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CM Times 10 - An Operational Campaign Revolution


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Well, get them to check in, then, darn it! LOL. Only Iron Duke and Thermopylae are still outstanding now - and they are both designated US commanders, so there is no harm done. (Meaning, only a German player might move to your side, if one of those drops). But if you are sending them stuff, send them another notice to send me an acceptance of their role (LOL), so we can get on with this thing.

And now Iron Duke has checked in, and only Thermopylae remains out...

[ 11-04-2001: Message edited by: JasonC ]</p>

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1 thing I haven't seen yet is; what are movement rates taken as? Are they abstracted into the movement rate of the units? If so, what's the appropriate distance travelled by a towed unit with organic transportation?

If not, what are the distances that a foot/motorized/armoured unit can cover?

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On movement speeds, see my reply to Jarmo on page two of this thread.

The basic answer is 3-2-1 km per op-move for leg infantry units on road, open, and woods/rough terrain, respectively.

Vehicle units are unlimited, 10km, 5km on paved road, unimproved road (normal), and muddy or crowded road respectively.

Off road movement by wheeled vehicles is next to impossible, as the ground is wet and some of the terrain is steep. In open ground they might make it half of 1 km on a short detour. Towed units are wheeled vehicles for movement purposes (when they have their vehicles - they are immobile without them).

Tracked and halftracked vehicles can move offroad in open ground, at a walking pace and with some risk of bogging down.

We now have everyone checked in, and the Americans have finished their set up (which was a snap with the CMx10 system). Next I need the German set up, and then the first orders phase from both sides. We are on course to generate the first tactical battles by next weekend.

For those not participating but interested, the teams are -

Americans: Jarmo (leader), Triumvir, Thermopylae, and Iron Duke

Germans: Wreck (leader), James Morton, Chris Campos, Ben Donaldson, Jake Kapplan

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The first operational moves are finally completed, and have resulted in three seperate battles. Two at the villages of Putscheid and Walhausen, and one along Route 324 between Hosingen and Reisenbacht. The scenarios have been designed and are only awaiting named tactical commanders to be distributed to the players.

This is shaping up to be a great fight...

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James Morton: my email to you is bouncing (that would be to the James.Mail34 address at btinternet.com). Please get in contact with me... things are happening. Commanders are needed.

Ben: what's up with TCP? You ready to give another shot at it? I have all the time in the world.

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Right Jarmo, but you might want to designate commander A at battle X, B at Y, etc. And if any of your players misses, you should take his spot.

Also, the American side should set up before the TCP/IP confrontation itself, using a procedure Leonard has explained. I quote -

"It is possible to save a setup without looking at the other side's forces, as follows:

"start the game hotseat, and choose your own side, enter password you are now in setup, and can position all your forces. Now save the game (via alt-s), and abort to get out (via alt-a).

"When gametime comes, start the game from the save file, this time TCP of course."

U.S. players should try out this procedure once or twice with any other game (it doesn't matter if you play it through, but don't use a campaign game file - not that you have any yet) to be sure they understand it. This is important, in order to save time during the TCP/IP meeting, and also to reflect the greater time the U.S. defenders are supposed to have to plan defenses, pick out locations, etc.

I will repeat this message to all players by email, to make sure everyone sees it.

We have plenty of time to deal with player assignments, set up, and arranging TCP game time - which, remember, is to be Sunday, unless both players agree to Saturday instead. That is 4 days, plenty of advanced notice, so it should come together.

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The first round of tactical combats (dawn) is over. The Americans held all three fight locations, which were at Putscheid, Walhausen, and on Route 324 about half-way between Hosingen and Reisenbacht. Everyone has turned in their AARs, distributed only to their own side naturally.

It is now 0800, and the fog is begining to lift in the low-lying areas, but still covers most of the battlefield.

New operational maps with updated forces, locations, and enemy sightings have been sent to both teams. I await the second set of op-moves from the commanders, after they consult their teams.

Let me also say that from my bird's eye view, this fight is too cool for words. And making map revisions, providing intel by unit placements, etc, has all been a snap.

It took me only minutes to update the map, and minutes more to provide detailed spotting reports as to enemy forces, locations, artillery, obstacles, reports of varying certainty, etc. Just by imitating how CM (and the CMx10 system) already work, using the unit name window for "enemy units", etc. The map files, being just CM scenario files, are under 15k and can be emailed to all teammembers easily.

I highly recommend trying this system. Even for less elaborate productions that our Bulge fight, or for games with just 2 players and an umpire.

