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Re: DS3 design (long)

From: John Atkinson <johnmatkinson@g...>
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 09:08:53 +0200
Subject: Re: DS3 design (long)

On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 12:53:26 +0100, Oerjan Ohlson <roger@firedrake.org>
wrote:

> Unless you do something drastic about the structure of the game turn,
you'll
> need to cut the game turn to around *1* minute to allow vehicles
reasonably
> realistic combat movement and fire rates - and even then you'll
seriously
> underestimate the movement rates of units out of contact with the
enemy (eg.
> rear-area reserves or relocating artillery batteries).

On the other hand, any military operation includes a significant
amount of time sitting around doing very little.  I am always amused
by wargames that have infantry moving at max movement rate for
extended periods of time.  You can't imagine how tiring it is to do
that.  Infantry should have a 'combat speed' that they can keep up for
a short time and a 'patrol speed' that they can keep up for hours.  If
you want to properly simulate infantry tactics.

Vehicles don't have the same limits, but anyone who has ever done a
field exercise knows how much time vehicles spend sitting around
waiting for something else to happen, then they move to another point
and wait some more, and another point and wait a bit more.  In a
six-turn DSII scenario the action probably totals 6 minutes, but the
total time taken from start to finish is probably even more than an
hour and a half.

> >iii) DS2 caps all ranges at 6000m because that is the sea level
horizon on
> >Earth. Why? Not all battles are fought on a flat plain at sea level. 
If I am on
> >a hill, ridge or escarpment, I should be able to shoot at targets 7,
8, or
> >more km away with a laser.
> 
> Yep. Unless of course there's some minor terrain feature blocking the
LOS -
> and it doesn't take much: minor undulations of the ground, minor
copses, a
> few scattered houses, hedges... none of which is big enough to show up
on
> the DS2 gaming table, but they nevertheless influence the battle.

Again, this is where actually going out an dinking around cross
country would be helpful.  Microterrain can hide fairly significant
things (as anyone who's ever come over what looks like a slight rise
and gone headlong into a huge ditch can attest).  We play on billards
tables because no one wants the headache of producing something
accurate.  But even in NTC there are small rises which are significant
enough to block line of sight.

> to 15 mph if they're GRAV or FAST GEV, otherwise 10 or 12 mph". In
today's
> real world rear-area HMWs can road-march at 60 mph, and FTR can
road-march
> at 45-50 mph.

Uh, that I have to disagree with.  Can road march in theory and can
road march safely are two seperate concepts.  Even if you accept that
an M113 is slow tracked, we did NOT race around at 45-50 mph.  At
least in US practice,  45mph is what the governor on the M-1 is set at
for the maximum.  Realistic road march speeds are closer to 30-40 mph
even for a wheeled convoy.

> visibility considerations - in DS the latter are more likely than the
former
> since transporting the troops to the battle isn't represented in the
game)

Unless your scenario design includes these considerations.  :)

> IIRC TOW-armed Hummers usually have 6 missiles available, but then
they
> can't fit very much else inside.

And it is also a non-trivial endeavor to reload them, like the
Bradley.  A Bradley would not reload its TOW launchers under fire. 
It's a bit of a thing, and requires the vehicle to be stationary for a
couple minutes.  So the vehicle may not be out of rounds per se, but
still be incapable of firing because it is dodging around like a manic
to try to get to a safe place to reload.

John M. Atkinson

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