1001 Questions

[RightDeve]

Hi all! I'm a perfect newbie to this HPS' Ops Games, and currently have myriad of questions to be put on the forum. I see that the docs supplied aren't satisfactory to explain things to such a newbie like me. So;

1. Is there any effect for an overlapping ZoC by two friendly units? Is there any ZoC strength level like WaW Series game by AH back in 90s?

2. About marching. Will be any fatigue effect on troops committing a very long march in travel mode?

3. What is the effect in game terms for Digging in (the benefit)? I've searched this thing in the whole document and found only the setback effect for dig-in unit, i.e fire at half value)

4. About supply. Is there any effect for a unit exposed to Low-supply state for too long? The manual says that units without supply will only fire and defend at half value and things like that. What happen to my unit which is not supplied for a very long time?

5. Explicit supply. The manual says that explicit supply will override the Virtual Supply truck OR , will this be happening if THERE IS NO supply unit on the scenario?

6. The Combined Arms rule. Will tanks/armored units be subject to Combined arms penalty providing they're not assaulting into urban area (woods, say). I believe tanks are vulnerable in densely wooded area.

7. Is it possible for foot-infantry to become passenger in an armored formation?

8. What is actually "Congestion"? In real-life what kind of obstacles are these congestion?

9. What about troops without food supply/spare parts being depicted in the game ? (a rather 'tard question i think ;) )

10. Back in WaW series game by AH (again), there's a special rule for full ferry hex when it is winter months (the water is not wholly iced) in which the ferry movement is not allowed due to the fact that moving ice sheets are exremely dangerous for river crossing units. Is this simulated in the game?

11. What does it mean for mech-infantry units to be "on-foot". Where are their mech toys then? Say if crossing a river using ferry hex, does it mean they're abandoning their toys on the previous bank?

12. What about airlift-supply in Stalingrad fortress in the game?

13. I don't understand any explanation on the doc about a unit entering a "vacated" fort loses its fire/defense value whatsoever. Shouldn't it be that any "vacated" fort loses its "vacated" status when there's a unit settling on it, thus it won't lose any of its fire value?

14. Will the capture of Gumrak airfield in Stalingrad affect any air support/supply for units inside the kessel?

15. Does unit exposed to very heavy firefight have more chance of being low-on ammo? If not why?

16. Why is it the game includes a movement called Railway movement? I think railway transport shouldn't be freely accessible at any time for units on the front line?

17. What will exactly each level of fatigue cause on units?

18. What is "broken" terrain? I think the manual says nothing on this particular terrain. Is it a very rough artillery-blasted terrain?

19. Why is a unit that is "isolated" becomes automatically low-ammo/fuel? Shouldn't it be that they still have ammo/fuel in hands?

20. Is it possible for artillery units to lose their fire value when firing into swamp/soft terrain hexes due to the fact that the shells' blast are absorbed?

21. Is there any command rating/level for each HQ simulated in the game? It is sure to be different when commanded by a capable commander than not.

22. Is there any MP penalty when traversing from lower to higher hexes?

23. Can I master this game?



I'm so sorry for asking so many a question, and if some of them sounds 'aggressive', i don't mean to offend anything. I really love this new experience of Operational Level warfare offered by HPS. I was only a tactical commander previously (esp. WinSPMBT and WinSPWW2).

Arigatou ! :bow:
Cheers, RightDeve

[FLG]

Hi all! I'm a perfect newbie to this HPS' Ops Games, and currently have myriad of questions to be put on the forum. I see that the docs supplied aren't satisfactory to explain things to such a newbie like me. So;

I think the documents explain quiet well, you maybe just need some time playing around with things to get the hang of some of the concepts everything


1. Is there any effect for an overlapping ZoC by two friendly units? Is there any ZoC strength level like WaW Series game by AH back in 90s?

There are 3 ZOC models, best to check the manuals for the types and what they all do, but there are definitely soft ZOC's which can be traversed with movement penalties

2. About marching. Will be any fatigue effect on troops committing a very long march in travel mode?
You don't recover fatigue during the day and you gain fatigue at night


3. What is the effect in game terms for Digging in (the benefit)? I've searched this thing in the whole document and found only the setback effect for dig-in unit, i.e fire at half value)
They get a defensive bonus

4. About supply. Is there any effect for a unit exposed to Low-supply state for too long? The manual says that units without supply will only fire and defend at half value and things like that. What happen to my unit which is not supplied for a very long time?
No

5. Explicit supply. The manual says that explicit supply will override the Virtual Supply truck OR , will this be happening if THERE IS NO supply unit on the scenario?
No,the scenario is not designed for explicit supply and you should use VST. The scenarios with explicit supply usually have an x in their name

6. The Combined Arms rule. Will tanks/armored units be subject to Combined arms penalty providing they're not assaulting into urban area (woods, say). I believe tanks are vulnerable in densely wooded area.


