The strategic goal

[Arjuna]

ORIGINAL: Grognard

I would do illegal and/or immoral things to see the HTTR/COTA/??? engine do Operation Avalanche......

Nobody ever mentions it! I gotta wonder why? The scale is just about perfect, especially at Company level, Brits and Amis, Rangers and Commandos, a couple of paradrops (AFTER D-Day), air parity, naval support, pretty much all terrain types, an important airfield and other must have objectives, etc, etc, etc. And play balance? Clark thought about evacuating the beaches on D+3. If it wasn't for the navy........ There would be fodder for many scenarios - attack and defense for both sides.
And how unique would it be? The only computer treatment I've ever seen was the Italy '43 scenario for TOAW but the scale was too large. I have a dream...

I agree Salerno would be a good battle to cover. Of course we would need off-map fire support, obstacles, minefields etc. My wife's father fought with the Brit 46th Div at Salerno. He swears that the heaviest bombardment he ever experienced was at Salerno when the Germans counter-attacked. He said that he saw one of his fellow soldiers hair go white over night under that bombardment. Sobering stuff.

So many battles, so few staff. Anyone want to volunteer for some design work. The pay is not worth mentioning, so we don't. [;)] But at least the commeradrie is good.

[Willard]

ORIGINAL: CriticalMass

ORIGINAL: Willard

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

One we have already looked into is the Battles along the Siegfried line in late 44/early 45. This is going under the working title of "Dragon's Teeth". Another option, it to go south to North Afrika or East to Russia. If I could clone myself perhaps we could do both [;)]. We're open to suggestions.

NORTH AFRIKA!!!!!!!! This game engine is by far the best suited system to deal with the war of movement in the desert. I think that is why hex games fall short in this area, because they cannot *seem* to get it right.

Banquet's suggestion of France '40 would also be pretty cool...I guess this could incorporate the Netherlands/Belgium lowlands invasion and the paradrops used by the Germans.

GO WILLARD GOOOOO!!!!!!!

(please re-post the Operation Crusader screenshot )

CM --- You now they want to do it!!!!
Rats...
Foxes...
Sand...

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tukker]

I'd vote for an upscaled version covering the Eastern Front, but I can understand the amount of time and money involved would be too high to make this a realistic proposal. What might be possible, though, is too keep the current engine, but supply some more types of terrain, and 'generic' units (i.e. standard infantry, armoured and airborne) divisions. This, plus the improved Editor, might lead to many more home-made scenarios. The amount of battles and areas covered could expand very much, and this already great game would become even better.

[wodin]

Squad Level would be excellent. Individual soldier would require an awfull lot of micro management.

I too was a hard core CC fan. What a series! Squad Battles has now fullfilled that missing space for me thank god. Maybe one day we will see Close Assault but that doesnt look promising so far.

I own HTTR and think the game is very well done. I just can't get into it aswell as I should. I do believe its due to the unit size. I can understand tactical squad games. I can view in my mind a squad of men far better than a company. I also have a better idea about how to play a game at squad level compared to company. IF a squad level game ever came out with this game system I'd jump at it and never look back I'm sure.

[wodin]

ORIGINAL: Agema

How about SE Asia during WW2? It's barely ever been covered by a game (possibly not surprising considering it is called 'The Forgotten War') but it should provide some good material from the Japanese invasions of Malaysia and Bruma through the battles of the Arakan and the eventual Commonwealth victories.

Due to terrian I imagine a squad level game is far more suited than this level. Jungle movement would take to long.

[pamak1970]

My vote is North Africa, Russia, France 40 in that order

I would also love to see the system applied for desert warfare.

Anyway, I do not know if the next version will be about North Africa,
but i DO know that if it is ,then one of the new features will certainly have to do with minefields and fortifications [:D].

[zumHeuriger]

How about Caucasus '42 for heading east - set pieces and mobile warfare? Drang Anch Tblisi anyone?

