In the approach to Lenningrad scenario I was trying to attack with my armour as the German and a message came on saying I was not in a zoc.  The thing is I was right next to a unit.  Is the terrain an issue here.

   Also, for Pbem, is there a replay of the opponents turn?

Terrain between the hexes can be a reason for not being in the ZOC.  Which hexes were the two units in (xy coordinates)?

There was no replay capability in RGW.  Later games have Reports that show the ops (e.g. MDE).

Ron

I got the armour to atttack. I do not know why I could not get it the first time.

Also is there a button that shows the HQ links?  That is how does a player know that he is linked up with an HQ?

The HQ the unit is attached to shows up on the counter, just under the units designation (I think).

Not sure whether RGW supports HQ highlighting, but I think the later Schwerpunkt games do.

RGW has a different method of displaying HQ links and OOB.  From the Windows menu, select VIEW, then select Axis or Russian order of battle.  RGW displays the Army groups, Armies and Corps that are in the scenario.  Selecting one of them will give you an order of battle screen.

Also, as noted, the HQ's unit ID (3 characters) is displayed below the unit iD (3 characters) on the unit itself.

Ron

When I tried to move an HQ a message came on saying it was out of range.  What does it mean?

RGW has a rule that causes a check to see if a unit is in communication with its HQ unit.  Formula is explained on page 38 of the manual.  It sounds like you are out of comm.  Weather affects the distance (number of hexes max is 12 in clear weather).  This only applies for combat units to their HQ, not HQ to their HQ.  Being in comm affects allocation of reserves.

Not sure why you got this error message.  Please give me the exact message, and I can look it up in the source code.

Hope this helps,

Ron

It could just be that you selected a hex that was out of range for the move selected.  Valid destination hexes have a white hex border.

Ron

I have a couple of question concerning railroad conversion and also HQ penalty in combat for the Smolensk 41 sceanrio in RGW.  Sent you an e-mail.

I've been playing RGW and I'm still impressed by the number of things Ron worked into the design - a design that dates back to 2001.  Everything from limited numbers of attacks each turn which is a great way of accounting for the limits of supply without the mind boggling amount of detail you get in other East Front Games to the wonderful implementation of fog of war and the nuances of the advance combat system.  I have to say that this is still in my opinion the best Eastern Front game ever done on the PC.

Doug

RGW is one of my favorite games.

Originally Posted By dougb (20 MAY 2012 4:02pm)

I've been playing RGW and I'm still impressed by the number of things Ron worked into the design - a design that dates back to 2001.  Everything from limited numbers of attacks each turn which is a great way of accounting for the limits of supply without the mind boggling amount of detail you get in other East Front Games to the wonderful implementation of fog of war and the nuances of the advance combat system.  I have to say that this is still in my opinion the best Eastern Front game ever done on the PC.

 

Doug

+1

When clicking on reserves, how is it performed?  I tried and the message came on that the HQ has no reserves.  What does that mean?

What is the exact procedure for allocating reserves?  It is done during combat or during movement?

Ron

Thnaks for the kind words on RGW.  Hard to believe it is now 11 years old.  We are continuing to use that same philosophy for the development of its replacement game:  World War II Europe (WWIIE).

RGW reserves are allocated during the Ground Move Phase only.  Right click anywhere, select "Assign Reserve" operation, and left click on the unit receiving the reserve.  RGW moves the reserve from the higher unit to the lower unit.  It is a trickle down method, so you can assign reserve from a high command unit to an armygroup, then to an army, and finally to a division.

One more thing:  You will have to have selected the optional rule of Command and Control HQ when you selected the scenario for reserves to work.

Hope this helps,

Ron

Originally Posted By Ron Dockal (24 MAY 2012 6:23pm)

Thnaks for the kind words on RGW.  Hard to believe it is now 11 years old.  We are continuing to use that same philosophy for the development of its replacement game:  World War II Europe (WWIIE).

