nubbin's Fulda Gap "Campaign"

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nubbin's Fulda Gap "Campaign" - 11/26/2018 12:49:29 AM

nubbin77

Posts: 18
Joined: 4/28/2005
Status: offline

Hi everybody,

I am having a good time so far with this game. Like other's have mentioned, for me I like to have more context when I play games like this. I want to know how my mission affected the outcome of the war.
So I designed my own "rules" to a campaign and I just completed my first battle.

What I did was set up the Fulda Gap map in Cyberboard and stole some counters from existing Cyberboard gameboxes and put a bunch of objectives and a mini "economy" (point system to bring in reinforcements).

.Hard to show you guys with the 200KB screenshot limitation... But I attached the overall map.

My first battle was a medium size British infantry unit (6,000 points) attacked by 14,000 of armored forces from the Soviets. The area was in the north on the outskirts of Petersberg (to the East of Bad Herfeld).
Fortunately the badly outnumbered British infantry were able to cut off the armored advance in a huge forest and were supported by significant amount of fixed wing air and lots of artillery. The Soviets also had a lot of air support and artillery.
The Soviet air support was ineffective due to the British forces consisting mostly of infantry that were deep in the woods. They were also deterred by a few units of Rapier air defenses (though none actually scored any hits).

The situation started off badly as a whole infantry company was caught in a massive artillery barrage which took out nearly 40% of the company. The Brits recovered and dug in all throughout the forests and established multiple choke points where the armored units funneled through. The air force ran numerous strafing runs and the infantry performed hit and run tactics. The artillery concentrated on these choke points taking out any infantry support the Soviets tried to use to root out the British infantry. In the end, the Brits ran out of AT all throughout and had to retreat after losing more than half of their forces.

In the mean time, the soviets took heavy damage losing a whopping 59 tanks - mostly T55's and T64's, a huge loss none the less.

I wish I could show more screen shots, but it is really a challenge on this forum.

Attachment (1)

Post #: 1

RE: nubbin's Fulda Gap "Campaign" - 11/26/2018 12:53:29 AM

nubbin77

Posts: 18
Joined: 4/28/2005
Status: offline

Here's a screen shot of the end result / locations from the first combat.
The US has the next turn. They are not in striking distance of anything so there won't be any action most likely until the Polish turn where they look to hit the German foces in the south.

Wait, nevermind it looks like I cannot put any more images in right now.

(in reply to nubbin77)

Post #: 2

RE: nubbin's Fulda Gap "Campaign" - 11/26/2018 2:44:20 AM

exsonic01

Posts: 1131
Joined: 7/26/2016
From: Somewhere deep in appalachian valley in PA
Status: offline

Interesting attempt. This would be another way to enjoy this game. If this game introduce PBEM or other MP, we could enjoy user campaign like we see some CM campaign groups.

Regarding screenshot, you could use imgur or imgbb.

(in reply to nubbin77)

Post #: 3

RE: nubbin's Fulda Gap "Campaign" - 11/26/2018 3:36:12 AM

nubbin77

Posts: 18
Joined: 4/28/2005
Status: offline

So far I am really enjoying myself with this system.

If I work out enough bugs, I'll share the gamebox and my own personal rules, in case anyone else has a similar desire.

I was wrong, the US were able to get into 2 meeting engagement's on their turn. 2 Medium size Mechanized units met 2 equivalent armored units from the soviets to the West of Fulda. I only played out the first battle tonight, both sides again committed their artillery and air forces to each of the next battles (there are limitations on how many air and artillery supports can be given per day (I have 3 turns per day in my timescale).

This battle was in an area of mixed forests open areas, and an a couple industrial complexes. The US forces were poorly equipped to deal with the onslaught of armor. Fortunately several a-10's were on station to support, which was one of the few things, along with some well position tow launchers, that kept the US in this fight. Again the Soviet air support was not particularly effective due to the composition of US forces. Most of the air strikes only took out M113's.

This battle played out to a draw, but the US forces lost almost all vehicles and half their men. Casualties were high again on both sides. These units will be out of the fight until they retreat and are assigned reinforcements. If they are caught up in another battle, the US forces will be an infantry force only. I plan to play out the second battle tomorrow.

(in reply to exsonic01)

Post #: 4

RE: nubbin's Fulda Gap "Campaign" - 11/27/2018 1:37:01 AM

g0Dwarrior23

Posts: 5
Joined: 8/18/2018
Status: offline

I would love to get that, ive been doing my own type of campaign just fighting battles but this looks awesome !

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Post #: 5

RE: nubbin's Fulda Gap "Campaign" - 12/2/2018 11:10:22 AM

gbem

Posts: 187
Joined: 11/19/2018
Status: offline

IMO this is how AB should be played +1

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Post #: 6

RE: nubbin's Fulda Gap "Campaign" - 12/3/2018 5:21:01 AM

g0Dwarrior23

Posts: 5
Joined: 8/18/2018
Status: offline

If you don't mind sharing where do you get those strategic markers from and how do you set up those hexagons ?

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Post #: 7

RE: nubbin's Fulda Gap "Campaign" - 12/3/2018 1:18:41 PM

Lowlaner2012

Posts: 779
Joined: 11/20/2011
Status: offline

What game rules are you using for your campaign?

