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RubricMarine posted:What are the current player counts? If there's a huge gulf between Jerry and the Entente, I was considering joining instead of just observing. If you want a brigade, now is the time to post in the German thread. You could also be an advisor who just follows one thread, substituting for someone who drops out (This always happens). If there seems to be excess players, then you could excuse yourself and read both sides of the game. Triskelli, if you want to be on the team, come in and say hello in the German thread!
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Mar 7, 2017 20:40
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| # ? May 11, 2024 12:50 |
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I will confess to being incredibly jealous of the German helmets. Especially the private issue ones with gorgeous Wappen (front plate). Look at that, it's a thing of beauty.
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Mar 7, 2017 20:54
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Hey Brits, before we're not allowed to talk in here anymore, are you having a problem with roll20 where part of your map vanishes when you zoom in?
Flesnolk fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Mar 8, 2017 |
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Mar 7, 2017 23:46
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Trin please hurry and close this thread so we observers can gossip about the developments in the respective team threads!
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Mar 8, 2017 05:47
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Flesnolk posted:Hey Brits, before we're not allowed to talk in here anymore, are you having a problem with roll20 where part of your map vanishes when you zoom in? I haven't seen that, but when I tab back in sometimes my mouse is panning the map all over my screen.
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Mar 8, 2017 05:48
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If anyone reading this is on the fence: Join Germany as a staff officer. You'll get to do dope poo poo.
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Mar 8, 2017 06:03
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 THE THREAD IS NOW CLOSED TO PLAYERS If you are reading this thread for the first time, at some point after midday on March 8th, this is your last chance to sign up for either side. If you read any further, you are committing to not playing in this round of the game. Right then! Spoilery analysis of the map and etc to follow tonight.
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Mar 8, 2017 16:19
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About the Map The map for this round is directly informed by the last map; it's specifically designed to be a contrast to the last map and to provide a different experience. It's pretty obviously and unavoidably based on the First Battle of Ypres, the final gasp of mobile warfare before the trench lines were completed. The BEF was horribly outnumbered and battered to poo poo, and the Germans psyched themselves out of a victory that was there for the taking because of faulty intelligence. Let's see if lightning strikes twice, shall we? In general: the last map was nearly square, with a lot of unknowns about where exactly the enemy might be coming from and where they might be going to. The counterpoint to that was that they got plenty of tall hills and suchlike, so the teams could judge by the observed movements of the enemy where their objectives were. They also got a lot of forces on-board at the start and then a few reinforcements, but not much control over when the reinforcements would arrive. So this time, we've got a big long rectangular map with a big fat juicy objective at each, and then a pile of chokepoints to restrict options even more. On the other hand, with little useful high ground and the anti-spotting area of the depression, while the general question of "where does the enemy want to go?" is far more obvious, this time the question "which way do they want to go to get there?" will be the one to answer. Trouble is, since I've taken all the hills away, it's going to be rather more difficult to find them. Likewise, this time we've got only a limited force arriving on-board, and then a lot of reinforcements to come, who will arrive on a predictable schedule so their arrival can be planned for. (With the new fatigue point mechanic, I'll also be offering commanders the chance to accelerate their reinforcements' arrival at the cost of them arriving with a fatigue point.) As to the map itself, it's quite clearly set up for attack/defence. The Germans cross the big river unopposed, and then the sunken road has been carefully located at a position where both sides will blunder right into each other if they both rush for it; it could either be a valuable forward advance line of resistance for the BEF or a solid baseline to underpin further German advances. Then there's hopefully an almighty scrap to defend the stream and its fords, then the twin obstacles of the depression and the forest, and then a final run across mostly-open ground to the canal; but also, hopefully, the map is resilient enough to cope with unexpected happenings like the BEF digging in at the edge of the hill or the Germans rushing across the stream quicker than anticipated. I've also set things up this way to give engineers a bigger role in the rear, preparing fallback positions and erections. The spotter plane becomes much more important; what will they use it for? I think its best use, even on Day 1 is held back until late afternoon to check the rear for trenches and gun-pits and wire, locating things to be dodged around, and potential targets for indirect fire. How will indirect fire change the battlefield? Should be a good laugh - but there's one thing I'm more interested to see the answer to than everything else put together. We'll save that until tomorrow, though.
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Mar 9, 2017 00:46
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Hey there, fellow observers. I dropped a bunch of nifty banners on the German thread, because they are my buds at heart. I intend to make some for the French thread as well, but the truth of the matter is I didn't really follow that one all that closely (har har) and hence can't exactly come up with unfunny jabs at specific commanders. Any suggestions?
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Mar 9, 2017 00:59
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The first things that pop into my head are: my dad's suicide squad, lenoon's doomed reservists, xthetenth the Lunatic Brigadier on a Horse dunking on everyone, the Amazing Disappearing Howitzers, Hunt11 gets lost, Slim Jim Pickens puts the "Chief" in "Chief of Staff"
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Mar 9, 2017 01:10
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I love how crazycryodude has already predicted armoured cars.
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Mar 9, 2017 02:17
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Splode posted:I love how crazycryodude has already predicted armoured cars. 
