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Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 8:59:36 AM

warspite1

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I've never played TOAW before but as there is a North Africa Campaign, I think that is good reason to play the game!

I like to try and get into games and start the fun stuff with as little pre-reading before hand so there will be lots of mistakes along the way. But I like to do these AAR from a sort of "Numpty's eye view".

As ever I will be asking lots of dumbarse questions so if anyone has the time and inclination, I would welcome any help anyone wishes to give....

I await my manual so I guess progress will be pretty slow initially.

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 9:03:09 AM

warspite1

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So the first thing to do is to select a new game. I click on New Game and then the button on the left, which brings up a menu of various subjects (theatres). I click WWII - Mediterranean and see this:

I can see two 1940-43 scenarios - one appears to start with the Italian advance in September 1940, while this one starts from December 1940 after the Italians have 'invaded' Egypt - well they have marched 60 miles into Egypt before stopping to build up for an offensive. Historically the British beat them to it by launching an attack of their own - and this is where this scenario starts.

Unsurprisingly for anyone that knows me, I will be playing the Commonwealth forces

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< Message edited by warspite1 -- 11/18/2017 9:07:41 AM >

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 9:15:31 AM

warspite1

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The second box on the left allows me to pick the mode of play. I want the computer to take control of the Axis forces

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_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 9:19:12 AM

warspite1

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Next box looks complicated

It provides a list of advanced game options. I will go through the manual to decide what I want to use and what I don't. One thing I immediately see is Fog of War. I want that off as this is a first game and I really could do with seeing what is going on....

These are the default settings I have been greeted with

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_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 9:20:51 AM

RufusTFirefly

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Hello Warspite1,

this reminds me of my first wargame which was as well my start as a gamer. It was Allied General of the great Panzer General series. Still remember when I played the turn and saw the tank icon move across the map and heard the rattling of the tracks the first time. Still like the African campaign I will download the game today and already thought of starting with a scenario of the N-African theater.

Like you I have a lot of experience in wargames (assume this as I saw many posts from you at other forums), but I am new at TOAW IV as well. Got only few impressions by trying the FitE scenario of TOAW III and by reading the AAR of Barbarossa 41 by Larry Fulkerson; excellent AAR to learn the basics and more.

So from TOAW IV newby to TOAW IV newby, will be interesting to se how you proceed, learn from your mistakes and maybe add some comments of my own mistakes.

P.S.: Please write a lot. As I will play the Axis I might get some useful informations about how to beat the Brits and liberate Egypt.

< Message edited by RufusTFirefly -- 11/18/2017 9:21:45 AM >

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Post #: 5

RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 9:26:12 AM

warspite1

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Hi RufusTFirefly, don't worry you will learn a lot about how to win as the Axis from my games

But that's okay, I may not be a very smart wargamer, but I just love the whole historical angle and to get the chance to play a Mediterranean Campaign is not an opportunity I wanted to pass up. I just hope the game lives up to hopes and expectations.

Perhaps my 7th Armoured will meet your 15th Panzer at some point in the future?

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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Post #: 6

RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 9:32:02 AM

Olorin

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Welcome to TOAW!
Yes, no surprise you 're playing the Commonwealth. Good luck and have fun

_____________________________

"Drang nach Osten"
--A TOAWIII AAR--

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Post #: 7

RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 9:34:33 AM

warspite1

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I turn to 3.3 of the manual - Set Game Options - for a brief look at what all this means.

Command and Control: Turning this off will cause your Formations and units to never �reorganize.� They will always be available for Move and Attack orders.

I word search reorganise and see that this refers to units needing to recover from recent combat and so may not move or attack. That sounds more realistic so I will leave that ON.

Scenario Variability: Turning this off will cause Scenarios to always end exactly on the historical ending Turn. Any events with a 50% or greater possibility will always occur, and any events with less than 50% probability will never occur.

Sounds good. I will leave ON

Fog of War: Turning this off will always give you full information on the locations of all enemy units.

As said - while learning what the hell I am supposed to be doing this defo goes to OFF

Environment: Turning this off will cause Weather and Time of Day to have no effect. This includes Mud and Snow effects as well.

Okay, so for realism I will leave ON

Active Disengagement: Turning this off allows all units to disengage from enemy units (see 10.4.10, Disengagement) automatically. In effect, Disengagement Attacks are not allowed.

