Alsatian Posted November 12, 2002 Share Posted November 12, 2002 I'm close to my first CM-birthday and witnessed something for the first time in a PBEM off of Scenario Depot. My question is whether my experience is highly unusual (I get to whine), or to be expected on rare occassion (I should shut-up and take it like a man). Situation: As defending Americans in a 35 turn scenario set in the Bulge, my briefing listed several sets of reinforcements, in particluar... 1x Infantry Coy (--) XXth Infantry Division --Notes-- The arrival of reinforcements are uncertain. I interpreted that as a company of infantry riding to the rescue around turn 30 or so. In actuality nothing or the sort arrived...bupkus. Now, of course it's historical for the Bulge that promised reinforcements didn't arrive, but this was my first case where units mentioned in a briefing never showed up. Do many scenarios include no-show reinforcements? (dons psycho-therapy hat) How did that make you feel? Additionally, with the scenario over, I opened it up in the designer and saw my reinforcements were actually a platoon and not a company. Is that a sloppy designer (typo in briefing) or sadistic designer (twirling mustache in fingers laughing demonically). Last fact of consequence: the platoon was designed to arrive on the 25th turn (10% probability per turn). At the very least, I just beat real long odds. Opinions would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manchildstein (ii) Posted November 12, 2002 Share Posted November 12, 2002 i've read that variable reinforcement times are pretty much out in scenarios to be used in tournaments... ...i used to have variable reinforcement times but came to pretty much the same conclusion... variable entry can cause the scenario to become unbalanced... ...air support is another one which can cause problems i think that in tournaments you'll see scenarios with reinforcements set to 100% arrival... as for whether the designer in your case was intentionally writing 'company' in the briefing and then inserting a platoon into the actual battle... that sounds intentional to me... in any case you would think that with a 10% chance starting on turn 25, that the reinforcements should have been there by 35 or so at the latest... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demoss Posted November 12, 2002 Share Posted November 12, 2002 Well, based on what you've reported.... 1) A platoon isn't that different, IMO, from "Company (--)" - I don't think you got misled that badly here. Certainly less so than all those briefings that say "only light resistance is expected." 2) There was a 31% chance of them never arriving (.9^11, since there are 11 turns from 25 to 35). In other words, chalk it up to a sadistic designer, but probably not in the way you meant. I don't think I would ever design a scenario like that, because IMO you should either leave the reinforcement out or bring it in automatically (or nearly so). It might not be so bad if you start the 10% every turn early, but if the reinforcement has only a 69% chance of appearing, it's either unimportant (and can be left out), or you're screwing somebody the remaining 31% of the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WWB Posted November 12, 2002 Share Posted November 12, 2002 That 10% chance means a 10% chance each turn. It is not cumiculative, etc. That means a 10% chance overall, with some mathmatical effect for the numbers of turn the reinforcement is possible. Don't ask me what the number is, I nearly failed prob-stat. WWB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted November 12, 2002 Share Posted November 12, 2002 Originally posted by wwb_99: ...I nearly failed prob-stat.I can see why. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alsatian Posted November 13, 2002 Author Share Posted November 13, 2002 one *bump* for good measure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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