Matrix Games Forums

A new Decisive Campaigns Ardennes Offensive update (v. 1.02.00) has been released.

Download Link:
https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/Decisiv ... .02.00.zip

It comes with a lot of small fixes and quality of life improvements, but its main highlight is the introduction of a brand new campaign scenario: Plan Martin.

"Plan Martin " is von Rundsted's proposed plan for the Ardennes Offensive, with a wider frontline and the participation of the German 15.Army in the main attack:

Phase I : Encirclement of Aachen with 15.Army from the north and 6.Pz.Army from the south and reach the Meuse line with 5.PzArmy and 7.Army.
Phase II : Advance to Antwerp from Namur (7.Army), Liege (5.PzArmy) Aachen (6.PzArmy).
Phase III : to Antwerp!



The scenario is a historical "what if?" because all the units deployed are historically available to both players. Three more High Level HQ were added to the OOB, General von Zangen German 15.Army, General Simpson US 9th Army and General Dempsey British 2nd Army.

The huge Campaign map is 155 x 156 hexes/km , 40 more hexes north than the Wacht am Rhein map.




Change History v1.02.00:

• Changed the IF/SET Logic processing and you can now pass strings in “” to exe or chk functions like exe(237,”VR Basic Lib”,”VictoryLastRound”,30)
• Made some improvements to AI artillery usage (less moving around! More firing!)
• Made some improvements to AI covering important hexes in some cases
• Redid combat calculations with indirect ranged attack capacity individuals (like artillery guns)
• firing on enemy individuals that have broken through or are in direct combat for the hex. Artillery (and other such troops) now more vulnerable to assaults by combat troops.
• Finetuned attack accidents to only happen now when making a KILL (no longer on scoring a RETREAT).
• Furthermore attack accidents & mechanical breakdowns during combat no longer will happen during ranged fire
• Improved supply deliveries in all scenarios (about +20%)
• Fixed crash with Cards Tab
• Editor addition: Added two optional combat modifiers (as well as reconSkill option) to the People data structure (accessible in historical editor). Note that A reconSkill >0 is only advised for trained specialist reconnaissance troops. If >0 it means the troops when ambushed will automatically fight in PROBE attack mode (reducing their casualties). Furthermore any recon points will be multiplied by the reconSkill. So for scouts a reasonable value to set reconSkill to is maybe 2 or 3
• One US roadblock card x turn
• Map fortification white dot, fixed
• Tanks unreliability reduced Tiger 1, TigerII 3, Panther 1, captured Sherman 2
• Ground levels >3 on maps checked and fixed
• Minor maps and oob fixes
• Improved scroll and map screen render speed a bit
• Improved DPI scaling speed and quality a lot (Prefs Tab)
• Defensive Intercept Fire now added to Firelist so you can locate it (or not) after battle
• Rule revision: Vigor recuperation: Note that Intercept Fire (even defensive) does not count as an attack now
• PBEM games on Steam version now save in the same cloud-linked directory
• Some small AI improvements for tactical movements
• ZOC can now longer capture Supply Source (you need to actually move a unit in now)
• Paradrop cards can no longer target enemy within 8 hexes (or more in large scenarios) of enemy Supply Sources (it is too gamey to do this!)

The link above doesn't work, the one below does
https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/Decisiv ... .02.00.zip

Thanks for reporting........and fixing !

This is great.

I'm still patiently working my way through Elseborn.. and loving it! Can't wait to try this mammoth new campaign scenario when I finally reach it.

I'm a few days in. I never saw anything like a push in the directions indicated on the graphic. And I doubt I'll see one now, given his losses.

There has been a half-hearted push in the "center" below the Malmedy-Trois Pointes line.

And to the south, the annoying assault on the 4th ID continues, aided by an army of ant units cutting supply lines.

To the north I am rupturing his right. If I was to continue, I could hold the line in the center and south, swatting flies here and there, and then envelope him. But I think I'll give the stock campaign a go, keeping in mind the lessons of what's happening in the 4th ID sector.

TO&E of the British divisional field artillery regiments is way off. Three regiments (battalions) per division. Each regiment containing 24 guns each. Not 12.

The Commonwealth dealt with serious manpower issues throughout the war. But I've never seen anything to suggest that they cut their divisional artillery in half.

A truly useful site regarding British artillery, and WWII artillery in general, is still Nigel F. Evans. Here:
https://nigelef.tripod.com/RAorg.htm#AR ... ANISATIONS

Might be the last useful site at tripod.com. I'm not sure why it's still working. Check it out while it's still there.

WABAC wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 11:04 pm TO&E of the British divisional field artillery regiments is way off. Three regiments (battalions) per division. Each regiment containing 24 guns each. Not 12.

The Commonwealth dealt with serious manpower issues throughout the war. But I've never seen anything to suggest that they cut their divisional artillery in half.

A truly useful site regarding British artillery, and WWII artillery in general, is still Nigel F. Evans. Here:
https://nigelef.tripod.com/RAorg.htm#AR ... ANISATIONS

Might be the last useful site at tripod.com. I'm not sure why it's still working. Check it out while it's still there.

Most units didn't have the paper TO&E by that date. Will have a look at various books, including PCA's Snow & Steel.

