How Are the Tutorials in Operational Art of War 4

Battlefield TIMESTAMPS
by Bob Cantankerous[/center][/size]

Let�southward take a trip back in time to about 2002.  TOAW exists, but as �ACOW�.  You�re a newbie just starting out with the game.  If you perused the manual you might have seen these few items:

Individual battles are resolved in a series of tactical rounds.  Each player plow is divided into ten tactical rounds, and individual battles brainstorm on the circular that most closely corresponds to the proportion of the attacking units� move allowance expended before the combat.  �

Battles continue until all units of one side have broken off, simply non beyond tactical round 10.  �

Later combat, all of your units will have their remaining motility allowances adapted to reflect the highest tactical round needed to resolve all attacks.  �

Your turn will end if either of the post-obit conditions employ:
�   Y'all have launched no attacks.
�   The mean remaining move assart of your unabridged force is too pocket-size to allow for successful exploitation of your attacks.
�   Your forcefulness fails a proficiency cheque.

But, in a huge manual, those scattered tidbits can be missed, or their importance overlooked.  You want to get started.

You fire upward the CFNA scenario and start setting up Axis attacks.  1 set on involves a foot unit that has moved quite a distance:

Annotation that the unit of measurement has expended 23 of its 28 MPs.  The 5 remaining MPs amount to only xviii% of its original movement allowance.  So this unit has a Time Stamp of 9 out of 10.  This assault is going to crusade your turn to end.  Just, as a newbie, you�re unaware of this.  Perhaps you get on to setup several more attacks.  So you execute your attacks.  After they are all resolved, you go this screen:

You lot stare at information technology in atheism.  There were a potential ten combat phases, and you only got 1.  And note that in that location isn�t even a reason given for the early on turn ending or even which combat was the issue.  You are left to gape in wonder.

This is where newbies frequently got off the TOAW bandwagon.  But, fifty-fifty if they didn�t, and hung around long enough to figure out the deal with using late units in attacks, there was another way to get the early turn ending that stymied even veteran players:  Attack Complexity.

Equally the manual said, battles connected till 1 entire side broke off.  And so, really complex combats with lots of determined units on both sides could last several rounds � even the unabridged role player turn.  And the bigger the scenario, the more such attacks each combat phase tended to have.  Huge scenarios were thus often harried by such combats, far more and so than smaller, simpler scenarios � but because they had more combats.  Obviously, this didn�t make any realistic sense, and tended to sour even veterans on the game.  �Why should a battle in North Africa screw up action in the Ukraine� was the complaint.  And they were right.  Something had to be done.

Motility frontwards to nigh 2007 and TOAW III.  Ii features were added:  The �Circle of Stars� and MRPB.

The �Circle of Stars� reflected both the current circular, and the max first round that had been setup in planned combats.  Then, if properly monitored, this characteristic could alert players to the presence of late units in attacks.  But it did require that monitoring.  Neglect to notice and you lot could have the same outcome as in the offset example.

MRPB (Max Rounds per Battle) could put a limit on individual battles lasting very many rounds.  Just, it required designer action earlier it could have any effect.  And a value beneath three induced some strange combat effects (not to mention removing almost of the skill required to play the game).  Since most existing scenarios won�t ever run into designer action again, and a limit of three still can waste two rounds, this was still not ideal.

Finally move frontwards to 2017 and TOAW IV.  New feature: Battleground Timestamps.

Under the Battleground Timestamp arrangement, after all combats are resolved, the player-turn will advance to the combat round of the MEDIAN length gainsay.  In other words, if there were seven combats that lasted ane, ane, two, 2, three, iii, & 6 rounds respectively so the player turn would advance but two rounds, instead of the vi rounds of earlier.  Note that this means that iii combats lasted longer than the round of the new gainsay phase.  This will be deemed for by placing a Time Stamp in those three hexes that will equal their actual ending circular.

TIME Stamp definition:  The fraction of the player-turn, in tenths, that has been expended.  This applies to the Actor-Turn itself, to Units (the fraction of their MPs that they have expended), and at present to battleground hexes.

Movement effects of Battlefield Time Stamps:  Any unit that enters a hex with a Battlefield Time Stamp will have its movement points reduced until its unit time postage stamp is at least equal to that of the hex.

Combat effects of Battleground Time Stamps:  Combats planned for a hex with a Battlefield Time Postage stamp will start on a gainsay round as if the histrion-turn is the same every bit the hex�s time stamp.  All units that participate in a combat that results in a Battlefield Fourth dimension Postage stamp have their time stamps increased to the resulting fourth dimension postage of the battlefield.

Combat creation of Battlefield Time Stamps: If a combat lasts longer than one circular, information technology creates a Battleground Fourth dimension Postage stamp equal to the concluding round that combat expended.

In add-on, if a defender was prevented from retreating from a gainsay by not-participating enemy units then the combat�s Battlefield Fourth dimension Postage stamp is the greater of the time stamps of the blocking units and the time postage stamp of the last circular of the combat.  So, if the gainsay ended on round v, but there was a blocking unit that prevented the defenders from retreating and it had a time stamp of seven, then the Battlefield Time Stamp would be set up to seven (and all participating units would have their time stamps increased to vii).  Note that this ends the time-machine effect of blocking units that the game had endured upward to this point (This role of the characteristic is still under development).

RBC cosmos of Battleground Time Stamps:  Whenever a defender is forced to retreat-before-combat (RBC, also referred to as Overrun) by a unit with a Fourth dimension Stamp greater than the Thespian-Plow�south Time Stamp, in that location is a Battleground Time Stamp created in the hex equal to the time postage stamp of the overrunning unit.  Note that this ends the time-automobile event of overrunning units.

