Casey Calouette's Blog, page 4

War in the East : Fog of War Basics

In War in the East you have several options regarding Fog of War. You can play without it and see the entirety of the battlefield. You can play with it, or you can play with it and with the Movement Fog of War. We’ll get into all of that below. Fog of War obscures the true nature of the battlefield. Instead of an all seeing birds eye view you instead must rely on your Air Reconnaissance, unit intelligence, and gut feeling, to determine what is really happening. This is an effort to replicate what a Commander would have to work with on the ground.

Movement Fog of War is an artifact of the movement system. You can take a unit and hover the movement icon around and watch as the AI path is shifted by some mysterious force. The game will attempt the most efficient MP route, but it’s possible to use this to “scout” out and watch as the path is shifted.

The bummer here is it makes the movement requirements rather tedious as you can’t simply path it out and go, you must move each hex.

The mechanic the game uses to control the level of information is the Detection Level, or DL. This doesn’t just change what you, the player see, but how combat effective your troops are. If they have better intelligence they can fight more effectively. Imagine suddenly realizing that the unit you just attacked is filled with Tiger tanks!

If your DL is good enough you’ll also be able to see Soft Factors, the little green triangle in the upper right hand corner. Now you can judge how well supplied, or how good the morale is, of an enemy unit.

The detection level is displayed when you hover your mouse over a hostile unit. We have a detection level of 9 on the 162nd Rifle Division. You are likely to have better intel on units you are in contact with. And this only gets better with time.

DL = 1

Blank unit counter, unless an airbase.

DL = 3

Unit type will be displayed

DL = 5

Unit name, Unit size, and CV will be displayed. Enemy units that start a turn will have a minimum DL of 5. At this level you’ll also determine if it is a special unit. (Guards, SS etc.)

DL = 7

Soft factors can be observed.

We, the player, don’t gain more information by having a DL of 9, but the unit on the ground is more combat effective. Sometimes you’ll see a question mark on a unit instead of the equals sign. This is a stack of units, some of which you have a DL of at least 5 but also some units with a  DL below 5.

Now if the DL is less than 5 then you don’t get to see any CV values. If the top unit in a stack has a DL of 1 or 2 a blank unit box will come up again.

In order to see the Fort level you need a unit adjacent to that hex or a DL of at least three.

The best way to get a big picture view is to use your Air Recon mode. Press F5 and then right click where you want you reconnaissance aircraft to go. My personal preference is to use the AI to run these missions. If in Air Recon mode just press the a key.

Air Recon won’t give you a great DL. That depends on terrain, weather, morale, along with many other factors. But usually you can see a stack, maybe tell if there’s tanks, and get a general feel of the hostile territory. Come blizzard season don’t expect your air units to be worth a whole lot though.

The DL system works pretty well to mimic the actual fog of war, especially how it ties into unit combat. This is one of the better approximations I’ve seen, and it offers the player just enough information to be useful.

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War in the East – Encirclement

Encirclement is the most basic, and essential, tactic that the Axis armies have at the start of the game. Essentially you are using your fast mechanized and armor divisions to cut off the supply from less maneuverable pockets of Soviet troops. Without supplies they will surrender, saving tens of thousands of your own troops. As the Axis it is essential. As the Soviets, it’s essential to know how it works. This is turn #1 from the scenario Road to Minsk. This should have been the tutorial scenario. It’s exciting. It’s simple to play. It’s difficult to master. Of all the scenarios this one offers a quick fix. You can try things, see your mistakes early, and try again.

First step is to open a hole with your Infantry Divisions. Your Panzers and Mechanized divisions shouldn’t do any attacking unless absolutely necessary.

We’ll do two opening attacks with our infantry. One in the North with units from the VIII Corps. The 28th Infantry, 8th Infantry, 161st Infantry and the 256th Infantry (XX Corps). Now we’ve got a few routes, we can go West of the Sbara River, but I’m going to aim to the East of it and try to encircle some more units.

In the South we’ll use members of the XXXXIII Corps, the 131st, 134th, and the 167th from the XXXXVII Panzer Corps.

In the North we’ll sweep two fortified units, the 68th Fortified and the 48th. But first we’ll push the 128th Rifle Division back. Note the 2=8. That means they have a combat value of 2, and a defense value of 8. We’re going to want to hit them with a deliberate attack (hold down shift and right click).

