Robert Olesen]

DzrtFox (and others), check this

[securityguard]

I hate to bump a year old thread, but I have some questions:

1. Is it possible to have two battles a month? It assigned me the same month twice, and it clearly knows its the next battle... If not, is it okay to change month? or will that screw up the spreadsheet?

2. How do promotions work? You get a certain promotion count, then it automaticly promotes you?