 

RGW reserves are allocated during the Ground Move Phase only.  Right click anywhere, select "Assign Reserve" operation, and left click on the unit receiving the reserve.  RGW moves the reserve from the higher unit to the lower unit.  It is a trickle down method, so you can assign reserve from a high command unit to an armygroup, then to an army, and finally to a division.

 

One more thing:  You will have to have selected the optional rule of Command and Control HQ when you selected the scenario for reserves to work.

 

Hope this helps,

Ron

Ron, do the reserves vary at all within a scenario?  Just wondered if during the course of a scenario reserves available increased or decreased based on various factors (simulating the removal of support from HQ's in one sector to other sectors, or an increase in the provision based on developments in the sector where the scenario is being played).  I didn't notice any change in the scenario where the German's are going into the Caucasus (go spanked by the AI in that one btw!).

One thing as well I was thinking of that might be neat in WWII-Europe - changing objective values based on simulated high command wrangling.  One of the key issues on the Eastern Front in July-August 41 was where the focus of the German offensive was to be conducted, given that the original plan to encircle and eliminate the Russian army west of the Dnepr hadn't succeeded - largely due to the number and size of reserve formations that the Germans had failed to account for.  There was about a month and a half of wrangling in the German high command and amongs field commanders that resulted in considerable delays and perhaps gave the Soviets enough breathing space to rebuild their line.   Of course a pause may have been mandated anyway due to the severe logistical difficulties the Germans were encountering.  Just thought it would be kind of neat (frustrating as well!) if, particuarly in the campaign game, some method of variability in objectives could be implemented.

Doug 

@dougb  -  Two very interesting concepts.  Neither reserves nor objective points varied in RGW, AGW or MDE.  The reserves for a particular sector can vary, since they are passed down from the highest HQ to a sector.  For example, in a large German-Russian scenario you can pass the OKH reserves to the southern front on one turn, and the northern front on the next.  Currently, the reserve assigned to an HQ is the same unless the HQ is eliminated, in which case the reserve is eliminated.  I'll think about this one for WWIIE.

The number of points per objective is the same for RGW, AGW and MDE.  For WWIIE, the number of points per objective can vary based on the text file.  Once set at scenario build time, it is fixed.  I'll think about this one also.

Ron

Originally Posted By Ron Dockal (25 MAY 2012 7:34pm)

@dougb  -  Two very interesting concepts.  Neither reserves nor objective points varied in RGW, AGW or MDE.  The reserves for a particular sector can vary, since they are passed down from the highest HQ to a sector.  For example, in a large German-Russian scenario you can pass the OKH reserves to the southern front on one turn, and the northern front on the next.  Currently, the reserve assigned to an HQ is the same unless the HQ is eliminated, in which case the reserve is eliminated.  I'll think about this one for WWIIE.

 

The number of points per objective is the same for RGW, AGW and MDE.  For WWIIE, the number of points per objective can vary based on the text file.  Once set at scenario build time, it is fixed.  I'll think about this one also.

 

Ron

 

 

I guess the question is what command role is the player in when they are playing the game.  In most traditional war games the player pretty much has complete control over the forces and how the player goes about determining and pursuing objectives.  In a few games, however, the game system includes some provision for showing that the player isn't all commanding and that they report to a superior officer or supreme commander.  I think MMP's A Victory Denied has a Hitler Directive mechanic where the player may at some point be directed to march against Moscow or against some other objective.  

In the series that you've created I think you've correctly limited the player's role by not allowing control over unit builds (at least in RGW where a player can spend replacements to build a unit but has not control over what unit is rebuilt).  So you've already accounted for the player's command level to some degree.  Of course modelling command level to a greater extent is far easier in theory than it would be in practice to implement.  There's also the question of whether it would merit the development time and effort.

I really like the elegant mechanics in the game system that force the player into dififcult decisions - where to attack given limited numbers of attacks per turns, how to husband offensive resources (panzers) as they are worn down by fighting and lack of supply, the simple yet effective C&C and support system through HQ's, and the wonderful implementation of FOW.  If I had a dream hex and counter based pc war game it would be your system on the Eastern Front at corps level with pretty much the same mechanics, as I find the campaign game and the number of units daunting!

