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Author Topic: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis  (Read 3497 times)

Aigre Excalibur

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Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« on: January 31, 2018, 08:33:21 am »

Objective:

I want to simulate a war where all parties are technologically flat, shifting focus from design of kit and gear to micro-strategy.

The strategic map(s) will be a several copypasta(s) of google earth, with terrain, realistic frontages and ranges taken into account. The factions will be largely (sort of) fictional, with symmetrical starting strengths.

Team Blue will be Marseille , holding the area we call France, with Paris as its capital. Team Red will be Deutchland, holding the area we call Germany, with Berlin as its capital.

The land map will be limited to Germany and France and the countries caught in between. Sea battle shall not be simulated.

Thread for Deutchland: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169366.0

Thread for Marseille: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=169367.0


Game Flow:
January 1914 to June 1914: The road to war
Each turn is 1 month. Each nation has 6 turns to mobilize their army and prepare for war. War begins in July. Deployment of battalions and divisions can be expedited during month long turns. (like we won't count marching kilometers, we just deploy them.)

July 1914 onwards: Day by day in the trenches
Each turn is 1 DAY. Each nation deploys every single battalion in detail along the borders. You then fight to the death.
As each turn is 1 day, a political point is awarded for spending every 6 days instead of 5 monthly.

Hidden fun stuff:
You may go across neutral countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland) and turn them into warzones. But unexpected things may happen.

Other assumptions: Perfect information. Everyone roughly knows what everyone is doing, but we can keep voting in their own threads so it's organized. Turns run from a few days to a week or two.

War turn flow:

Movement phase: You draw arrows on a google map in the general direction of your divisions' advance. The general staff will be democratized, and the most voted for plan wins.
You may also split the armies into army groups for sanity sake and theater management.

Battle phase: I compute rolls for every single company on the field.

Other player actions: You can be officered and take direct command of a company or battalion on the field, and ignore your fellow general staff's instructions if you so wish.

Strategic Variables:
Political Power - Every month you get 5 points of political power to take non-combat strategic actions. - Namely mobilization, which is the creation of new military units and industrial expansion - which gives you the material to create said units. Successes in the field can increase the rate at which political power is awarded. Disasters deplete the will of the country and reduce the rate at which political power is given. The exact mechanics of what consists of a "success" or "disaster" and its severity will be at the GM's discretion.

Recruitment - 1 Political point enables the recruitment of 10,000 conscripts. The exact organization of said troops will be discussed in the military section. Each side has roughly 50 million human beings in total, and the casualty figure in proportion to total population will have an impact on political power.

Steel Industry - The starting production of each faction shall be 2,500.000 metric tons of steel. The use of which is covered in the military section. Political power can be spent to increase this figure by up to 1% per turn per point spent. Demographic changes to the country or significant losses in territory or logistical disruptions can adversely affect this figure.

Mobilization - Decreases steel output by 1% but increases the number of men conscripted per political point spent by 10%.

Politick - Attempt to influence the opinion of a minor country on the map.

Tactical Variables:

The smallest tactical unit simulated shall be the company. But every footsoldier shall be counted. Each soldier is simulated by providing a number of dice attacks to their unit...
A company shall be 250 men. A battalion 1000 men. A regiment, 3000 men. A division can be any combination of regiments.

Dice:
A soldier rolls a number of dice equal to their quality to attack. The number of total attack dice is modified by terrain, distance, morale and in some cases, supply.
Against an enemy exposed on open ground (on the march or attacking) an attack hits on a 4 or higher.
Against an enemy that is stationary but unentrenched, an attack hits on a 5 or 6.
Against an entrenched enemy, an attack hits only on a 6.

A units hitpoints is equal to their dice rating + modifiers. If a unit of 200 regular troops with a 2 dice rating each receive 21 hits, 10 of them die. Hits to kill are always rounded down.

Infantry must have line of sight to attack. And can make use of defilades and slopes.

Range:
Units hit with their full power at 100 metres or less.
Units hit with 50% power at 300 metres. Between 100 and 300 metres the formula is {1-(D-100)/200}*0.5+0.5 where D is the range.
Units hit with 10% power at 1000 metres. Between 300 to 1000 metres the formula is {1-(D-300)/700}*0.4+0.1 where D is the range

Morale:
Morale is a measure of both leadership and disposition of a tactical unit. Morale is measured in percentage. For every 1% of manpower lost in a company, 1% of morale shall be lost, and combat effectiveness is reduced. A unit at 50% morale has offensive dice reduced by 50%. This stacks with range modifiers in a multiplicative way. Morale cannot go above 100% or below 0%.

Officers:
Bay12 Players, apart from playing the general staff can choose adopt a combat unit and control it directly. Even to the point of ignoring the general staff if they choose to.

