Re: Something I stumbled upon
 

[quote=wulfir;854883]Interesting rule for pbem. Let the AI ​​do the shopping and then you have to make do with what it gives you.

Re: Something I stumbled upon
 

I have played battles against the AI where ( for example ) I let the AI handle the infantry formations and I keep the armour under my control with the assumption my "orders" are to use them as infantry support and had interesting battles. There are many ways to play the game

Re: Something I stumbled upon
 

Yep...

You can do the same in any generated battle if you like. Not everyone likes it though, but it's an alternative...

Another way to spice things up if facing the AI is to have a buddy select and deploy the AI forces for your battle/campaign.

Re: Something I stumbled upon
 

Excellent alternatives!!

Re: Something I stumbled upon
 

Back in the early 90's the world 1/300 modern championships in Derby changed from the usual "meeting engagement, pick your own XXX points army from the army lists book" to a scenario-based model where you were say trying to pull your HQ trucks and SAMs off from an invading force, always NATO and Soviet (so your old Kuwaiti (say) army was now relegated to the shelf). I gave up competing in that period then as it was not really fun since I liked to play the old way.

So I dropped moderns and then I went for the WRG Ancients, 7th edition rules then DBM in 15mm. Didnt do as well as Ancients were a huge competition taking the main central auditorium at the snooker centre whereas Modern 1/300 took up a side room. But no dealing with weird scenarios where your VP came from safely exiting fuel trucks and HQ trailers off the side of the map before Ivan stomped them flat, and no requirement to provide both a Warpact and a NATO army as well either. And no need to buy and paint up those weird "B" vehicles which were no use other than at Derby, (maybe the organisers were in cahoots with the model sellers:D!)

I recollect that the last year that I played Moderns, you had to provide a defensive and a meeter list (same army) - the start of thier "scenario based" fights. Got blitzed as UK defending vs Tanzanians, who had a cloud of very fast and very cheap APCS and a few scorpions who were on me almost instantly, charged through the pre-laid defensive mines and got stuck in, my Milans and very few scorpions took a toll but then they were in bayonetting everyone... I was relying on my expensive minelet equipped FH-70s to make the main defensive belt but by the time those fell, the Tanzanian racing cars were well past the pregame plotted impact zones so the minelets dropped into the empty space behind the hordes!. Nightmare.

Way back in the early 70s I had played at the UK championships in 1/300 using WRG WW2 rules, and in those early days there ware no army lists. Someone for example turned up with just a few on-map FOO parties backed by an off-map host of artillery. A very cheap and easy to paint army;)!. He used the few jeep FOOs to take the objectives while the arty plastered the approaches with regimental level stonks. The very next year, they introduced an army list booklet!. That coincidentally nixed my Soviet army of all IS-2s with a few maxim HMG teams and a couple of 120mm mortars used for smoke, since the army list had a rule like "2 medium tank coys are required to be bought in order to buy a heavy tank coy" :doh:

The absolute easiest to paint and by far the cheapest competition army I ever came across was the opponent one of our guys who was playing some sort of "pixies and fairies" rules though (early edition warhammer??). Probably in the 1980s. His opponent's army was composed just one (1) invisilble dragon loaded up with magic spells which came to the total of points allowed. I think the fantasy section introduced army lists with a "core" force of troops on the map after that initial year!

Re: Something I stumbled upon
 

[quote=DRG;854869]https://nodicenoglory.com/2021/11/10...tive-part-one/



Finally there are three articles written by Patrick S. Baker

Part One SP https://nodicenoglory.com/2021/11/10...tive-part-one/
Part Two SP2 SP3 https://nodicenoglory.com/2021/11/22...tive-part-two/
Part Three SPWW2 & SPWaW ( there is also notice about SPWW2 and this community around game) https://nodicenoglory.com/2021/12/10...ve-part-three/

Re: Something I stumbled upon
 

There are errors in the final installment which, when I get time, I will contact him about

The first one I saw was this ( well .... the first one was "super-fans" Heath getting all the credit but I'll let that slide for now. Yeah, he got the code from SSI but he would never have got it without the success of the first Mod SP2WW2 we released with assistance from TGN in Dec 1998 )

In reference to SPWW2 released in 1999 he wrote.....

Is incorrect. The ORIGINAL Mod SP2WW2 that had changes to the code made with a hex editor DID require the CD but the 1999 release of SPWW2 did not

Re: Something I stumbled upon
 

I remember playing the USMC vs Japan in the original "Steel Panthers".

The 24 (48?) unit limit caused no end of problems because you didn't get free landing craft so I needed to buy my own.

I very distinctly remember one battle where the 3in dual-purpose AA guns I had (2 as I recall) delt with a Japanese tank attack quite handily by the sheer LUCK of being in the right place at the right time and having a good field of fire when they appeared.

Re: Something I stumbled upon
 

Yes, letting the AI pick your force, PBEM or vs the AI, can make an interesting and unpredictable game. Let it do your setup too and have a lot of fun scrambling around.