Movement effects of Battlefield Time Stamps: Any unit that enters a hex with a Battlefield Time Stamp will have its movement points reduced until its unit time stamp is at least equal to that of the hex.Ĭombat effects of Battlefield Time Stamps: Combats planned for a hex with a Battlefield Time Stamp will start on a combat round as if the player-turn is the same as the hex’s time stamp. This applies to the Player-Turn itself, to Units (the fraction of their MPs that they have expended), and now to battlefield hexes. TIME STAMP definition: The fraction of the player-turn, in tenths, that has been expended. This will be accounted for by placing a TIME STAMP in those three hexes that will equal their actual ending round. Note that this means that three combats lasted longer than the round of the new combat phase. In other words, if there were seven combats that lasted 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, & 6 rounds respectively then the player turn would advance only two rounds, instead of the six rounds of before.
Under the Battlefield Timestamp system, after all combats are resolved, the player-turn will advance to the combat round of the MEDIAN length combat. Since most existing scenarios won’t ever see designer action again, and a limit of three still can waste two rounds, this was still not ideal.įinally move forward to 2017 and TOAW IV. And a value below three induced some strange combat effects (not to mention removing most of the skill required to play the game). But, it required designer action before it could have any effect. MRPB (Max Rounds per Battle) could put a limit on individual battles lasting very many rounds. Fail to notice and you could have the same result as in the first example. So, if properly monitored, this feature could alert players to the presence of late units in attacks. The “Circle of Stars” reflected both the current round, and the max start round that had been setup in planned combats. Two features were added: The “Circle of Stars” and MRPB. “Why should a battle in North Africa screw up action in the Ukraine” was the complaint. Obviously, this didn’t make any realistic sense, and tended to sour even veterans on the game. Huge scenarios were thus often harried by such combats, far more so than smaller, simpler scenarios – just because they had more combats. And the bigger the scenario, the more such attacks each combat phase tended to have. So, really complex combats with lots of determined units on both sides could last several rounds – even the entire player turn.
#The operational art of war iv revies manual#
But, even if they didn’t, and hung around long enough to figure out the deal with using late units in attacks, there was another way to get the early turn ending that stymied even veteran players: Attack Complexity.Īs the manual said, battles continued till one entire side broke off. This is where newbies often got off the TOAW bandwagon. And note that there isn’t even a reason given for the early turn ending or even which combat was the issue. There were a potential ten combat phases, and you only got one. After they are all resolved, you get this screen: Perhaps you go on to setup several more attacks. But, as a newbie, you’re unaware of this. This attack is going to cause your turn to end. So this unit has a Time Stamp of 9 out of 10. The 5 remaining MPs amount to only 18% of its original movement allowance. Note that the unit has expended 23 of its 28 MPs. One attack involves a foot unit that has moved quite a distance: You fire up the CFNA scenario and start setting up Axis attacks.
#The operational art of war iv revies series#
Individual battles are resolved in a series of tactical rounds. If you perused the manual you might have seen these few items: You’re a newbie just starting out with the game. Let’s take a trip back in time to about 2002.
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