Biltong's Campaign Rules

[Biltong]

Originally posted by Seahawk-vfa201:

... Example, you might have rolled 80 pts for Infantry, 120 for vehicles, 80 for Armor, nothing for the rest.

You LOOSE those points if they are not enough to buy anything in that category (say the min infantry additional unit you may get costs 81!!!) For one point you loose all 80

:mad:

Tough, sux big time but so is/does war.

Hi Seahawk,

The above point is not quite correct:

Note 12 - Generating the real battle:

"If you have points left after buying all the Task Force Offerings in a category or if you have points left, but not enough to buy a specific unit, you can choose what you want to buy from the normal QB unit list.

In other words - buy as many Task Force units as you can from the generated units, but if you have points left - you win - you can buy what you want from the QB list. Remember: You can/must also buy individual teams such as MG teams etc that might be part of a platoon to use up your points.

If you have points left in a category, but there's no generated unit or a unit on the QB list cheap enough, then you do lose those points. For infantry this will normally be just a couple of points, but for armor it can be a bit more.

Biltong

[Guillem]

I recently began to play BCR41, and after the first two battles (each one a total victory) i moved onto using Biltaid to manage the rolls.

Now, i'm at the 5th battle, and have suffered one total defeat, one tactical defeat and one bloody draw. I noticed Biltaid qualifies me as a Normal player, which probably i am not, and keeps me facing fitted regular soviet battallions in axis assault battles that are almost impossible for me to fulfill (i depend strongly on the armored units, this last draw wasn't because i hold any flag, but because i balanced that with a huge amount of soviet casualties i inflicted with my armored units). To make things worse, as my first two battles were followed by immediate assaults, i can't have normal replacements but just emergency reorganizations...

I tried to start a new record in Biltaid selecting "Green" and not the default Normal player quality, but thereafter i don't know how to input the Battle Force units in there...it seems i can't by just selecting the cells and trying to input the text on it. How can i do that?

If that's not possible, am i then forced to play such frustrating kind of battles, or can manually fix that? How? So far it's only June 26th 1941 and i've lost as many times as won, and one draw...

Thanks !

Guillem.

Thanks !

[Snowbart]

Got a Question fellas. When using the editor to buy my Battle Group, and adjusting their respective settings such as ammo and experience, when you come to the platoon HQ's and the Co. HQ, do you adjust the 4 settings relating to them(command , combat, morale, stealth)? I haven't seen anything about this in the playerguide, rules, or notes. I imagine you don't adjust these settings, but wanted to see what the correct way is.

Also, relating to ammo settings. I am supposed to have 50% ammo. While in the editor and buying my units, which I import along w/ the map when setting the real battle, do i look at that units max ammo and half it(for 50%), or leave it alone and simply set ammo to 50% in QB settings? I looked at each unit in my BG in the editor, took their max ammo capacity and halfed it for 50%, but im worried it simply cuts that level in half AGAIN once i tell the QB generator 50%.

Many thanks for the help gents.

Snow

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Originally posted by Guillem:

I recently began to play BCR41, and after the first two battles (each one a total victory) i moved onto using Biltaid to manage the rolls.

[...]

I tried to start a new record in Biltaid selecting "Green" and not the default Normal player quality, but thereafter i don't know how to input the Battle Force units in there...it seems i can't by just selecting the cells and trying to input the text on it. How can i do that?

[...]

Thanks !

Guillem.

Thanks !

Hi Guillem,

In the Custom Battle - if that i your question - right-click (or ctrl-click for Mac - to inport your Battle Group units with corrected values for names and experience.

[ April 14, 2003, 12:29 PM: Message edited by: Seahawk-vfa201 ]

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Originally posted by Biltong:

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

... Example, you might have rolled 80 pts for Infantry, 120 for vehicles, 80 for Armor, nothing for the rest.

You LOOSE those points if they are not enough to buy anything in that category (say the min infantry additional unit you may get costs 81!!!) For one point you loose all 80

:mad:

Tough, sux big time but so is/does war.

Hi Seahawk,

The above point is not quite correct:

Note 12 - Generating the real battle:

"If you have points left after buying all the Task Force Offerings in a category or if you have points left, but not enough to buy a specific unit, you can choose what you want to buy from the normal QB unit list.

In other words - buy as many Task Force units as you can from the generated units, but if you have points left - you win - you can buy what you want from the QB list. Remember: You can/must also buy individual teams such as MG teams etc that might be part of a platoon to use up your points.

