Developing a series of battles over a single map

[HarryInk]

[Nelson1812 over at Band of Brothers recently brought this process to my attention. His original post is here ]

Old timers might know this but it's new to me!:

1. Find or generate a HUGE QB map. If it were me, I'd then plant sufficient VLs to stop the computer auto-generating any more at the rear of each side's territories. (roughly equivalent to the points in either side, I think)

2. Set up an ME between a soviet exploitation column and a german counter-attack.

3. When the game ends, save the final map (off the AAR screen) and put it in your 'quick battle maps' folder.

4. Set up a new QB, this time a probe, for whomever got the upperhand in the ME. Select new troops. When you get to the map details, select the saved map from the QBMaps folder and say YES to 'import troops'.

5. You'll find the old troops in situ fully resupplied with ammo (though holding their casualties) PLUS you'll get however many new ones you've choosen for the Probe. Maybe a good idea to agree to some rough rules (eg. no 'reinforcements' deployed within 300m of any old troops?)

6. Fight this battle out and repeat steps 3-5 except that you set the next fight as an ATTACK.

7. Try it again with an ASSAULT....or another attack if #6 failed.

What you could get is a series of battles where elements from a German division attempt to bottle up/smash the soviet breakthrough before it becomes yet another established salient/bridgehead. Or, the soviets trying to overrun hasty German defences. Passing through the categories allows defenders to start laying in trenches and pillboxes etc after the initial bouts with only foxholes. At this time I haven't tested this process enough to do anything but theorise the idea of what would make a great series of fights.

8. A variation on all this is to just redo the ME over and over. Much less character, I'd suggest but you do get to try the same tricks over the same terrain in a very bloody series of battles.

This has all the charms to burnt hulks and smashed buildings from earlier fighting littering the battlefield. Moreover, troops at the front can't redeploy wildly as they often can in Operations. I think it could also give you a really different shift in your CMing from the usual pin-rush to a different reading of terrain and objectives that focus on terrain, enemy and the integrity of your battleline (after all, a breakthrough exposes those VLs way back at the head of your communications route or, even better, sections of your command being isolated and reduced).

At step #3 you'd have to agree not to pick over the final map analysing enemy survivors etc. etc. unless you seriously want to compromise the FOW in the next battle. If you can keep that moment secure, it's amazing how little holds how much ground, simply on the basis that neither side really knows how much is 'there' and frets the enemy line into existence!

Anyway, if you fight a mate whom you trust and feel like a different spin in your CMing, this method has to be a candidate for producing a series of great battles, no?

[tankibanki]

I've tried exactly that against the AI and it is a nice concept. However there is one obstacle. The setup zones don't change so your units are iside the enemy setup zone once you have advanced.

Is there any way to solve this?

[Richie]

No

[Nelson 1812]

You could start your map off with checkered set up squares, if it works, but I always thought the new troops should enter via the old set up zones anyway?

[tankibanki]

Not if you enter the enemy setup zone.

A remedy would be to space setup zones far enough away, but you don't want to do this against the AI. It'll take forever to make contact.

[ June 01, 2006, 04:39 PM: Message edited by: tankibanki ]

[Nelson 1812]

"Not if you enter the enemy setup zone."

Did not think of that...

[Richie]

The other option would be to have no set up zones, and to play where they lay...

[Joachim]

QBs will auto-generate setup zones if there are none.

I'd go for three setup zones for each side.

For the Soviets: Reinforcements appear at the board edge, where you put the red zone. Next comes white, then blue.

IIRC units are fixed inside their setup zones - the reinforcements can only be set up in the red zone.

Edited to add that QBs always have setup zones - if none are present on the map, CM will create some depending on the mission type.

Gruß

Joachim

[HarryInk]

The idea of chequer-boarding set up zones is nice. Why not try a convention that 'cheques'(?) that have been interdicted can't be used in subsequent rounds, nor ones in advance of your own line. Troops isolated remain so. I know it's not perfect... Thanks for bringing up a good point.

The option of putting SUZs way way back to avoid interdiction means longer marching forward to contact than most people might like (dunno about the AI - I tend to play people mostly so don't think of it's habits so much). However, I think a 10 turn 'march in' isn't such a bad thing, so I'd recommend way back zones. Make you think about buying trucks a bit more, eh!