Officers/Commanders…….?

[Windycity]

I was wondering if its possible to add a “Leader” strategic element to the game.

Say : defense/fire bonus for units in the command radius of the tank commander, infantry officer obviously bonus for casualties inflicted , prisoners taken

[DaveyJJ]

I was thinking the same thing.

In my first SP scenario I'm making for my on-going Fields of Fire campaign, I'm doing roughly supported company sized engagements. If I assume that three infantry squads make a platoon, I'd really like to see a special command/HQ unit at either the platoon or company level that does what you suggested. Maybe gives a combat bonus if friendly units are within a certain radius, better accuracy for off-board artillery and mortars, better melee attack, etc.

And HQ unit with an officer and a couple of rifle figures or SMG figures to represent runners would be great.

[PirateJock_Wargamer]

Is anybody (Merr?) doing any work on this, i.e. Platoon & Company HQ units? I am at the initial stages of working it up along very similar lines to what DaveyJJ said, and two minds better are than one etc etc.

[tim1966]

I really like this idea - has lots of potential.

[Merr]

Is anybody (Merr?) doing any work on this, i.e. Platoon & Company HQ units? I am at the initial stages of working it up along very similar lines to what DaveyJJ said, and two minds better are than one etc etc.

Yes sir .... I've been dabbling in the code for a few weeks and I've got some basic outlines with some code experiments to work out.

What I have so far (tested and works) .....

1. HQ Unit --
a. Can "rally" friendly unit within a radius.
b. Uses action points to rally.
c. 10% chance to gain experience (level up for HQ).
d. 10% chance to "revive" a man from the selected unit (slap him out of it).

Work in Progress :
-- HQ unit can temporarliy "boost" any attribute(s) for all units, returns to normal at start of next turn (works now but still working on radius instead of global effect).
-- Surrendered units creates a "prisoner" on the tile, can be "captured" by player if next to unit, blocks tile, and counts as an additional destroyed unit (working on perhaps a surrender category for end of victory screen).
-- Minefields ... off topic (but works)... I have a basic marked tile that blocks movement and has to be "cleared" by engineer or infantry unit. Would help if I had a minefield object (a sign) because I'm currently using the gravestones with a modified DDS.

Command Points ??? Similar to the solo game "Fields of Fire" ... have outline but no code written, seems "do-able".

Please let me know if you guys have any specific thing in mind for your scenarios because I have found several ways to get something to work ...
but if I don't have the specific's then I end up chasing the idea in circles only to wind up back at square one.

An outline of the idea would be great to start with, then discussing the specifics would help.
Every scenario designer might want something a bit different.

Thanks!

[tim1966]

-- Minefields ... off topic (but works)... I have a basic marked tile that blocks movement and has to be "cleared" by engineer or infantry unit. Would help if I had a minefield object (a sign) because I'm currently using the gravestones with a modified DDS.

What do you need - any images I can work from or just a simply board nailed to a post?

[Merr]

What do you need - any images I can work from or just a simply board nailed to a post?

... Yahoo ! Tim to the rescue !

I kinda have "two" model requests ... but basic, nothing fancy.

MINEFIELD --- Yes, a sign about soldier height, one frame of animation (may not be needed). I can PM you a DDS to UVmap but I was just going to get a "jolly roger" skull/crossbones and paint MINEN.
I don't know if the animation frames are required because it's just going to be static object (unit) with a [WAIT00] , FRM 0 0.

PRISONER --- Basically a soldier with his arms raised ... just a dummy static. Don't get fancy with animation because (for now) the prisoner can't move and disappears when captured.
In the future I would think that controllable prisoners would need animation but at the moment I'm working with static objects. I'd hate to waste (your) time on something I haven't even begun to experiment with.

Thank you sir!

[tim1966]

I've pm'ed you

[Merr]

I was thinking the same thing.

In my first SP scenario I'm making for my on-going Fields of Fire campaign, I'm doing roughly supported company sized engagements. If I assume that three infantry squads make a platoon, I'd really like to see a special command/HQ unit at either the platoon or company level that does what you suggested. Maybe gives a combat bonus if friendly units are within a certain radius, better accuracy for off-board artillery and mortars, better melee attack, etc.

And HQ unit with an officer and a couple of rifle figures or SMG figures to represent runners would be great.