If you have points left in a category, but there's no generated unit or a unit on the QB list cheap enough, then you do lose those points. For infantry this will normally be just a couple of points, but for armor it can be a bit more.

Biltong </font>

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Originally posted by Snowbart:

Got a Question fellas. When using the editor to buy my Battle Group, and adjusting their respective settings such as ammo and experience, when you come to the platoon HQ's and the Co. HQ, do you adjust the 4 settings relating to them(command , combat, morale, stealth)? I haven't seen anything about this in the playerguide, rules, or notes. I imagine you don't adjust these settings, but wanted to see what the correct way is.

Also, relating to ammo settings. I am supposed to have 50% ammo. While in the editor and buying my units, which I import along w/ the map when setting the real battle, do i look at that units max ammo and half it(for 50%), or leave it alone and simply set ammo to 50% in QB settings? I looked at each unit in my BG in the editor, took their max ammo capacity and halfed it for 50%, but im worried it simply cuts that level in half AGAIN once i tell the QB generator 50%.

Many thanks for the help gents.

Snow

Heya Snow,

correct: no rules about upgrading special features for HQs. Guess thet are more on plain character than experience although Biltong gang might think differently in the future

Currently the editor has a bug (squashed in the to be released patch) that whatever you do restore FULL ammo for units imported from the Editor. What I do now is that if rolled parameter is not far from FULL then I do not care and prefere haveing the correct experience for that unit.

[Snowbart]

You the man Seahawk!

[KingPin]

I am using Biltaid and i dont understand some things. Ok there are 10 guys in the squad, but what if you have more than 60% casualties the game doesnt have a 60% casualtie rate, lets say you have 1 or 2 guys left, is the squad dead and how can you replace it?

Is the Axis support points temporary units for the particular battle? There is infantry,vehicle,armor,artillery,air,fortification,attached units. where are antitank,AA,mortar under

What is an attached unit?

How do you add units to your battle group?

when men join you from another division how do determine what kind of unit?(it just asks me to enter a name)

I just cant seem to get this goin dudes

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Originally posted by KingPin:

I am using Biltaid and i dont understand some things. Ok there are 10 guys in the squad, but what if you have more than 60% casualties the game doesnt have a 60% casualtie rate, lets say you have 1 or 2 guys left, is the squad dead and how can you replace it?

Is the Axis support points temporary units for the particular battle? There is infantry,vehicle,armor,artillery,air,fortification,attached units. where are antitank,AA,mortar under

What is an attached unit?

How do you add units to your battle group?

when men join you from another division how do determine what kind of unit?(it just asks me to enter a name)

I just cant seem to get this goin dudes

Most of these questions are about the rules rather then BiltAid. Anyway:

Casualties:

the casualty level for the current battle affects the Task Force units. Your Battle Group is supposed to receive replacements (which affect experience: ie lower it) before the next battle. This unless emergency reorganization in an immediate followup of the battle in which case you will find in BiltAid some units with ZERO men as men are redistributed to fill up squads: walk the zero-men unit out of map during the first turn to suffer from the moral penalty.

Immediate followup means there has been no time for Berlin to send you fresh meat, err, replacements.

Support:

Per the rules you get support from those categories only and only for that battle. Those are units which join you in the battle because of strategic reasons only know to Berlin brasses: they received orders to join you for that battle. Difficult in this case to be joined by single teams and or stranded men (see attached units).

Attached:

Those are units who get *lost* in the war and find you - by chance - in their wandering. They decide to join your KampfGruppe for a while.

The name is used to identify the attached unit (SWP222, mortar81mm, LCG, etc). You get so and so attached-points which you use to buy the attached units (to a max of three units at all time at same time).

When BiltAid determines at the end of the battle you had attached-points it consider you have used them to buy units and asks for their details so to be added to your Battle Group. Hence, when you spend those points put down what you bought with them.

Attached units may disappear as fast as they have arrived. Do not expect to have them with for long.

[Biltong]

Biltaid is truly GREAT!!!

It's even forcing Seahawk to take over rule support and give me a break

Attaboy Seahawk - Go for it and much thanx

Seriously...

Someone mentions setting HQ capabilities etc in the Scenario Editor.

Once the new patch is out I'm planning to incorporate the setting of ammo, experience and names for each squad/team/HQ. But only for 42 South (and onwards). 41 South's rules will remain as is to give Biltaid time to settle down.

