|
 This just in: Slim Jim Pickens has in Roll20 just become the first Entente commander to suggest that the Germans might have built a bridge in the night. The conversation rolled right on (it's a thoroughly inconsequential wrangle about whether sending men north is in fact a good idea or not), and so far nobody else has picked up on it and he himself isn't pursuing that line of reasoning any further...  edit: he mentioned it again, again seemingly in passing, and again nobody's stopping to explore the possibility any further... Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Mar 22, 2017 |
#
¿
Mar 22, 2017 01:50
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 12, 2024 02:55 |
|
|
Tevery Best posted:Well, it doesn't really change all that much from their perspective, does it? Sure it does; they seem to be proceeding under the assumption that any German who tries to cross the river in the south is going to have to ford it and then probably get stuck in wire, or at least detour around it.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 22, 2017 03:52
|
|
|
Update's up. It's now 12 noon on Day 2. Germans British Time for Observ-O-Vision. Overview turn 52:  Blob turn 53 with bullseye  Blob turn 54 with bullseye  Turn 56 overview  Post ITT, y'all. Eggs and baskets, eggs and baskets.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2017 01:01
|
|
|
Current orders has the two on-board infantry brigades clearing out the south, and the arriving brigade moving from Trois Freres into the forest beginning T57. edit: some Roll20 nyuks for you quote:ProfessorCurly (GM): How about we fire on the M7 crossing. It seems like that is where they think they have a breakthrough or at least something going on. Moreover they may have brought up engineers to try and clear our wire M7 is what they call the southernmost ford. So near, and yet so far away! And of course, Slim Jim isn't around to briefly mention the possibility of a pontoon bridge and then forget about it again... Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Mar 24, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2017 01:30
|
|
|
^^^ they probably should have seen them, I think I may have not moved them out of the "unspotted" trenches bucket into the "spotted" bucket, c'est la vie Mini-updates up now, you'll get the gist end-of-update map 
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2017 02:38
|
|
|
I guess he's also never heard of the RPG rule about "if the DM says 'are you sure you want to do that?', you should probably reconsider"... vvv well, he can certainly try, and maybe it's a chance to show off the rules about close combat in trenches! vvv Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Mar 27, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2017 23:41
|
|
|
I draw your attention to the 1913 Army Manouevres, in which a German brigade performed quite well in trench fighting without any real MG support. Proper use of wire will be key; note that the Germans have now seen all the wire in Effyaders and can route around it. And, of course, there's the standard calculation that in order to ensure victory you require a 3:1 advantage in numbers. The only time we've seen that anywhere is, IIRC, Mon Pere's Charge of the Shite Brigade. Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 13:12 on Mar 28, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Mar 28, 2017 13:10
|
|
|
Night falls on Day 2 of the battle. British German Not much Observ-O-Vision worth having, but here's Turn 39:  Ragequitting: never the correct option. edit: I reckon that's gone about as well as it possibly could have; the 51st stopping has unintentionally given them a situation where they can now potentially advance with two brigades at once rather than just feeding them into battle sequentially. However, I'll lay 100/30 against them figuring that out; they'll feed them in sequentially anyway, and then they get clowned in detail by the BEF introducing their two brigades onto the map next to each other, as they did in the south. Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Mar 29, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Mar 29, 2017 00:19
|
|
|
The Germans have four fresh brigades, all moving to the north. The BEF has one fresh infantry brigade in the north; up to two entering immediately; up to two entering later. A lot is going to depend on where they introduce their guns; that choice was specifically intended to make them agonise over "do we take two brigades, or one plus guns?"SlothfulCobra posted:Trin, did you mean to show the German cavalry engineer in mid-update overview in the Entente post? I would think he'd be safely hidden in the trench that they can't see. IIRC yes, he was just about in spotting range and then immediately hosed off once he realised.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 29, 2017 00:55
|
|
|
