In Development: Battles for Normandy Campaign

The other thing is: air support is way too overmodelled - the planes are hitting far more accurately than they would have in real life. So that isn't necessarily a bad thing. And if the Allied players have the possibility to plough half the map with shells before they even consider moving that takes away fun, too. So I guess we'll just have to live with some limitations...
 
I think the overmodelling might be debatable; the aircraft do seem to hit a lot sometimes in CM, but then again, it seems to me that they are usually hitting targets out in the open. I daresay that by about June 10th, 1944 you weren't going to catch many German vehicles moving around Normandy - in the open or not - any more than they absolutely had to. I guess it comes down to whether we have one aircraft hitting 50% of the time in CM or 50 aircraft hitting 1-2% of the time in real life. Given that the two Allied tactical air forces flew over 12,700 sorties between D-Day and the end of the Falaise Gap (~75 days, not counting any down days for weather, etc.), that's a lot of aircraft in a relatively small air space. Furthermore, by July 44 you had tanks talking directly to aircraft to identify targets and aircraft loitering over combat zones virtually all the time, so anytime I see an aircraft knock out someting in CMxx, I say to myself "fair enough".

Anyhow, I agree that we'll have to live with the limitations if Rico wants to do the campaign - just saying that the air and artillery really skewed things historically.
 
Okay, you should know better than I do although it's astounding how well CM aircraft are able to hit sometimes. I think movement restrictions are fair enough and regarding teh artillery... well, the Allied side could get a few more FOs to make up for the missing bigger calibers.
Besides: We don't get everything 100% accurate (and neither do I think we're aiming for it!) - because if we did, we'd have to incorporate supply problems for the German side as well up to and including ammo and gas. Do we take that into consideration as well?
 
Yes, supply problems will be worked in as well on the operational map scale in that each side has limitations as to how many attacks they may perform per round and these will use up SUPPLY POINTS every time... and needless to say, the German side will have quite a few less than the Allies.

I am basing a lot of this on the old Cobra boardgame... it had some nifty abstract rules.

Air power is available for the Allies to use in the CM battles themselves (depends on what system of buying kit we go with) -- I will keep the support unit (or force multiplier units) system from the North Africa Campaign, that allows CO's to assign units like Corps Arty, Tiger Abt's, British independent tank brigades, nebelwerfer units etc to the divisions.
 
You're certainly knowing what you're doing but don't OVERDO it - it's supposed to be fun and no general staff excercise in which everything's supposed to be as accurate as possible. :) I don't know the old 'Cobra' boardgame, so anything I say might be redundant anyway.
 
Earl of Grey said:
You're certainly knowing what you're doing but don't OVERDO it - it's supposed to be fun and no general staff excercise in which everything's supposed to be as accurate as possible. :) I don't know the old 'Cobra' boardgame, so anything I say might be redundant anyway.
Click to expand...

Don't worry -- will keep things a ssimple as possible :)
 
Earl, are you serious about seeing aircraft hit all the time?

Sure they seem to be pretty damn accurate with their MGs/Cannons but i can't remember the last time i saw an aircraft make a direct hit on a vehicle with rockets/bombs
 
Been thinking and definitely want to keep this baby as simple as possible -- even simpler than North Africa Campaign perhaps -- thinking of abstracting lots of aspects such as air superiority and a simplified extra arty provision for the Allies... and Allied naval arty should the Axis ever get to any of the coastline hexes.
Also simplify aspects such as tank support for Allied Infantry Divs -- basically it ended up pretty much always available, although not as integral as in Axis Pz and PzGr Divs -- but sure I can come up with something.

Hold off on any map building etc for now until I have all the ideas down clear.
 
Jonny said:
Earl, are you serious about seeing aircraft hit all the time?

Sure they seem to be pretty damn accurate with their MGs/Cannons but i can't remember the last time i saw an aircraft make a direct hit on a vehicle with rockets/bombs
Click to expand...

No, not all the time, but I've seen0 more than enough CM aircraft hitting vehicles in cover between trees and even in woods with the first pass. Theoretically the cover calculations might be off for strafing runs in this case and not the aircract accuracy set to high, although that doesn't matter all that much.
Anyway, go play a bit 'Battlefield 1942' and try to hit (and kill!) an enemy tank with the first attack run you're making. Admitted, it's no simulation but ratehr an action game, but it underlines the general diffculty of hitting a moving vehicle which is awfully small from the air...
 
Little update: No luck finding a proper urban map so far. Or are you looking for something else Caen-wisse?
 
Been doing some more thiking abut how this baby can work -- and constantly back-pedalling to keep it simple :)

The Campaign would run from 10 June to 25 July (Historic Cobra breakout) and then until 25 August.

Each turn represents 5 days, which would add up to 14 Turns.

Battles will be 1250 QB's -- players to buy their own kit with restrictions depending on type of Division involved and support units eg: No Tigers unless a Tiger Abt is attached to the division fighting the battle.

Air Power -- Axis map movement restricted by Allied Air Power and weather:
Clear Weather - Axis movement reduced to two-thirds
Overcast Weather - Axis Full movement allowance

Troop Quality
All Allied units will be restricted to Regulars (exception: US Airborne Divs)
Axis units: All Pz, SSPz, SS PzGr, Para Divs will be Veteran -- all other Inf Divs Regular.

More to come.... back to work.
 
Just to let you know that I am still working on this -- still trying to work out a balance between what to include and what to leave out -- Normandy is a weird battle in that it's unbelievably crowded in some areas and time periods and quite open in others -- including all the divisions that took part is probably a non-starter. I have got a good OOB for both sides and a good sense of when they arrive on the field of battle, but trying not to get carried away and turn thsi thing into an unmanagale monster.
Call me the Dr Frankenstein of CM campaigns ;)
 
It's strange that good battles in the Pacific aren't readily available for play. I know that the US won all the islands they were after, but some took terrible tolls. Maybe that's why nobody wants to play them, because the outcomes are preordained.
 
But what has the Pacific got to do with a Normandy campaign...? :suspicious: Or are you hinting at the fact that you're one of those guys wanting a game based on the war in the Pacific?
 
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