7. Is it possible for foot-infantry to become passenger in an armoured formation?
No

8. What is actually "Congestion"? In real-life what kind of obstacles are these congestion?
Traffic jams

9. What about troops without food supply/spare parts being depicted in the game ? (a rather 'tard question i think ;) )
Not sure what you mean

10. Back in WaW series game by AH (again), there's a special rule for full ferry hex when it is winter months (the water is not wholly iced) in which the ferry movement is not allowed due to the fact that moving ice sheets are exremely dangerous for river crossing units. Is this simulated in the game?
I don't think so, the game scales here are shorter generally so melting and freezing of large rivers is generally outside the context of a scenario.

11. What does it mean for mech-infantry units to be "on-foot". Where are their mech toys then? Say if crossing a river using ferry hex, does it mean they're abandoning their toys on the previous bank?
They abandon there APC's

12. What about airlift-supply in Stalingrad fortress in the game?
Airlift is not explicitly in the game. It is represented by a supply point at the airport.

13. I don't understand any explanation on the doc about a unit entering a "vacated" fort loses its fire/defense value whatsoever. Shouldn't it be that any "vacated" fort loses its "vacated" status when there's a unit settling on it, thus it won't lose any of its fire value?
Just try playing the game and see what happens to the defensive bonus of the entrenchment

14. Will the capture of Gumrak airfield in Stalingrad affect any air support/supply for units inside the kessel?
If you sit on the enemy supply point it will be inoperative.

15. Does unit exposed to very heavy firefight have more chance of being low-on ammo? If not why?
Yes it does

16. Why is it the game includes a movement called Railway movement? I think railway transport shouldn't be freely accessible at any time for units on the front line?
It's an abstraction. Don't forget the hexes are 1 km in length. If you don't like it you don't have to do it.

17. What will exactly each level of fatigue cause on units?
It causes a change ion the moral level of your troops, its all in the manual

18. What is "broken" terrain? I think the manual says nothing on this particular terrain. Is it a very rough artillery-blasted terrain?
It can vary as to what the designer intends but can be similar to extremely rocky with no roads or trails

19. Why is a unit that is "isolated" becomes automatically low-ammo/fuel? Shouldn't it be that they still have ammo/fuel in hands?
Them's the rules, this is a point for wider philosophical discussion.

20. Is it possible for artillery units to lose their fire value when firing into swamp/soft terrain hexes due to the fact that the shells' blast are absorbed?
No, not included in the game

21. Is there any command rating/level for each HQ simulated in the game? It is sure to be different when commanded by a capable commander than not.
It is done in terms of command radius. The percentage for re-supply etc is related to the relative distance from the command. So a larger radius gives better command control

22. Is there any MP penalty when traversing from lower to higher hexes?
Yes there is, its in the manual. It is best to avoid rises in terrain if your are in a hurry

23. Can I master this game?
Certainly, you can be competent in a month or so. To truly master it takes years. I think we are all still learning, even those of us who have played for many years. Play lots of different people, you learn something from every one of them.

The important thing to remember is to just have fun

[Mr Grumpy]

*Marc beat me to the post button* :)

Hello Zain,
Welcome to the OpS ladder at the Blitz, we will do all we can to help you get going with the PzC series, i will try to answer your 1001 questions but some of them are really aimed at the titles designer(s) rather than the rules, so for those questions i will just put "design question" and maybe Glenn will answer those. ;)

One thing you need to remember is there are a lot of abstract features in PzC, some of which you have picked up on.

1. No

2. Units will pick up fatigue when they move regardless of whether they are in travel mode or deployed, if the "night fatigue" optional rule is selected they will accumulate more fatigue when moving on night turns.

3. The benefit to digging in is the fact any units in a IP or trench receive a negative modifier benefit on enemy fire into a IP or trench hex they occupy, this is normally -20 for IP and -40 for a trench but the value varies from title to title, the value is shown in the display area to the side of the map or in the PDT file displayed by pressing F4.

4. There is no effect long term on units that are out of supply.

5. To be able to use the explicit supply OR, the scenario needs to have a "s" in the filename i.e 0619_01 s: The Tobruk Stakes, otherwise selecting explicit supply has no effect.

6. The rules states "non clear" hex's, so that includes woods, forest or urban.

7. No

8. This can be used to represent various things, but for example the crowds welcoming the XXX Corps advancing to Arnhem slowed them down considerably and the congestion feature is used to represent this.

9. It is not depicted other than the possibility of a unit going "low supply".

10. No

11. An abstract feature, the units regain their vehicles when they stack with their HQ, where they have been stored is not represented.

12. The airlift is represented by supply sources at the airfields, lose control of the airfields and the supply stops arriving.

