B44's Battle of the Bulge - The Defence of Eupen

[kingt]

All working great on iPad, so any iPad BA players can download the maps and play games with any opponents.

Thanks, Brummbar!

[Brummbar44]

The battle is far from over there Mike, I'm just hiding out in my woods for now. Morge is whipping my Allied butt pretty good right now. I might have to revisit the duration of the games, I thought 16 turns might be too short...but now I think, it might be too long (for smaller battles). I'm going to have a look at what Merr set up for his randoms, those I recall were good durations.

Another note; I'm concerned about the impact 4 mortars might have in a battle (if 2 A&A-BB arty figs are in the same hex) so I'm thinking of having a split. So if there are 2 Arty figs. in a hex on the board, it will translate into an on-board BA unit (ie. mortars) and an off-board arty bonus. It will still have a solid impact without making it overboard.

Otherwise, I think things are progressing well. Thanks everyone for playing and helping out.

[Brummbar44]

All working great on iPad, so any iPad BA players can download the maps and play games with any opponents.

Thanks, Brummbar!

Excellent! Thanks for your help with that KingT. CU on the field!

[Brummbar44]

Quick note everyone, I left out the 'smoke animation' file so if you are playing the Axis, please don't fire smoke with your mortar...it will fire out part of Arnhem bridge! LOL! Will fix for next scenario.

[morge4]

Quick note everyone, I left out the 'smoke animation' file so if you are playing the Axis, please don't fire smoke with your mortar...it will fire out part of Arnhem bridge! LOL! Will fix for next scenario.

[k9mike]

LOL...Yah, you should have seen my face Al when that popped up...DOH!!!! Screwed up my plans...lol. "A Bridge too Close"!!! lol couldnt help it.

[GottaLove88s]

Thanks Jon, in having a look at the files, everything looks correct...but...I wonder about how I've named things. In the campaigntext file I didn't capitalize the name of the scenario...I've corrected that and have re-uploaded hoping that might fix it...otherwise, I have no idea. Please try it again KingT.

(edit - it was the capitalization!)

Glad you got it, Mac! BA can be darned picky with filenames, but once you fix it first time, you'll always get it right from now.
Nobody worries about the the odd glitch here or there; it's all par for the course.
You're creating some awesome stuff... Nice job!!

[k9mike]

Hey Jon...I will take a screenshot of my "Bridge too Close"....

[GottaLove88s]

Hey Jon...I will take a screenshot of my "Bridge too Close"....

Hehe, yes please Mike... I have no idea what you're up to there... But am totally intrigued...
Really like what Mac's doing here! NICE...

[k9mike]

Mac I only got one unit of mortar showing in the battle we are fighting. Is this correct? I thought you said 2 mortars an truck or something like that for each individual arty on the A&A board.
Mike

That's correct. My conversion earlier was just a rough guideline. Since, I've been looking into the TO&E's and have been trying to match the units more historically while trying to maintain the number of units limit (funny, there is plenty of info out there about German TO&E's but not so much the Americans?!).

Here is the breakdown of the units for the current battles (St. Vith Dec. 17, 1944)
Germans -
I/18 VG 3 x VG, 1x HMG, 1x 251/1 (Halftrack)
II/18 VG 3 x VG, 1 x 75mm, 1x 251/1
62 VG 3x VG, 1x MG34, 1x Scout
A/62 VG 1x 251/2 (mortar)
I/116 Pz 1x Inf, 1x 251/1, 2x Panther
II/116 Pz 1x Eng, 1x 251/1, 1x Puma, 2x PzIV

Americans -
II/106 Inf 3x Inf, 1x 30 cal., 1x Scout
I/9 Armd 1x Inf, 1x M3 (halftrack), 2x Sherman, 1x Sherman/76
I/7 Armd 1x Inf, 1x M3, 2x Sherman, 1x Sherman/76
II/7 armd 1x Eng, 1x M3, 1x Greyhound, 1x Sherman, 1x Sherman/76

Note; in error, I did forget to give the Allies their 'supply' troops...but no big deal on this one.

(edit - working on the final OOB's for all units and reinforcements now and will post when ready)

Hmmm...I spy a M-10...lol. I don't see that on the list...
Man...That bridge is a pain...Ehhh???
Mac, so how will you work the losses?? Will you take an average of all the games that are played and use that?? How many open games are you playing? 3?

[Brummbar44]

Hmmm...I spy a M-10...lol. I don't see that on the list...
Man...That bridge is a pain...Ehhh???
Mac, so how will you work the losses?? Will you take an average of all the games that are played and use that?? How many open games are you playing? 3?