A Captain provides a 100% morale boost to a single company, inspiring them to feats of heroism or suicidal bravery.

A Colonel provides a 25% morale boost to a battalion of 4 companies.

Tactical Maneuvers:

Normal Move: A unit travels at its usual speed. If hit by fire it is exposed and the enemy lands hit on 4 ups.

Forced March: A unit travels at double speed but takes 1% casualties in attrition per day if militia. 0.5% casualties if Regular, and none if veteran.

Attack: A unit fires on an enemy, with all ranged penalties and entrenchment effects taken into account.

Standing Orders to Engage: A unit fires on the nearest enemy every day without fail, regardless of what happens.

Massed Charge: A unit heroically leaps out of their trench, runs across the entirety of no man's land and storms the enemy trenches. The enemy gets a free shot every 100 metres of no man's land that the charging units have to cross. If they land in the enemy trenches, they engage the enemy without any fortification effects.

Cautious advance: A unit advances slowly and the enemy only lands hits on them on 5s and 6s. They may try to dig a new trench the next day. They may also attempt to fire on the same day.

Entrench: A unit digs a new trench where it stands. It doesn't matter how many survive at the end of the day. If enough men started the trenchworks, a trench would be built that day.

Reorganization: Depleted Companies can be combined to create whole companies. This conveniently replenishes the morale of the newly formed companies. Companies must be completely homogeneous in terms of type of men and equipment given.


Unit Types:

Infantry:
Militia
Dice: 1
Training Time: 1 month
Foot Speed: 2km/h or 16 km a day.

Regulars
Dice: 2
Training Time: 3 months or 2 months of continuous combat by a militia unit.
Foot Speed: 3km/h or 24 km a day.

Veterans
Dice: 3
Training Time: 12 months or 6 months of continuous combat by a regular unit
Foot Speed: 6km/h or 48 km a day.

Equipment:
Infantry Equipment:
Notes: Helmet and small arms that outfit all infantry.
Cost: 0.010 Metric Tons per man. 2.5 Metric Tons per 250 man company. 10 Tons per Battalion

Trench Armor:
Effect: +1 hitpoints per man when receiving hits. Equipped companies must be homogeneous
Effect: HALVES the speed of infantry equipped. (If you mass charge while wearing armor, you run 50 metres instead of 100 metres)
Cost: 0.010 Metric Tons per man. 2.5 Metric Tons per 250 man company. 10 Tons per Battalion

Artillery:
Artillery shall be organized into 25 gun batteries, with 10 men per gun. Each man requires a set of infantry equipment. When receiving fire. Each man shall have the hitpoints of 1 dice only. A gun is destroyed for every 10 men lost in a battery. 4 batteries can form an artillery regiment.

Artillery have 10 times the range of infantry. They hit with full power out to 1000 metres, 50% at 3 km, 10% at 10 km. They may also entrench themselves.

Light Artillery (5-7.5cm):
Dice: 5 (attack only)
Training time: 3 months.
Speed: 2km/hr or 16km a day.
Cost: 2 tons

Heavy Artillery (15cm)
Dice: 10 (Attack only)
Training Time: 3 months
Speed: 1km/hr or 8km a day.
Range Special: x1.2 - 100% at 1200m 50% at 3600m 10% at 12km
Cost: 6 tons

Super Heavy Artillery (30cm)
Dice: 100 (Attack Only)
Training Time: 3 months
Speed: 0.5 km/hr or 4 km a day
Range Special: x4 - 100% at 4000m 50% at 12km 10% at 40km.
Cost: 1,500 tons
May be ordered in single pieces.
Each piece has 100 men worth of manpower and hitpoints instead of 10.

There shall be no other units. No cavalry. nope.

Pretty picture of the Marsielle-Deutchland border with both Paris and Berlin visible:
Verdun isn't visible, but it's just west of Metz...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: February 01, 2018, 02:59:18 am by Aigre Excalibur »
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Never ever cease communication with your enemies, never ever cease interaction with them, never isolate yourself from them. Never ignore them, relish the time to deal with them, to exercise banter. The biggest mistake one can make is ignoring one's enemies. Go out of your way to pick a fight today.

Aigre Excalibur

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Re: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2018, 08:51:36 am »

Reserved for Turn List
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Kashyyk

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Re: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2018, 09:01:33 am »

Whilst this sounds like it could be amusing (in a very black humour way), if it ends up taking as long as WWI it'll be one and half thousand turns before we're done. Considering you could easily be throwing upwards of a hundred thousand dice per turn, I worry for your throwing hand and your risk of burn out.

I'll play though, because I have an unhealthy obsession with overly complicated games.
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Aigre Excalibur

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Re: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2018, 09:07:15 am »

Whilst this sounds like it could be amusing (in a very black humour way), if it ends up taking as long as WWI it'll be one and half thousand turns before we're done. Considering you could easily be throwing upwards of a hundred thousand dice per turn, I worry for your throwing hand and your risk of burn out.