Again it sounds more realistic to keep ON

No Borders: You can only see borders and supply rates for hexes that your forces are adjacent to, or have occupied this Turn. This is an additional means of increasing Fog of War.

For the Same reasons as FoW this is set to OFF

High Supply: This gives a boost of 50% to the resupply rate. Scenarios designed with earlier versions of TOAW often had drastically undersupplied forces due to a misunderstanding of the total amount of supply that would be received by on-map units. Use this to counterbalance that effect and for games between very aggressive players.

The underlined part doesn't apply so I will keep OFF

New Flanking Rules: If on, when the defender has two non-adjacent hexes that he can�t be attacked from (for example, one sea hex to the NW and one friendly unit to the NE), then attackers 120 degrees apart no longer cause a flanking attack. Against such a defender, it is only considered a flanking attack if the attacker has units that are 180 degrees apart. Previously, if you had a horizontal front on the map, it would have multiple flanks exposed because of the zigzag of the hexes on that axis. This option is intended to make sure that even though the line zigzags, it won�t introduce cases where units are subject to flanking, when they probably shouldn�t be. Possible consequences include making it easier to defend, and making map edges and impassable terrain features more important.

Making it easier to defend? I will keep that ON

Advanced Rules: If on, Advanced Rules are applied (see section 5). If off, Standard Rules are applied (see section 4).

That sounds like it needs to be kept ON

New Turn Order Rules: If on, this option will better equalize the two player-turns. The details are listed in section 9.0.2.

Like Flanking this sounds like another rule I don't have to worry about changes as I haven't played the old rule. I will leave ON

New Supply Rules: If on, this option offers a more realistic supply model. The details are listed in section 9.1.7.3.

More realism? No brainer - this stays ON

Trusted PBEM: If on, legacy PBEM games can export an XML file for loading into the editor. Also, Elmer Assist may be used by players.

N/a here so I just leave OFF

New Bridge Rules: If on, bridges will only exist, and be subject to destruction, in locations where the road terrain graphically crosses the river/canal terrain. This will affect both bridge-blowing by units and bridge attacks by aircraft.

Sounds sensible so remains ON

New Mud and Snow Rules

This does not appear separately in the manual. Although is mentioned with Environment instead so leave ON

Two more notes:
Note that Game Options may be preset by the scenario designer. See section 17.12.

Note that Game Options settings cannot be changed once set although different games may have different rules set.

Okay well I will watch out for that, but that finalises my Advanced Game Options.

< Message edited by warspite1 -- 11/18/2017 10:02:41 AM >

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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Post #: 8

RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 10:06:28 AM

warspite1

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Oh Goodness - no it doesn't - there's more!! and two more pages.

A lot of these are not to do with the scenario so I will leave as is - except the Air Staff Assistant. I want full control over my units so this moves to OFF.

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< Message edited by warspite1 -- 11/18/2017 10:11:00 AM >

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 10:21:07 AM

warspite1

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Looks like there is a lot of reading to do. The button at the far right is the documentation button. This brings up a word document that lists things like:

- Abbreviations
- Reinforcement / Withdrawal schedules
- Supply levels
- Designer Notes
- Shock Bonuses
- Victory Conditions

In addition the screen on the right contains a whole load more information on the game (i.e. this particular scenario). Well I don't read the manual before I start, so I won't be reading all of this from start to finish, but will clearly need to keep an eye on both of these sources of information as the game progresses.

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 10:27:32 AM

warspite1

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And so to the game....

This is the screen that greets me. There is no hex grid which I don't like. I will have to see if its possible to have one showing.

Lots of information on the right I will need to get a grip on

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< Message edited by warspite1 -- 11/18/2017 10:33:37 AM >

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 10:31:49 AM

warspite1

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I click 'Begin' and this screen appears. Which is a bloody good job because it says Fog of War is ON?? I assume I was too busy reading and writing and didn't actually change the setting?

I click Override.

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_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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Post #: 12

RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 10:34:48 AM

warspite1

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Let's hope that worked. Meanwhile I am told that I have reinforcements - HUZZAH!!

I click on this and a Situation Briefing appears. I scroll through and then lose it. I figure this is available via 'Reports' on the right and sure enough it is.

Well the FoW override worked as I can see a lot of nasty Italian units. I don't like their colour - grey is for Germany surely? But never mind, we'll come to the counters later.

