arckon said:
1/ Assume one play takes on roll of Overall battle commander. Issues orders to other players?
Sure, here goes...
The break down depends on how the participants want to handle it. Personally I play where you divide the forces up between all the members and then the "commander" for the side is simply the point of contact for the other team for file transfers, etc.
If you have less experienced players though teamed up with a senior player you could have the senior guy "issue orders" and generally "run" the game in that respect. This would probably give a bit more of a historic feel to the experience, but at the same time can take some of the enjoyment out for some people as they will be "forced" to play with another persons style and goals.
2/ Each player is issued with certain troops and sections of the map?
Yes, each player get's certain troops they are responsible for. I then have a group discussions and we hammer out the details of our plan, and certain elements of that plan are assigned to each commander. A thing I always try to do as well is make sure each player has some troops actively involved in the combat, and not having their whole force in reserve.
3/ How does the sending of PBEM files too each other pan out?
I only play in turn mode, as opposed to Phase play. So Turns work much better for this. Simply put it goes like this:
File comes in from opposing team to force Commander. He watches the replay and then sends everyone a copy of the file so they can too. Any necessary comments are transferred now for this round.
Player #2 then conducts all their movement, fire & melee then save the file (but not advance the turn).
File sent to Player #3 and they do all their stuff.
Continue on if more players to a side.
Finally the file goes back to the Commander for the side, they do all their actions, review the field and complete the turn and send it back to the opposing side.
At times adjustments can be made by the force commander to other troops, if need be. But I only do this if playing with a new player and there's something that Really needs fixing.
Note: If you play this style with Phase play you have to a) have everyone do their movement, then the Commander advances the phase to allow the computer to conduct the defensive fire. b) then everyone has to do their offensive fire, c) then everyone has to do their melee's. It effectively tripples the number of e-mails that have to be sent. :OHNO:
Regards,
Rich