|
"Mad Colonel" Build (Now TWICE As Long!!!)
"Mad Colonel" Build Rules for Steel Panthers
These are rules for buying units in a PBEM meeting engagement that strike a compromise between historical accuracy and gamer tinkering. They remain in development. I’m posting them here to get additional feedback.
With the Mad Colonel rules, each player builds battalions. Each battalion is built in 13 “steps” in a specific order. Each step is the purchase of a platoon, or a company, or rarely two sections (to represent a platoon only when none is offered). Once a battalion is built, the player returns to step 1 and begins building a second battalion. This continues until the player no longer can purchase the cheapest unit available at that step, at which point the handful of remaining points may be spent on any sort of unit except those restricted to step 13.
These battalions are only battalions in name and rough number of units. They’re actually miniature (about 10% of actual size) generic armored infantry divisions with generally historical ratios of infantry, armor, artillery, and support arms. Fielding mini-divisions in this way makes it easier to practice combined arms at this scale.
Each step describes the required purchase in vague terms, so that when (for example) you're required to purchase an AA platoon, you're free to purchase a stationary AA or SAM platoon, a SPAA or SP-SAM platoon, or a stationary platoon with transport attached to it. Whatever's available in your OOB that is defined as an AA platoon is fair game. As another example, a "recon platoon" can be all foot scouts, mounted scouts in a "road patrol," armored cars ... *any* platoon in your OOB used for recon.
When a step calls for the purchase of a company, the entire company must be purchased. Do not delete platoons within it. For the purpose of this guide, a “section” is a single formation with 2 fighting units (and possibly 1-2 transport units) in it. A “platoon” is a single formation with 3+ fighting units. A “company” is 2+ formations with a company level HQ.
Below are the units that must be purchased, in the order in which they must be purchased. Those marked with an asterisk are purely a player option; that step can be skipped if desired. Those marked with a double asterisk are potentially optional: If previously purchased units in that battalion already include three or more of the described weapons, then treat the step as optional. (Conversely, buying a unit that includes rare assets does not preclude buying more of those assets during the normal step. For instance, SPWW2 U.S. Army players can buy an infantry support company in step 7 with integral offboard 105mm support. This does not restrict that player from buying even more artillery in step 12.) The 13 steps are:
1. HQ. This is the HQ unit for the first battalion. For battalions 2+, purchase *any* company in your OOB and delete all but the company HQ formation. That’s the de facto battalion HQ.
2. Any FO unit (representing the HQ company of a division) or a light helicopter.
3. Any recon platoon.
4. Any infantry company.
5. Identical formation to No. 4; variant squads may be selected within it, however.
6*. If 4 and 5 are foot units, you optionally may buy 1 or 2 platoons of ground transport here. (They do not have to match.) If 4 and 5 are airmobile units without integral transport, 1 or 2 platoons of transport helicopters or ground transport may be purchased. If 4 and 5 are paratroop units without integral transport, any 2 transport platoons are eligible.
7*. Infantry support company only if it matches 4 and 5 (paratroop to paratroop, mechanized to mechanized, etc). Otherwise, 1 platoon chosen from: MGs, ATs, mortars, or a mixed support platoon intended for the companies purchased in steps 4 and 5. If you have a weird OOB that only offers (for instance) MG sections, it would be OK to purchase 2 sections here to represent a platoon.
8. Engineer platoon.
9. Tank company. If 4 and 5 are foot units but step 6 was skipped, a light tank company may be purchased if available. If step 6 allowed purchase of helicopters, and no ground vehicles have been purchased to this point in this battalion, then several sections of attack helicopters (totaling no less than 10 nor more than 20 copters) may be substituted.
10**. Tank killer (AT guns, SP-ATs, ATGMs, SP-ATGMs, SP-RRs, etc) or specialized armor (engineering, close support) platoon. ATGMs likely will have to be purchased as 2 sections.
11**. AA platoon.
12**. Light or medium artillery platoon. This is 3 or 4 guns, onboard or off, up to 109mm in WW2 or 159mm in modern battles. Many OOBs have their smallest offboard purchase as two units each containing 4 guns. These may be purchased, but the second unit is considered your step 13 purchase.
13. One special unit. Pick one of: ordnance section, light or medium artillery platoon (3–4 guns), heavy artillery section (1–2 guns), rocket section (1-2 launch platforms), air strike (2–3 planes), observation aircraft, attack copters section, sniper team (any size), special forces platoon, anything else with cherry flavoring included.
That's it. Any points left over, go back to step 1 and start a new battalion.
Here's the "mad colonel" part: It's your fight, by gosh, and no chain of command is going to tell you how to fight it. Once you've purchased your assets, you're free to shuffle units between platoons, reassign platoons to different companies, whatever you feel like doing. Trim infantry squads off your step 4 and 5 units to attach to the step 9 platoons as tank riders? Sure, if that’s what you want to do. There's no restrictions on reorganizing. (It might be a good idea to keep brief notes on what you purchased and how you reorganized, to be exchanged at game's end.) This isn’t entirely ahistorical: A field commander doesn’t have much say in what he receives, but after a little hard fighting he has a lot of say in how he organizes it.
Note: If using these rules, set the air asset points high, so that all air options remain available throughout the purchase process. These rules, rather than points available, will limit air purchases.
Any feedback welcome.
-- 30 --
|
Archived Forums
Help
Calendar
Member List
Search
![[Image: Medals50_thumb8.gif]](http://s244.photobucket.com/user/Vesku72/media/Medals50_thumb8.gif.html)
,
){kind=link}
