Well now that people have expressed interest I can expand
Quote:
Originally Posted by Imp
What forces would represent them, Spain?
I had a similar idea using South Africa the premise being resources are running out & it supplies the majority of the rare stuff. Russia or China decide they want some of these before they are gone & convince an African country it would be a good idea say Angola. The likes of Libya or other North African country is a bit of a stretch due to the distance & think outguns SA quite badly.
So starts as Angola invading South Africa, USMC is dispatched to assist as they want the resources to & it all escalates. SA get USMC air support then must hold a port while Marines land & can now enter the war, Communists become more than advisors capture airfields & come in that way. Steadily heavier equipment becomes available & of course everybody else wants the resources to.
The idea was the forces get steadily better possibly the battles bigger as raids to start with & supplies targets. Ports airbases mines etc plus the normal stuff on the way.
Angola would probably need a bit more than advisors from the start to make it as far as a SA port mind no chance of surprise but from memory SA neigbours would have an even tougher time.
As DD said though finding time to flesh this out & do it is why it got no further, to big a project.
To make even the story line work effectivly you have to think how it relates to MBT as in the battle progresion, next target type of battle etc IMHO. The airfield attack for instance could be a long battle starting with just a group of Special forces & some planes, arty possibly for them to call in. Can you nulify the AAA & ID safe(ish) landing zones before they enter on turn 15 or so?
The Marine landing one time is a key factor breaking through the SA defenders & meeting them as they land would probably be a lot easier than letting them get dry feet & organised.
Just makes them a bit diffrent from a standard battle adding variety, feel free to adapt any of it.
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Well initially there are two opposing forces, the government and the rebels. (After the rescue, the Russians are chilling, so they're not the first ones to be involved.)
For Equatorial Guinea, I'd use something like this set up:
HQ (Green)
600 Gendarmes (Can't find equivalent in ORBAT, maybe I'll just make them mercs)
900 Paramilitary (Pro-Gov't Group, Green)
2,800 soldiers (Green Infantry)
1,000 MPRI "Instructors" (Green Mercenaries)
400 navy and 300 air force is what I'm still working on.
For the rebels I have:
HQ (Red, and all units are Red)
Snipers
Scouts
Insurgent Band
Insurgent Group
Rebel Company
Rebel Platoon
Militia Company
Militia Platoon
Machine Gun
Inf-AT section
Rebel Support Platoon (must accompany Rebel Platoon)
AGLs, SAMs, ATGLs
I'll work out the rest of the details later, this is just infantry.
As for nullification, you can blow up the area, assuming you have the means of doing so, and that will ensure that nothing lands there. Also, if you guess your opponent's moves, you can ambush him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Double_Deuce
Would you have an operational map where movement would take place between battles?
How were you planning to set up the sides? Would players get command of specific units? I think this point is a primary cause for player boredom as you end up with the same people playing each other over and over, Pbem after Pbem as their units operate in the same area and are continually make contact. BUT if you take away the players having the feel of operating a specific unit they feel ownership for that also lessens player interest.
Personally, I think with the all ideas floating around out there it might be good to get a group together to work on a single idea and incorporate all the best parts into something that would work long term.
I really like Skirmisher's "grid type map idea" for the operational concept and he seems to be keeping it small so that should help keep it flowing smoother over time.
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I'm a fan of letting players design their own ORBATs, because it makes the players stick it out. The operational map would be the entire country. The max map size is 200 x 160 hexes, and each hex is 100 meters, so max map size is 20 x 16 kilometers, or 320 kilometers. The size of Annonbon is 17.5 km squared, which fits easily. The size of Bioko is 2,017 km squared, but there are only a few, (7 or so) points of interest. The biggest, Malabo, is only 200 square kilometers. The rest are much smaller. Bata is roughly 150 square kilometers. Since the entire country of Equatorial Guinea is the operating region, I would say that makeing a map would be impossible. If two forces meet, I can make a map for the place where they met, that's no more than 200 kilometers, or contains more than 20,000 hexes.
The players make their own strategic and tactical moves. You wear two hats, as an advisor to your president, and as a military commander. You decide where to strike, where to initially base your units, and how to structure your 1,000 ORBAT. My involvement is kept to a minimum, as I'm curious what you guys would do.
The exceptions here are the Equatorial Guinea's Gov't. which has an army of 5,000 and hence an ORBAT of 14,000 and the air/sea units I gave it, (keep in mind you still need people to run them) and the rebels, which initially start out with 3,000 points. However for Equatorial Guinea, it will be hard to replace your ORBAT, whereas the rebels primarily depend on victories. So it's a classic scenario of rebels starting out small and government starting out big.
However that also means that the players are responsible not just units that fight to be included in the ORBAT, but also transport units, supply units and logistics. For those playing as non-African countries, you only get to use units that you can airlift, and the transport planes must be a part of your ORBAT.
So here's the current situation, only 24 hours in the war:
On the Gov't side:
14,000 Equatorial Guinean ORBAT, must conform to the standards I've set.
1,000 US Marine and 1,000 US Army ORBAT.
1,000 French Army ORBAT
1,000 Spanish Army ORBAT (optional, if I get more players later on.)
1,000 UK Army ORBAT (optional, if I get more players later on.)
On the Rebel side:
3,000 Rebel ORBAT, must conform to the standards I've set.
3,000 Chinese Army ORBAT
1,000 Russian Army ORBAT
1,000 Inglorious Bastards ORBAT (more info on this later)
1,000 Cameroon Army ORBAT (optional, if I get more players later on.)
1,000 Gabon Army ORBAT (optional, if I get more players later on.)
Here's how the game is going to work. The first turn, everyone will occupy bases on the mainland, and I'll go over the ORBATs. Then everyone sends me their troops movements. If any troops clash, we'll have a battle. After the battle, or even during the battles but at the end of the day, we'll have resupply and repair the units at the base. How do you get a base? You establish one. So when doing ORBATs, don't just go all military, think about where you'll establish bases.
1. Orders Phase
2. Battle Phase
3. Acquisition Phase
4. Resupply Phase
If the battle is long, like really long, it can go through several phases, with reenforcements. There might even be several players fighting at once.
Also remember the missions. While US is there to crush the rebellion, France is there to merely assist. While China's there to support the rebellion, Russia's there to gain popular influence, and establish a foothold. The objectives are different for each player.