So why are we sweeping three units back and not two, or one? If you punch a hole one hex wide the units passing through are in contact with the enemy on the way through. This significantly slows them down (costs MP). If we can open that hole up then we can save 10 or 15 MP, which in open terrain like we have here, is a long way. We’re doing the same thing down South. The SEC unit, the 17th NKVD, is a minor defense. They’ll go back easy. It’ll be helpful to move another unit up to help out with the 49th Rifle Division, they have a CV of 3, but a defensive value of 13.

Now I’d also recommend pocketing up Brest Litovsk as well. The city is well defended with a defensive value of 68. While we can likely poke a hole through it, it’s better to leave it be for now and let them run out of supplies. There we go! The 128th Rifle Division routed and is thrown back. This is good, but ideally we trap a unit and make it surrender. Eventually the 6,000 or so soldiers in that unit will reform and return to fight another day. Bad news for the Germans.

The Fortified Regions surrender, they’re static units and can’t move anywhere. Notice the losses, 3,586 out of 4,786.

The screen looks different now too, I’ve turned on “Toggle Enemy Hexes” (the e key) and “Toggle Fort Levels” (the f key). These will show you what is enemy controlled, and let you know how fortified an enemy might be. The South is open now too. This time the NKVD was routed, the Fortified Sector surrendered, and the 49th Rifle retreated. This isn’t ideal, as they were only pushed back one hex. But it’s OK, as we’ve still got a great path ahead.

Now we’ll do a staggered move with our mechanized units. They have 50 MP each. We’re going to move the unit furthest from the front first. Then the next closest, and the next closest. This will allow our closest units to go as far as possible while those further back hold the pathway. The game will draw out the most efficient path. We will cross two rivers and move across three railroad lines. This is going to cut those units off from the East. The following mechanized units will all run along that same line. The goal is to keep the Soviets from escaping East while preventing them from getting supplies. Now we have to balance this and keep some of our Panzers moving East. We have objectives to capture in Mogilev, Zhlobin, and Vitebsk. Here we have our units strung out into the pincer movement. The furthest point for that movement is the town of Baronivichi. This could be better, we could be tighter, we could breakdown our units into regiments, but for the basics this is pretty good.

Note that I didn’t attack with any of my other Infantry units that are on the West side of the pocket. We want to minimize our casualties, fatigue, and maximize supplies. These Infantry Divisions will be the vice that we use to crush that pocket.

I’ll end my turn and let the Soviets react.

If a unit is ever Red, it’s bad. In this case I selected “Toggles Units Isolated, far from railhead” or shift-o. Now we can see that the entire pocket is no longer in supply. It’s not guaranteed that the hostiles will surrender, but the chances are much better. The longer they go without supplies, the less movement points they get, the more fatigue, and eventually will become totally combat ineffective. This one single battle shows the power of encirclement.

Brest Litovsk surrendered.

The Soviets lost 20,210 soldiers.

The Axis… 65.

Finally we have a cleared pocket. The infantry swept up. I left the armor in place to block any movement. I’ll move them up to the next objectives once the pocket is clear.

In this one encirclement we have captured 200,025 Soviet soldiers. We killed 31,973. 32,257 were disabled. For a total of 264,255 Soviet soldiers.

For all of that it cost the Axis 4,738 with only 1,000 of those killed.

As the Axis it’s a strategy you absolutely must use. As the Soviets it’s a strategy you have to understand how to escape from.

It’s not without risk. Get too far ahead and suddenly the Soviets can spring a trap for you! Now your precious Panzer Divisions, and they are precious, will have the same thing done to them. The Soviet player must be clever, drawing, waiting, and then pouncing when the Germans are stretched too thin.

After a few winters the Germans will be stretched to the breaking point, the only chance they have to win is to remove the one thing the Soviets need.

Men.

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Steel Legion Star Map – The Vasilov Protectorate

Vasilov Space – Star Chart.imageframe-1 img{border:0px solid #494848;} I have to thank Aaron for suggesting that I make up a star map. This is a first draft that I plan on polishing up. There are some seriously cool star maps out there, Star Trek, Warhammer, Star Wars, all have amazing maps. Eventually my goal is to make this one look authentic.

