John Tillers Pz Campaigns meets Combat Mission

[Sgt Bilko]

Below is an idea for playing Combat Mission in a campaign format that will cut out a lot of the "Paperwork" and the need for dedicated forums and hordes of GMs.

It is achieved by combining John Tiller's Panzer Campaign games ( JTPC ) with Combat Mission ( CM )

It can be played with at least 3 people or more, at least 2 players and 1 Games Master / Post Master.

All parties have to own a copy of the Tiller game (Pz Camp Tobruk 41 for example)

A scenario from the JTPC game is chosen and the player that starts first plots their moves in the game....saves the file and sends to a team mate or the GM depending on team size.

In the case of multi players per side the forces are divided up as agreed by the team and each player in turn plots their moves and sends the save file to the GM who will then forward it to the next player in the team (This is to circumvent the temptation to ask a teamate to send a turn back for re doing if the original sender has changed their mind about the moves they had plotted,each member of the team will not have the e mail address of their teammates as all communication goes through the GM...the same applies for planning discussions..... this would allow the GM to create their own rules about exactly how easy it or hard it is for the whole team to communicate to each other before and during the game)

The last player in the team then creates the turn into a PBEM file and sends it to the GM who then forwards it to the opposing team who repeat the process.

This goes on until a contact is made that warrants a CM battle map to be created (Tiny actions can be resolved within the JTPC game)

The GM then builds the battle and the players involved play a CM battle as normal.

After all the contact battles have been resolved in CM the results are put into the JTPC game.

This is done by the GM who uses the scenario editor to create a new JTPC game that mirrors the positions and time of the current game with one exception....the units that have fought will be modified to reflect the result of the CM battles played.

Once this has been done the JTPC process begins again until a new contact and new set of CM

battles is created and then the above process is repeated.

This goes on until the game reaches its turn limit or one side surrenders...victory conditions will be determined by the Victory flags gained in the JTPC game and/or by an appraisal by the GM of the remaining forces condition and position.

To me this would be the best compromise between complexity and simplicity.

An alternative way of playing would be to have only players that are commanders playing JTPC and then their subordinate team mates fighting the CM battles that occur.

This would mean only the commanders need to own and play the JTPC game i.e. one commander on each side playing a JTPC game by PBEM with their teammates resolving the contacts in CM, where

the subordinates would have none, or a limited knowledge of the big picture,and would have to fight their corner of the game along the lines of their initial briefings,or any new intel that is passed to them via game briefings once the game is underway.Likewise the commanders would know the big picture but will have none or a limited effect on how they advise their subordinates once the game is underway.

Chain of command and communication FOW rules could then be introduced to a level of realism agreed on by the participants.

I am currently planning to start testing this method in the new year with the Tobruk 41 Tiller game and i am looking for participants that are familiar with the JTPC games and own a copy of Tobruk 41.If anyone tries this before then i would appreciate any thoughts on the possible pitfalls of the method.

Enclosed is a link to the John Tiller Games Ring,their are games for most of different theatres of

WW2.

http://www.hist-sdc.com/webring.html

UK players can order the games from this site

http://www.hist-sdc.com/webring.html

Sgt Bilko (Andy)

[ December 12, 2003, 03:10 PM: Message edited by: Sgt Bilko ]