how operational is operational?

[jinchoung]

howdy!

trying to figure out if this game is gonna be for me. wondering what kind of principles are involved operational level fighting (on the matrix site, the scale is placed at operational) in general and how it will be portrayed in PC in particular.

from what i've gleaned over the years:

- strategy is nation vs. nation and involves taking out a nation's ability to make war. so not just fighting but going after factory targets, economy, diplomacy, etc. roughly, the biggest goal in starcraft (i know, i know, rtstrategy) is to take out the base so that you have no more guys left to fight.

- tactical - the concerns here are about terrain, line of sight, maneuvering and tactics like pincering and envelopment and flanking become the concerns of the day. you roll for shots fired and morale of squads.

- operational - from what i can tell, the primary objective here seems to be about cutting off supply. is that correct? and basically, many tactical concerns like flanking and pincering can be used but is on a larger scale. is there any other insight you can give me for what concerns are involved on the operational scale.

cuz what i don't like are war games where there is no real way to play "well" or "poorly".... it's just tank rushes and largest mass beats the lesser mass.

i've played a bit of panzer general a few years ago because of its acclaim but i didn't play it enough to get a handle on how involving it is in terms of tactical depth. are there any board or table top systems as well as other computer games that this scale of combat would be equivalent to?

also, i have and have TRIED to play the "operational art of war" but it wasn't documented well enough for a non grognard who has no idea what a kampgruppfe was at a time and i just couldn't make heads or tails out of it.

thanks much.

jin

[ijontichy]

Try out Panzer General Forever. It's a modest download, and should work on most modern Windows operating systems. I expect Panzer Corps to be similar, but with improvements in some departments.

[jinchoung]

sweet! thanks!

jin