PittTheElder posted:Trin, what is the end condition here? Whenever one side gets pushed off the map or stalemate sets in? Pretty much. I'm going to turn the tap off tomorrow (game time) and reinforcements will be minimal from then on. This is at least partly a test of player stamina; I want to find out how long I can design scenarios to be for the future without burning the players (or myself) out. I'm thinking about 4-6 weeks is the limit; we'll see. Planes are not guaranteed to see anything, as the Germans found out; the British plane rolled just as crappily, but IIRC all 24 German guns opened fire at once that turn, and that's rather harder to not see than a couple of engineers and a division command beetling around.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 29, 2017 20:29
|
|
|
^^^ mulch the phone lines up but good, appear in the German rear where least expected, tank German morale, gently caress with their reinforcements ^^^Crazycryodude posted:Aw drat it Tatonkatonk you've gone too far in the other direction. All I want is glorious ill-advised offensives, is that too much to ask? Don't worry, his brigadiers seem bent on launching one anyway... Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Mar 30, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2017 01:32
|
|
|
It's 0200 on Day 3, and the BEF's done its bit to even that statistic out some. British Germans And now, Observ-O-Vision. Turn 41 overview:  Turn 43 overview:  Turn 45 overview:  Turn 47 Effyaders closeup:  Turn 48 overview:  End of update overview:  The obvious question is, how do the Germans react to having their wires cut? Can they react to having their wires cut, even if they want to? I reckon there's actually a non-zero chance of the BEF trying bring 20th Bde round to ambush the German guns, and instead running smack into the German 88th in Taillis Douche...
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2017 23:51
|
|
|
Up to one slow-arriving division each, plus replacements for brigades that get a kicking and don't die. It's one thing to have a shitload of artillery, but it's quite another to have good enough spotting to be able to use it effectively... vvv I'm pretty sure that all their ordered fire so far has hit absolutely nothing; the British commanders have been very good at moving people about (and lucky with the dice to an extent, but they've often been changing orders in relatively calm circumstances) so that the ordered barrage lands where they were last turn. I'd be reporting to the BEF when they were getting hit by indirect fire if it ever happened, but it doesn't, so I don't... vvv edit again: see Pater Meus here, it's this kind of thinking that you need to do effective ordered fire, and also have a look at the precise patterns that lenoon was ordering, he was trying to anticipate which spaces the enemy would need to occupy in order to do certain things. Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Apr 1, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2017 00:05
|
|
|
You can't shoot guns if the guns are in the forest because the shells would all bonk into something before getting where they were supposed to go. There's no effect on damage, things are deadly enough without adding an extra few gently caress yous to forest fighting; you can shoot indirect fire into the forest from outside because it's assumed that your gunners can correct for the trees.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2017 13:07
|
|
|
Because the rules say so. Ahem. They say so because with WW1 field artillery it genuinely does take a long time to demolish even the smallest stone/brick building, which will continue to offer effective and complete cover for months after first being fired on. If you expect to hit anything worth hitting, either you need to target the same building for months, or you need to break out the heavy siege guns. Things like villages dying for France didn't happen overnight; it takes months to reduce a village entirely to rubble and then years to remove the rubble from the map. Even after that, cellars and basements remain useful as dugouts and mortar emplacements. (If the game lasts, we will see things like Saint Croissant slowly moving from being a town, to being a collection of assorted buildings, to being rubble, to being nothing.) Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Apr 2, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2017 17:31
|
|
|
Update up. It's 0800 on Day 3. British German Not much for Observ-O-Vision to show. Here's the important question; are the guns close enough to each other for counter-battery fire?  Here's the Turn 15 overview.  TL;DR is that they both stood off and shelled each other all night; the Germans have now spotted the British 60-pounders and repaired the northern telephone line. There was also a lot of digging going on; a trench line is beginning to emerge. Here's the map with all the units switched off.  Post ITT!
