I promised Piotr at our scheduled halfway point of Turn 6 to provide some further thoughts on the campaign both as an umpire and my view on player tactics for the campaign and tabletop.
Turn 6 has two major battles to fight to conclude the turn and for the whistle to blow for the end of half time in the campaign. Let’s hope we can all make the distance to end at turn 12…….
Chinese Warlord Troops form up
Starting with my thoughts as an umpire. Questions are still coming in at a prestigious rate on the tabletop and campaign rules although very fortunately for me each player seems to have his “moment in the sun” to flood my inbox rather everyone at the same time.
As players armies grow and they explore different tactics the administration for the umpires is still very significant and it takes over 20 hours to process a turn. Fortunately, as each turn is now often spread over 2 months this is just about manageable with a day job and trying not to burn too many brownie points with Mrs W!. As I have mentioned in my previous blog having a second umpire to bounce ideas, sense check results and talk through proposed tweaks is invaluable. Thank you very much again Phil Sibbald!
Oils wells of Baku (Thanks to Pete Crawshaw's modelling skills!)
We had a new player wanting to join (Alex) and as a result we created a new faction The Czech Legion for him along with a new faction pack and unique goals. We also lost our first Player (Theo), one of the Bolshevik players. I am not entirely sure why Theo withdrew as he just stopped responding to my emails, text and phone calls. Brian has moved from controlling one of the neutral factions (The Bukharans) to take over the reins that Theo left, whilst the umpires have picked up the Bukharan again. So far it is working smoothly with the changes, and this is something I will bear in mind for future campaigns to ensure the campaign does not come apart if any of the players drop out and indeed have the ability to add in new players that want to join.
Czech Legion in Russia
We have continued to add in new challenges for the players to hopefully keep the campaign interesting and not repetitive. I have personally been keen to give the players a feel for the other issues generals face other than the enemy on the battlefield (or in our case the tabletop).
All players have had a taste of their political superiors trying to interfere with their plans, make unrealistic demands and on the flip side have provided no guidance and advice when they have been asked for some! A good historical example from WW2 are the demands Churchill made on Auchinleck in the western desert in WW2 to constantly attack when he did not believe he had the resources to do so.
The players are now starting to contend with sickness as Spanish Flu spreads through the Back of Beyond reducing army strengths and impacting no doubt on their carefully laid plans (Ed – do any of the players have plans… see my comments later). Another WW2 example is the sickness rates in the forgotten Army in Burma. In 1943 the 14th Army's illness rate was an enormous 1200/1000 men with more than 5000 malaria cases per day!
There will be a few more twists and turns to come which I am sure could throw the odd spanner into some players plans and hopefully get the players to appreciate that generals have a lot more to think about than fighting the enemy in battle.
A Bolshevik flank attack and highly favoured by some Bolshevik commanders
I am still very much enjoying the campaign as an umpire and in particular umpiring the battles which are very well attended by many club and campaign players. We have the largest battle of the campaign coming up soon which will be fought over a full weekend which I am looking forward to umpiring and I am sure will test the players and my and Phil’s umpiring skills to the limit.
Troops in a reverse slope position - wrong war?
Turning to campaign and tabletop tactics. As an umpire I have the advantage of the “all-seeing eye of Sauron” and the huge benefits of hindsight, so my comments are far from a criticism of any players tactics and performance just the observation of an “armchair general”!
My Bolshevik C&C has finally acquired a staff car!
Starting with the campaign firstly although each player has distinct goals, and I am not sure if many players have a made a plan or plans to achieve them. A number appear to be side tracked from these to try knock out other players or their armies. The way the campaign is set up (a significant proportion of their income is from their sponsors) is quite difficult to knock a player out.
It appears some players despite having set goals that should ensure there is some conflict between them have made non-aggression pacts that certainly favoured some players considerably more to the detriment of others. As umpires we have tried hard to encourage these players to focus back on their campaign goals with mixed success.
I am surprised more players are not using the services provided by Neil Harper and his Back of Beyond Security Solutions BOBSS. He has a very strong intelligence network that could I am sure make players much more informed of enemy forces movements and much more. More players are starting to use his services, but I am surprised how few are. Knowing your enemy and where he is surely a key component in any campaign. I also appreciate that the espionage info is a turn behind and things can change rapidly with reinforcements and movements in the new turn but have been surprised by the number of attacks made on placer that the player has not checked out first.