I'm planning to expand the rules gradually from year to year. For instance: I'm planning to include a new rule for 43 South where replacements are requested in the case of an immediate or counter attack, but they might be delayed to various degrees (or not arrive at all).

HQ capablilities and their upgrade is also on the list, as well as using Squad HQ's to replace a killed Company CO. (Also for 43 South)

I'm planning to make all these additional rules optional - as stand alone Appendixes. As you'll see from the Delayed Armor Replacement rules (Appendix D) in 42 South. This means that you could impliment it in earlier years as well if you wish. However, I'm not sure if this is possible while using Biltaid.

Seahawk once you start on 42, you can have a look and let me know how these optional appendixes impact Biltaid and if there's anything I can do from the rules side to make your life easier.

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Originally posted by Biltong:

Biltaid is truly GREAT!!!

It's even forcing Seahawk to take over rule support and give me a break

Attaboy Seahawk - Go for it and much thanx

Welcome but keep an eye on my replies

Seahawk once you start on 42, you can have a look and let me know how these optional appendixes impact Biltaid and if there's anything I can do from the rules side to make your life easier.

BiltAid looks like it is now '41 v2.2 . Will conduct few more tests but looks fine now.

After it has proved to be working Ok - after release that is - I will start extending it to '42 (little by little )

[ April 13, 2003, 02:38 PM: Message edited by: Seahawk-vfa201 ]

[Sripe]

Originally posted by Seahawk-vfa201:

BiltAid looks like it is now '41 v2.2

Is the latest Biltaid ver 1.0.2? Thanks.

Reed

[Guillem]

This one's for Seahawk or any Biltaid guru

I've installed the Java recommended in the Notes of Biltaid under Windows 2000 Pro, and at the install it gave me an error msg complaining about the service pack of my OS, but i followed on.

Now, after working OK for several battles, it has began to happen one problem with Biltaid, i don't know if it can be related to the installation error msg for Java... The problem is that after the battle, i am not showed the window to enter my Battle Group results (casualties, if the unit has been rattled or not) after hitting "Next button". Instead i am prompted to hit "next" to enter that same figures for my armor.

Any ideas about what's happening, or how could i solve it? Maybe downloading/installing a different Java runtime? Which one?

Thank you very much.

P.D. Thanks for the answer on how to enter my own BG in custom mode in Biltaid (right clicking).

[j0ker]

... with so many good rules/Biltaid clarifications by the Commander, perhaps we should start a BCR FAQ thread....

j0ker

[j0ker]

I've another question, not covered by the rules (i think) ...

Ceasefires: is this allowed? Should one even consider using this in BCR? Seeing as this is a mutual decision between you and the AI, if the AI accepts a ceasefire that you initiate, is this an acceptable way of ending a battle within the BCR parameters?

Obviously if one prepares for a ceasefire early enough and is willing to accept a draw, one could conceivably get out of a drawn-out battle with most of his Battle Group untouched. Is this considered "gamey"?

thanks for your opinions and/or "official" ruling.... j0ker out

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Originally posted by Guillem:

This one's for Seahawk or any Biltaid guru

I've installed the Java recommended in the Notes of Biltaid under Windows 2000 Pro, and at the install it gave me an error msg complaining about the service pack of my OS, but i followed on.

I am on OS X so cannot test on Windows but I'd say you should make sure to have a sound Java installation. The current version of BiltAid did not give troubles to users the way you describe. I;d first make sure you have latest Java VM installed.

[Seahawk-vfa201]

Originally posted by j0ker:

I've another question, not covered by the rules (i think) ...

Ceasefires: is this allowed? Should one even consider using this in BCR? Seeing as this is a mutual decision between you and the AI, if the AI accepts a ceasefire that you initiate, is this an acceptable way of ending a battle within the BCR parameters?

Obviously if one prepares for a ceasefire early enough and is willing to accept a draw, one could conceivably get out of a drawn-out battle with most of his Battle Group untouched. Is this considered "gamey"?

thanks for your opinions and/or "official" ruling.... j0ker out

No opinion on this but I would not say gamey. If used *realistically* I would not call it gamey. Anyway, the AI - AFAIK - will not accept your ceasefire if it thinks it can still beat the crap out of you

[tabpub]

The opposite is where it really stinks. Had to do an "immediate assault". roll everything up and both forces had little ammo. Resulted in the computer declaring a ceasefire; as it fired everything it had at me, burning out the ammo before I could penetrate the lines. Suffered a tactical defeat, only because I had butchered it before the ceasefire.