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Mar 9, 2017 02:52
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I like how the Germans are actually planning to do the exact same thing we did the last game: push towards the closest major city at full tilt, and drat the flanks. Although this time the flanking potential seems a lot smaller, so.
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Mar 9, 2017 08:00
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Crazycryodude posted:In other news, lots of credit to mossyfisk in the Roll20 for catching that Trin mentioned wheeled companies in the rules. Earlier on we were joking that the Brits might have brought armored cars or the Marne taxis or something, but it's a serious possibility now. So the prediction didn't come out of the blue, just a healthy level of metagaming and a close reading of the rules for hints, I'm guessing
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Mar 9, 2017 08:06
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Trin Tragula posted:The first things that pop into my head are: Who was responsible for the howitzers debacle, by the by? EDIT: and can you elaborate on any of these, I am unaware of these particular war stories (aside from One Weird Trick xthetenth and "Turns out French thread morale broke even harder than ours" my dad). Tevery Best fucked around with this message at 11:11 on Mar 9, 2017 |
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Mar 9, 2017 10:57
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So I'm going through the entente thread looking for material and Hunt11 deliversquote:[Of course the Germans manage to escape from the east basically untouched whilst almost everything on our west flank gets mulched.
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Mar 9, 2017 15:04
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Just discovered this thread and read through it much too quickly. A day late though! Oh well it'll be fun to be an observer in real time. Thanks for doing this trin.
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Mar 10, 2017 02:23
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Splode posted:I love how crazycryodude has already predicted armoured cars. I wonder if the rules will allow for this: 
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Mar 10, 2017 03:37
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Well, I might as well break the news to you guys - I'm resigning. I read past the sirens in the Entente thread back on March 6th and it's more than enough to taint anything I did, am doing, and will do for a very long time. I do want to say that it wasn't intentional, but that doesn't change anything. Also, give credit to mossyfisk for figuring out the armored cars, that's legitimately his deduction. Still, I hosed up. No way around that. I made it worse by keeping quiet about it. Please feel free to ridicule me and/or anything/everything I've done. Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Mar 10, 2017 |
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Mar 10, 2017 05:39
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nah most people double glance at threads prob, just don't really care about the tactics involved.
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Mar 10, 2017 05:56
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SCANDAL! German General implicated in spy ring!
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Mar 10, 2017 07:42
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Well, that's ironic, some observers in the first round joked you might have been reading the Entente thread anyway given your Cassandra-like predictions. That was pretty honest of you, though.
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Mar 10, 2017 08:18
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Paul.Power posted:Well, that's ironic, some observers in the first round joked you might have been reading the Entente thread anyway given your Cassandra-like predictions. The cover up goes even deeper...
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Mar 10, 2017 08:44
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Wow, I'm loving all of those banners that Tevery made for all the generals.
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Mar 10, 2017 20:22
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Not all of them yet :/ I need some good ideas and also to finally get around to it.
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Mar 10, 2017 21:02
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The Elephant in the Room So, here's the One Big Question, on which the answer to every other question about this round depends. The rules for combat in this game are hideously complicated, but at the end of the day, they seem to end up producing results surprisingly close to what you might get from a game of Diplomacy. If equal forces meet each other while both are equally prepared, they cause roughly equal casualties. If the balance of forces is unequal in some way (either because of an outright numerical advantage, or a problem setting up the guns), the stronger force wins. That's pretty much what we saw during every major attack last round, to whit: When the French attacked the Nainville road, they ended up attacking 4 brigades to 2, all the French brigades attacking together as one force; they were aided by some crappy German dice-rolling, but they still wrecked poo poo. Then the 119th advances too far, is met with two enemy brigades, and gets its poo poo wrecked. Around St Croissant, on the other hand, they only ever managed to direct one brigade at a time against the enemy; they may have devoted equal forces to the attack as the Germans did to the defence, but instead of their men attacking together, they attacked in two separate waves and were consequently shot down (and even then, one company of the 98th made it into St C and killed a machine gun). If the right-hand division had all attacked at once instead of in waves, I'm pretty sure they'd have had a 3:2 advantage and may well have carried the day, or at least made it much harder for the Germans to occupy St C and forced them to take heavy casualties defending it. Then we look at Dejeuner Ridge, which is absolutely the story of successive attacks and each one with superior numbers. The French cavalry arrives first and deals with the Jaegers, then two more German brigades arrive and now it's 2 vs 1-and-a-bit, so they force a French retreat on Graisse. Then the German forces separate again; the strong brigade goes to Quatreprouts and leaves the weaker brigade briefly vulnerable, at which point the remnants of the 97th and cavalry come right back, with the major force multiplication of the power of a cavalry charge, and they wreck poo poo at the cost of heavy casualties. The stronger German brigade makes Quatreprouts and is then attacked nearly 3:1 by Mon Pere and the BEF and gets summarily thrown aside; then Mon Pere turns on St Croissant, attacks with a 3:1 disadvantage, and gets his own poo poo wrecked. (If, as he'd hoped, he'd caught the Germans dancing around trying to reshuffle themselves...) The correct answer to this war is, therefore, the old Hacker's Dictionary argument for building reliable systems: first ensure that you have built a really, really, really good basket, and then put all your eggs in it at once. I've slipped a few things into this scenario that will encourage people to do that ( like the frequent terrain-based chokepoints), and a few things that will encourage them not to (dribbling their forces into the battle slowly, rather than in large clumps). He who gathers his forces and then acts boldly will win. He who throws forces piecemeal into battle as they arrive and then acts tentatively will lose. (This is also the answer to some of Mon Pere's quibbles about the last scenario; St Croissant was meant to be a difficult-but-achievable objective that in the event could have been taken by a coordinated assault, and if I get some spare time I'll re-run some modified game situations to see whether it would have been possible, and how it might have been done.) Lazyfire posted:I wonder if the rules will allow for this: Get this ahistorical shite out of my thread, you rotter 
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Mar 11, 2017 16:21
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Entente thread: MAPS! STUFF! CRAZY RAMBLINGS! ORDERS! German thread: dejected waiting for Sandman to give a poo poo  shameful
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Mar 12, 2017 19:04
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Oystertoadfish is a Map God, though. Now if only Sandman would pay attention and actually finish his orders...