I'll play though, because I have an unhealthy obsession with overly complicated games.

Computerized dice rolling. I've got it covered.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: January 31, 2018, 09:09:05 am by Aigre Excalibur »
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Stirk

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Re: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2018, 09:22:09 am »

Isn't this more of a wargame then an anti-arms race?

Viva la Marseille.
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Aigre Excalibur

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Re: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« Reply #5 on: January 31, 2018, 09:39:13 am »

In case you need more faith in my ability to run dicerolls in the thousands:

What you do is get random.org to give you a thousand numbers. Paste into excel and get it sorted neatly, then run a COUNTIF argument.

This is how it'll look like:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Anyway feel free to post plans in the general staff discussions for each nation.
« Last Edit: January 31, 2018, 09:41:36 am by Aigre Excalibur »
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Never ever cease communication with your enemies, never ever cease interaction with them, never isolate yourself from them. Never ignore them, relish the time to deal with them, to exercise banter. The biggest mistake one can make is ignoring one's enemies. Go out of your way to pick a fight today.

syvarris

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Re: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« Reply #6 on: January 31, 2018, 11:42:10 am »

Whilst this sounds like it could be amusing (in a very black humour way), if it ends up taking as long as WWI it'll be one and half thousand turns before we're done. Considering you could easily be throwing upwards of a hundred thousand dice per turn, I worry for your throwing hand and your risk of burn out.

I'll play though, because I have an unhealthy obsession with overly complicated games.

Don't worry, it's Aigre, virtually none of his games get farther than the planning stage.

Aig, I'd love to play Anachronistic Trump again and write more of those wonderful rants, but I'm just too busy.  Sorry.

Roboson

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Re: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« Reply #7 on: January 31, 2018, 11:42:48 am »

Quite odd, I just discussed a highly similar principle with the arms race veterans just a week or so ago. I even used excel, a random numbered generator, and several formulas in my proof of concept. Quite nice to see others taking an interest in actually simulating combat.


Marseille.
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Aigre Excalibur

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Re: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« Reply #8 on: January 31, 2018, 01:20:22 pm »

Post a plan in the Marseille thread and I can get processing it tomorrow.
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Madman198237

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Re: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« Reply #9 on: January 31, 2018, 01:25:10 pm »

Well, I'll give it a try.

Joining Deutschland.

Have you considered how on earth even a well-trained group of men in combat gear, carrying their own supplies (probably), is going to "march" (more like run) 7.5 mph for eight hours? Or, perhaps just as bad, 3.75 mph for sixteen hours?
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Aigre Excalibur

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Re: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« Reply #10 on: January 31, 2018, 01:43:45 pm »

Well, I'll give it a try.

Joining Deutschland.

Have you considered how on earth even a well-trained group of men in combat gear, carrying their own supplies (probably), is going to "march" (more like run) 7.5 mph for eight hours? Or, perhaps just as bad, 3.75 mph for sixteen hours?

By having a proportion drop dead and fall out. Just like in real boot camp.
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Never ever cease communication with your enemies, never ever cease interaction with them, never isolate yourself from them. Never ignore them, relish the time to deal with them, to exercise banter. The biggest mistake one can make is ignoring one's enemies. Go out of your way to pick a fight today.

Madman198237

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Re: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« Reply #11 on: January 31, 2018, 01:53:15 pm »

...

Except the veterans are the ones who DON'T LOSE ANYBODY when marching, and even in real boot camp the expectation is not 16 hours of 4mph marching, not if they're still going to be combat-capable at the end of it (Which they are, with this ruleset).
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Stirk

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Re: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« Reply #12 on: January 31, 2018, 02:52:54 pm »

...

Except the veterans are the ones who DON'T LOSE ANYBODY when marching, and even in real boot camp the expectation is not 16 hours of 4mph marching, not if they're still going to be combat-capable at the end of it (Which they are, with this ruleset).

Its simple evolution. Fun fact: During this time in real life, men grew wheels from their legs after having faced stressful combat, allowing them to move much faster than normal. That is where the idea of "cars" came from. Tanks were designed after a soldier who got shot one too many times and grew thick armor plates to defend himself, and planes were based off a soldier who fell out of a spy balloon and learned to fly as a result.

Trust me, I am a scientist.
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Doomblade187

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Re: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« Reply #13 on: January 31, 2018, 03:13:55 pm »

Deutschland!

As a Captain.


Edit: Changed sides, many much France team.
« Last Edit: January 31, 2018, 03:27:28 pm by Doomblade187 »
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Re: Trenchgrind: An Arms Race Antithesis
« Reply #14 on: January 31, 2018, 03:21:30 pm »

Mariselle. Being a captain friend!
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