But for you guys, my readers, I thought you’d like a look at the layout for the Vasilov Protectorate, and why Vasilov space is so sought after.

Enjoy!

BIG BIG – Writing Massive Science Fiction

Now that the next Steel novel is complete I’m looking at my to do list. In the past I simply finished a series (A Star too Far) or wrote just one (DogForge). This time through I’m doing a hybrid approach. The sequel to Steel Breach will be released, then I’ll write an unrelated novel.

Two reasons – One, I want to keep it fresh. If I have more time to think on my characters then they are more likely to have better adventures. Two, it allows me to play with new ideas more often, instead of maybe once a year. I’ve had some really great ideas lately and I’m hoping to get those stories done. Have no fear, I’ll be back with the Steel Series eventually, but my next few books will be frontier territory.

Big BattlesScale is important. A battle on a single front can be a big thing, but what about invading an entire planet? Even World War 2, the largest land battle in history, didn’t cover everything from pole to pole. It was a battle of nations, and while those nations fought all over, the main core areas involved taking out those nations states.

So how do you claim a planet?

How do you defend a planet?

How do you justify the massive expenditure?

What I’m plotting now is a massive invasion. Huge fleets, millions of troops, orbital defenses, fleet battles, pole-to-pole combat. But through it all it’s going to focus on one family, otherwise it’d be too much to write, and would come out sounding like something from a history book. But the scale is what I want to capture, that massive struggle, and what it takes to capture an entire planet.

If you can even capture it…Laser FocusIn all these massive events we’ll have a few to watch. Those few who are at the core of the big events. I’m planning on a spec-ops officer, a grunt, and finally a starship Captain. Not only do I want to show the view from the ground, but in the stars, and explore the relation between the family as they all deal with the fact that they’re invading an entire world.

So why? Why not just slag it from orbit? Punch down with a few asteroids and then come back once the dust has settled?

I’m pretty sure if it was strictly a military target that’s exactly what you’d do. But what defender is going to sit by and wait? People/Aliens would devise defenses. If your greatest threat comes from an orbital bombardment you’d better have a way to defend against it or prevent it.

Maybe the invaders want to capture the planet intact? Maybe there is fuel issues, or ammunition restrictions, you better save those massive shells. Or, as I like it, the planet is defended, and you better get down and take out the defenders anti-starship weapons. Now that big fleet of yours isn’t so great when those missile batteries on the planet slam into it.

So once you punch through the defending fleet, and get through those anti-starship weapons, now you have to fight on the ground. So think on how many troops you’d need to successfully invade Europe. Ten million? Fifty million?

According to Wikipedia the combined strength of all the worlds militaries is 63 million troops. But if we actually needed more I’m sure we could bring significantly more to bear. So if you’re attacking you’ll need force multipliers. While the defenders have numbers, you probably don’t want to transport a billion infantry. (I mean you could, but as an author I have to keep it interesting, so I’ll write a really good reason why we can’t!)

A Matter of Scale.imageframe-1 img{border:0px solid #494848;} “RMS Queen Mary 20Jun1945 NewYork” by USN – U.S. Navy photo 80-GK-5645; U.S. Defense Visual Information Photo HD-SN-99-03026 [1]. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil...Napkin math time.

How do you transport 50 million troops?

The largest troopship ever was the RMS Queen Mary, and she transported a record 15,740 troops to England in June 1943. That ship is 1019 feet  (310 meters) long, 119 feet (36 meters) wide, and 181 feet (55.2 meters) tall. 21,948,000 cubic feet of space or 613,800 cubic meters. (Or picture a cube 85 meters square)

That’s a big ship. The reason I put it into volume was because a naval ship is designed to go in the water. It’s doubtful a starship would follow that same requirement. I’d expect a troopship to be about as ugly as a brick. Another thing to think of is manufacturing, at a certain point things are just too big to work on. Materials stress and strain, and once you pass a certain point, that level of knowledge gets pretty specific. See the Glomar Explorer’s bearings for a good example.

How many of our Queen Mary’s do we need?

50,000,000 troops / 15,740 per transport starship = 3,176 troop ships.

Wow.