Cheers

Tom

"In Wine there is truth, in Beer there is Strength, in Water there is bacteria"

[Banquet]

ORIGINAL: pamak1970

My vote is North Africa, Russia, France 40 in that order

I would also love to see the system applied for desert warfare.

Anyway, I do not know if the next version will be about North Africa,
but i DO know that if it is ,then one of the new features will certainly have to do with minefields and fortifications [:D].

I've never understood the appeal of desert warfare in a wargame.. why play in miles of desert as far as the eye can see, when you could be playing in forests, orchards, fields and villages?

Someone enlighten me please?!

[Banquet]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna


So many battles, so few staff. Anyone want to volunteer for some design work. The pay is not worth mentioning, so we don't. [;)] But at least the commeradrie is good.

What would you classify as 'design work'?

[SeaMonkey]

Banquet,

Its like naval warfare on land.

[Arjuna]

ORIGINAL: Banquet

[What would you classify as 'design work'?

1. Historical research - development of OBs ( in a spreadsheet ), log of key events/developments etc
2. Development of Estabs - weapons, ammo, vehicles, units
3. Creation of Maps
4. Design scenarios
5. Writing of Manuals
6. Beta testing and coordination

[Willard]

Sign me up!!!
What do I need to do to apply>>>??

[Rooster]

Is the spreadsheet functionality working? Last time I heard, the spreadsheet tool that Golf made needed fixing.

[Banquet]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

ORIGINAL: Banquet

[What would you classify as 'design work'?

1. Historical research - development of OBs ( in a spreadsheet ), log of key events/developments etc
2. Development of Estabs - weapons, ammo, vehicles, units
3. Creation of Maps
4. Design scenarios
5. Writing of Manuals
6. Beta testing and coordination

I'm no programmer but I'd glady contribute my time in any way that might help. Let me know if there's anything specific you have in mind.

[HercMighty]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

ORIGINAL: Banquet

[What would you classify as 'design work'?

6. Beta testing and coordination

Can we sign up?

[Arjuna]

Re spreadsheet. I was not referring to the ability of exporting force data from the ScenMaker to a spreadsheet. Rather, what I meant was note taking in a spreadsheet - you know reading books, writing down notes. We then use these as the "reference" for generating the data in the game. We now have a the ability to export force data into XML files and then import them into scenarios within the ScenMaker. This makes re-using force data so much easier now.

[Isacco]

Arjuna,

Is possible for you to give a "visual example" of "spreadsheet note" so I can understand which is the best system for your team to organize the informations taken from the books???

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Isacco

[Arjuna]

Steve,

Could you put up a screenshot of a portion of the notes you did for COTA. Thanks,

[Golf33]

ORIGINAL: Rooster

Is the spreadsheet functionality working? Last time I heard, the spreadsheet tool that Golf made needed fixing.

It's fixed, and has lots more features than it did before, but I haven't had time to package it up for release. It could probably go out packaged with COTA, but that's Dave's decision of course.

Regards
33

[Golf33]

Here's an example:



This is just the first two pages of the Greek OB document. As you can see I list up the data from various sources on generic OB, and assess it for reliability; the result gets entered into the first-draft unit estabs, and used to work out what new weapons, ammo types, and vehicles are required. The next step is to do the same thing for the historical unit organisations, and to compose the first-draft force list using the generic estabs. I then assess that, to see if the specific units can be modelled adequately by adjusting the % strength of the generic estabs, or if they need special 'one-off' estabs of their own. The German Pz Divs were a good example of this; the enormous range of different vehicle allocations and strengths across the various Pz Regts meant I had to create a separate set of estabs for the tank components of each division. Creforce was another organisation that varied widely from the generic OBs and required a lot of special estabs to recreate it. Finally the force list gets revised using the new special estabs. Obviously there's then further research to identify what units were where and when, what the objectives and movements of each side were, and then the scenario design work involves stitching it all together into an overall picture so you can see which battles will be the most interesting.

Regards
33