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Misc notes
TCNJ spring 2021 is 14 weeks with 1 week of spring break, so 13 weeks of classes. If a class meets twice a week, that's 26 classes.
2021.06.26 - Players need to know the radius around an Ambush marker at which point your units will engage the enemy. Also, keep your units hidden if they're targeting an ambush marker, even your platoon HQ, or the enemy may spot you.
Here’s the USMC article on the lessons one soldier learned from playing Close Combat: https://mca-marines.org/blog/gazette/close-combat-and-learning-infantry-tactics/
For a long time I was worried about all of the possible paths that the enemy could take, but from having played a few games, I now realize that you can often see those things coming several turns ahead, and so you will have time to adjust your positions to react to those unexpected approaches. This is especially true when the unexpected approach takes longer to travel. However, if you have no visibility on that avenue of approach, the enemy may be able to surprise you.
Combat Mission topics to cover in the course
How Combat Mission differs from other war games: it's a better sim of infantry, a less-good sim of long-range fighting
Why Combat Mission: One reason: Combat Mission was originally going to be the computerized version of Advanced Squad Leader.
How to make a cool battle report video, like the Armchair General ones.
https://battledrill.blogspot.com/2018/11/pbem-tactical-problem-1-rifle-behind.htmlPeople need to realize that, like Chess, this is going to be a brutal experience where you're likely to lose many/most of your men. So how much you've "won" may be ambiguous.
See if you can come up with an equivalent to Reuben Fine's 30 Rules of Chess.
http://www.lloydianaspects.co.uk/vintageSite/wargames/ruledesign.html
if the 'rules' include the intricacies of the simulation, then the rules are complicated. There is opportunity for people more familiar with the simulation to take advantage of that knowledge.
A newcomer can be brought up to the basic rules of the game quickly, but learning the intricacies of the simulation will take time (for example, learning how to use the different weapon systems).
The game does involve knowing more information than a command would know in real life.
How to actually conduct a multiplayer game: where to save the files, how to load a file.How to access the manual for the game from GOG's menu.
How to install GOG.
How to remove the annoying menu sounds (like the explosion sound when you quit).
Using dxcfg.exe to modify the resolution.
What is "winning"?
In Chess you're pretending to be a king fighting for his life against another king. In a situation like that a victory is if you survive the battle and a loss is if you are killed. If you can make the enemy stop fighting before you're killed, you will win. In Chess, you stop the enemy from fighting if and only if you kill the enemy king. But you can imagine an alternative set of rules where the enemy pieces can continue to fight after you've killed their king, and if you're killed after killing the enemy king, then it's considered a loss for both sides.
In Combat Mission, who has won can be ambiguous. And while the game does assign win/loss labels, they aren't always necessarily "correct" in the sense that they would match a real superior officer's assessment.
Gather the movement speeds of all the units in meters per minute, and the ammo of each unit in terms of minutes' of fire.
Add training scenarios.
The key thing to know about attacks is that they generally involved many attackers against fewer defenders. That's how the attackers could simultaneously suppress the defenders (which would require fire superiority and thus presumably more units) and also advance other units to push the defenders out of their position. If you're attacking with the same number of men that the defenders have, you're at an enormous disadvantage.
As a defender, the set-up phase is perhaps the most important single "turn" in the match. You can be in a guaranteed-to-lose position just from your decisions in the set-up phase, because you
If both the attacker and defender fail to make major blunders in their big-picture plans, then the battle's outcome will be the result of many smaller skirmishes and your ability to order units effectively on a turn-by-turn basis to 1) get them out of trouble and 2) maximize the effectiveness of their fire.
The 'fix' part in the 'find, fix, destroy' refers to your ability to prevent the enemy forces from moving around to better meet your advancing forces. So, for example, if they have an AT gun in one position but to hit your tank they need to move it 50m, if you're able to "fix" the enemy, you can prevent them from moving that AT gun.
You should think of yourself as 'trading' units like in Chess, and your goal is to get the best trade possible for each unit.
I feel like the scenarios generally have too few turns, which makes it harder for the attackers.
What ranges you should use for kill zones for your various units: this is dependent on their effective range and how easily they'll be spotted.
How to mount your units on vehicles and move them around as quickly as possible (so, knowing how to coordinate those units in the game).
Thought: let backers see the outlines you create for each lesson so that they can correct mistakes.
Explain to people that games are just a matter of 1) decision trees and 2) die-rolling (randomness).
Use a random-noun generator (from the internet) to determine your password for each game, and be sure to write down your password in a file or email to yourself so you won't forget it. Maybe email it to yourself in the same thread in which you're communicating with your opponent.
How to organize your PBEM files, how to name your PBEM files.
How to make a cool AAR.
Think of ways you can provide value to people who have more money. Good example of the distribution of payments you can get from viewers: there's a $100 donation, a $500 donation, and a lot of smaller donations. How Safe are you? The crisis just got real https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR-m2vnpEmM
Misc advice in a 2005 thread: https://forum.quartertothree.com/t/combat-mission-where-to-learn-about-field-level-tactics/8839/17
BMBB and CMAK campaign generators:
Flags: Both major (300-point) and minor (100-point) flags have a radius of 80meters, which is 4 terrain squares (each square is 20m to a side). That is the maximum range at which a unit will be able to 'capture' a flag, assuming there are no enemy units also within that range.
If an enemy unit is within that range, it seems prefernce is given to the unit which is closer to the flag.
It seems there's a second radius of 40m which is more-heavily counted. If there's one unit on top of the flag, another equally-sized unit needs to be within 40m to set the flag to contested.
The flags are not set to one side or another based only on a simple check of who has more units in the 40m radius. A two-man flamethrower squad can maintain a flag as contested against an entire platoon. Whether a flag will be contested seems to depend on whether it's the start of a mission or if some of the units have just moved into the square.
Create an example mission with the smallest possible map where the flag is in the middle in totally open ground, and both sides have clear fields of fire to it. That demonstrates how it's not just about capturing flags, it's also about causing more casualties than you take.
This took me an embarrasing amount of time to realize: Note that the anti-armor weapons have their weapons rated in colors, which correspond to the colors of the armor of armoured vehicles. So presumably if a weapon can produce damage of a certain color at a certain range, that means it can defeat armor of that grade at that range.
When calculating losses, the game uses the points value of the unit. So, for example, if a flamethrower unit costs 29 points, and you eliminate it, you will score 29 points. So, for example, a platoon is generally worth a little over 100 points, and a minor flag is worth 100 points, so if you captured a minor flag but it cost you half a platoon, you would come out ahead. A major flag is worth 300 points, and a company is generally worth so you could lose most of a company
Recommend Dungeon Warfare as a fun intro to the concept of kill zones.
Great explanation of off-map artillery from Treeburst155: http://community.battlefront.com/topic/38635-proper-use-of-artillery/
Also:
"Artillery is useful for slowing down your opponant's advance in meeting engagements"
"I've found the big stuff is rarely worth the cost." (he then goes into a lot of detail)