Feedback for Map Campaign game- Campaign Ops rules

[Colt Ward]

Just wondering what folks experience with this might have been . . .

I am setting up a Player vs Player (stand in) for one of the final battles of my campaign which uses MM to resolve, its heavy on the war game and heavily influenced by the great old Marduk campaign that players posted years ago.  The Battlespace will be a grid 5 wide by 8 grids deep with the easternmost edge being formed by the river.  Each grid square will be a 5x5 of the 32x32 hex maps, randomly positioned based on the terrain description for that grid square-  farmland will feature 32x32 maps from the farmland folder, suburbs will have 32x32 maps featuring the edge of the city that will be the attacker objective.  Each grid of 5x5 maps while starting off random will have their arrangement recorded in case that grid is fought through again or needed for a pursuit battle.  The only thing not random will be river/water and road linkages.  The attackers will have their LZ/firebase in the northern row with their objective to reach the southern row that will be a mix of farm & suburban maps.

Since I use double blind tactically, it will also be used strategically which will make scouting forces- mechs, armor, infantry or VTOLs more important . . . as will scout hunters!  With scouts able to 'set' the terrain in each grid which can let a commander pick the easiest or best path for an advance . . . and raids can be used to bypass the opposing side's advance to strike at resupply or repair elements.  The attacker also has a dropship LZ they will need to protect, or at least should in theory.

Besides double blind, I use a war-gaming paradigm which means a picket lance could find itself being pounced on by a company.  It is very likely there will be unbalanced battles, and recovering between fights will be important (use detailed repair tracking) as will battlefield salvaging and pilot/crew SAR.

While Campaign Ops offers a couple of movement orders, it does not offer a stealth movement option and so I am pondering that for this battle- its not a heavy electronic warfare battlefield.  Of the top of my head I have 2 BAPs among my mechs, maybe 1 in armor and my allies might have 1 or 2.  Spotted forces among the enemy shows they have 1 but their nature has them with more ECM instead.

Oh yeah, since the map is at most 40 klicks deep the turns by their nature are going to be pretty short.

[Simon Landmine]

No experience playing that kind of thing, but have read about them back in the day, so just commenting to say sounds interesting! Good luck with it!

[Daryk]

Sounds awesome!   :thumbsup:

[idea weenie]

Looks very fun, hopefully both sides will be tracking what their scouts saw in each hex, and recording the results somewhere.  So if player A intercepts Scout force B with LRM equipped Mechs, the owner of Scout Force B knows to send AMS equipped units against the LRM equipped Mechs.

The other fun is if you just have a marker indicating 'presence' of enemy units, and little/no data on force size.  So one person could see a large group of enemy units, but they are actually cargo vehicles performing a bluff.  You could also have markers merging then separating, and what actually happens is the heavy tank force from one of them was transferred to the other.  Of course both sides are watching how fast and over what terrain the enemy units are moving over, so if you see an enemy force moving 5/8 then it is likely that the Atlas Lance is somewhere else.

[IronmanV2]

I wish you much luck and hope you provide a good write up.  That old Marduk post from back in the day was full of so much awesome that I still wish I could go back read it again. 

[Colt Ward]

Alright, while I am working on a spreadsheet to help track each element- down to mech & vehicle lances and infantry platoons- we end up with something like 50+ elements on each side.  FREX one side has . . . battalion of raider mechs (10), battalion of garrison mechs (9), merc armored battalion (12), two garrison vehicle companies (6), and support elements.  The support elements include things like tech platoons that rearm or repair mechs, artillery fire support, engineering support, and medical.  The spreadsheet is so that each side can log where they are positioned, what actions they are taking, and provisional orders like-

Lance 3A/Grid B4/Scout/Break Contact

Light mech lance will move to grid B4, Scout it and surrounding area, and if they run into the opposition they will break contact.

So now it comes down to general orders and specific/conditional instructions.  To me what is offered in Camp Ops is really shallow, so I started coming up with other instructions from other wargames . . . and what I remembered of maneuver element missions.  Generated the list and I want to see if any of it raises questions or anyone else has something they think they should add.

Orders-
Scout
Recon
Recon In Force
Advance
Rapid Advance
Deliberate Advance
Stealth Advance
Defensive Posture
Defensive Blocking
Ambush
Guard
Sentry
Obs Post (infantry, BA, shut down light vehs only)


Special
Fire Support
Repairs
Repair Support
Re-arm
Observe
Engineer?
Break contact
Maintain contact

[Daryk]

The thing to remember about tail-to-tooth is that it takes a squad (1 Tech plus 6 AsTechs) to maintain a single 'Mech, Combat Vehicle, or Aerospace Fighter.  Infantry generally needs them about one echelon up (1 squad of support per company).

That means a 'mech lance of 4 'mechs requires a platoon of tech support.  Once you add in the transport and Admin support for them, a 'mech lance basically translates to a combined arms company.

At smaller scale, think of this:
1 Stinger 'mech (and associated MechWarrior)
1 Tech and 6 AsTechs to support it
1 Heavy APC (20 tons... enough to carry the Stinger if it's disabled, and up to 60 support personnel)
2 Crew for the APC
1 Tech and 6 AsTechs to support the APC
1 Medical Team of 5 (per StratOps... they fit in the Heavy APC, and account for all the Admin support necessary for up to 50 personnel)

So for a single 'mech, we're already up to 22 personnel, essentially a platoon.  There are some efficiencies of scale as you grow bigger (you really only need the one Medical Team and single recovery vehicle (which changes based on your max tonnage 'mech) up to about company size, but you'll be adding additional Admin support, like a lawyer, when you grow beyond 50 personnel total).

[Colt Ward]

I use the older tech requirements as originally laid out in FM Mercs(R) . . . the resources are set, but I cannot remember the amount of tech support the attackers got off the top of my head.  Just looking for feedback on the meta commands that will govern each sub-unit's actions for that turn in that grid.

[Calimehter]

This might fall under your "Engineer" command, but what about something like Digging In/Fortifying as a command option?  Efficiency would be governed by the number and type of unit involved (especially specialized engineering equipment), but Mech's with hands and infantry should be able to make basic 'improved positions' given some time.

[idea weenie]

This might fall under your "Engineer" command, but what about something like Digging In/Fortifying as a command option?  Efficiency would be governed by the number and type of unit involved (especially specialized engineering equipment), but Mech's with hands and infantry should be able to make basic 'improved positions' given some time.

Combine that with an order to destroy the fortifications if needed.  Rather annoying if you make a good set of fortifications, have to relocate, then your enemy takes your old place away.  At least you know the layout and can predict where their command group will be located

[Colt Ward]

Yeah, the commands for the engineer squads get interesting-

Place Minefield
Clear Minefield
Place Obstruction (prefab)- like the 6 beam obstructions from WWII
Place Obstruction (local source)- like using felled trees
Clear Obstruction
Cut Road
Bridge Road
Flood Area
Drain Area . . . not sure how long that would really take

Using IRL, not sure it works with BT rules
Dug In Positions (Infantry)
Hull Down (vehicle)

[Daryk]

Dug in and hull down positions can be made with an appropriate application of sufficient explosives, so I think those work too.

Maxim 44: "If it will blow a hole in the ground, it will double as an entrenching tool."

 ;D

[Colt Ward]

Yeah, but I thought each of those units under BT did that for themselves?  Makes it hard for the engineers to prepare the position for the Inf/Veh.