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Topic: Multiplayer HPS ACW Battle focusing on Command and Control
[font=calibri] I'm thinking of coordinating an HPS MP ACW game with players cast in the role of the different commanders. I'm mooting interest on the Wargamer and wondered if you'd be interested in that sort of experience?
The focus would be on C&C with general orders filtering down the chain of command via the coordinator.
Each turn the senior commander at a given level (Army, Corps, Division) will coordinate his subordinate commanders by receiving (in a specific order) the files of the subordinate commanders, passing the file through each subordinate commander before passing it up the chain.
To keep the game running, Divisional commanders will have to pass the file up the chain every two or three days in order to keep the game moving and to represent delays in carrying out orders when commanders fail to return their turn by the cutoff. If one player is holding up the critical path, the senior commander e.g. Division over brigade, notifies the errant Brigadier that he can't wait any longer and sends the penultimate savefile to the errant commander if there is time remaining before the cutoff. Otherwise he sends the saved file to the other side.
When a sides turn is received it is sent to the opposing CinC to pass to all his commanders to view the turn activity. The CinC then issues orders to Corps Commanders and sends the updating savegame to his first Corps Commander for action and distribution...and so on.
Obviously, this opportunities for different AAR's from commanders with different perspectives in the battle...
What do you think?
I'm thinking of trying this out on a medium size scenario to start with... small enough to be manageable for a new MP project, but large enough to have sufficient MP input.
First we need consensus on the battle and then we need commanders... Let me know what battle you want to fight and your role on a first come first served basis [sm=icon_salute.gif]
I think it may be important to figure out how many people you can really expect to be involved in this at one time, because that has an enormous impact on how quickly things move and on what level of command each person has. The mechanics for how things work would then have to be tailored to the answer to that question.
In the event of a late turn, a nice penalty would be to have the host put that command under AI control for a turn.
You might want to start with the smallest and shortest campaign you can possibly find, because what may seem like it will work now will probably look very different to you after you've tried it in practise.
Some of the Tiller games have a feature where you can only control your command in online (as opposed to pbem) play. It would be really nice if some of the aspects of that were ported to pbem -- it would be especially nice if in a campaign if you could only see what your command could see (as opposed to what all the troops on your side could see). I don't remember if the ACW games have an online play feature, but if they do, you might consider (for all of about two seconds) organizing the game around online rather than pbem.
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