2013 Q3 News Archive

Unfortunately I don’t think Matt like that one.

The rankings, especially of those played solo, often depend on the way the play runs out. In my play the Japanese leaders continually failed their morale checks leaving us with an inability to pursue assault combat. It took the strongest possible weapon away from the Japanese. They ended up being slaughtered. On the other hand, with a very few units it was still an interesting situation, it just didn't play out that way.

Looks like the good ideas are starting to run dry. If you have any final thoughts, please post them in the next 20 hours. After that Alan Sawyer and I will begin triaging your inputs along with other sources. next we'll be asking our Dev Team to playtest some new concepts so you may be asked to play some variations and report your findings. After that we'll discuss and decide on the final change selections and write up a draft for review and some further testing. I expect I'll send the final draft off to Dr. B around the end of October, with publishing perhaps 30-60 days thereafter (total wag on my part). Questions? John Stafford

Shad, I tried to post a comment on the site that the link brought me to but for some reason it would not post. Most likely because of my lack of computer skills. But anyway I do have some ideas for 4th edition PzGren rules.

1. Air Power: Why not let attacking air units receive the the 2 col right shift for being adjacent? With out that modifier the air units are just not that much of a threat. Also, a given air unit will not attack 1/3rd of the time on average. At least artillery and mortar fire will actually carry out an attack. This makes them dangerous because they can force a morale check at any time. We can't say that for aircraft.

2. Amphibious Assaults and ship units: No "Ship" (CL,DD,APD or AK) may come adjacent to any partial land/sea hex. In other words ships must maintain AT LEAST one hex of open water between themselves and a land/sea hex.

3. Ships that are landing troops would follow this sequence: First turn, after activation, move to hex from which troops will disembark. Second turn, Activate, Ships may unload two platoons or 4 steps of ground units into two assault craft (LCVP). Turn three, Activate, then previously embarked units may move toward land and two more platoons (or 4 steps) may load into landing craft. Continue this sequence turn by turn until all units the attacking player wishes to land at this spot have landed. Armor counts double to unload. Subordinate activation still applies to units in landing craft. Thus a whole line of landing craft may move with just one activation. To recover landing craft a ship must start in a hex and the landing craft move into the hex with the ship. On the NEXT TURN the ship may not move but all landing craft that started the turn in the same hex are considered loaded back on the ship. A ship may recover up to three landing craft in one turn but no more than it's starting capacity.

4. Transports (AK) have a 40 step capacity. All armor counts double. APDs have a 8 step capacity with no armor. CL & DDs have a two step capacity, with no armor. Transports (AK) carry 4 Landing craft. APDs carry 2 landing craft. All other ships carry 1 landing craft. (NOTE: Players may modify the carrying capacity and rate of unloading of any TRANSPORT ONLY to suit circumstance as long as the landing sequence is followed.) Note: The unloading per turn should never exceed three platoons or 6 steps because then players would run into stacking issues.

5. Ship's Guns. The firepower a ship can bring to the battle can be helpful but is rarely more than an irritant. This is, to my mind, not accurate historically. On Omaha beach the troops were going nowhere until the DDs came in close to blast Axis positions on the bluffs. There are many other examples. See some of the Beyond Normandy scenarios for instance. But also consider this. The 5" gun on a DD is equal to the LARGEST cannon the U.S. Army fielded in WWII, a real ground shaker. At sea a 5" gun was labeled a "popgun" by many professional Naval personnel. Remember the scale. Five hexes is only 1000 yards. At sea this would be point blank range! Yes the target is much smaller than a ship but the effect of a fairly close 5" blast on humans and their equipment would be more devastating than if the same shell hit the steel hull or turret of a warship. Thus I believe that naval fire is under valued in the game. To rectify this allow Naval direct fire to be modified by the following:

All APD fire receive a two col right shift at land targets within 4 (four) hexes. All DD fire receive a two col right shift at land targets within 5 hexes. All CL fire receive a two col right shift at land targets within 6 hexes. Normal LOS are observed and all other normal col shifts apply.

1. Optional-FORWARD OBSERVER: In DYO scenarios where there are ships or that are in close proximity to the ocean, assign one low rated (7-0-0 or a 8-0-0) to the side with the naval gunfire. This leader can not command or rally troops. He may only call in naval gun fire. To do this the leader must have an LOS to the target hex and activate or be activated. ON THE FOLLOWING TURN the called for fire mission arrives, before any activations occur. Calculate the results on the BOMBARDMENT table using the ship's normal firepower rating. Give this naval fire a two col right shift. Then factor in all other normal col shifts. Targets must be "in range" of the firing ship but only the Forward Observer need have an LOS to the target.