[ 11-12-2001: Message edited by: JasonC ]</p>

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The battle of Walhausen is completed. By far the most serious to date, with overall causalties into three digits. The Americans held the town at the conclusion of the scenario proper, but had to pull out to reorganize. The Germans were far too exhausted to pursue. The remaining two fights from 0900 remain to be resolved.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not much happened at Putscheid. Orders have been received for 1000, and they resulted in one battle along route 324, 1 km east of Hosingen. The files are out to both sides, hopefully in time for the regular Sunday game-time. Thanksgiving slowed us down but things should be back to normal speed from here to Christmas.

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  • 2 months later...

I might as well take the occasion of Wreck's bump to update anyone interested on what has happened so far, within the limits of the double-blind nature of the campaign.

The Germans attacked from along the Our at Dawn on the 16th of December. It is now the dusk turn of the same day, most of the day's fighting has been completed. There have been 13 battles.

Five of them along the route from Reisenbacht to Hosingen, the last of them at Hosingen itself just recently, the others 2 each at two locations along the road between earlier in the day. The Americans have won the odd numbered and lost the even number fights along this route (1, 3, 5 - 2, 4). After each even numbered battle the front has moved westward. Some of these fights were substantial.

A few minor battles in the morning took place at Putscheid in the south. The south has been quiet since then, in terms of actual clashes. More has been going on there, but maneuvering rather than tactical battles. There was also one skirmish - little came from it - along the road between Merscheid and Walhausen, NW of Weiler.

In the center, there were a couple of fights at Walhausen, one of them very large. Then there was a fight at the crossroads southwest of that village, a bit of a lull, then another fight at the "Bald Mountain" west of the crossroads, which resulted in th encirclement of an American force. Another fight took place just recently in the fields north of Weiler, south of the crossroads, in which the remnant of that American force surrendered. The Americans wons the 1st and 3rd of these fights and lost the last 2. The big fight at Walhausen, #2 in this sector, forced the Americans out of the place, but the quite high losses on each side render than affair more like a draw.

Overall, then, the northern sector has seen an American fighting withdrawl to Hosingen, some of the fighting heavy, with the Americans now holding at Hosingen. The southern sector has seen only probing, skirmishing, maneuvering. The center sector saw very heavy fighting at Walhausen in the morning, both maneuver and fighting in the afternoon, ending in the encirclement and reduction of a pocket of Americans west of Walhausen.

This much is known to both sides and so I can afford to share it with everyone. Details on losses and such, and current strengths and deployments, cannot be given out, as the limited intel available to both sides is half the idea.

Overall the system is working very well. A few tactical commanders have had to leave us for various reasons, mostly real life and time issues. Several have joined in their places, and we are currently well supplied with tactical players. Normally we conduct one operational move per week, complete with resolution of all tactical battles. But we have missed a few deadlines and had skips over the holidays.

I continue to recommend the system to others. In terms of the work and time involved, in might be better for new refs to start somewhat smaller, less ambitious fights than we have attempted here, at least at first. Forces on the order of a reinforced battalion on each side, with the tactical battles "bite sized", few platoon affairs, would move smoothly. We've been seeing tactical battles in which sometimes a full battalion faced a reinforced company, which is in the high side for TCP resolution.

If anyone interested in running such a campaign has questions about handling operational aspects, I would be happy to answer questions. We've built up a number of simple procedures for things over the course of this campaign, and the previous attempt made without the benefit of the CMx10 idea. Things like artillery usage and support designations, artillery ammo resupply, engineer work and dig-in times, turn lengths and turns per day, movement distances, engagement distances, etc - a number of practical procedures have been worked out. We've also developed a working weekly schedule to keep the campaign flowing. If there is interest, I will post more info about such matters here.

Also, I plan to make available the tactical scenarios generated by the campaign after the first day of fighting is completed. This will allow non-participants in the campaign to see what the fights have been like, and also to consider "might have beens", what might have happened had this or that tactical combat gone differently. Naturally, you will not see the follow-on effects of a different outcome, as you would in a real operational campaign. But you can see the fights we've had, and the order in which they have occurred.

[ February 12, 2002, 04:28 PM: Message edited by: JasonC ]

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A quick update - the dusk turn has been completed. It brought 3 more tactical battles, two near Hosingen village and reasonably large, and one along Route 322 between the Walhausen crossroads and Schinkert, which was more like a skirmish. The southern Hosingen fight included clashing armor, in which the Germans scored more heavily than the Americans, and a Nebelwerfer barrage. The Americans retain control of Hosingen, however.

It is now night, the PM op-turn of 16 December. 10 operational moves have been resolved. Between 15 and 20 tactical battles have been fought since dawn. There will be two night moves, then it will be dawn of 17 December.

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