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< Message edited by warspite1 -- 11/18/2017 10:43:59 AM >

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 10:39:07 AM

Olorin

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Click "View" on the upper left corner menu to toggle the Location Grid on or off.

_____________________________

"Drang nach Osten"
--A TOAWIII AAR--

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 10:41:57 AM

warspite1

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Olorin

Click "View" on the upper left corner menu to toggle the Location Grid on or off.

warspite1

Hi Olorin, I've tried that but it doesn't have any effect

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 10:49:26 AM

warspite1

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So what does the Situation Briefing tell me?

Turn 1 - 11th December 1940 (I thought it was the 9 December the battle started but maybe that is something to do with the turns being half-week?). Anyway, no matter.

There are 218 turns with the game ending on 9th January 1943 (assuming the Axis aren't in Cairo by Christmas....)

There are a lot of % and numbers - e.g. Max rounds per battle: 3, and AAA Lethality Scaler 40% - which mean absolutely nothing to me at the moment but I can access this as and when.

Hex Grid now on. Looked like you cannot change this while the dialogue box was up. Sorry if I sound picky but the hex grid really should be in black as a contrast against the sand and this inability to deselect is not good either....

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< Message edited by warspite1 -- 11/18/2017 10:58:56 AM >

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 10:54:40 AM

larryfulkerson

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I think this button might just toggle the hex grid on the map for you.

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< Message edited by larryfulkerson -- 11/18/2017 10:56:30 AM >

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 10:57:27 AM

warspite1

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quote:

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

I think this button might just toggle the hex grid on the map for you.

warspite1

Thanks - its sorted. It was the button Olorin said (and the button you have shown as well as another option), but I was trying to change it with the dialogue (Briefing) report open.

< Message edited by warspite1 -- 11/18/2017 11:01:17 AM >

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 11:20:36 AM

warspite1

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I've made a couple of negative remarks so far - what about some positives?

I really like that the Indians have a different colour to the British - and expect to see the same for others too - nice attention to detail. I am delighted to see the Royal Navy too - and here we have my sister HMS Valiant

Maybe this explains the 11 December start date. The British units are already in amongst the Italian fortified camps.....

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by warspite1 -- 11/18/2017 11:23:55 AM >

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

(in reply to warspite1)

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 4:47:12 PM

budd

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Always appreciate your going in cold AAR's, thanks for the effort.

_____________________________

Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Be Yourself; Everyone else is already taken" ~Oscar Wilde

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground*
I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 5:23:44 PM

warspite1

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quote:

ORIGINAL: budd

Always appreciate your going in cold AAR's, thanks for the effort.

warspite1

Thank-you

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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Post #: 21

RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 6:19:49 PM

warspite1

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Right so let's stick with the reports. The next one is (moving left to right) brings up the Weather Briefing. Hazy, warm no precipitation - but also says precipitation and cloud cover should clear next turn. That seems a bit contradictory. I search weather in the manual but cannot see anything that need concern me at this stage.

Next up its the Air Briefing. Not sure why there are losses showing as I am starting the scenario, but we'll ignore that for the moment. I will look up what the manual has to say about Air Superiority and Interdiction Levels.

Theater Air Superiority
The program keeps track of Air Superiority units and calculates a Theater Air Superiority Level for each Force. Theater Air Superiority is a general indicator of Air Superiority in the theater. It is presented solely for your information, and isn�t used by the game.

Okay so not much for me to do here.

Interdiction
Units assigned Interdiction Missions will attempt to intercept enemy Land units when those Land units move and also impair your opponent�s ability to supply his Force. Units performing Interdiction Missions are subject to Interdiction by enemy Air units with Air Superiority missions and are protected by friendly units with Air Superiority missions.
Interdiction is less effective in poor weather and on night Turns.

So no advantage to either side it seems at the moment.

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< Message edited by warspite1 -- 11/18/2017 6:34:25 PM >

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

(in reply to warspite1)

Post #: 22

RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 6:41:25 PM

warspite1

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The next report is the News Summary.

There is a bit of historical background about who's in charge, but then some detail about penalties - including an 'air shock' penalty. Don't know why that is not in the air briefing but that's one of the things on this report I will need to look up. At the end of the report there is some technical mumbo jumbo - graphics sub-folders and files and ... yeah whatever. No idea what that is about so will assume its all okay...

