Command Ops: Battles From The Bulge takes the highly acclaimed Airborne Assault engine back to the West Front for the crucial engagements during the Ardennes Offensive. Test your command skills in the fiery crucible of Airborne Assault’s “pausable continuous time” uber-realistic game engine. It's up to you to develop the strategy, issue the orders, set the pace, and try to win the laurels of victory in the cold, shadowy Ardennes.
Command Ops: Highway to the Reich brings us to the setting of one of the most epic and controversial battles of World War II: Operation Market-Garden, covering every major engagement along Hell’s Highway, from the surprise capture of Joe’s Bridge by the Irish Guards a week before the offensive to the final battles on “The Island” south of Arnhem.
The footprint of the HQ would extend to the far side of the built up area near the river bank would it not?
It would be a logical move to place some of its tanks overlooking the river/road in the corner of its footprint on that side.
We have to allow for abstraction in this game of course. You can't really allow for detail of this sort in a game at this scale.
Maybe move your anti tank, and any other spare units you have with the range, into position in this image during the night?
I think this might cover the road, to make it inside freindly lines if I understand what Dave was saying, in that regard.
Or did he mean you have to have friendly units actually lined up on the road itself?
We have to allow for abstraction, yes. But that the footprint crosses the river surely cannot mean that you permit the AI to compute line of sight as if there were armour units across a major obstacle like a river?
We have to allow for abstraction, yes. But that the footprint crosses the river surely cannot mean that you permit the AI to compute line of sight as if there were armour units across a major obstacle like a river?
No not across the river, but lined up on the bank, projecting their firepower accross the river.
Yes. Maybe. But like I said - the urban LOS is interesting. I feel it should be much less, at least for some purposes (firing, perhaps, as opposed to mere intel). Maybe not. Maybe I'd be happy with it, however it was, if those troops across the brdige had supply. I think they should have had supply from night time supply runs when they control that much territory around the bridge. I cannot see that in RL supply wouldn't have got through. There has been no 'speculative' arty that I saw, by the way, dropping onto the route itself (including the bridge), so it hasn't been that. It feels wrong to me that they don't have supply, and I need to know how I can establish a bridgehead like that and keep supply going. I need to know, generally, what cuts the route and what doesn't. Feel I can't really play the game properly at the moment because I'm not sure what I need to do to keep supply going. i checked all their logs, by the way, and no supply got through since the day before (since they crossed the river, more or less). They're all out of ammo and will have to be pulled back. Does that not seem absurd, given the position? But maybe it isn't. You can see from the photo that the Axis would have been able to fire at anything on the bridge (even by night, I would think) quite easily. They haven't in fact done that (according to the graphic cues), and certainly haven't done that whilst there have been no units on the bridge (and just the invisible base supply jeeps trying to go across). I can live with whatever the position is, but would need to know. I mean the bridge isn't a particularly important feature here for the general point - so doesn't this mean that it must be incredibly difficult to re-supply front line units in any circumstances, assuming that what is happening here is that enemy units past the FLOT are in fact interdicting the supply up to the FLOT by their mere presence and proximity? Is that what's happening here, or is it that the route further back is being cut because the AI determines, from the absence of actual friendly units near the actual route that the ratio of FP means the route is not in my control? Because if that's the case it would have far reaching consequences too, for how I play, certainly. I would need to consider posting units along the route quite often, even when there didn't appear to be a need to do so.
Yes your right about the night time resupply. That one should have got through I think.
Maybe move a unit onto the bridge to see if it takes any fire? Bare in mind it will need to be motorised, and moving to have the same visibility as the supply convoy.
I'll have a play with it myself after work, and see what I come up with.
You have got me intrigued [:'(]
Here is a 1940's map of the area I found.
Notice the contour lines in the red circle indicating enemy areas, and that they do infact have an overlook position due to the hill there. At least on this map.
I don't have time to check it in game yet.
You've got your google earth options set to more than 1, Daz. That's not what Arnhem looks like. See below for what it looks like with no exaggeration:
There's an overwatch from up there, sure, but I doubt it's too good at night. But anyway, I think that isn't the point. What I need to know is - WHAT is cutting my supply? Is it the 'mere' proximity of Axis troops beyond my own FLOT? In which case, as I said, I can't see how front line troops are ever going to be supplied in the game whilst they're in a fight. (It may be they don't ever get resupply in a fight, and that this is intentional, but I can't imagine so). Or is it because some unit, actually very far away from some part of my supply route, has a LOS to it and the AI computes that it can therefore 'cut' the route (how?) because I don't have enough units on the actual route for the AI to recognise it as mine (and if it were 'mine' it would be exempted from such a possibility)?
Thanks Dave. I wasn't complaining, or asking for change - just wondering what was going on. Given this sentence in your responses - So any cutting of the route cannot occur where the route goes through friendly occupied territory. - I'm still wondering!! I'll look through the saves to see if I have one that far back (the re-supply event).
Jim. I can't understand what you've said, though it sounds like it might be relevant. Can you explain what you mean? The white AT unit is Polish (Allied). Is that the one you meant?
I wondered how that "lone German" AT Unit remained in the midst of the Allied troops . Didn't realize it was Polish.
You've got your google earth options set to more than 1, Daz. That's not what Arnhem looks like. See below for what it looks like with no exaggeration:
I forgot to change it back after the last time I played with it sorry about that.
Here is a picture of the bridge form the location, about where that armoured HQ is near the river bank.
I think you can pretty much rule out any vehicles using that bridge during the day without heavily suppressing the enemy.
I don't know if you would be able to see any vehicles moving on it at night or not. With a full moon and the way they would be silhouetted against the sky maybe you could.
I agree though it would be useful to know more about how supply is handled by the game.
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It doesn't look clear to me that tanks would be able to lay direct fire on the road back from the bridge, Daz (see pic below - in your inset photo it's easy to confuse the highway bridge with the new bridge - the highway bridge is, in fact, much further back from Lombok). But, as we've said, the key thing is to know what is causing the suply line fail. That would be a nice feature, no? To know, somehow, where your supply line was being cut.
The new bridge, by the way, is, I think, the Nelson Mandela Bridge.
In this image you will see 3 LOS tool readings from different points. All are well within range of the bridge old and new for the 3 Tiger tanks in that particular HQ, which have an effective range of 3000m as you can see by the range rings.
From where that HQ is in my image its not even 1/3 of the effective range for its main armament. It's even in range for its machine gun.
From the investigation work I have done so far there is no doubt to me that supply vehicles would not cross that bridge safely during day light hours.
Yep, I'm sure you're right, Daz - that it's exactly what Lieste says it is - the units over there are cutting my supply. But I would still need to know where they cut it. Hope Dave can get to look at the saves I sent him.
. Didn't realize it was Polish.
