For those who don't have access to the Domgaming site, here is the first Umpiring post regarding the new game......the phoney war is finally over it seems :)
As a first step the German command team will be invited to come
up with a campaign plan. To do that they will be given forces, objectives and
constraints and with those they will fashion a plan to conquer the world, or
some such! Once that plan is produced it will not change greatly over the course
of the week's gaming. So for example the major reserve options thought about in
the planning stage will dictate where and when any reserve forces will be fed
into the battlefield.
Once I have a German plan the umpire team will
"model/wargame" the initial stages giving both German and Allied commanders
updates at 12-24 hourly intervals (in game time), based on the intelligence they
would have at that time. Note that last was really quite, quite important. At
some stage the Allied CinC will wish to institute action, to do this he will
have to produce a plan based on the information he has at that time. Note the
longer he leaves it the more info he has but the later any reserves that have to
move will arrive. Therefore at this point the modelling/wargaming will be
suspended; he will be given forces, objectives, and constraints and be asked to
produce his plan. Once this is done the "modelling/wargamin g" will continue
until a point is reached which gives enough interesting games to employ all the
players on days 1 and 2 in Cornwall and also provides a prospect for more games,
notwithstanding the outcomes of round 1. That point will be the start point for
the games in Cornwall. So the start date could be 16 Dec or any date thereafter,
however, as already stated, once we are in Cornwall we will move to game time =
campaign time.
I have mentioned forces, objectives, constraints and
plans for both sides let me put that in perspective:
FORCES: Both sides
will be given forces that were (or could have been) employed in the battle.
These will be have a start state in terms of equipment availability, manning,
training and morale that best reflects the state they were in at the time, as
judged by commentators at the time and reflects a synthesis of a great deal of
research done by Mike and myself in the past 8 months or so.
OBJECTIVES:
Will reflect what was asked of the opposing forces and will lie within the realm
of historical probability.
CONSTRAINTS: As ever there are constraints; on
logistics, on road availability, on transport, on weather, on terrain and the
like. All the command teams will see are the constraints, any bookkeeping will
be done by the umpires. However the constraints will impact on the campaign game
and may well have effects on the tabletop games.
PLANS: The German and
Allied command teams will represent the highest level headquarters and
commanders; OB West (GFM Model) and the Army Commanders for the Germans and
Bradley/Montgomery + the Army Commanders for the Allies. The umpires will play
Hitler, OKW, Churchill, Roosevelt, Marshall, Brooke, Eisenhower and SHAEF. The
plans are likely to be required to include all the normal things associated with
such documents; force objectives, boundaries, allocation of rare assets,
logistics' priorities, route allocations etc. The intention will be to have Army
level plans with Corps boundaries and objectives.
CAMPAIGN AIR: Neither
Model nor Montgomery/Bradley had any real control over the air forces. The
Allies were allocated CAS sorties on an availability rate in their priority
areas, in addition they stated target requests for medium bombing interdiction
and Photo Recce. The Germans got surprises (mostly from the allies). This is
pretty much how the game will play for the bulk of the campaign. There is likely
to be an air game which will/may/could affect ground operations, but it is still
under discussion with Phil.
TABLETOP FORMAT: We are returning to the
divisional level rules with one stand being one platoon +/-. There has been a
substantial revision of these since 2010 taking on board both the very deep and
long discussions on the group site that took place in Feb/Mar 2010 and the
comments made during and after the game. The final playtesting is still being
done but the main changes are likely to include such things
as:
ARTILLERY:
o Mortars and rockets will have effects directly akin
to direct fire weapons i.e. they will kill if they can, no trying to remember if
this is the first or second hit etc.
o Guns will have effects areas based on
calibre and number of barrels firing. Kills will be possible on natural
10s.
MOVEMENT
o Properly defined ability to move operationally out of
site/range of the enemy opening up the game more.
o Better definitions of
mounted/dismounted etc.
COVER:
o Woods to be better cover form view
particularly from the air but; to become particularly dangerous if attacked by
indirect fire. (See the Band of Brothers in Bastogne!)
o Much better
descriptions of man-made cover, what can and can't be done etc.