Doug

You make another interesting point with respect to the number of units.  Our games so far have been at the division/brigade level, which makes the number of units large on both sides.  Some wargamers like this, others not so much.  Often it is difficult to invest the time to play a game with 1000 units on each side even if you like that unit density.  We made several small scenarios for that purpose in WWII-Europe.

WWII-Europe is still committed to the division/brigade level, so we won't address your comment with it fully except for small scenarios.  However, I have often thought about a corps level game like you mentioned though.  One of my favorites was Avalon Hill's Russian Front.  I like the combat scheme of combat in a hex, multiple rounds, until someone decides to retreat.  The game is at German corps level and Russian army level. so there are fewer units.  Maybe after WWII-Europe.....

Ron

Originally Posted By Ron Dockal (26 MAY 2012 11:59am)

You make another interesting point with respect to the number of units.  Our games so far have been at the division/brigade level, which makes the number of units large on both sides.  Some wargamers like this, others not so much.  Often it is difficult to invest the time to play a game with 1000 units on each side even if you like that unit density.  We made several small scenarios for that purpose in WWII-Europe.

 

WWII-Europe is still committed to the division/brigade level, so we won't address your comment with it fully except for small scenarios.  However, I have often thought about a corps level game like you mentioned though.  One of my favorites was Avalon Hill's Russian Front.  I like the combat scheme of combat in a hex, multiple rounds, until someone decides to retreat.  The game is at German corps level and Russian army level. so there are fewer units.  Maybe after WWII-Europe.....

 

Ron

Well I think your approach of providing a whole slew of scenarios -small, moderate, big and campaign does a nice job of catering to a whole range of preferences on scenario side.  There's certainly a corps and army level niche that no current pc wargame currently addresses on the Eastern Front.  Grigsby's WIR used corps as the basic units acting as containers for divisions and I was a little disappointed that WITE didn't adopt a similar approach, particuarly given the small number of scenarios and front wide focus of that game.  

I've have Russian Front and it is an excellent game.   IMO the top game at that level is the old board game Trial of Strength which is a Dave O'Connor Panther Games design.  He uses HQ's to provide support and also to provide FOW through off map holding boxes.  One of the really interesting aspects of his design is the intergration of movement and combat through the use of battle hex and movement point penalty counters to denote the delays and friction that would occur and that needs to be accounted for in his system.   I'm playing a game with a friend currently on Vassal.

Doug

On my RGW Pbem game I can hear no music.  I always thought the music on this game was neat.  I am using Windows 7, is there any way I can get the music to play?

Ron

Originally Posted By Battleline (27 MAY 2012 4:35am)

On my RGW Pbem game I can hear no music.  I always thought the music on this game was neat.  I am using Windows 7, is there any way I can get the music to play?

 

Ron

I can't get the music to play through the game installed in Windows 7 either.  So I just go into the game folder and select the music file and play it through the windows player.  Actually I think I might look at creating a play list of this music plus some other patriotic music (tchaikovsky etc.) to create a play list for playing the game and running it on random selection.

Doug

Just managed an A- on my playthrough of Approach to Leningrad as the Germans.  Managed Struck with the 41st panzer corps and and managed to sneak the 8th panzer division into the city when the AI neglected to move a rifle division or two to defend it.  After that it was merely a task of cleaning up the pockets and advancing as far east as I could.  I released the Fins from their stop line as many games do this if and when Leningrad Falls.  At the end there were only 3 rifle and a tank brigade left that I could see.

Doug

Ordered AGW and Middle East from NWS Online Store.   Really would like to start playing this series agian PBEM so I may have to talk a few friends into picking up the game.

Doug

I got Forward to the East playing but could not find the Russian music.  What is the label for it?

Approach to Lenningrad is not to hard to win as the Axis.  I am playing right now Solmensk.  Give that a try with the HQ effects.

Also thinking of picking up AGW.  Would you be intersted in playing Pbem?

Ron