Winter Operations - Kharkov '43: Tiller Operational Campaigns Tournament No 2

[HMCS Rosthern]

Round 1 starts Saturday, October 6, and ends Saturday, November 23, 2024.

Round 1 scenario: #0202_04 Kupyansk - The Trials & Tribulations of 298th Infantry Division

Round 1 Pairings:

Witblitz - Ricky B
ComradeP - Arkan
Dog Soldier - Partizanka
Liebchen - The_General
akilpio - Mersh
Panther - Fhil
lorddeadwood - Deturk
erick_repie - Iceman


When complete please post in this chat the handles of the pairings and First Side score.

There are only four types of officers.
First, there are the lazy, stupid ones. Leave them alone, they do no harm.
Second, there are the hard-working intelligent ones. They make excellent staff officers, ensuring that every detail is properly considered.
Third, there are the hard-working, stupid ones. These people are a menace, and must be fired at once. They create irrelevant work for everybody.
Finally, there are the intelligent lazy ones. They are suited for the highest office.”
― Erich von Manstein

You want to be the second one for this tournament. - Patric 

[Arkan]

Do we have to play the scenario with default rules?

[ComradeP]

That's a good question. In the other tournament, both players could agree to optional rules as the outcome only depends on their actions. In this tournament, players are essentially competing against players other than their opponent for the round.

I prefer to play with Delayed Disruption Reporting if my opponents agree, but if default rules are mandatory, I'll use those.

[Arkan]

That's a good question. In the other tournament, both players could agree to optional rules as the outcome only depends on their actions. In this tournament, players are essentially competing against players other than their opponent for the round.

I prefer to play with Delayed Disruption Reporting if my opponents agree, but if default rules are mandatory, I'll use those.

Hi, i also prefer DDR

[Fhil]

I also prefer DDR, I even get confused when playing without it 

[Deturk]

For the scenario we are playing these are the Recommended Rules: [Default]

Alternative Assault Resolution, Artillery Set Up, Recon Spotting, Virtual Supply Trucks, Low Visibility Air Effects, Quality Fatigue Modifier, Counterbattery Fire, Night Fatigue, Programmed Weather, Limited Air Recon.

I think we should go with that.

[HMCS Rosthern]

I've thought about a lot of things, but I did not think about the optional rules.

My ruling is: All scenarios are played with the recommended default optional rules plus Delayed Disruption Reporting.
1. DDR is more in line with the winter conditions
2. All of the entrants are experienced gamers, and I think they can handle it.
3. We need consistent rules across all pairings.
4. As I understand it, DDR normally does not impact scenario balance as it all comes out in the wash.

Unless there are strong objections we will go forward with DDR. 

Reminder
1. This is not a mirrored tournament.
2. If you are on team 1 you always play the Allies, and if you are on team 2 you always play the Axis.


erick_repie I don't have your email.

[erick_repie]

I've thought about a lot of things, but I did not think about the optional rules.

My ruling is: All scenarios are played with the recommended default optional rules plus Delayed Disruption Reporting.
1. DDR is more in line with the winter conditions
2. All of the entrants are experienced gamers, and I think they can handle it.
3. We need consistent rules across all pairings.
4. As I understand it, DDR normally does not impact scenario balance as it all comes out in the wash.

Unless there are strong objections we will go forward with DDR. 

Reminder
1. This is not a mirrored tournament.
2. If you are on team 1 you always play the Allies, and if you are on team 2 you always play the Axis.


erick_repie I don't have your email.

hi there,

mine is [email protected]
and what is mine opponent (iceman) email?

Tks

[HMCS Rosthern]

All entrants should have received an email with the list of entrants and their email. (my policy is not to post emails on theBlitz.club forum). 

Since there are 6 rounds and 8 entrants per side, there are two entrants that you will not play against. I am using various criteria to select the pairings per round per scenario. I won't list all the round pairing selection criteria, other than to say Round 1 sees pairings based on ELO, in descending order.  The pairings will be announced at the beginning of the round. In theory I could post all the round pairings right now, but I want to avoid some entrants playing rounds in advance of the schedule. 

Hint: The formulae to award tournament points has more granularity around the draw. This tournament will require entrants to gather as many objective points and opponent loss points as they can, even when a draw is likely. 

Don't forget to record your game in the ladder. 

I don't think there are any other issues. Whew! It's been a long road to get here. Let the games begin! Good luck and enjoy!

[Partizanka]

If I read an earlier post correctly, I think we are  going to play with default plus Delayed disruption reporting for options. If so, for the benefit of players who have not played with this rule, I think we should describe its affect on the game. We often discuss rules in relation to realism but not as frequently as to who will benefit. Disruption is one of the rules that seemingly is more related to realism, but has a great deal to do with gameplay since when it occurs, first,  the disrupted unit loses a large portion of its defense capability against assault and second, the dramatic gain in fatigue for the losing units in the assault combined usually with an almost automatic disruption for the losing units. Disruption is an abstraction and though we argue for its justification, in TOC it is really a tool that benefits the attacker in pushing units out of defensive position and thus aids us in moving forward toward objectives and benefits the defender by disallowing disrupted units the opportunity to assault, so restricting them from moving forward. DDR would benefit the defender in some circumstances where the attacker would refrain from attempting an assault not knowing the status of the defending unit, but players with experience will be able to predict that status for a good percentage of the time once they are used to playing with DDR on. But another way DDR changes the game is by adding time for a unit to recover from disruption. This further aggravates the problem we are developing in the game from the use of modifiers when it comes to highly rated units as opposed to lowly rated units and is one where I feel m'ove closer to where the realism is lost when we have these supersoldiers, "A" or "B" rated units, matched against "D" and "E units in situations that not only stretch belief but are not much fun to play. 

This may be the case with the use of DDR here. I cannot remember the game clearly but a portion of our scenarios will be in the snow with limited movement except for ski troops and roads. There are a good number of "C" troops on the Russian side in some scenarios I am pretty sure but also a bulk of "D" rated troops whose progress off road will be one hex per turn, which would limit their assault capability to the turn in which they are adjacent to the enemy, probably following an artillery softening. The Germans will have "B" and "C" units and the benefit of defensive positions in most of the scenarios. I cannot remember the ratings of German leadership in the game but I imagine it is "C" or better for the most part. The designer would have designed these scenarios with that in mind and I question where an addition of DDR in this specific game would be of any benefit on the small scenario level except to the Germans, where they would gain a advantage from the delay in reporting to recover from the disruption. Personally, I don't see the need to give the Germans more advantage as these scenarios were pretty well drawn. But if we go with the change, I echo that only the reporting has changed, not the chance of disruption, so experienced players can gauge when a unit is disrupted to some degree. Still, inexperienced players will probably err either too cautionary or too aggressively which could affect outcomes dramatically either way.