Re: Range doubling
Hi Felix
Thanks for your input I think maybe I am not explaining clear enough because I'm not sure why you think the map size needs to double. Map is now 10 kilometers by 8 kilometers If you doubled ranges map size would become 5 kilometers by 4 kilometers but still have the same number of hexes but would be called 25m hexes instead of 50m hexes, but are the same hexes.
Yes I do think about what other players want and I think they want a game that accurately reflects ww2 combat. As I explained earlier one of the big game problems is that the rate of fire of a unit doesn't match its rate of movement. For example a M8 greyhound can travel 30 hexes (90kph) a turn that means it can travel one and a half kilometers in a single turn. If you divide the distance travelled in a turn into the vehicles speed per turn, ie 5400m per minute divided by 1500m travelled, you find that a turn is 3.6 minutes.
So a turn is 3.6 minutes long.
The Greyhounds 37mm guns rate of fire is 10 rpm (and I'm being very conservative here).
So if the Greyhound sat still for a turn and fired its 37mm gun for that turns 3.6 minutes then it should get (3.6x10) 35 shots in that turn. It gets 6.
So calculating turn times using speed gives a way different turn time than if you calculate turn time using ROF and they -should- give the same result. So that's a problem. But I have the solution.
You can fix this by making the hexes 25m instead of 50m which is achieved by simply doubling ranges nothing more. With just that simple change;
Greyhound now travels .75klm instead of 1.5klm in a turn, turn is now 1.7min instead of 3.6min, Greyhound that should have got 35 shots/turn now should get 17 shots/turn (half) a big improvement because 17 is much closer than 35 to the games 6 shots. ie The discrepancy between speed and ROF is now only half as bad as it was. And considering actual real engagement ROFs about right.
All this is accomplished by just doubling the ranges, nothing else!
Hi Mobhack
Oh I'm sure you're good enough to put a little bit of error checking in place. What's the worst that can happen? I have to replace the OOB I buggered up by importing the spreadsheet data into it with the original I made a copy of before I buggered the OOB? I think I can live with that. Who knows maybe I could do it error free? I bet I could.
I would like to make the Mod for you but when I see how much -unneccessary- work is required it puts me off, but I might get there. I'm sure other players could make good use of the import facility as well. Please, please reinstate it. Maybe put a user beware warning in there somewhere?
OK so obviously turn length varies according to the vehicle you choose to calculate it with but in my experience it's always somewhere between 3 and 4 minutes
Here's another example, Sherman M4A1, speed 13, (37kph) so can travel 650m per turn. calculate turn time, 2,220/650 gives turn time of 3.4 min. ROF for a Sherman 75 is usually given as 10-12 RPM lets say 5 rpm so 5x3.4 is 17 shots. So bare minimum shots per 3.4 minute turn is 17 shots. Game gives 3. So doubling the range means speed/ROF discrepancy moves from 17:3 to 8:3, much more realistic.
So put tactically the problem with the game is this, any unit travelling across the map only draws a very small fraction of the fire that it would draw in reality from a stationary firing unit for any given distance.
Using the Sherman example if a stationary Sherman is shooting at a traveling Sherman that travels 650m (top speed for one turn) it has enough time, 3.4 minutes, to get 17 shots off at the travelling Sherman but it only gets 3. So the game is emphasising manoeuvre over firepower by basically letting units teleport about the board.
Felix the only change you will notice in game play is that weapon ranges are doubled otherwise the game plays exactly the same. Vehicles travel the same number of hexes per turn, weapons fire the same number of times per turn, some advantages of the change are you don't have to pile units up into one hex as much, blast zones are more sensible, range looks right because it matches the Icon size better, the map matches the Icon size better.
Numbers will vary slightly according to Morale etc but in no way make any difference to the argument I am presenting.
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