I would have thought that more players would be using blocking forces more. Placing forces in front of their cities / population centres to absorb an attack to allow and protect their population centres allowing players to react the following turn. It could also prevent separate forces linking up by stopping one part in one direction. Placing 1 brigade against 15 will not be sufficient as a blocking force as a warning! Those players that have been caught out by these moves are now planning cross county routes to avoid any potential blocking force.
Diplomacy and alliances should be key to success in the campaign. In the rules we have requested that we are copied into these diplomatic moves, but we have seen very little. I suspect (and hope) there is a lot more happening between players that we do not see. I suspect that as umpires we are not fully trusted which is both wise and understandable!!!
The campaign Journal, although very time consuming, appears to have really helped the campaign and I believe the players look forward to receiving it each turn. However, I would recommend that if you do have a journal / newsletter that you get as many people as possible to contribute as different reading styles and articles make it a much better read. I personally look forward to the various eye witness battle reports that are sent in that in many cases tell a different story.
Turning to the Tabletop rules as we are now on version 15 with changes being made after each turn to iron out issues that have come up such as the use of Military advisors or reduce the impact of potentially battle winning weapons whether that is artillery plans, snipers, and tanks etc. The players have had to adapt to the changing rules to work out what are the best tabletop tactics which is never easy.
Heroes of the Cause - Heroines of Russia
However, a few observations.
Cavalry in BOB are mounted infantry at best. There have been a lot of players who think they are Napoleonic Cuirassiers and have been sorely disappointed when they are destroyed by the hail of bullets from bolt action rifles or machine guns. They should be used to get troops to a key terrain feature quickly and dismount to fire. They are excellent for scouting and pursuing but they are not a troop type that will sweep away infantry in the open. Hand to hand combat is a very risky business in the rules and you need the luck of the dice gods to win!
Massed cavalry attack - will it be doomed to failure?
Artillery are the long range killers in the game but are themselves vulnerable to the enemy’s artillery and tanks. If unsupported they can be destroyed by enemy planes. C3 artillery suffers from having to fire at the closest target which is overcome from attaching commanders which in itself has its pitfalls too. Staff officers come into their own here! They are also very difficult to acquire and are expensive.
Players favourite - a bloody big gun!
In my view the “king of the battlefield” are the HMGs which once set up are devastating to enemy troops. They are vulnerable to the enemy’s artillery as they are out ranged but can shred an artillery piece if in range. Watch out for those mobile HMGs in Model T Fords, although extremely lightly defended themselves, they can move quickly into range to shred an artillery piece.
Tanks were also viewed as wonder weapons, but many players can attest that a well-placed artillery round usually means a burning wreak. I believe they are best placed supporting an infantry attack and are very useful in knocking out the enemy’s HMGs.
A selection of tanks - spot the tank from the Indiana Jones movie
The morale system is designed that troops that are close to friendly units, commanders and Heroes of the Cause are quite resilient when taking casualties even conscripts although isolated troops are certainly not. A single brigade attack unless undertaken by the best quality troops can be broken quite easily when casualties mount.
A massed attack by White Russians
To attach or not attach that is the question or is it to be or not be! Attaching support weapons for troops in the open do allow a degree of protection for them as they cannot be individually targeted. However, a unit taking a lot of casualties may find a disproportionate number of losses on their support weapons compared to a single casualty. Also bear in mind when dug in crew served weapons are harder to hit than an infantry unit as they get -1 from deployed crew served weapon and -1 for cover.
With the Ammo rules changing (being mainly forgot in the initial versions) the chances of getting low on ammo has increased. Juan has told me it is also statistically more likely too, but I got lost in his calculations)! Having ammo resupply troops / vehicles will be a must especially for artillery and HMGs.
So far, most players have leaned towards getting as many C2 troops as possible and not many players have used large numbers of Conscripts and double orders yet to make mass waved attacks. Obviously, you need lots of brigades to do this to substantially increase your order pool and chances of loading up your HQ orders. However winning initiative will also be a key component here too as firing first is crucial!
Fighter Aircraft were once considered a wonder weapon with the ability to destroy artillery but since players have realised unsupported guns are vulnerable and with the increased effectiveness of AA weapons, they are rather more muted – perhaps too muted for their costs. However, they do also significantly benefit armies when scouting too. Although they are best used against masses of mounted cavalry who have a poor AA capability if any. Fighter bombers are quite new but are quite untested to a degree. Pure bombers have yet to appear.
A brave Bolshevik pilot taking on massed ranks of British & Indian troops.
I hope this has been interesting to the player who are in the campaign and indeed those that are not involved.
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