Anyway the things to check:

Axis Shock Penalty - 60%

The manual states: Force 1 or Force 2 Shock Level: This is typically used to model surprise. Shock levels can range from one to 200, but should in most cases be limited to the 50-150 range. The default is 100. Unit strengths are multiplied by the Shock Level (as a percentage). Movement costs for moving near enemy forces may be decreased if the moving Force has a Shock Level greater than the non-moving Force, and costs may be increased if the moving Force has a Shock Level less than the non-moving Force. Time expended in combat may be reduced if the Attacker has a Shock Level above 100 and may be increased if the Attacker has a handicap level below 100. At levels below 100, Formations may arbitrarily reorganize (becoming unavailable for your orders). At Shock Levels below 70%, Air units will not defend their Airbases if attacked.

Okay so the Commonwealth get a surprise bonus, which seems reasonable given what happened in real life.

Axis Air Shock Penalty - 50%

The manual states this is similar to Troop Shock. It also states If the Shock Level is less than 70%, Air units will not rise to defend their air bases (interception) when under attack.

As the penalty here is less than 70% it sounds like the RAF should be attacking the airfields and catching the Regia Aeronautica on the ground.

Rule reminder - All supply units must end all movement on improved roads.

I've searched Improved Road in the manual but there doesn't seem to be a definition so I'll park that one for now....

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< Message edited by warspite1 -- 11/18/2017 6:55:17 PM >

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

(in reply to warspite1)

Post #: 23

RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 7:07:43 PM

warspite1

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The next report is the Inventory and Replacements. I am not sure what 'Rate of Appearance' means. The turns column is the beginning turn and end turn. I am struggling to understand this.

So to take the Heavy MG as an example, there are 229 'on hand' which is defined as available for immediate distribution. There are 662 'assigned' to units in the theatre - so presumably on map, but does this mean all 23 are available from turn 1 but have to leave the theatre on turn 216? What is the rate?

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< Message edited by warspite1 -- 11/18/2017 7:15:09 PM >

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 7:34:06 PM

Olorin

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It means 23 heavy MG squads will be added to the pool (=on hand) each turn, until turn 216.

_____________________________

"Drang nach Osten"
--A TOAWIII AAR--

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 8:08:55 PM

Templer_12

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quote:

ORIGINAL: budd

Always appreciate your going in cold AAR's, ...

And I add: your cold AAR�s in collaboration with the community brings as a result easy to read, relaxed lessons.

(in reply to budd)

Post #: 26

RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 8:10:59 PM

warspite1

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Olorin

It means 23 heavy MG squads will be added to the pool (=on hand) each turn, until turn 216.

warspite1

Right thank-you. So these are the items that make up the divisions, squadrons etc and are used to replace losses subject to the under-strength unit meeting the criteria.

The next report is the expected reinforcements and withdrawals at a unit level - brigades, squadrons etc. The first event is not until turn 3 so I can ignore that for the moment. I see the 4th Indian are being withdrawn so that all looks historically promising

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by warspite1 -- 11/18/2017 8:51:28 PM >

_____________________________

England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805

(in reply to Olorin)

Post #: 27

RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 8:12:00 PM

RufusTFirefly

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quote:

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Interdiction
Units assigned Interdiction Missions will attempt to intercept enemy Land units when those Land units move and also impair your opponent�s ability to supply his Force. Units performing Interdiction Missions are subject to Interdiction by enemy Air units with Air Superiority missions and are protected by friendly units with Air Superiority missions.
Interdiction is less effective in poor weather and on night Turns.

Played some turns of Kasserine scenario. When enmy units move there are some explosions being displayed along their path. Think these are air raid against the moving land units when my bomber patrols spotted some columns and attacked.

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RE: Campaign For North Africa 40D-43 - 11/18/2017 8:22:07 PM

warspite1

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That finishes the reports for the moment. Let's move to the Map tab.

Supply, weather, objectives, airfields, ports, HQ Units, hex grid, place names, hex ownership, planned battles can be accessed via this tab.

The most important I guess is the supply button so I will spend a little time looking that up in the manual.

Well I've got to be honest. Having read that I am not sure I really understood what the manual is trying to explain. I think I will park that for the moment and then perhaps look in detail at a unit when I start to move and fight - and see what happens to the supply.