Question about the Flanders Campaign

[bdtj1815]

I have just started this scenario as a PBEM game as the Allies and have found a lot of fixed units that are not released, including for example the whole of the 2nd Infantry Division and the 19th Infantry Brigade. Checking in the editor there are also some German unreleased units. In the smaller Ypres scenario these units are either released or are withdrawn.

Is this intentional or have I missed something? I am not looking forward to trying to hold Ypres with 20% of my best infantry fixed 20 kms behind my lines:(!

[Volcano Man]

Ouch, good catch! It looks like I dropped the BEF releases and XIII.AK (Wurtt) (-)'s release in that scenario somehow, I will fix it for the first update (which should be "soon"). Apologies on any frustration that might have caused (I you aren't too far into the scenario).

I don't want to come between a wargamer and a scenario he has his eyes set on playing, but if you could hold off on playing that particular one until the first update, then it will probably be best.

[bdtj1815]

No problem, spotted it on the first turn.

Very impressed with this game, the level of research is excellent particularly as it is a period with less accessible sources than some others.

A couple of quick questions/points.

I notice that all the scenarios have the same dawn/dusk/night times. I was wondering whether the summer situation, in August and September, might be better represented with a shorter night period. Maybe 10pm to 4am with two 3 hour night turns. I have read a little about the earlier campaigns and a number of authors mention the long hot days, and their effect on operations.

I could be accused of being a bit nationalistic but I wonder if the British Territorials are a bit underrated as D's? They were pretty well trained and motivated and had considerable inter-reaction with their Regular counterparts. Some, especially the yeomanry, had also seen service in the Boer War.

I have a couple of connections with this campaign which might be of interest. My father's cousin was an officer in the RA and I have attached a couple of pictures. They are OP panoramas of the Ypres salient. I imagine they were coloured in after the battle when "out of the line".

In the mid-1980's I was the Battery Captain, or second in command, of L "Nery" Battery RHA, which of course won its Battle Honour on the 1st September 1914 winning three VCs in the process. I have attached a photo of a print of the picture the Battery commissioned in 1984 to mark the 70th anniversary of the battle. Incidentally the battery actually owned the three original medals won on that day!

[Volcano Man]

As far as the shorter nights, I had thought about it at the time but I felt that it was best to just keep a standard six hour night turn in the series. I just felt that shorter night turns allows too much mobility, so the cut off of "night" in the game is certainly not literal, it is simply that the the night turn encompasses both a little bit of dusk and a lot of darkness (the same for other side of clock - morning). That is not to say that the winter battles won't have dawn and dusk turns, I just felt that 6 hour night turns are "just about right" for the period. I think you can make some PDT edits though if you want more turns in the day and try it out.

As for the territorials rated at D, yes, I thought about this as well when making the OOB. My rationale is that the Territorials were trained as you say, but they were certainly not to be rated as regular infantry of equal quality of the German army, because they were not. I felt that D was "about right", because if the British territorials are C, then the Germans regular infantry must be B, and then the whole quality arms race begins (as I call it). D quality is not really that bad though in this series, because there aren't tons of A and B quality units (they are up against C units most of the time), so it seems to be a good fit for me. Kitchner's New Army units would be of course rated lower than D. Those Kitchner New Army units of early 1915 would presumably be rated as E, because they were really that bad, so D quality does carry a bit of, well, quality of its own.

Thanks for sharing the pictures! :)

[Mike Bowen]

Sort of on topic the Charlio sp scenario Larus defiant as the German you get the message about 1 Kav Korp withdrawal but there are no 1 Kav Korps units that I could see.

That scenario is excellent by the way A real hard slog and then in the last 3 turns I finally broke a lot of French units and made progress.

Mike

[Volcano Man]

Hello Mike,

Yeah, I removed that confusing message in the next version and fixed up the 18e CA thanks to some more info (and me not over thinking it), so it should be even better soon. ;)

[Fog of War]

"I could be accused of being a bit nationalistic but I wonder if the British Territorials are a bit underrated as D's? They were pretty well trained and motivated and had considerable inter-reaction with their Regular counterparts. Some, especially the yeomanry, had also seen service in the Boer War."

I would tend to agree with this, but understand VM`s rationale for the ratings. Just for infomation, I`ve been tinkering ( with Ed`s advice on his Forums ) with the OOB and Sce. Editors in PzC.

So I wonder in that F`14 scenario if you took 1/2 of those Territorials and upped them to C, then took 1/2 of those and upped those to B, then take 1/2 of those, or 2, whichever is less and rated them as A.

Then using the same overall # of units, do the same process for the German Reserve/non regulars units facing them.

Would that break the scenario ?
Make little difference ?
Have a large effect depending on how the 2 commanders used the higher quality units ?