COMMAND and
CONTROL+ ORDERS:
o Easier formats to apply and use
o Less bookkeeping
o
However still constraining in an appropriate doctrinal way what a force can and
more appropriately can not do. (Adds the chrome that really differentiates a
German from an American from the Commonwealth) .
NEW TROOP TYPES: Weapons
Developments of late 44.
TIMEFRAME: The intention is for the German
command team to be issued its initial briefing pack this month sooner rather
than later. They will then have a good month, possibly 2 given my availability
in October to prepare their plan. This will allow the umpire to model the plan
in November and enter the interactive dialogue with the Allies (and Axis if
command decisions are required). I would wish the allies to stay stop to me in
November. They will then be asked to produce a reaction to the situation they
find themselves in. Although the realities of corporate life in 2012 have to be
taken into account I am likely to want this done relatively quickly. I would
hope to then model the Allied plan vs the German plan in my time in December or
early January and then issue a start state for Falmouth in
January.
SUMMARY: This will not be the rerun of the battle of 68/69 years
ago. Neither will it be a rerun of 2005. The intention is to give a campaign
that reasonably accurately portrays a serious what if? However in the end the
campaign is a vehicle to provide 6 days of good wargaming at divisional level
and upwards. Will there be massive armour battles or only infantry slogs. Can't
tell you, it depends where the command teams put the troops. However in the
Ardennes more than anywhere the terrain really does dictate the battlefields. If
you learn anything from the history of 40 and 44, it is to do your terrain
analysis and ensure the appropriate things go in the appropriate places! Will
there be surprises? I hope so, you would not expect anything less from Mike and
myself, however for those who were here in 2004/5 I promise you will not be
crossing the Rhine. Can I prepare? By all means read as much as you can about
the battle. Troop strengths, morale, logistics availability and starting
locations are all likely to be reflected in this game. However the plans that
are instigated, the results and the timeframe for individual actions are likely
to be different, perhaps very different. So don't expect to follow the book(s)
chapter by chapter. As ever I am always open for questions.
Tony
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Step 3 is my favourite, ask anyone at the shed. And yes it's information not covered by the shed official secrets act. Its gloop time!! There is not set formula for gloop in my experience. I use about 2 cups of PVA , 4 to 5 cups of white emulsion and an ice cream tub full of saw dust.When it looks like porridge but a lot whiter, you are onto a winner. Simple scoop it up with a trowel and dab it on. I decided to keep the application as thin as possible and also to flatten down any bits that stand too proud as these would only be broken off in transport at some point. There is an argument for using brown or green paint instead of white. This would effectively pre-colour the base of the board. The main reason that I have not done this is cost. Gloop does use a lot of emulsion and white is by far the cheapest colour. Where I only producing a few boards I might bite the bullet and get coloured emulsion - but I'm going to produce 250...you have have to find economies somewhere!
Step 4 really sees the board starting to look like something worth fighting on, even if it does seem a bit bright. The base coat choice is Dublin Bay 2. Its a bit of a pain to work into various nooks and crannies of the gloop, and definitely needs a once over after it has dried so that you have re-apply paint to the white bits. Its worth slightly thinning the paint that I use for the touching up process (oh please!!) as some of the unpainted sections are always in those hard to reach spots.
Step 5 is the addition of a dry brushed highlight coat of Dublin bay 3. I know it still looks a bit bright but the colours really do work! The boards pictured here have embedded hills and my plan is to add some brown shading to the hill tops and also to some parts of the board to break up the green, and add a dry brush yellow high-light. When that is done I will post the new pictures here. So far by applying the gloop fairly thinly, warping has been very limited and the boards are not overly heavy. When the are finished I will lay a sheet of bubble wrap over the top of each one and then package them ready for a couple of planned demo games and of course the up-coming Mega-game. For now though it's 24 boards under construction and just 226 to go. But it's not like I have to do them all next week. This is a two year plan. Perhaps I should post updates with Soviet style production figures. Cue back drop of workers gathering an unending harvest, massive factories churning out products at never before seen rates, and a voice telling us we are all in this together. 
