Probably unrealistic. What a scenario won't depict is a bunch of rear echelon units that would have opportunities to run off small enemy units like a platoon.

The image here reminds me of scenarios in which a partisan unit creates huge supply problems by blocking a rail line and doesn't have to ...

'Design for effect' is a good idea.

Not sure, however, that TOAW allows a designer to do that with precision.

I recall one instance in which a percentage value was dialed down to zero, but had little noticeable effect. The setting should have forced almost constant reorganizations, but didn't ...

Lobster wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2026 10:31 pm You'll have to speak to the manual authors about that example. It isn't mine.

I know, I was just blowing steam. That verbiage goes all the way back to the manual for the first version of the game IIRC.

THE PROBLEM
18.11.3. Transport Asset Sharing

U.S. forces, in particular, are well-known for their
practice of temporarily stripping Transport assets
from units that don’t need them and forming adhoc
“Redball Express” units to aid in rapid resupply.


I find that description exaggerated ...

An infantry unit moves as fast as it's slowest combat component. That would be the foot soldier. But if you throw in cavalry, motorcycles, jeeps, trucks, halftracks and the movement exceeds that of the foot soldier. If you look at other games and they don't even have trucks in the TOE.


Agree ...

Meanwhile, another SPI game of similar unit scale, "Breakout and Pursuit", show both the German and the US divisions with "5" while UK infantry divisions are "16" !

Yow. I guess scenario designers could use a measure like the German Motorisierungsgrad to get an idea of relative mobility and ...

You could just adjust the number of trucks down until the movement rate is right.


The question then is what is "right".

I note that even the famous designers of old paper wargames had widely varying views about movement rates. Take War in Europe. Soviet rifle divisions moved with "4", German ...

Germans have it marked as under construction in this 1941 map.

http://maps.mapywig.org/m/German_maps/s ... 2.1941.jpg

Weren't the Russian version of these called "berserkers" back in the storied days of wargaming?

Hello, I am trying to build a map from a Google Earth as base (The map is large in South America, ) and I read in some posts on this forum about the Curt Chambers, ODD (OPART Design & Debug Utility) software, that had a utility that allowed me to start the job to place the hexagon grid more ...

Thank you, great scenario topic!

This crossed my mind the other day.

Perhaps part of the issue is the names given the equipment. "Truck", in the game, actually represents a nonspecific quantity of "motor transport assets". Ditto with porters, horse drawn wagons etc.

The fuzziness of this is not altogether harmless. IIRC ...

sPzAbt653 wrote: Sun Feb 15, 2026 3:35 am The revised scenario has been posted here:

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=415620

Be sure to check this out! sPzAbt653 put an amazing amount of work and talent into the TOAW IV update for this scenario.

I guess the key to AI utility in these cases is the amount of information available online. Looking for the order of battle for obscure campaigns could yield meager results. IIRC, the orders of battle and other information for Barbarossa are online, at Wikipedia and other sites.

and things like the Western Front in July should only get 1,200-1,500 Artillery pieces from the border stragglers and those were almost all; 50mm mortars, 45mm AT and 76mm Art - the easiest to move

Didn't mention 37mm "spade mortars" ?

Don't know. The logic of the suggestions sounds good, but I ...

One of the joys of scenario design is digging into an aspect of the scenario to learn more.

I recently encountered this while representing the oil fields at Nagykanizsa, Hungary. They were a treasured resource for Germany, even prompting the "Spring Awakening" offensive of 1945 in a failed attempt ...

Attached is an alternate version of "swamp" tiles. The .zip file includes a file called h_tiles_light_woods.png, this is the m_forest tile but with less trees.

Wondering. In a recently posted Leningrad scenario, the designer used invisible terrain tiles for certain game effects.

Could an invisible road or other terrain tile be used to connect the island to the mainland along routes a landing force would take? Terrain would look like water but be crossable ...

I merged two tiles to make this "swamp tile".

Bob Cross graciously allowed me to use a tile he had employed in his original "Soviet Union 1941" scenario. The other tile was the m_forest tile (but edited to remove many of the trees.)

The guy that made the D21 map made a tile labeled 'Wilderness' to represent the boreal forest that Wiki reports covers most of Finland. I think he used the dune tile overlayed with the jungle graphic but colored darker. Or maybe it was dense forest colored jungle. This has nothing to do with swamp ...