I hope the above is helpful. I will give it some thought. There may be more circulating in my brain. Regards, PatC

Pat, Great ideas and info. I'd love to see someone design a game around a lengthy invasion scenario like D-Day or Operation Dragoon to how how this would work with all the different types of ships interacting.

I like the rules... totally agree airpower, it seems slightly underrated.

Shad,

Very well done fella ! Bloody good work.

Not my bag of course, but I know (or at least expect), you'll please many punters.

Lets see how many sign up and how many are either already in the Series (and deserve the VASSAL) or, how many new signees there are and of those how many purchase something.

Of course, word needs to go out that there is a VASSAL opportunity out there. Has BGG been informed too ?

Vince

A fellow by the name of James Stear spammed several BGG forums with the news. To me this release is more symbolic - the proof of concept exists, now hand over the digital proofs to some big games and let me go to work!

Ideally someday we'll see a concurrent publish/VASSAL release... I hope.

Jim Stear is the GWAS/SWWAS developer, he also dabbles in PG.

Those results are nothin' short of an outrage !!

Still, when put up with my run of results on this, at least the game appears balanced.

I have to admit a very "Soviet" style of tactics. I doubt sincerely if the actual American commanders would have been as willing to accept losses as I.

Or kept their jobs LOL !

If you have the total losses over 10 scenarios it would be interesting to see them compared with my 10. Mine are all listed in the Westwall scenario pack debrief on this forum.

What a way to directly mirror like gaming experiences.

Here goes

Scenario 1: Germans 13 losses, Americans 5 losses, all foot

Scenario 2: Germans 36 losses, 6 tanks losses, 7 leader losses, Americans 22 losses, 12 tank losses, 1 leader loss

Scenario 3: Germans 27 losses, 2 leaders, Americans 17 losses, 2 tank losses, 4 leaders

Scenario 4: Germans 8 losses, Americans none (This is essentially a race for a town, the Americans won and the Germans assaulted with terrible results)

Scenario 5: Germans 26 losses, 4 tank losses, 2 leaders, Americans 16 losses, 3 tanks losses, 1 leader

Scenario 6: Germans 21 losses, 4 tanks, 2 leaders, Americans 5 losses, 7 tanks

Scenario 7: Germans 26 losses, 1 tank, 3 leaders, Americans 9 losses

Scenario 8: Germans 13 losses, 3 tanks, 2 leaders, Americans 11 losses 1 tank

Scenario 9: Germans 20 losses, 3 leadres, Americans 15 losses, 1 tank

Scenario 10: Germans 9 losses 1 leader, Americans 2 losses, 2 tanks (I felt this was a broken scenario as the Americans can reach a minor victory quite easily and just sit back. The movement restriction made it impossible to try for more, given the Germans approach to mining the road.

All in all, the American artillery capabilities made it nearly impossible for the Germans to even raise their heads. In that way the scenarios played out quite well. I found, however, with the terrible conditions the Americans had to stick to the roads and take whatever losses they did. The Germans had to fire at good order units rather than shoot for elimination as the onrushing tide could only be stopped through disruption and demoralization. The battlefields typically looked pretty festive with red and black markers everywhere!

Meh !

The only thing I noticed today (20-8-13) is that I wasn't able to log in a play in either the solo or shared format in the Records and AARS format, but the AAR records work. I don't know if this has anything to do with adjustments. When I go to log in a play it doesn't allow me to select a game. ~ Brett N.

@nebelwurfer9, does that problem still occur right now?

Yes, just logged in and tried to record a play, still no ability to select a game or scenario. It could be my account, I don't know if anyone else has had a problem yet.

I see the error, it's not you. I'll attempt a fix shortly.

No worries and thanks again!

Check again please... seems fixed now?

Affirmative!

Congrats, to everyone. Though to beat that sprint of plays that Matt W. had.

Keep in mind that beast013 kept pace for a couple months and hit Captain before me. In a way, as silly as it is, that competition formed a real incentive and momentum to keep going.

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Story of my life I guess.

I would like to thank Shad first off, I don't really play that much, just a "few" turns a day and actually do take some days off. Also thanks again to Vince Hughes for his help and Maggal for recommending the German retailer. I ordered 'Campaigns and Commanders:The Kings Officers' on Monday and received it on Friday! So I am putting 'Desert Rats' and 'South Africa's War' on hold for a while to try this Desert war campaign out. In the meantime, I will continue to slowly catch up to where I am at now with completed scenarios and ranking them according to my written notes -still have 37 of those to go to catch up to where I am now so that may take another two months to be on par. So I'm off to try this leader character generation system and start my first campaign game. I will definitely post some AARs with my results. The best of it to everyone and thanks again!

Welcome David!

Congrats to you both.