The Competition & Teaser Thread

[Strela]

So if there is no real facing direction in PB, then won't the general overall strength of the tank(s) be reduced to make up for the fact of abstraction. Doesn't this make the Tigers as more invincible as one would hope?

Squad Battles 40 meter hexes and 5 minute turns and you can be flanked easily, so I don't see 250m hexes from prohibiting flank or rear attacks.

We could do it in Panzer Leader back in the mid 70's

I do find scale x time difference intriguing.

PzB: 250m x 15 minutes.
vs
SB: 40 m and 5 minutes = 120m x 15 minutes - based on 3 times......

I must be overlooking something here?

PzB is 250m x 30 minutes
vs
SB 40m and 5 minutes

This means at approximately 6 times (not 3 times) 240m & 30 minutes....

The scale to Panzer Campaigns is another 4 times at 1,000m & 2 hours.

There is consistency between the three game series.

As far as facing we honestly believe we have it right by not including it at this scale. There was a long debate about the merits or otherwise of including it. A lot of reading indicated that once you got to platoon and beyond, units orientated themselves to protect their flanks or looked to pull back as quickly as possible if they were threatened. As Trauth116 calls out in the time frame units were able to orientate themselves to protect flanks where possible.

Here is one example from Rudolf von Ribbentrop's diary, a Leibstandarte PzKw IV company commander;

'I let the canteen cup fall and called out: "Start your engines!" That was followed a moment later by: "Follow me!" I called out to the executive officer, Malchow: We'll move out in line to the slope. You echelon your platoon to the left. I will be in the middle and on the right with the other three vehicles. Bend your left flank back somewhat in case we are outflanked. We'll position ourselves on the reverse slope and knock out the Russians from there!'

Ribbentrop's 'company' had a grand total of seven tanks at this time, essentially a reinforced platoon yet it was considering its flanks and how to protect them as soon as it moved out.

The offset to the above example is the firepower when a unit the size of Ribbentrop's runs into a full strength company or two of Soviet tanks (20 vehicles). The weight of firepower will put the Germans at a disadvantage and though flanks are not specifically shown the effect of the additional Russian vehicles will abstractly reflect the ability to overwhelm smaller units - morale & equipment quality notwithstanding.

There is another feature included in Panzer Battles that I don't want to reveal at this time that will allow flanking and kill zones to be reflected in game. Considering this feature we think we have covered some of the concerns people are voicing here.

Finally, Trauth116 is right - the time periods can be changed in the scenario editor. The scale and timings have been carefully considered for what players should be able to achieve in a turn - particularly in a World War 2 battle at Platoon/Company scale. Factors such as move distances, casualties etc have all been factored into the decisions here and as one person pointed out the six minute periods in John Tiller's Campaign Series allowed too many actions for too short a period. We believe through a lot of testing and comparison to historical results that we have a reasonable facsimile. As players we want it all to happen with immediacy and that just isn't the case of what happened in reality.

David