Picture a fleet of 3,176 troop ships. You’re not going to make this sort of investment lightly.

Now we’re not restricted by things like gravity, so we can build a bit more… creatively. How about we pack ten times as many into each ship?

50,000,000 / 157,400 = 318 troop ships.

So our fictional Queen Mary is now a very tubby girl. 6,138,000 cubic meters. Or a cube 183 meters square. Now this doesn’t seem too big, but if weuse the same ratio as the Queen Mary (40 cubic meters per troop) then we end up with :

6,138,000 / 40 = 153450 per ship.

What if you want this to be a warehouse? No more shooting craps in the mess hall, but a straight up refrigerator filled with soldiers?

Grid it off, give each soldier a cube 1 meter by 1 meter by 2 meters. Now how many can we hold?

Wait for it…

3,050,000

Wow.

Over 3 million troops packed in like sardines. Now we only need 16 troop ships. And while it’s big, 183 meters on a side isn’t impossible.

Now once you start waking them up you better have landing craft ready. These big cubes aren’t useful for much beyond transportation. And realistically no one expected the Queen Mary to beach herself in Normandy.

All in all we’ve got a picture to start with. This is a big endeavor.

Speaking of scale, just 5 days after D-Day (the Invasion of Normandy, June 1944), there was only 350,000 allied troops in France. By the end of Operation Overlord in August there was just over 3 million troops in France.

Our fictitious planetary invasion is now the largest invasion in history. And we haven’t looked at aircraft, armor, orbital assets, starships to defend the troops, and most of all, the supply train.A Matter of FictionBut at the end of the day this massive invasion can read like a textbook.

I don’t want that.

I want to bring this story to life, to show the scale, and how it impacts a few select individuals.

Because that’s what it really is. It’s not an army of 50,000,000 numbers, but an army of 50,000,000 individuals with hopes, dreams, and fears. And those individuals all have amazing stories to tell.

At least those who survive.

Still Writing!

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I’m still writing. At the moment I’m about two weeks out from completing Steel Storm. It’s amazing how quickly it goes towards the end of the novel.

After that it’ll take a few weeks for an edit and then up it goes! I’m only a month late from what I had hoped to be…

My plan is to not take a break and jump into a new novel, or the next in the series. I have a piece I started working on that I halted to write Steel Breach. Though I’m undecided if I want to revisit that, or strike out into a new bomber idea I’ve had. Yes, that’s right, bombers in space.

Steel Storm, Sequel to Steel Breach

Steel StormJust a quick update on the sequel to Steel Breach. I’ve settled on a title, it’ll be called Steel Storm. I originally started as Steel Dawn, but I didn’t think that it fit the story well enough.

My goal is to complete the story by the end of May. I’ve been averaging from 2,000 to 3,000 words a day. So right now I don’t think it’ll be an issue. I think I’m at 56,000 words right now. Probably 57,000 by the end of the night.

There’s lots of familiar faces in the story, I made sure to build on the soldiers from Steel Breach. You’ll also find some new faces, which of course keeps things lively. One thing I always loved in a series was getting to watch the characters grow.

Anything you, the readers, would like to see? Let me know!

The photo above is the Gulfoss (Iceland) waterfall, not a photo of a scene from Lishun Delta! Though you can definitely see the similarities.

Steel Breach Sequel

Yes, there is a sequel.I’ve had a lot of you contact me in regards to a sequel and yes, there will be one.

I’m currently 7k words into the story. There was a few revisions that came to mind early, so I adjusted the story. (Much easier to do before it’s written!)

My plan for this story line isn’t a trilogy, but a series. I’ve always enjoyed stories like Patrick O’Brians Aubrey-Maturin Series, Bernard Cornwells Medieval Stories,  and of course Dan Abnetts Gaunts Ghosts. It’s seeing characters grow, adapt, evolve, change, and most of all, survive. This is what makes writing a series so much fun. Because it’s not really about the plot, but seeing how the characters survive.

The moment that really stuck with me and reinforced the power of a series was when Captain Aubrey lost his friend. He wasn’t a main character, just a supporting one, but he’d been with the crew for many adventures. I knew Barret Bonden, I knew how much he meant to those around him. When he died it was a moment that tore at me. I felt angry, mad, like my friend was lost. For someone who only lives on paper, that’s powerful.

