Call for Tactical Gamers!

[choppinlt]

At this point I am happy to enlist anyone who wants to play out some of these battles using a tactical level game such as Combat Mission, Flames of War, Advanced Squad Leader....whatever you want!  I will give you an order of battle and battlefield details, and you and your battle buddy can play out any of these battles that are about to develop. This is another important aspect of what Theater of Operations is trying to accomplish; the ability to zoom in and play a battle using a tactical game.  The only thing I ask is that you and your battle buddy play out the battle as soon as possible (i.e. less than a week). Contact me on this thread or through our website to let me know if you want to participate.

[Christian Knudsen]

Funny enough, I am just (very painfully) re-learning ASL, and would be willing to do something reasonably small for sure.

The fact that my grasp of the rules is nowhere near complete is not an issue, as by definition ASL is impossible to play completely IAW the ruleset anyways; see rule A.2!

[choppinlt]

Christian, do you have someone you can play against? And how small of a battle do you want it to be? It may be tricky to represent anything too small, but I willing to give it a go! 

[Christian Knudsen]

Not really ftf, unfortunately.  I'm really dipping my toes back into the game after 20 yrs.

I was more thinking I would play it solo, but I understand if that's not what you are looking for.

As for size, I don't know that I could handle more than a Bn on either side.  The bigger it is, the longer it will take me to play out, too.

[choppinlt]

As for size, I don't know that I could handle more than a Bn on either side.

WOW!  Yeah that is big enough for what I had in mind.  I was concerned you were talking about a small platoon engagement!

I was more thinking I would play it solo, but I understand if that's not what you are looking for.

To be honest that didn't cross my mind, BUT I think we can make it work if you want to try it! 

[Christian Knudsen]

No, ASL is really well scaled for Coy engagements, but will work up to a Bn or more if it's a big scenario.

I'd be willing to give it a go, but if we can keep it to a bn minus, that would improve the chances of it getting done in the timeframe you are looking at.

Guess I better bone up on the (horribly convoluted) bocage and wall advantage rules...

[choppinlt]

OK, sounds good.    I can easily work to keep it a battalion or less. Thank you so much for offering to help, Christian. This will help A LOT! Once I get everything finalized I will send you an order of battle. I want to make it clear that there will be multiple engagements coming up and if anyone else is interested, please feel free to contact me.

[Christian Knudsen]

FYI, there is a great French government website where one can DL aerial photos of much of the country.  The link below will lead you to great photos taken in 1947 of the whole battle area.

https://remonterletemps.ign.fr/telecharger?x=-1.031342&y=49.113097&z=12&layer=GEOGRAPHICALGRIDSYSTEMS.MAPS&demat=DEMAT.PVA$GEOPORTAIL:DEMAT;PHOTOS&missionId=missions.2349824

Much is the same, but much has changed in the intervening 70-odd years.  Many fields have been opened up, and the larger towns are much bigger - St-Andre-de-l'Epine was much much smaller than it is now, basically a few buildings (one of which is surely a church) around a central square, not much larger than the farms surrounding it. 

Great resource for those looking to make maps, or like me choose suitable ASL boards...

[choppinlt]

This is GREAT, thank you!  I am going to have to check these out in better detail. I have been using Google Earth, and comparing it to my topo maps. I agree many things have changed, but much has remained the same or similar.

FYI, I am finalizing an OOB for you to convert to an ASL scenario.

[choppinlt]

WOW, this is fantastic!! I chose the "Compare" option...what a fantastic tool this is...!

[Christian Knudsen]

I don't have the link to hand, but there is a thread on the CMBN forum that tells you how to take the downloaded map image and overlay it onto google earth, then use that program to create a topo overlay, so you can basically have an aerial photo with elevation lines. It's a bit time consuming, but a very powerful way to go about creating period maps, especially for CM.

[choppinlt]

Interesting... I didn't know about the thread, but I actually played around with that several months ago. I will have to find that thread and see if there is a smarter way for me to go about doing it. It was fun to mess around with for awhile, but then I got the itch to actually play and never got back to the map... 

[Tactical Wargamer]

Love to help out where ever I can to play battles. Good for several turns a week. All the best in this project. Waiting for this for 30 years of wargaming

[choppinlt]

 Awesome TW!  What is your gaming system of choice? Am I to assume CM?

[Tactical Wargamer]

If you please sir. Yes.