Also the map and system look good as well :-)

(in reply to g0Dwarrior23)

Post #: 8

RE: nubbin's Fulda Gap "Campaign" - 12/5/2018 12:08:04 PM

mekanopsis

Posts: 12
Joined: 11/21/2018
Status: offline

Great stuff, this is the embodiment of my views expressed elsewhere about how AB campaign system should be done. I'd be interested in trying a PBEM campaign like this taking turns to battle the AI in each engagement. Eventually I hope a consensus rule-set can be hashed out.

(in reply to nubbin77)

Post #: 9

RE: nubbin's Fulda Gap "Campaign" - 12/6/2018 10:41:09 PM

nubbin77

Posts: 18
Joined: 4/28/2005
Status: offline

Sorry everyone,

I ended up getting extremely busy at work (I am an accountant and November 30, is our year end). So I have not had any play time.
I will try to answer questions and give links to everything this weekend.

This is a draft of the rules I have been using... Some of it needs work obviously. I have rules related to what happens with campaign map objectives are taken, but I could not copy those in.
I am totally open to feed back. But I will say that so far, the system has resulted in some good battles.

Nubbin's Campaign "Rules" for Armored Brigade
Each turn = 8 hours - I break each turn into A, B, C in order to use markers labeled A, B, C which indicates that unit performed some action on that phase
Each country takes its turn, moves all units and initiates battles. The battles are played out and any economy actions are performed, then move on to the next country.
Units
Units are either Infantry, Mechanized, or Armored (which is the categories in Armored Brigade
The units represented by markers have a value on them. For example, an infantry unit can be a 7 this is the strength representation. The number is translated, when setting up the battle in AB into points. Each unit # = 500 points in AB. For exampe a unit strength of 7 = 3,500 points to pick from in game. (Depending on how big you want the battles, you could say each point is worth 1,000 , but the battles can get big quick.)
I have not considered any stacking limitations, but I don't think it would be fun to load up an area and just steam roll through. I would ask the community to consider what is fair rules to avoid a megastack.

Movement Each Day
Infantry - can attack or move one of 3 turns
Mech and Tank Can attack 1 of 3 turns
Mech and Tank can attack 1 and move 1 each of 3 turns.
Mech and Tank can move 2 of 3 turns.

Units can only attack once, then must be re-supplied.
(see supply rules below).
Defending counts towards your attacks.

Artillary -
Can shoot 6 hexes.
Can move 1 hex or shoot each day.
Can shoot 2 of 3 turns in a day

Artillary destroyed if hex is reached.

Fighters
Can fly 8 hexes
Cannot move
Can be either Fixed Wing or helicopters
Can fly 1 mission per day (Value 2,500) or split into 2 battles.

Economy
2 IP, 2 MP, 2 AP each turn - banked
Can be spent directly on new units any turn - new units start on edge of map.
Infantry can be air dropped - costs 3MP & 3 AP. Within 5 hexes of airport
Can be spent repairing existing units. - They must move back to supply points to be repaired.

Supply
Units must be supplied once every 3 days, or after each fight.
If not supplied, -20 training & moral (since there is no way to simulate low supply in Armored Brigade)
Supply trucks can move 2 hexes per turn.
3 supply trucks per supply depot
Supply trucks must re-supply every after performing 5 re-supplies.

Battles
When 2 enemies enter the same location, obviously a battle takes place. In general, what I have tried to do, is if both countries have moved into the same location during the same turn / phase of the day, then it is a meeting engagement. If one side is settled on the hex and is obviously defending, then set them up as defender. If in doubt. Otherwise just pick what makes sense for the situation. I would suggest objectives are set up based on what makes sense for the location (just try to look at the map from the bigger picture and think what is trying to be accomplished in the bigger picture.
After the battle is over, it is really subjective. Basically if one side started with 3,500 points, and lost half of its stuff, lower the unit from 7 to 3... or 4 - are they out of position, scattered and one side has positional advantage? Then maybe go 3. If they lost half their men, but are in good position... maybe go with 4. Its not a perfect system obviously.
If artillary support is chosen for that battle, then add 1,500 to 2,000 points to the starting points, and try as best as possible to allocate that amount to artillary only.
If air support is chosen, allocate 1,250 or 2,500 (depending on if you split up the air support) to the starting points and allocate that much to air power.
If no air support, set the % available to 0.

Objectives
Cut rail
Blow up bridge

< Message edited by nubbin77 -- 12/6/2018 11:27:33 PM >

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Post #: 10

RE: nubbin's Fulda Gap "Campaign" - 12/6/2018 11:33:28 PM

nubbin77

Posts: 18
Joined: 4/28/2005
Status: offline

Here is a link to the cyberboard and my current game.

Feel free to download it and do whatever with it.
It is very much Frankenstein right now. I only have some of the markers I would like to us, I don't have supply units for each country (I rotate 45 degrees warsaw pact units). I have inconsistent artillery markers, inconsistent air unit makers, I don't have enough markers of different #'s. So its a bit of a mess, but I make it work for myself. Anyone that knows how to make markers and share, that would be awesome.

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AnwhCQXXxd9BhYFtzHByJjXApGzUbw

(in reply to nubbin77)

Post #: 11

RE: nubbin's Fulda Gap "Campaign" - 12/7/2018 8:20:18 PM

g0Dwarrior23

Posts: 5
Joined: 8/18/2018
Status: offline

Over the time you haven't responded I have actually created some counters but unfortunatly I can't post links because of some 7 day rule or something so I'll try to PM them to you or anyone else who would like them.
I also have some rules, maps, & scenarios if anyone would like as well