That’s the power of a series.

My goal is to evolve the members of the Vasilov Military. To not fall into the trap of writing the same book twice. To show a fresh perspective, to build on the tank crew, to show that they are flawed convicts, not idyllic soldiers.

The 19th ACR will have a storied history, but it likely won’t be pleasant.

Yes, there is a sequel.I’ve had a lot of you contact me i...

Yes, there is a sequel.I’ve had a lot of you contact me in regards to a sequel and yes, there will be one.

I’m currently 7k words into the story. There was a few revisions that came to mind early, so I adjusted the story. (Much easier to do before it’s written!)

My plan for this story line isn’t a trilogy, but a series. I’ve always enjoyed stories like Patrick O’Brians Aubrey-Maturin Series, Bernard Cornwells Medieval Stories,  and of course Dan Abnetts Gaunts Ghosts. It’s seeing characters grow, adapt, evolve, change, and most of all, survive. This is what makes writing a series so much fun. Because it’s not really about the plot, but seeing how the characters survive.

The moment that really stuck with me and reinforced the power of a series was when Captain Aubrey lost his friend. He wasn’t a main character, just a supporting one, but he’d been with the crew for many adventures. I knew Barret Bonden, I knew how much he meant to those around him. When he died it was a moment that tore at me. I felt angry, mad, like my friend was lost. For someone who only lives on paper, that’s powerful.

That’s the power of a series.

My goal is to evolve the members of the Vasilov Military. To not fall into the trap of writing the same book twice. To show a fresh perspective, to build on the tank crew, to show that they are flawed convicts, not idyllic soldiers.

The 19th ACR will have a storied history, but it likely won’t be pleasant.

Armored Charge

.imageframe-1 img{border:5px solid #e04c2f;} An M4 Sherman I saw at the Spooner Wisconsin Rodeo Parade. An amazing vehicle.Thank you!I am humbled by the response and the reviews from you guys, the readers. Steel Breach is my 5th novel, and even with 5 under my belt I’m still amazed that people enjoy what I write. I’ve gotten some great heartfelt letters about it, some comments on the story, and I’ve made sure to respond to you all. If I missed you for some reason please poke me again.

Writing can be pretty lonely, especially with a new and uncertain story. But in this one the characters came to life and blossomed well enough to keep me company in the snow and ice.  Not to mention it was quite a bit of fun to think up crimes that fit the personalities of the accused. We’ll see more of this again, especially the repercussions. While it’s an entertaining story line, these are criminals…What’s Next?More Steel Breach.

I haven’t settled on a name for the sequel yet, Steel Dawn is sticking with me. But who knows right now.

At the moment I’m brainstorming plot points and story ideas. Once I’ve got a basic structure down I move on to housekeeping and build up my Scrivener entries. Scrivener is the software I use to write the novel, it’s an organizational tool more than a word processor. It is my secretary, my reminder, my spreadsheet, and the thing that makes sure that a character doesn’t die twice!

I’m aiming at a May release. But this depends on when I ramp up my writing, and editing schedule.

Steel Breach

———————————————

A battalion of convicts…

Fifty second hand armored vehicles…

A desperate scramble to hold the line…

——————————————-

The Vasilov Worlds are on the edge of Human space. They have fought a war for 35 years against the insectoid Kadan that they have no intention of ending. It’s too essential to a society where the only social movement is via battle promotion. Then it all changes when the Kadan nearly annihilate the front lines.

Vasilov Officer Colonel Cole Clarke has just returned home from service with the Sigg Military. Now that he has learned how the Sigg fight, he’s bringing that knowledge to the Vasilov Military, plus an entire battalion of second hand Sigg Armor purchased on the scrap market. But instead of a fresh battalion of troops, he’s assigned a penal battalion filled with convicts. The Vasilov Military doesn’t accept change easily, even when they need it.

What would happen if an entirely new style of warfare came onto the battlefield? Could a strike force of second hand armor trump the defensive doctrines they’d used for thirty five years or would they be doomed to failure and death on the icy planet Lishun Delta?

One squadron of armor. One Colonel. A thousand of the worst convicts in the Vasilov Military. Will they be up to the task?

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