Klink, Oberst

Good shot !
Both British and German artillery had big supply problems.
After few tests i find some artillery was too strong and devastating so both Volks Artillerie Korps and the 24 guns British Regiments were cut !
I decided to made 12 guns units for the British so is possible simply adding a second artillery unit to have the 24 guns Regiment. (Perhaps could be more historical a 3 x 8 guns Regiment)

Davide

nikdav wrote: Wed Jun 15, 2022 4:28 pm Good shot !
Both British and German artillery had big supply problems.
After few tests i find some artillery was too strong and devastating so both Volks Artillerie Korps and the 24 guns British Regiments were cut !
I decided to made 12 guns units for the British so is possible simply adding a second artillery unit to have the 24 guns Regiment. (Perhaps could be more historical a 3 x 8 guns Regiment)

Davide

Can't you edit the relative power of the artillery types in the troop type library?

I haven't read any documentation yet, but just guessing that is what soft power and hard power have to do with. I don't know how the numbers were arrived at. Soft power for the 25 pounder is 44, and it's 55 for the US 105mm. Is the difference great enough?

Just for jollies, the United Nations provides a handy widget for running Gurney equations: https://unsaferguard.org/un-saferguard/gurney

And Nigel Evans provides some rough data on projectiles here: https://nigelef.tripod.com/wt_of_fire.htm

He says that the charge of the 25 pounder shell is 7% of the weight. So .791 kilograms for the charge, and 10.509 for the weight, and the Gurney calc for fragment velocity equals 657.

For the US 105mm it's 12.8 and 2.2 for a fragment velocity of 970.

As you can see at Evan's site, he gives his own table of equivalence base on "the square root of the weight of explosive filling." You can also find this rule of thumb at http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/Gun_Data_p2.php "The effect of the burster may be taken as being proportional to the square root of the weight of the bursting charge."

The US 105mm ammunition is quite a bit more effective than the 25 pounder or the German 105. He has the US projectile at 1.7 times the effectiveness of the British projectile. That's not far off the Gurney difference of 1.47.

But on a more serious note.

I do hope you will consider calling the British pieces by their historical designations rather than MM equivalents the next time you make any changes.

Oberst_Klink wrote: Wed Jun 15, 2022 1:58 pm

WABAC wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 11:04 pm TO&E of the British divisional field artillery regiments is way off. Three regiments (battalions) per division. Each regiment containing 24 guns each. Not 12.

The Commonwealth dealt with serious manpower issues throughout the war. But I've never seen anything to suggest that they cut their divisional artillery in half.

A truly useful site regarding British artillery, and WWII artillery in general, is still Nigel F. Evans. Here:
https://nigelef.tripod.com/RAorg.htm#AR ... ANISATIONS

Might be the last useful site at tripod.com. I'm not sure why it's still working. Check it out while it's still there.

Most units didn't have the paper TO&E by that date. Will have a look at various books, including PCA's Snow & Steel.

Klink, Oberst

Isn't that what the scramble widget is for? To have the tool implies that what is being scrambled--attrited really--is as reasonably accurate as possible to begin with.

My AVG Browser guard, says it would be a very bad idea to visit this site.

https://nigelef.tripod.com

It could be that it has been infected by viruses, trojans or the like. Anyone who has visited may want to take this into account and act as if they have been infected.

ernieschwitz wrote: Fri Jun 17, 2022 1:06 pm My AVG Browser guard, says it would be a very bad idea to visit this site.

https://nigelef.tripod.com

It could be that it has been infected by viruses, trojans or the like. Anyone who has visited may want to take this into account and act as if they have been infected.

I added their plugin to firefox. I'm not seeing any problems reported by their plugin, or any of the other plugins I use. In fact their browser plugin tells me that there is no phishing, no malicious code, and that the site is trusted by users of the AVG plugin.

I have been visiting the site for years. And I have never had any problems. So I gave it a thumbs up too.

However, the site can also be approached through the internet archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20220330225 ... ripod.com/

My thoughts on 'Plan Martin':

First off note that I did my own detailed scenario for this with TOAW. Secondly I have communicated these thoughts to Davide who is open to criticism as always--Buon lavoro amico mio.

I have played it through to December 20th so far a few times. My conclusions briefly:

1) Allied reinforcements arrive and attack in the north faster than the German II SS.PzK can possibly arrive.

2) Attacks by the Allies quickly reach the northern map edge.

Rundstedt's Plan called for the attacks north and south to be simultaneous and I think they should be. Secondly, in my Plan Martin the map included the entire Roermond salient and I think the map should be extended north to cover this. The PO ("Programmed Opponent" not really an "AI") attacks quickly in the north as though Rundstedt's plan had been captured in advance. Meanwhile Bittrich's II SS.Pz Korps is scrambling to get into position to deal with this Allied offensive rather than the intended attack at the outset.

Still an interesting 'what-if'; but not Plan Martin as envisaged by Rundstedt.

Cheers,

Daniel

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/down ... id=1148386

Thanks for the feedbacks Daniel !

An interesting comparison of both German and Allied maps for 16 december !

Yes very interesting.
Also interesting is the fact that Rundstedt had the 5. and 6.Pz Armies swap start positions in the south. Plan Martin assumes that every effort was made to have the northern attack group--mainly II SS.PzK--built up and ready to jump off on December 16th.