Good eye Mike...my error, on the II/7th Armd the Sherman is wrong, it's an M-10. I'm trying to spread a variety of the BA units across the divisions to get a good mix and yet, try to stay true to the historical.

I think I have all of the Axis OOB down now and will post those shorty. It's the Allies after that, the only ones I know right now are the ones on the field...and obviously not very well! LOL!

As for the losses...I don't quite know yet...I have an idea but the results of these battles should make that more clear.

I'm actually involved in 4 games right now...but for the record, it's not just about me, I encourage you guys to play others as well. See, I plan to basically assign a number to each of the results that get posted here (ie. my game with Morge will be 1, my game with you will be 2, KingT = 3, Random27 = 4 etc...)

Then, when we've fought out the battle, I'll go back to the gameboard and roll 1d12. From that result, we'll determine which of the battles fought will be the result applied to the strategic board and the game continues. We play out the A&A-BB until the next battle to be fought in BA and repeat. The more players, the merrier and will make for some fun games and interesting results.

Speaking of which...I have to go catch up on the action!

[k9mike]

Thanks a lot Mac. Makes sense...this is really neat. I like the way your doing this...especially the randomness of the game results by a dice roll...pretty cool. That way a lot of people could play an you never know what the Ultimate outcome might be.

[Brummbar44]

That way a lot of people could play an you never know what the Ultimate outcome might be.

Exactly. I figured if you were to just play it out on the boardgame, the results would be random anyway so why not go with it. Every battle has the chance of being the battle...should keep things interesting.

[Brummbar44]

[morge4]

My game with BB44 is complete. We had a great battle! Germans completely eliminated the US forces, Germans lost 9-10 units. All Supply flags taken. BB came up with some interesting ideas for going forward, I'll let him explain them. I can't wait for the next game.

[k9mike]

Nice job Al. did you take any screenshots?? I will show you my Bridge that was supposed to be smoke...lol interested in what ideas...

[Brummbar44]

Good job Morge! Wiped me off the map..and did give me a good idea that will add to the campaign feel...more on that in a below.

I don't know what I was thinking when I thought I could see the casualties at the end of the game! I forgot it just gives you the totals not the types (fortunately for Morges game, it doesn't matter, all of the Allies were eliminated)...so I would ask if either player is about to end the game through ending turns, please post a screenshot of the dead units screen so I can determine what units get converted back to figures.

At this point, I'm also going to announce the 'cut-off' so no new games will be considered for the results aspect only the games that are currently running (ie. Mike, KingT and Random still have a horse in the race...I hope for the Allies sake the result isn't Morges...he rolled all hits! LOL! Again, it was a great game, thanks Morge!)

[Brummbar44]

Ok, to continue...I'll be looking for everyone's feedback on the battle in general...but here's an idea I came up with in Morge's wipe me from the map game.

At least 2 of his Panthers earned Elite status (maybe more Morge?) so to have some fun with campaign continuity I was thinking that unit would earn a rank. So the next battle it participates in, I'll set it up to the next rank (corporal, not elite again per se). We might need a screen shot of some sort to show what units...and it's just an idea at this stage so comments and or concerns are certainly welcome.

Here are a couple of points for the next battle...
- If supplies are present that side gets 1 HMG unit (regardless of how many supplies) - Oh! Please note; the flags in the battle have no effect on victory of the battle, if captured they translate into destroyed supplies.
- Attacker should go first (my bad)
- a little more separation in the deployment areas (I blitzed poor KingT after learning the lesson from Mike and Morge...there should've been a little more space and it would've made a difference)
- re-visit battle duration - perhaps a small should be 12 turns, Medium 16, and large 20...thoughts?
- and I have to figure out how to stop the promotion from giving away a unit position...I'm sure I saw something about that somewhere?

Oh...one more thing (for the random result roll)

1-4 = Morge (Axis) v. B'44 (Allies) - fin
5-8 = k9mike (Axis) v. B'44 (Allies) - fin
9-12 = KingT (Axis) v. B'44 (Allies) - fin
B'44 (Axis) v. random27 (Allies) - Cut-off

(edit - 1d12 breakdown)

k9mike v Brummbar44 casrep

[GottaLove88s]

I have to figure out how to stop the promotion from giving away a unit position...I'm sure I saw something about that somewhere?

Looks good, Mac!
To remove the promotion stars animation, copy the MoraleTools.BSF from the GJS'44 campaign.
I've // remarked out the code that displays "promotion" and the stars animation, because it was too much of a position giveaway.
Good luck...

[morge4]

Nice job Al. did you take any screenshots?? I will show you my Bridge that was supposed to be smoke...lol interested in what ideas...

No, sorry forgot to take any. Would love to see your smoke bridge. My Mortars didn't have the smoke option?