Unlocking Order of Battle and using air units

Order of Battle is a series of operational WW2 games starting with the Pacific War and then on to Europe!

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PoorOldSpike
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Re: A "brief" reply/?

Post by PoorOldSpike »

CoolDTA wrote:Ah, the good old days. Back in the 80s I had almost all of SSI's and SSG's strategy (and role playing) games for C-64. Many boxed games had nice laminated maps in addition of the manual etc. I have a feeling there were more good turn based war games back then. But we still do have Gary Grigsby..
I bought my first computer in 1983 (Sinclair Spectrum) and yes, the games and sims blew my socks off, especially SSI's 'Kampfgruppe'.
But since then most games have grown ever more complex and are a boring chore to play because we have to keep looking at the manual.
Heck, I thought the computer was supposed to handle all the fiddly rules for us, ha ha!
The best games (like OOB) play smooth as silk and once we've learnt the basics we don't have to keep looking at the manual during play..:)
CoolDTA
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Re: A "brief" reply/?

Post by CoolDTA »

PoorOldSpike wrote:I bought my first computer in 1983 (Sinclair Spectrum) and yes, the games and sims blew my socks off, especially SSI's 'Kampfgruppe'.
But since then most games have grown ever more complex and are a boring chore to play because we have to keep looking at the manual.
Heck, I thought the computer was supposed to handle all the fiddly rules for us, ha ha!
The best games (like OOB) play smooth as silk and once we've learnt the basics we don't have to keep looking at the manual during play..:)
Kampfgruppe was one of my first real wargames and have fond memories of it (Mech Brigade also - the version with modern stuff). Didn't know it was made for Spectrum. But I'd say it was quite complex and considering the keyboard only UI and no tutorials or online help even more so than games today.

OoB is an example of a game which is easy to learn yet has a lot of depth. Quite rare actually.
greenmoray1
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Re: Unlocking Order of Battle and using air units

Post by greenmoray1 »

I have the following questions about Order of Battle. If you believe I should just get this from reading the manual then I completely understand.
By the way I didn't say thanks to your explanation of the air units and the response to my previous questions in OOB. Sorry about that. I do appreciate it. Here are my questions for OOB:

Understanding Supply

I can see the supply line going from my supply ship to my guys on the ground but then there are two different supply ships or more and I lose track as to how the lines(yellow thin) reach/ connect to my units especially when I mover further in the interior. I can tell when my unit is outside of an obvious moving supply line where they are going like horizontally across and one guy is past the line which I cannot reinforce/supply.

Where do my supply ships need to be? I try to always line them up with supply lines already started as it goes/points directly to my supply ship or doesn't that matter? What is the acceptable distance that my supply ships need to be at for my units to keep being reinforced?

Maybe I am not explaining this clear. What happens is my supplying is going alright and then I suddenly cannot re-supply and from what I see it's not because the enemy unit has cut off my resources. But then I get say two or three entrenched units and I can't get life into them so they fight to defend until down to 3 points and I cannot understand why they are not being re-supplied seeing as my supply ships are so close, although it is hard to keep track of these squiggly yellow lines, these do represent the connection to my ship right? Another thing pressing the space bar and checking supply there, not clear in what that is ......something about minus and red if no supply.

Disembarking

My units need to get off the island, other than a clearly visible port is there another way to disembark my units. I seems to take more time waiting for this.

Disembarking off a small piece of land
Here's an example: When I played a scenarios in Marines again I embarked on a tiny piece of land with one of my units to kill the enemy but after that was over I didn't know how to move /disembark the one unit back to the main island to get him transported off the scrap of land it was on. The same thing happened to a unit that I kind of used to set up artillery where it was more of a ship battle.

What can I understand from the most common results of a 0-0 ratio in a infantry unit against another equal enemy unit or the same with a fighter plane? Does that mean the chances are I would at least knock off 1 point from them , same in ships this questions also is related. Please clarify.

About larger planes

I choose a strategic bomber and I fly it over but it seems that it acts more like recon unit. Fighters yes they bomb a little, but I'm confused with the roles of the other planes with regards to bombing the enemy. I understand torpedo bomb from the plane to a ship but not the bigger planes that state they are bombers when I engage the enemy they just fly around. What am I missing here? I end up buying fighters more because I know their role.

About tanks and artillery

Too often when I use tanks they just move like my infantry units and only rarely can I get the tanks to fire from a distance away like over a ridge. Something I need to click here. With artillery ...seems like it takes awhile to get it /them in place and then when I do ....not much damage in fact it will say -0 taken by the enemy .....so what's up with that. Is this again just weakening them. I figure if you make a direct hit with artillery on a close by hex enemy it should bleed since its stronger firepower.