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2017 00:35
|
|
|
Important: Loel thinks that the front rank of 7th Division guns are in range to hit the German howitzers. Let's see. Ooooffff. Tight as a gnat's crotchet, but there you are; that front rank can score hits, and they're not getting gun-pits for the howitzers any time soon.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2017 01:43
|
|
|
Awww, gently caress. If they're Haig, then I, as the one providing him with his intelligence reports, must be Charteris...
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2017 15:37
|
|
|
If the Germans attack through Effyaders at any time today, then I don't expect them to go further than the E/W road; they can probably scatter the 23rd and 24th brigades if they concentrate effectively and bombard accurately, but damage plus fatigue is going to wreck that division whatever happens, and the Belgians will then come up and be able to establish a line in Trois Freres somewhere while the last British division comes in to steady the ship again. By design, their best chance of reaching the canal (assuming competent but unspectacular enemy generalship) revolved around using the 40th effectively, but they dribbled it in and lost it. You need a 3:1 advantage to get anywhere against an entrenched opponent, and now even if they can manage it, the men of the 26th are carrying two fatigue points and will start taking penalties. The penalties, incidentally; at 2 fatigue points, a brigade takes a penalty to its attacks when out of a trench; at 3, it takes a penalty to all attacks and a penalty to defending itself when out of a trench; at 4, it takes a penalty to all attacks and a penalty whenever attacked; and if a brigade ever gets to 5 points, it takes the 4-point penalties and has a 50% chance of not being allowed to move or open fire on each turn.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2017 17:52
|
|
|
PittTheElder posted:Hmm Saros might block just in time. Praying for some British initiative. Oh, it's your fault, I see. We're up; it's 12 noon on Day 3. Entente Germans Observ-O-Vision: The south, turn 17  The south, turn 18  The north, turn 18  Overview, turn 20  Overview, end of update 
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2017 00:49
|
|
|
markus_cz posted:I still don't understand the movement rules while on defence. There's the "if anyone moves, everyone must move" rule (which I can't actually find in the movement rules) and also the "you must use all your movement allowance" rule. Both make sense to me for attacking, as they significantly reduce bookkeeping. By making sure that companies must attack as a group, you're making it easier to adjudicate because otherwise people would come up with ridiculously complex leapfrogging maneuvres etc. Two principles: 1). Allowing brigades to fine-tune their positions destroys the advantage of attacking them from an unusual direction, because then they'll just shuffle around and face you before you can get near them. There are two ways to prevent this and neither of them are entirely satisfactory. The rulebook gives all units a 45-degree arc of fire and doesn't allow them to open fire on enemies coming at them from outside the arc; but very early playtesting showed that it was a gigantic pain in the arse, almost impossible to keep track of, or display clearly so the players could see what's going on. The solution is to allow companies 360-degree firing, but to make it very difficult to move them about in response to attacks; then you get at least some of the effect of the arc of fire because some companies will be out of range and others will have their LOS obstructed, while the enemy can bring all their firepower to bear at once in the style of a battleship crossing the T. Mistakes should not be able to be easily corrected; this is not the war for easily correcting your mistakes. 2). Brigade commanders are one level too high to be fine-tuning deployments, particularly when it would involve running around between various field command positions to give critiques; that's a battalion commander's job, and we don't have those. It's the sort of thing you'd have to do over a period of about 72 hours and when there wasn't a major battle going on at the time; tour the trenches at leisure, talk to the men on the spot, return to HQ, digest the situation with staff; then and only then would the sensible brigade commander make recommendations for improvement. Once the battle is on, the positions you have are the ones you're stuck with and you simply don't have the command capabilities to adjust them on the fly. Again, this is not the war for easily correcting your mistakes.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2017 14:45
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 12, 2024 02:55 |
|
|
Brigade HQ is a fighting stand. Division HQ is not. If he were a fighting stand, he'd have waited for contact before trying to flee.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 8, 2017 18:52
|
|