Battlefield Time Stamps are shown on the map by a dedicated graphic (come across below) and their effect on movement is incorporated into the path feature and shown in the unit panel.  Note that there is at present an option to display the unit�southward time postage on its counter.

After all combats are resolved and the combat phase has been advanced, all Battlefield Time Stamps on the map that are either less than or equal to the new time postage stamp of the player-plow are erased.  So all Battleground Time Stamps are erased past the cease of the player-plough.

Note that past advancing to the MEDIAN instead of the MINIMUM combat length the game retains a requirement for a level of skill in marshalling the histrion�s combats.  Players still demand to try to minimize the number of combats that final multiple rounds to get the best amount of combat exploitation.  But at present a single slip-up or bad break won�t ruin an entire actor-turn.

Now allow�due south try information technology out in a game.

Hither�s a shot showing several attacks set upward in Kaiserschlacht 1918 (note the six gold crossed swords).   But note the Unit Panel:  Somewhere ane of the attacks has been set upwards with a late unit of measurement in the assail.  We know this considering the Current Round is shown as one, while the Progress Bar (replacement for the Circle of Stars) shows four rounds ready to expire upon execution.  Annotation that the unit in the Unit Panel has moved five of its 12 MPs.  It is tardily.

This can also exist seen by the new Planned Combats dialog:

Equally shown, of the vii battles (there�s a 7th boxing south of the starting time screen shot) six have no delay � they take been planned without late units.  But one has not.

Merely, despite the clear alarm, allow�s go alee and execute the planned attacks.

This shot shows the results:

Note the Progress Bar has one round consumed, the Current Round is two.   So only one round expired on the map � except in one location.  Note the six silverish crossed-swords showing where battles took place.  But one such location also has a bronze crossed-swords in information technology.  That is the Battlefield Timestamp (BTS) symbol.

Now look at the new Combat Results dialog:

Annotation that i gainsay consumed v rounds, while the other six but consumed 1 round.  Remember that under the previous system, that would have meant that the thespian plough would have advanced to round 6, non round 2.  The BTS system has saved four rounds.  Just the one hex that had the delayed combat in it has whatever agin furnishings.  This was considering the median length combat of the seven combats was one round.  (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 5).  In order to get this effect, virtually of the combats need to be conducted correctly.  The BTS organization volition shield the player from a minority of slipups or bad breaks.  Information technology will not shield him from a bulk of screw-ups.  Furthermore, notation that if you accept the idea that you tin can fox the BTS system with a bunch of 1-round bombardments, know that the median germination only includes bombardments if no non-bombardments are involved.

So, skill is still required.  Consummate boneheaded play volition even so waste product rounds.

To illustrate this, this shot shows just such a boneheaded play:  Merely one assault is set up � a bombardment with a very belatedly unit of measurement.  (Note the Progress Bar in the Unit Panel).

The attack is executed.  As one would wait, this consumes the remaining rounds in the histrion plough.  (There were no non-bombardments in this combat stage, and but i bombardment � making that bombardment the median).  Merely, dissimilar back in ACOW, there is now a message informing the player why his plow concluded early:

Had the reason been a Force Proficiency Failure, that would take been in the bulletin instead (note that Force Proficiency Failures are not changed by the BTS system � they are legitimate checks on force plans based upon how organized the force is).  So, at least the player doesn�t have to wonder what when wrong.  If at that place is any doubt, the Combat Results dialog should clear them up:

Note that the bombardment consumed all remaining rounds.

There is yet the issue of BTS�s generated past RBC�due south.  While RBC�due south are non combat, then will not outcome in early on plough endings, they do forcefulness enemy units out of the way of friendly forces.  If the unit that forced the RBC had moved a long way to get there to exercise the RBC, while the nearby units available to exploit the gap forced by the RBC are fresh and unmoved, you can see the fourth dimension-machine result the RBC tin can generate.  That�due south why such RBC�s now generate BTS�s.

Let�southward see this via an example:

A number of armored battalions accept moved adjacent to an enemy position.  Near came from just across the boundary line, expending simply 3 MPs.  Merely i (the pinnacle one) came from quite a chip further.  Equally shown, it has expended 11 MPs.

If we now RBC the defender with that unit, this is the result:

Note that there is at present a BTS in the RBC�d hex.  That BTS is equal to the Timestamp of the overrunning unit.  Equally a result, the exploiting units behind it will have to pay an extra cost to enter the BTS hex � equal plenty to raise the exploiting unit�s Timestamp to the same as the BTS.

Let�s await at that cost:

Note that I continued the overrunning unit�s advance, generating another BTS, while evaporating the defender.  Merely now ane of the exploiting units is trying to follow its atomic number 82.  Usually, the price to enter an empty, unconverted sand hex would be 3 for a motorized unit.  Just here it is xi.  That�south the cost to both enter the hex AND adapt the unit�south Timestamp to the BTS.  So, no advantage was attained by using a distant unit to effect the overrun while leaving the nearby exploiting units unmoved.  The BTS organisation has fixed the Time-automobile effects of RBC�s.

Only one more than thing most RBC induced BTS�s:  If you RBC a weak unit all over the map, you�ll now get out BTS�s all over the map besides.  That can leave yous with a barrier to exploitation.  It�s more than important than earlier that such small units are corralled and eliminated, instead of engaging in such airheaded chases.

Happy Wargaming!

Original post: HERE

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Source: http://dogsofwarvu.com/forum/index.php?topic=4459.0

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