4-Player Battle

[Cranky]

Hello Folks-

I've been working on a fairly large battle that recreates an amphibious landing, followed by capture of an airfield.

Attacking Forces add up to [CLASSIFIED] number of battalions of Marine Infantry with vehicles, plus Naval Gunfire support from a battleship, some cruisers and destroyers, as well as barrages from Rocketships and a heavy smokescreen.

It has occurred to me that it would play very well if TWO players commanded the landing forces - half each.

Another player would command the defenders, and yet another player (in this case, me) would act as umpire and control the naval assets.

The two attacking players will have to request Naval Gunfire support from turn to turn - TRP's will allow hopefully accurate and timely arrival of shells, once requests are granted .

To distinguish between the two Combat Commands, units belonging to one will simply have an asterisk in front of their name: e.g *MAJ Magon.

In theory, turns would work like this:

(1)PLAYER A: Moves his forces, SAVES. Sends SAVEGAME to Player B, AND A copy to Player C (Umpire), together with any requests for Naval Gunfire Support.

(2)PLAYER B: Moves his forces, SAVES, sends SAVEGAME to Player C Umpire), together with any requests for Naval Gunfire.

(3)PLAYER C (Umpire): adjudicates Naval Gunfire Requests- those that are granted are acted upon by targetting the appropriate TRP.

He then finishes the turn by pressing GO, and sends it to Player D.

(4)PLAYER D (Defender): moves his forces, presses GO, sends turn to Player A, and a copy to Player C.

Now, I haven't tested this, and I'm probably missing something very obvious-

If anyone out there would like to tell me what it is, I'd be grateful.

Tanks in advance,

Matt

[Erwin]

I designed a huge scenario with 3 players and a CinC on each side using the same 'system." The problem is that if one player is less responsible and doesn't do his turn within a day, the whole thing gets very slow and boring for the other players. I tried to make the CinC's responsible for the speed of their side, but even they had reliability issues. As a result, my 45 turn game took over 2 years... Most people had run out of ammo as well, despite reinforcements. (I recommend no longer than 25-30 turns variable.)

[Fenris]

I briefly participated in a multiplayer game of this sort many years ago playing CMBO with 3 or 4 players on each side. We had companies with support units assigned to us, 3 infantry and one armour unit I think. It worked fine sending the save game to the next player in your team. If I remember correctly we just decided on the order we did our turns within the team with the overall commanding player being last and the one who hit GO and send the results to the opposition. The asterisk sounds fine, just that the enemy will be able to distinguish too, but probably no big deal. It was very slow however, it took days to complete one turn but was definitely a more interesting way to play.

I had to pull out after a few turns so didn't finish but there were plenty of others available to step in at the time. These days however I'd suggest you need some dedicated players you can rely upon as finding replacements might be problematic.

Good luck.

[Cranky]

Thanks Fenris -

I'm definitely looking for Retirees

[Erwin]

You make some xnt points wanyi.

[mxh123]

Let me know if interested, PM or email me back.

I am sure that Moon can help you out somehow regarding a manual for Combat Mission.