The Combat System

[choppinlt]

Well I think I have finished my latest revisions to the combat system.  I believe this is the first major revision in about a year. So now I just need to test it out and figure out if it is working how I want!

So I want to try to give you more of a peek under the hood of the combat system. When a unit ZOC touches the footprint of an enemy unit, an engagement occurs. http://dogsofwarvu.com/forum/index.php/topic,1263.msg5339.html#msg5339 (this link is a little dated but the concepts are basically unchanged).
This sets off a whole chain of events and evaluations. The footprint of the attacking unit and it's direction of movement defines the battlefield, which then identifies the opposing forces. Next the overall battlefield terrain is evaluated and categorized, plus the terrain each defending unit occupies is determined (e.g. the overall battlefield may be assessed as flat and open, but a small unit may occupy a small copse of trees). All the data from each unit (equipment present, leadership, fatigue, cohesion, etc) is evaluated to include posture <link> and is used to determine the first round of power ratio's. The following is a complete list of variables that are used in the combat computations-

Every participating ground unit will have the following evaluated:
Leadership
Experience Level
Cohesion
Morale
Fatigue
Ammo Level
Current posture
Equipment Available
How many engagements it is participating in (primarily for defenders)
Battlefield position (defenders only)
Terrain it occupies
Direction of attack (units that are flanked suffer a penalty)
Obstacles (attackers only, which primarily includes streams, rivers and beaches)
Special abilities (right now this is primarily engineers when attacking prepared or fortified positions)

Other variables:
Battlefield Terrain
Weather conditions
Time of Day
Air situation
Season

All of these factors are applied to forces on both sides. The attacking side then adds in any indirect field artillery to the equation as the final piece to determine the initial power ratio. Then defending artillery assets are  evaluated and allocated based on lots of criteria which includes: national doctrine, availability, and need. This establishes the final ratio, and variables are applied to determine final results. Losses are assessed for each element and section participating, plus any cohesion/morale loss as well as any advance/fall back.

I would like to point out some of the above items are simple and straight forward to account for, but others are extremely complex processes like artillery allocation and battlefield terrain evaluations. For instance artillery will only respond IF it is 1) in range; 2) C2 is established throughout the chain; 3) is currently available for assignment; 4) has enough ammo; 5) and, last but not least, comes national doctrine. Then the actual allocation process needs to assess how much artillery is assigned to a particular in engagement based on need or other requests for fire support.

Terrain is basically broken down in to a topography component and a cover component. In basic terms there are 3 topo categories: flat, rolling, and steep. Cover categories include: open, mixed, bocage, and wooded. Swamp/marsh and built-up/urban are their own special categories.

Next I will talk a bit more about the dynamics of the battlefield, and why that matters.

[Asid]

Great news Matt. 

[choppinlt]

Dynamics and Why It Matters

Happy New Year all! 

The Theater of Operations game concept is built upon a "wego" turn system, which means that all movement and combat is performed simultaneously. Movement direction and posture of all units matters, and these are the dynamics I am talking about. I have included a few pics to better illustrate what I am talking about. For instance, it matters if a unit is attacking from this direction:

Example 1



or this direction:

Example2


All the units involved are the same, but the only difference is the direction of the attack."But why does this matter if all units are the same?" you ask. Because in example 1 above 3/115 has focused the entire attack at 1/9 with 2/9 and 3/9 sitting far in reserve. In example 2 3/115 is attacking in the teeth of the defense with 1/9 and 2/9 being in the front while 3/9 is slightly to the rear. Additionally, you may notice that 3/115 is straddling a stream during the attack which will further hinder their attack. Finally 3/9 and 2/9 will benefit by defending a stream line in both examples, but the immediate impact of the stream is far less in example 1 since 2/9 and 3/9 are well in the back.

I have mentioned in previous posts about detachments and homogenous units. So if all three companies in the previous example combine to re-form as a battalion formation this will also have an impact as well:

Example 3


Now throw in some armor, and it provides a much greater impact based on where it is located. Look at examples 4 and 5 below, do you think it would make a difference in combat results if the armor was located in the front or near the back? 3/115 is likely to make some advance in example 4 before the armor starts to make its presence felt, but 3/115 would likely bounce with no advance in example 5.

Example 4


Example 5



When you consider units moving at different movement rates, with different Postures, with different Persistence Levels hopefully you can start to see some of the complexities with a dynamic battlefield...and why this all matters. As always, feel free to ask questions!