Modern Campaigns: noob query re. turn delta

[neonlicht]

Re. the Modern Campaigns series (Fulda Gap, Danube etc.): is there any major reason why day turns last 3 hours and night turns 6 hours? Not a big deal---but was just curious if there was some special importance to these values? For example, why not 1-hour turns for both day and night? The game scale is 1-mile per hex and units not in travel move usually move 1 hex per turn (i.e. 1 mile in 6 hours at night).

[Stas_sche]

Re. the Modern Campaigns series (Fulda Gap, Danube etc.): is there any major reason why day turns last 3 hours and night turns 6 hours? Not a big deal---but was just curious if there was some special importance to these values? For example, why not 1-hour turns for both day and night? The game scale is 1-mile per hex and units not in travel move usually move 1 hex per turn (i.e. 1 mile in 6 hours at night).

The turn difference between night and day are very simple:
1. Human beings require to sleep sometimes; Usually at night. So the sleep time is incorporated. 
2. It is harder to move/drive at night (using headlight is forbidden during the war). So it is simulated by longer turn with the same number of the action points.

Why not 1 hour? Playability and rules. For example, if the turn is 1 hour and a unit can move only one hex per turn, the disrupted unit will become immobile (as it uses 3 times more action points to move due to Distraction).

[neonlicht]

Re. the Modern Campaigns series (Fulda Gap, Danube etc.): is there any major reason why day turns last 3 hours and night turns 6 hours? Not a big deal---but was just curious if there was some special importance to these values? For example, why not 1-hour turns for both day and night? The game scale is 1-mile per hex and units not in travel move usually move 1 hex per turn (i.e. 1 mile in 6 hours at night).

The turn difference between night and day are very simple:
1. Human beings require to sleep sometimes; Usually at night. So the sleep time is incorporated. 
2. It is harder to move/drive at night (using headlight is forbidden during the war). So it is simulated by longer turn with the same number of the action points.

Why not 1 hour? Playability and rules. For example, if the turn is 1 hour and a unit can move only one hex per turn, the disrupted unit will become immobile (as it uses 3 times more action points to move due to Distraction).

Many thanks for this -- very good answers. Appreciated! :-)

[phoenix]

Also, the 3 hour day turns are peculiar to the MC series. In the Panzer Campaign series the day turns last 2 hours. I think the idea was to give a feeling of greater pace, to reflect the faster equipment/mobility/mechanization and so on. All other things being equal, I guess things will look to be moving faster if each turn is longer, though I think myself that 2 hours is easily enough to get the balance right in an I-go-you-go game and the extra modern speed would presumably have been manifest anyway due to increased movement allowances. If anything - with detection ability somewhat increased on the modern battlefield - it might have been better to go down to 1 hour per turn instead of up to 3, because in these turn-based games you're always fighting the somewhat ludicrous results of only allowing spotting during the turn to show up at the start of your next turn (or during the opponent's turn, in fact). But 1 hour per turn for very large battles would have taken too long for gaming enjoyment purposes, perhaps. It's all a trade-off. The largest battle I know of in the PC series is the Normandy campaign, at over 600 moves. At 1 hour a day that would have been well over a thousand moves! As it is, it's hard to find time to complete the larger campaigns, I think. If you want to try the Bolt out of the Blue campaign in Danube Front, for example, it would take you over half a year or so if you could manage to fit in a move a day...

[NikolaiB]

Oh, I never thought that 3 hour turns give the feeling of greater pace, I like it!

[CountryBoy]

The largest battle I know of in the PC series is the Normandy campaign, at over 600 moves. At 1 hour a day that would have been well over a thousand moves! As it is, it's hard to find time to complete the larger campaigns, I think. If you want to try the Bolt out of the Blue campaign in Danube Front, for example, it would take you over half a year or so if you could manage to fit in a move a day...

The campaign game in Normandy '44 is 750 turns long I believe. I'm playing it PBEM with a fellow Blitzer and we are at turn 96.

The longest game I can find in the Tiller games is from the American Civil War series, Campaign Overland. The main game is 1,300 turns long! After I finish a couple of other games I have going on I am going to see if anybody wants to tackle that via PBEM with me :-)

[phoenix]

1,300. It will take you a few years? How long did it take you so far to get to 96?

I guess those guys that play WitPAE are used to games that take years. It must be around 1,700 turns to complete the war in the pacific.

[CountryBoy]

1,300. It will take you a few years? How long did it take you so far to get to 96?

I guess those guys that play WitPAE are used to games that take years. It must be around 1,700 turns to complete the war in the pacific.

1,300 would definitely take a couple of years. With Normandy '44, we started it in June last year, so it has taken 7 months to get through 96 turns. We usually manage 3 4 so turns per week, though we were doing a lot more during the COVID lockdowns last year. Based on that rate, turn 750 should around in about 3 and a half years!

I have read a WitPAE AAR where the game took over 5 years I think and the Japanese side went through three different players over that time.