Greyshaft
Posts: 2252
Joined: 10/27/2003
From: Sydney, Australia
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I'm not happy with A or B. Let me repost my earlier analysis which I think got lost in the Crash of '04
One of the biggest challenges for the CWiF design team will be the PBEM sequence of play. If you go to www.a-d-g.com and download the WiF:FE rule set then you will see that the standard sequence of play allows over 100 successive interactions between the Axis and Allies players within a single impulse. Multiply this by (say) half a dozen impulses for each of the 36 turns within a campaign game and you have a couple of thousand emails passing between the Axis and Allied teams in order to finish a game. Of course, if you are playing a team game then it will be necessary for the teams to communicate amongst themselves before they send their move to the other side. However even if the teams could commit to always agreeing on their combined response and returning their move to the opposing side within 24 hours of receiving an update, it still gives the distinct possibility of CwiF being the first real-time strategy game i.e. it takes as long to play as the original war took to fight… six years, give or take a week or so. Clearly there will need to be a severe rationalisation within the CwiF PBEM turn sequence and the following proposal is meant as a starting point for discussion of that topic.
In order to prepare a Draft Sequence of Play it is necessary to assume certain points. That is not to say that those points should be implemented without further discussion (Heaven Forbid!), but rather that in order to address the topic in manageable chunks it is preferable that they should be the subject of their own Thread. (I am certain that my suggestion re: auto Naval intercept and Combat will generate many kilowatt hours of electronic discussion.)
* The CW and the Ge players will send out the combined move for their own team. All other players will send their own move to the CW and Ge players for consolidation and calculation.
* Naval interception and combat will be handled by the CPU although players will retain the choice of whether to intercept for each sea area. This specification can be changed at any time. (eg Until further notice the CW will intercept any and all Axis units moving through the North Sea)
* Air Combat (includes decisions re: Clearing Through and choice of Aborts and Kills) will be handled by the CPU.
* Combat results are not visible to the player who created the combat in order to avoid the temptation to reload the file and redo the moves. In a similar way, a player never knows if their Impulse triggered an End-of-Turn event.
The Game starts…
SETUP
* Allied players determine their default Naval intercepts for each sea area
* Allied Players email their setups to CW player. CW consolidates files. <… alternatively email the game file back and forth between players to do a standard Setup sequence>
* Cw mails Game file to all Axis players
* Axis do Setup
First Impulse starts…
ATTACKER (Axis) AIR/NAVAL PHASE
* Axis declare any DOW
* Axis choose Actions (Air, Naval, Ground, Combined)
* Axis fly all Port Attack, Naval Air, Strategic Bombardment, Carpet Bombing and Ground Strike missions. < …this includes determining Order of planes for Air-to-Air combat.>
* Axis sail all Naval missions. < …each mission will be preprogrammed with destination, path, which sea box to move into in case of combat, choice of combat type if intercepted etc>
* Axis provisionally allocate air units to support any Naval Combats <…these units will only be committed if a combat occurs. >
* Axis Players email their moves to Ge player. Ge consolidates files.
<CPU calculates Naval combats but results are not visible to Axis players>
* Ge mails Game file to all Allied players
DEFENDER (Allied) AIR/NAVAL PHASE
<Allies see Axis Naval moves>
* Allies fly all Port Attack, Naval Air, Strategic Bombardment, Carpet Bombing and Ground Strike defensive intercepts. <…this includes determining Order of planes for Air-to-Air combat.>
* Allies provisionally allocate air units to support any Naval Combats <… these units will only be committed if a successful search occurs.>
* Allies can nominate discretionary Naval combats.
* Allies place CAP against anticipated Axis Air Transport and Axis Ground Support and nominate other Air units available for Defensive intercept
* Allies nominate Air units to provide defensive Ground support …Air units are placed on standby but actual hexes are not nominated.
<CPU calculates results of Axis Port Attack, Naval Air, Strategic Bombardment, Carpet Bombing and Ground Strike missions but results are not visible to Allied players>
<CPU calculates results of Naval combats but results are not visible to Allied players>
* Allied Players email their moves to CW player. CW consolidates files.
* Cw mails Game file to all Axis players
ATTACKER (Axis) GROUND PHASE
<Axis see results of previous phase Air Combats>
<Axis see results of previous phase Naval Combats>
* Axis Air RTB for missions from Attacker Air/Naval phase
* Axis Rail move
* Axis Land move
* Axis Air Transport <Air Combats may occur but results will not be visible to Axis player>
* Axis Ground support
* Allied Ground support allocated by CPU <…air Combats may occur but results will not be visible to Axis players>
* Axis Land Combat <Results will not be visible to Axis players>
* Axis Players email their moves to Ge player. Ge consolidates files.
* Ge mails Game file to all Allied players
DEFENDER (Allied) GROUND PHASE
<Allies see results of Air/Naval/Ground combats from previous phases>
* Allies retreat/remove units as required by Combat results
* Allies Air RTB from all previous phases.
* Allies place CAP against anticipated Axis Air Supply and nominate other Air units available for Defensive intercept
* Allies place Provisional CAP for next turn <…this will be implemented only if Turn Ends and other side gains initiative for next turn>
* Allies commit for rerolling if Turn Ends and other side gains initiative for next turn.
* Allied Players email their moves to CW player. CW consolidates files.
* Cw mails Game file to all Axis players
ATTACKER (Axis) REORG PHASE
<Axis see results of previous phase Ground Combats>
* Axis advance after combat
* Axis Air Rebase
* Axis re-org
* Axis Air supply <Air Combats may occur but results will not be visible to Axis players>
* Axis place CAP against next impulse (or next Turn) Port Attack, Naval Air, Strategic Bombardment, Carpet Bombing and Ground Strike missions.
* Axis commit for rerolling if Turn Ends and other side gains initiative for next turn.
<CPU determines if Turn ends but does not advise Axis.>
* Axis Players email their moves to Ge player. Ge consolidates files.
* Ge mails Game file to all Allied players
<We now go onto the second impulse with the Allies as the Attacker and the Axis as the Defender>
ATTACKER (Allied) AIR/NAVAL PHASE
DEFENDER (Axis) AIR/NAVAL PHASE
ATTACKER (Allied) GROUND PHASE
DEFENDER (Axis) GROUND PHASE
ATTACKER (Allied) REORG PHASE
<…and then onto the third impulse with the Axis as the Attacker and the Allies as the Defender etc. etc.>
At some point the Turn ends and we go into a whole bunch of other Production and End-of-Turn stuff, but the important thing is that we have shrunk the 100 or so interactions down to five. I still have a whole bunch of unresolved problems with this idea. Here are some of them…
* How to spend Surprise points in Naval combat
* How to choose the destination for Naval Aborts
* How does the Defender get to choose whether to use a notional defender and/or defensive shore bombardment against an enemy amphibious invasion
* How to deal with the immense frustration of having no tactical control over my air and naval combats.
But hopefully I can now finish a PBEM game within a single lifetime.
< Message edited by Greyshaft -- 7/21/2004 10:41:34 AM >
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/Greyshaft
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Printable Version
Fundamental Question for PBEM play of WiF - 
Survey takers are certainly entitled to a vote but IMHO its best added at the end in order to avoid influencing people who read the survey question and then immediately see a particular preference. 
Having already loaded Chris's beta of CWiF and worked my way through the interactions required for a PBEM I know that I would never play a game using a strict sequence of play, but maybe both systems can be implemeted in the Matrix version. 
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