13. Any fortified hex (pillbox, bunker, trench, IP) loses half its protection when it is vacated by a friendly unit, in the case of trench's and IP's they can be brought back to full strength by more successful digging in, but pillbox's and bunkers never regain there former strength.
One again if you click on a hex and the fortification name is shown in UPPERCASE it is at full strength, if it is shown in lowercase it has been vacated (i.e TRENCH -40 or trench -20).

14. The loss of Gumrak will mean the Axis player cannot draw supply from it any more unless he recaptures it.

15. No. Designer question.

16. Designer question.

17. That would require a long answer, the rules section on all the effects of fatigue are very clear.

18. Broken is just another type of terrain like rough or vineyard, with its own MP restrictions and defensive values.

19. Designer question.

20. Other than the defensive value of marsh/swamp, no.

21. This is covered by the quality of the HQ unit.

22. Yes, shown in the PDT file (press F4).

23. Yes of course you can, but it will take time and that can be a lot of fun.

[Mr Grumpy]

Good to see that Marc and I agree on 99.9% of the answers! :smoke:

I believe in question 5) the answer is s not x .

Question 15) The act of firing makes any unit eligible to go to "low ammo" status and obviously firing over many moves increases this possibility, but there is no "intensity" of fire depicted, you either fire or you don't.

[FLG]

Good to see that Marc and I agree on 99.9% of the answers! :smoke:

I believe in question 5) the answer is s not x .

Question 15) The act of firing makes any unit eligible to go to "low ammo" status and obviously firing over many moves increases this possibility, but there is no "intensity" of fire depicted, you either fire or you don't.

Foul you are right, s instead of x. At my age I really shouldn't rely on memory.

For the heavy fire fight, I was implying by firing more often over several turns you have a greater chance of becoming low on ammo.

[Mr Grumpy]

Good to see that Marc and I agree on 99.9% of the answers! :smoke:

I believe in question 5) the answer is s not x .

Question 15) The act of firing makes any unit eligible to go to "low ammo" status and obviously firing over many moves increases this possibility, but there is no "intensity" of fire depicted, you either fire or you don't.

Foul you are right, s instead of x. At my age I really shouldn't rely on memory.

For the heavy fire fight, I was implying by firing more often over several turns you have a greater chance of becoming low on ammo.

Yup you are correct, i suppose that could be described as a "intense" period of fire in an abstract way. :)

[Ricky B]

And one further point on supply in relation to the questions, especially 19. Units do NOT automatically go low ammo/fuel when isolated, UNLESS the unit fires (low ammo) or has moved since the prior fuel check (low fuel). And it will not go low fuel until the next fuel check segment, which is midnight or the first turn after midnight if no midnight turn. But if a unit fires, or fired in the turn prior to being isolated, it will go low ammo next turn.

Also, a unit, with the exception of artillery, NEVER runs out of ammo or fuel. Units can always fire, but at half strength, and move, showing that some ammo and fuel is present, but in limited quantities resulting in either fewer weapons having ammo to fire, or rationing what the troops can fire off.

Rick

[Dog Soldier]

One of the problems with being isolated is that defensive fire counts the same as direct fire in your turn (offensive fire) for the purpose of going low ammo. One would think that defensive fire should be excluded from the low ammo calculation as the defenders would try to control their defensive fire to conserve ammunition for repelling an assault.

In the current game engine it is far too easy for a "worthless" unit (meaning on with a low assault value or one which can not shoot at the isolated unit(s) in direct fire; ie. having an HA range of zero against an isolated bunker) to attract defensive fire of isolated units and cause them to lose another morale step for low ammo in the next turn.

Isolation means your unit(s) are gone next turn, so avoid it at all costs unless the sacrifice is required.

Dog Soldier

[SuperIke]

RightDeve,

Very good questions. I have been playing HPS PzC games for a couple of months now, and I did not knew for sure the answers to all your questions. Glad to read educated answers of the nice fellows here :)

One tip regarding how to use both manuals. The one called the "User Manual" is the most important one since it covers all the rules, but don't neglect the other one, the "Main Program" manual which covers all functions of the interface.

If you haven't read them yet from one cover to another, I'll say you have to bite the bullet and do it. Sit down with a coffee and go through them with a highlighter (that's if you can print them).

When playing, keep those manuals open and use the search function to find anything related to a subject (you can use the manuals in help format to search but I still prefer to make searches in the Word files). For example, to be sure of looking up everything related to morale, do a search with "morale".

If it can be of any help to you, I have attached a one-pager I did for myself with the most important rules for which I had problems remembering without everytime flipping all over the manual looking for them. It covers stuff such as how units become low on ammo, on fuel, disrupted, broken, etc. and how they can recover from all that.

[Al]

Czar - that's a useful bit of information to have handy when playing. made a copy for myself.