Thank you.
CoolDTA
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Re: Unlocking Order of Battle and using air units

Post by CoolDTA »

Disembarking

Simply place a warship (even a PT boat will suffice) next to the shore where the marooned unit is and then you can embark it (as long as it hasn't yet moved).

The rest I leave for Spike since he does superb job in teaching things like these. :) You can find his "Supply in OoB 101" here: http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 64&t=83436.
Shards
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Re: Unlocking Order of Battle and using air units

Post by Shards »

Strategic Bombers and (many) artillery pieces are most valuable for their effect on enemy Efficiency. (This is most easily seen in game by the colour of the enemy units strength, White is full efficiency, Red is full suppressed).

They also often do damage to enemy fortifications (shown by the reduction of the sandbags around a dug in unit).

The good use of these two factors can make your assaults much easier!
PoorOldSpike
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Re: Unlocking Order of Battle and using air units

Post by PoorOldSpike »

greenmoray1 wrote:..Where do my supply ships need to be?....
On any coastal hex..:)
Here's a series of screenshots from an editor setup I just did which might make the mechanics of the OOB supply system a little clearer to newcomers-

1- The supply ship is on the coastline. Pressing 'Space' reveals that it contains 20 supply points.
The tank requires 5 of those points, leaving 15 points still on board (indicated by the green '15' which could supply other units).
The green number is always fluctuating up and down during games, but as long as it stays green your supply state overall is good, but if the number turns red it means it can't supply all the units in its sector.
Image



2- I move the tank deep into Japanese territory, but it's still in supply along its supply "corridor". (There's no limit to how far a unit can be from a supply source, the corridor could stretch across the whole map).
Ignore the US aircraft, it's just for spotting purposes and like all aircraft is drawing its own supply from an airfield out of the frame at the top of the map.
Danger! a jap infantry unit is advancing towards the corridor along the red arrow..
Image



3- the jap unit cuts the supply line! Notice a red dot has appeared on the tank (white arrow) to warn us that it's not now in supply..
Image



4- the unsupplied tanks efficiency rating automatically begins to drop and over the next few turns drops through yellow and then orange to red, note its effectiveness (white circle) at this point has dropped to '2', meaning it's not much good at fighting any more-
Image


5- However, in this next setup I added an American infantry unit (green circle)..
Image


6- and after the jap cuts the supply line again, I send the American down the green arrow to close the gap and restore the supply corridor..
Notice the dreaded red dot has now vanished from the tank, and the tanks efficiency climbs back to normal over the next few turns..:)
Image
Last edited by PoorOldSpike on Thu Apr 19, 2018 2:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
apostrophefz
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Re: Unlocking Order of Battle and using air units

Post by apostrophefz »

PoorOldSpike wrote:...
Your delicious lessons should go in a stickied thread , old spike, everyone knows it.
PoorOldSpike
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Re: Unlocking Order of Battle and using air units

Post by PoorOldSpike »

greenmoray1 wrote:..What happens is my supplying is going alright and then I suddenly cannot re-supply...I cannot understand why they are not being re-supplied seeing as my supply ships are so close..
Post a screenshot if you know how, so we can see exactly what's going on..:)
And what's the name of the scenario?
PoorOldSpike
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Re: Unlocking Order of Battle and using air units

Post by PoorOldSpike »

greenmoray1 wrote:..My units need to get off the island, other than a clearly visible port is there another way to disembark my units?..
Piece o' cake..:)
These pics back up what CoolDTA said-
1- Three infanry units are stranded on that island, so I move a PT boat to take them off. (Other ships can do it too).
2- When the boat hits the shore, click an infantry unit and click any of the anchor icons to put him in a transport ship.
Do the same for the other two units. (If there are more ground units in a scenario, there's no limit to how many can embark, they just have to get to the shoreline for pickup)
3- Ready to set sail.
4- Next stop Acapulco..:)

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terminator
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Re: Unlocking Order of Battle and using air units

Post by terminator »

Escape of the Alcatraz Island ?
PoorOldSpike
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Re: Unlocking Order of Battle and using air units

Post by PoorOldSpike »

terminator wrote:Escape of the Alcatraz Island ?
Yes, gone without trace..

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CoolDTA
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Re: Unlocking Order of Battle and using air units

Post by CoolDTA »

Suit (aka Number Six): "Damn you Spike. I will get you one day". (fat chance :mrgreen: )
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