Campaign Info?

[feld]

Campaign info provided looks fantastic!
One question:

-Can the player be also made responsible for maintaining blockade against merchant shipping or is that handled by a different Admiral?
-Do you think that the OP/logisitics model could handle a Von Spee sort of campaign?
-Can the player re-base ships?
-Can the player control/deploy patrols?
-Are coast watchers simulated?
-What sort of strategic comms would there be or is it essentially identical to the operational/tactical game?

v/r
feld

ps credit card primed and ready!

[Fredrik Wallin]

Campaign info provided looks fantastic!


-Can the player be also made responsible for maintaining blockade against merchant shipping or is that handled by a different Admiral?

The campaigns focus on operations by surface forces, and other aspects are simulated to the extent they affected those. Trade warfare and blockade is outside the scope of the simulation, except for opportunities to attack shipping that were a feature of the historical campaigns in the theater in question.

-Do you think that the OP/logisitics model could handle a Von Spee sort of campaign?

Not really. Round the world cruises like von Spee is not in the design parameters.

-Can the player re-base ships?

Yes.

-Can the player control/deploy patrols?

Most patrols will be automated and under the control of AI controlled task forces, but the player will be able to conduct sweeps or send out the odd light cruiser or destroyer squadron on a patrol.

-Are coast watchers simulated?

Yes. In the same way as air or surface patrols are simulated in the normal game.

-What sort of strategic comms would there be or is it essentially identical to the operational/tactical game?

It will be similar to the operational game.

[feld]

Excellent. Thank you for the prompt reply. I will certainly be purchasing the campaign game, though I regret to report that I am not really at all interested in the design game and would prefer the more austere C3I features mentioned previously. I recognize that I'm in the minority however and that you probably cannot make a commercially viable product based on the sort of uncertainty that I want to play with.

v/r
feld

[Akmatov]

ballpark guess would be about a month . . . 16 April

Totally not wishing to be a brat, just wondering how things coming along with the campaign game?

Also, I realize it will not be released with Pacific locations, but wondering if later on the campaign game might be updated so a very early War Plan Orange might be campaignable?

[Rasputitsa]

The campaign scenarios will likely tend to be like Jutland Operational in scope to include the approach phase and give the player control over how to conduct the mission. The drawback is that the scenarios in the campaign will in many cases have a lengthy approach phase, and might not guarantee that the fleets meet. I consider this very realistic, but it might be frustrating for players who would like a more "jump right in" style of scenario in the campaign, like how the random battles work. I would be interested to hear how player preferences are on this.

The approach phase is likely to be frustrating, but that is how it was and the pre-planning and manoeuvring before combat are a major part of the dreadnought experience. It's going to be unrewarding when there is no result, but wow!, how will you feel when you pull off a great fleet manoeuvre and the trap closes. There will always be the 'jump in' scenarios and the 'game speed' button for more instant action.

How much dynamic info will there be from radio intercepts, Room 41, random sightings (non-player sources like neutrals), with, or without, the false reports of FOW ?

[Howard]

how will you feel when you pull off a great fleet manoeuvre and the trap closes.

I agree. That kind of suspense - you know your enemy is out there somewhere - but where? - is realistic and adds to the drama. If there is no engagement, that's realistic too. How many times did opponents miss one another by mere miles ? And yes, if we want to jump in to a guaranteed stoush then there are always the scenarios and the random battle generator (which I quite enjoy for a quick bit of violence).

- edit: it occurred to me the other day that there may be times when the whole point of your endeavour will be to avoid an engagement too...

[Randomizer]

Completely agree that a lack of engagements is some situations can be both realistic and exciting as well however this opinion is perhaps the minority opinion. There was posts dealing with this subject some time ago and several Members here wrote to the effect that the purpose of the game was combat so situations where no combat occurred are "boring". However, I find the planning and execution of operations enjoyable and instructive in themselves while the track charts and logs generated by SAI are great for lessons learned. This is true even without exchanging a single broadside but of course, other players mileage varies.

Now given that it is 31 May and the Jutland Operational scenario is set up and ready (modified to include 3BS and the Harwich Force on short notice for sea), I have to go and see if I can successfully trap Scheer... Or not!

[Akmatov]

Definitely agree with the comments above. Instant battle is already easily available, the purpose of the campaign should be a realistic simulation of how it was - with all the opportunities for moaning over the near misses seen when reviewing the course tracks after the end. In the real war there were several times when interesting engagements were missed due to just a few miles of separation in the mists. If enough players demand insta-battle, provide an optional button for overhead satellite radar surveillance that the rest of us can ignore.

[Akmatov]

opportunities to attack shipping

Hmm, so we could design a campaign with trade routes occupied with merchant ships and then unleash raiders a'la Emden or See Adler amongst the chickens? Hmm, maybe with a percentage chance that any individual 'chicken' might have a radio to broadcast it's dying squawk and alert counter-raiders as to the current location of the raider?

Or given that we will have merchant shipping could we design a campaign where a convoy of merchant ships (loaded with troops perhaps) would need to be protected until it was able to unload at a specific port? I guess the campaign victory condition would be how many unsunk merchant ships arrive at wherever by the end of the campaign?

[Fredrik Wallin]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. Work is going on with the campaign, and I undertand that you are impatient, but it is hard to give a definite timerame.