Sgt_Rock
Member
As I was working on an OB file today the thought came to mind: why not have artillery Disorder? Then I remembered that many of our OBs in the series do not have officers for the artillery brigades. In order for a unit to get the bonus from the chain of command for disorder recovery they need to a. be in a Brigade org type and b. have a leader.
Several of our artillery orgs are divisions OR do not have a leader.
In case anyone else was thinking along the same lines as I just remember that if we did advocate for artillery to Disorder that most of the orgs would not work with the command system and many of them do not have the leaders needed to pass down a command bonus.
Now someone might think, "Well good, that would be one way of simulating the concept of the guns being out of action for awhile."
The problem with that is is that folks will just fire their guns anyway ...
The real answer to the artillery problem is to get a "Low Ammo" result for them and have ammo recovery be based on the percentage of available ammo. And as the code for "Low Ammo" or "No Ammo" is based on the Wagon code my suggestion is that we go with something like what the Panzer Campaigns series has which is "Unavailable" or something like that.
So here is how I would offer up the concept to John:
1. The percentage for going "Unavailable" is based on the percentage of all artillery ammo. That ammo amount would be found in ver. 14 of the PDT file per side. The percentage amount could be either added along with one of the existing lines or in its own new line OR just be hard coded into the Main Program (easier for Scenario Designers as we do not have to go back and recode all of the PDT files again and John may prefer that method too). I guess the big argument towards the PDT file having the value is that the designer may want to model a low ammo or plentiful ammo situation.
2. The artillery would only be considered for "Unavailable" once the ammo percentage amount is reached. That way the result would not be occurring on Turn 1.
3. The percentage that they would go "Unavailable" would be based on a percentage either found in the Main Program or the PDT file. We can discuss this golden number later.
4. The way that a battery is recovered from "Unavailable" status would be based on its command status and if it is Isolated or not. Again, a percentage would be the base figure and then modifiers would apply. My feeling is that no battery that is in that status and is isolated should NOT be allowed to change its status and fire again. Discussing this point further:
a. What about situations where entire formations are surrounded (say, Nappy at the Battle of the Pyramids)? I would model in a supply point on the map for the French in that case. That way they would never be isolated.
b. What about fortresses? As per a.
So what percentages would we use for the change in status? Possibly 2 percent for each shot? 1 percent? I do not think we can use fractions but I would opt for something like .5 percent. That is 1 in 200. As we get a lot of AI fire maybe we could say that the fire in the player's turn has a higher risk of causing the status change whereas AI fire does not. Not sure if John can program this but it would be similar to the Infantry fire Low Ammo test. I think that they can deplete ammo with a lower percentage during AI fire. When fired in their own turn the percentage is the same. I would have to check with John on this.
This is my answer to the Artillery Ammo problem but mainly to point out that while disorder does not apply to artillery the idea of adding it in will not stop a player from firing his guns.
One answer may be to just to reduce ammo in scenarios to force the player to reduce the number of batteries he has "on the line." As we have something like 3000 scenarios out there (probably more) this would be a bit difficult. Maybe the answer is in this new "Unavailable" status? I will talk this over with John and maybe this is something he could do which would not take a lot of time.
Several of our artillery orgs are divisions OR do not have a leader.
In case anyone else was thinking along the same lines as I just remember that if we did advocate for artillery to Disorder that most of the orgs would not work with the command system and many of them do not have the leaders needed to pass down a command bonus.
Now someone might think, "Well good, that would be one way of simulating the concept of the guns being out of action for awhile."
The problem with that is is that folks will just fire their guns anyway ...
The real answer to the artillery problem is to get a "Low Ammo" result for them and have ammo recovery be based on the percentage of available ammo. And as the code for "Low Ammo" or "No Ammo" is based on the Wagon code my suggestion is that we go with something like what the Panzer Campaigns series has which is "Unavailable" or something like that.
So here is how I would offer up the concept to John:
1. The percentage for going "Unavailable" is based on the percentage of all artillery ammo. That ammo amount would be found in ver. 14 of the PDT file per side. The percentage amount could be either added along with one of the existing lines or in its own new line OR just be hard coded into the Main Program (easier for Scenario Designers as we do not have to go back and recode all of the PDT files again and John may prefer that method too). I guess the big argument towards the PDT file having the value is that the designer may want to model a low ammo or plentiful ammo situation.
2. The artillery would only be considered for "Unavailable" once the ammo percentage amount is reached. That way the result would not be occurring on Turn 1.
3. The percentage that they would go "Unavailable" would be based on a percentage either found in the Main Program or the PDT file. We can discuss this golden number later.
4. The way that a battery is recovered from "Unavailable" status would be based on its command status and if it is Isolated or not. Again, a percentage would be the base figure and then modifiers would apply. My feeling is that no battery that is in that status and is isolated should NOT be allowed to change its status and fire again. Discussing this point further:
a. What about situations where entire formations are surrounded (say, Nappy at the Battle of the Pyramids)? I would model in a supply point on the map for the French in that case. That way they would never be isolated.
b. What about fortresses? As per a.
So what percentages would we use for the change in status? Possibly 2 percent for each shot? 1 percent? I do not think we can use fractions but I would opt for something like .5 percent. That is 1 in 200. As we get a lot of AI fire maybe we could say that the fire in the player's turn has a higher risk of causing the status change whereas AI fire does not. Not sure if John can program this but it would be similar to the Infantry fire Low Ammo test. I think that they can deplete ammo with a lower percentage during AI fire. When fired in their own turn the percentage is the same. I would have to check with John on this.
This is my answer to the Artillery Ammo problem but mainly to point out that while disorder does not apply to artillery the idea of adding it in will not stop a player from firing his guns.
One answer may be to just to reduce ammo in scenarios to force the player to reduce the number of batteries he has "on the line." As we have something like 3000 scenarios out there (probably more) this would be a bit difficult. Maybe the answer is in this new "Unavailable" status? I will talk this over with John and maybe this is something he could do which would not take a lot of time.
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