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Mar 12, 2017 19:18
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I thought it was hysterically funny when Sandman put his hand up for corps commander. Yeah right dude.
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Mar 13, 2017 01:15
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what's the backstory? is he a little snoozy
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Mar 13, 2017 04:40
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He was the one having drastic mood swings during The Battle of Saint Croissant. One minute he acted like a German soldier on the eastern front in 1945 and the next minute he was the same thing but western front 1940. Sorry to mix world wars but he didn't fit the mold of an early or late German WWI soldier as well.
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Mar 13, 2017 05:16
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So what do folks think of the general opening plans put forwards by each side so far in general before things kick off?
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Mar 13, 2017 05:36
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Pontius Pilate posted:He was the one having drastic mood swings during The Battle of Saint Croissant. One minute he acted like a German soldier on the eastern front in 1945 and the next minute he was the same thing but western front 1940. So he was Ludendorffing?
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Mar 13, 2017 06:35
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So when does the game start?
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Mar 13, 2017 13:42
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Whenever Trin gets around to starting the adjudication today.
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Mar 13, 2017 14:58
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First update will be adjudicated this evening; look for it at any point after 7pm GMT. Let's have a look at the two teams' plans. For the Germans:  For the BEF:  Everything now depends on who exactly arrives where and at what time. Both sides have once again obligingly took the bait and rushed headlong to the carrot in Stethoscope. Now, without having looked too closely at the details of anyone's orders (which I never do until after deadline, to make sure I don't get confused and start using orders that were later superceded but "oh I remember what you wanted to do here"), I think the ACs are probably going to get overwhelmed by weight of numbers unless they can manage perfect positioning or they somehow arrive late enough for it to be after the German cav brigades have split up, and the best-case is that they can withdraw after taking about half casualties, terrifying the poo poo out of the Germans with their confirmed existence, and then withdraw in good order to [$DEFENSIBLE_LOCATION], keeping the Germans off-balance for long enough that they don't realise they actually have a numbers advantage. Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Mar 13, 2017 |
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Mar 13, 2017 15:08
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Really enjoying the Entente's arrow-spaghetti on that map there. I hope the armored cars have a good showing.
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Mar 13, 2017 15:22
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Green Intern posted:Really enjoying the Entente's arrow-spaghetti on that map there. I hope the armored cars have a good showing. Pffft, it's literal scrub-tier level as far as arrows-on-a-map-go 
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Mar 13, 2017 16:34
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Trin Tragula posted:First update will be adjudicated this evening; look for it at any point after 7pm GMT. Another reason to be happy it's not my turn to put the kids to bed tonight! Didn't manage to keep up with the opposing sides' threads last time - but this time I have and it's making it much more enjoyable.
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Mar 13, 2017 18:08
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| # ? May 11, 2024 12:50 |
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Adjudication is up. British thread German thread So, let's now use our Observ-O-Vision to have a little look-see at how exactly that went down, shall we? End Turn 3:   Overview Turn 4:  The lead AC is about 22 inches from the southern German brigade. Then the Germans win initiative, both their brigades enter Stethoscope, then the ACs move up, seeing nothing: and so... End Turn 5:   Remember that, per the adjudication, both those German brigades are considered to be inside Stethoscope and cannot be seen from outside. End Turn 6:  Then it all goes off outside Stethoscope, and here's what Observ-O-Vision sees at the end of Turn 8.  So many questions! I think the most cromulent one at this stage is "will the British twig that they're facing two cavalry brigades, not one?" The Red ACs have an even-money chance of escaping with, oh, about three or four cars intact, and may well get away with more. edit: unless the Germans turtle up like big cowardly cowards, in which case they'll pull back in good order. What the Germans appear not to realise at this early stage is that they've more-than-halved the amount of firepower that Red can send at them... Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Mar 13, 2017 |
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Mar 13, 2017 21:41
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