Advise Urgently Needed - QB Scenario Settings For 'Relief Of Bastogne Tournament'

[Vulture]

Guys

If any of you have time today, I'd appreciate some feedback on the map and settings I'm proposing for 'The Relief Of Bastogne' Round 1. (Which I'd like to start either today or tomorrow)
http://www.667.hab.dsl.pipex.com/Wargami...Rules.html

I want this first game to be short and brutal and the forces involved smallish.

At the moment I have the Rarity setting to None. I want the tournament to have a Battle Of The Bulge feel to it, BUT am concerned that the CMAK rarity settings don't reflect the availability of troops/hardware for that battle, plus I'm not sure I want to restrict players choices... I'd appreciate your thoughts on this topic (whether you are in the tournament or not).

So the questions are:

1. Should rarity be None, or Standard ?

2. Does 1,500 points seem about right for that map ?

3. Is 17 turns variable okay, or could I make it shorter (or have I got it completely wrong and it needs to be longer....?)

Thanks for your help :)

Cheers

Vulture

[RedDevil]

I would go with a rarity of none to allow the Germans ample opportunity to buy a few Panthers or JagDPanthers.. since the biggest MIA unit will be the King Tigers and some sorts of semi substitution should be considered.

1500 points = a veteran battalion of regular German INF (1496 points)
SS Mech Coys are 960 points. The Tigers and Panthers range from 255 to 317 points each.
A green American rifle battalion is 1748 points, a Green Mech platoon 360 points. The US armor ranges from 103 for M-10s to 170-180 points for 76mm Sherman (@ Green skill)

So it depends on what you're actually planning this 1st fight to be consisting of :)
If you wanted to make it "historical", a 25% handicap might give the Germans a few more lads to hog up the map there with and show the American lines a little light.

17 turns in a snow covered map.. I'd say you'd want to add some time. most battles take 3-5 turns to engage in normal weather depending on the players.
In the snow, everything moves real SLOW and men tire out real quickly. An advancing unit will be exhausted in 50 meters.
There is nothing quick about combat in the snow :)
Deep snow is a whole other monster as well.. another 20-30 turns for that kind of weather LOL
I'd add turns to it, but that's just my suggestion.

[Fredrocker]

Looking at the map at 800 by 800 and the setup zones... I would think you might want to expand the turn limit to 25 minimum... and depending on how many units you are looking for to be punched into those setup areas you also should consider making it 1250pts.... with the 25% handicap as Randy discribed for the Axis... Just some thoughts... looking at the map, etc...

Good luck with your tourney Vulture...

That is all...

[Soldier]

I presume your plan is to keep the weather historical. My guess is that would be either snow or heavy snow.

In case you're willing to compromise, my advise is to use light snow and frozen ground.

BTW.. please sign me up for your "Relief of Bastogne Tournament."

[Vulture]

Thanks for taking the time to have a look at the map and the settings guys. Your feedback is much apprecaited.

I'll make a final decision on the settings tonight.

Cheers

Vulture

[Fullhouse]

with the 25% handicap as Randy discribed for the Axis.

Randy actualy said a 25% handicap for the Allies.

If you wanted to make it "historical", a 25% handicap might give the Germans a few more lads to hog up the map there with and show the American lines a little light.

Its not clear but the 25% handicap giving the germans more "lads" and american lines being light indicates handicap for the allies.

Just being a nit as I agree in principle, but it looks like the tourney isnt mirrored so we may have to sacrifice historical accuracy for balance. It seems unfair to give all the axis players a 25% boost.

[Vulture]

Guys

Thanks again for the feedback. In the light of the feedback recieved on this MB and by PM (and my own testing) I made several adjustments to the map and the QB settings.

Map
1. The flag in the village centre was upgraded to 300pts.
2. The start zones were moved forward with a couple of small parts poward of the main lines to reflect OPs.

Settings.
1. The weather was changed from foggy to snow. Irritating, in the scenario editor it is possible to have snow on the ground, with fog, but not in a QB. In keeping with the Bulge theme, I felt it essential that there should be snow about.

2. The duration was set as 20 turns variable. I had originally wanted less, but firstly a QB won't allow that, also as Red Devil commented Snow slows troop movement down.


I had debated increasing the points from 1,500 to 2,000. But eventually decided on the 1,500.
In such a small battle every unit is important, and because players don't have that many, they need to take care of them all. That's the sort of feel I wanted for this game, so 1,500 it is.

Cheers

Vulture