[Biltong]

Originally posted by j0ker:

...Ceasefires: is this allowed? ...Is this considered "gamey"?

Yes - allowed. If the Soviets are in such a bad state to accept your ceasefire - good for you.

There is nothing that's gamey in BCR.

This is war and there are no rules! If you can get an advantage in any way - grab it! You'll need it when the winter starts knawing at your bones

[EasyCo]

Here it is. Sorry I was busy to do it..And lazy too . Here it is Seahawk Journal.

[Seahawk-vfa201]

BiltAid rules v2.2 compliant

The new version is a cohesive Java jar file. Runs both on Windows (with Java installed) and OS X.

The command to start from a terminal: java -jar BiltAid.jar

where 'java' must be in your $PATH

On OS X one can as well double-click to start it. Dunno if that would start it on Windows as well (Package note: "Runs on Windows 98 or better", so I run it on OS X )

The notes from Peterk concerning how and what to do in order to have Java on a Windows machine still hold. For OS X there is nothing to do: Java comes pre-installed.

I am confident the program should behave but - as they say - there's always one bug left ;-}

Old BiltAid saved files cannot be loaded into this new version as the changes are substantial.

Minor caveat though: delay moving to the new version if you are in the middle of an immediate attack/assault (as results depend on the previous battle as well), other affected parameter is counter for Large Battle but this last is less relevant.

Then the suggestion is to wait till you get a new battle days ahead then start a new custom campaign and import manually your Battle Group into the new BiltAid (from Custom Campaign: right-click to access the menu for the units. If you have a one-button mouse then do a ctrl-click instead to simulate the right-click).

You will see that now armors are distinguished as light, medium and heavy per their gunnery (rules v2.2) and mortars and HMG are now separate units.

Attached units can also feature sharpshooters and special units (tank hunters and firethrowers combined): again as per rules v2.2 .

BiltAid will then evolve into covering '42 and subsequent years. File is currently on SuperSulo site as a zipped Stuffit archive (Stuffit free versions for both Mac and Windows platforms do exist)

I am confident it is working: tests I run seem OK but keep a printed version of your battles just in case. If you compare results obtained with previous version do not be surprised they will not be the same: v2.2 of the rules bring in more detailed calculation of unit experience. The rest is more on modifiers and some changed values.

Hope it will make BCR even more playable - it does it for me.

Enjoy

[ April 15, 2003, 08:42 AM: Message edited by: Seahawk-vfa201 ]

[Seahawk-vfa201]

TA-DAAHHH

Forgot to check whether CO is dead in case of casualties to its unit. So ALMOST rules v2.2 complaint

[Robert Olesen]

Check out my Quick Campaign here: http://www.battlefront.com/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=23&t=006862#000000

It's heavily inspired by Biltong's campaign, yet quite different. With this one, you can actually reach 1945 before CMAK is released

[[MyIS] Buffpuff]

First off great job on the depth of this campaign you've created Biltong. I've been playing CMBO for almost 2 years and finally starting to wean myself off of it and started playing CMBB. The campaign looks great but there are some points that I'm confused about. The rules say you start off with 653 purchase points and no attached units. My question is how do you setup your 1st battle to play with those 653 points? I set up a QB with the force size set at 500 points. The AI got a 10 percent bonus so they got 550 purchase points. When the dust settled I had suffered minor casualties but was unable to take the victory flag locations due to almost a company sized russian force that hadn't even fired an earnest shot yet at my troops. Had I tried to assault that force with my forces I think I would have been lucky if I had any survivors. Being on the attack I don't expect to just run over my opponent(even if it is the AI) with superior numbers but this assault match seemed almost more like a meeting engagement with the disadvantage to me because of dug-in defenders. But getting to the point of my question is what force size do you choose for your first battle? From reading the player guide and the rules everyone starts with the same force at the beginning. Assaulting a 550pt Infantry based force with a 653 pt Combined Arm force(even with 3 tanks) was tough as hell. Maybe I just suck as a player(all these years wasted..sniff sniff) but I get the feeling I don't have a full understanding of how to start this thing. Thanks in advance for helping a noob!

[EasyCo]

Heya, Seahawk maybe you need to do the signature for my web.. It is your web site anyway.

EasyCo