DaveyJJ,

For leaders, here's what I have so far ....

BN_HQ (5-men) .... BN_XO (1-man) .... CO_HQ (4-men) .... CO_XO (1-man) .... PLT_HQ (3-men)



I can do RUNNERS if you decide on Command Points to "activate" subordinate HQ's and units.
Activation means "spending" a command point by the CO (or BN) to give the subordinate it's full ActionPoints each turn.

Suggestions?

[DaveyJJ]

I was thinking the same thing.

In my first SP scenario I'm making for my on-going Fields of Fire campaign, I'm doing roughly supported company sized engagements. If I assume that three infantry squads make a platoon, I'd really like to see a special command/HQ unit at either the platoon or company level that does what you suggested. Maybe gives a combat bonus if friendly units are within a certain radius, better accuracy for off-board artillery and mortars, better melee attack, etc.

And HQ unit with an officer and a couple of rifle figures or SMG figures to represent runners would be great.

DaveyJJ,

For leaders, here's what I have so far ....

BN_HQ (5-men) .... BN_XO (1-man) .... CO_HQ (4-men) .... CO_XO (1-man) .... PLT_HQ (3-men)



I can do RUNNERS if you decide on Command Points to "activate" subordinate HQ's and units.
Activation means "spending" a command point by the CO (or BN) to give the subordinate it's full ActionPoints each turn.

Suggestions?

I'm just back from being out at a board game meet-up most of the day and it's late. Let me give this some thought and I'll reply tomorrow morning.

[Merr]

I'm just back from being out at a board game meet-up most of the day and it's late. Let me give this some thought and I'll reply tomorrow morning.

No rush at all. I don't even have any code since it just an idea at the moment that looks possible.

I didn't have a chance to PM the original HQ units yesterday. I'm going to wrap up the new Officers later on this morning and adjust the code a bit so at least you can run the RALLY stuff.

I'm game for any ideas anyone has ... it's just a matter of how to actually represent it.

[DaveyJJ]

Hey Merr,

I'm thinking now that maybe there might only be two levels of command unit available ... platoon and company? Are there many larger engagement bigger than a company in game? Planned? Or is platoon needed, for example? I guess it's a matter of scale and preference. Those are the two I'd like to see, only because I think they make the most impact on the unit scale the game displays.

That said, then the question becomes how to differentiate between the two somehow ... maybe either Comp HQ units give more bonus? Or have some bonuses unavailable to platoon-level HQs? Or a bigger radius of effect? I was thinking about runners only in the abstract sense. Making an HQ unit "do something" to a unit may in real life involve sending a runner out, but those one or two guys are simply abstracted in BA CO units by the command unit having limited action/move points. Spending 1 point to give a unit extra movement is, literally, sending out a guy to make sure the squad leader knows what he should be doing.

My overall thought is that, for the most part, these units should work on a radius basis, able to affect/modify units within a certain command radius. In real world, that means if your platoon commander is not nearby, units perform average. If he's there pushing you on or directing you or rally you or whatever, then his bonuses get applied. [ASIDE - In one set of minis rules I'm familiar with, Troops Weapons & Tactics, units not being driven by a "big man" (a commander unit) will shoot, take cover, retreat, and observe ... but not move forward at all. Units in that game save their activation points and hope their big man units also gets activated before the turn ends.]

But how would the game handle a unit that instead of spending units to move, somehow is activated then spends part of his "action/move ponts" to affect someone else? So you click on the command unit and do what to make this work, do you think? Click on a unit you want to affect? Anyway ...

I'm thinking that the command units should be able to do the following to infantry units within their command radius to some degree (vehicles and tanks are a whole other topic ... oh! tank platoon command tanks!):

- give a unit a bonus to their movement
- rally a broken/routed unit
- revive a unit (as you've previously mentioned) by adding a "dead" man back
- increase the accuracy of a mortar unit if within LOS
- add to a unit's melee attack chance to win
- add to a units fire attack chance to hit
- add to a unit's defence if under fire? (passive, how would this work?)

Any other thoughts?

[MikeAP]

The unit limit really keeps this at a platoon and maybe company level fight.

[DaveyJJ]

The unit limit really keeps this at a platoon and maybe company level fight.

That's one reason I love this game so much.