PBEM Ground Rules

[RERomine]

What ground rules to people generally find important for PBEM games? There are some basics, such as limits on air sorties, artillery, ammo resupply, mines, force realism, paras, etc. I'm looking for any information that someone has felt the need to bring up to keep the battle either real or within expected limits.

[gila]

Originally Posted by RERomine

What ground rules to people generally find important for PBEM games? There are some basics, such as limits on air sorties, artillery, ammo resupply, mines, force realism, paras, etc. I'm looking for any information that someone has felt the need to bring up to keep the battle either real or within expected limits.

One i like to have is no 1st turn bombardment as all the first player has to do is count hexes from edge to plot to a fixed deploy, second player is screwed as first player has already moved, big advantage.

[Marek_Tucan]

I like "max. 1 battery per maneuver company" and "max. 10% for arty"...

[RERomine]

Originally Posted by gila

One i like to have is no 1st turn bombardment as all the first player has to do is count hexes from edge to plot to a fixed deploy, second player is screwed as first player has already moved, big advantage.

A good one. I'm working on a doc with this stuff in it and that's one I forgot.

[RERomine]

Originally Posted by Marek_Tucan

I like "max. 1 battery per maneuver company" and "max. 10% for arty"...

Artillery is a big area where ground rules come into play. There is usually some percentage limit in games I play of roughly 10-15%. I've never had a battery limit per company, but 10% does usually limit the number anyhow. That's also a good one.

[Imp]

On arty tend to play the following
Meeting engagements only
No pre bombardement except smoke & SEAD aircraft as the SEAD should have done there job.
For all other engagements happy to let fly as see fit the attacker is normally player one so is softening up if desires.
10% is often quoted by people sometimes 15% if so I take to include all arty including stuff that comes with companies, some people include air in this most dont.
Sometimes say no ammo dumps for meetings as not set up & some people say no CM reloads.

Other things people suggest
Max 1 snipper per inf co
Max 1 size 0 unit per platoon as in AT teams etc.
This is only if company does not come with them.
Only real proviso I have is if helos possible map should be 120 wide minimum as they are fast need space to operate.

I think these are the major things as mass arty makes for a slow game as does lots of size 0 units.

If people set air rather than using XXX feature a bit of common sense, certain theatres say Viietnam you might get a lot of air but 4 airstrikes (8 planes) is a lot to support 2 or 3 companies in my opinion in a meeting.

[Imp]

Just thought airdrops (not air) must be in first half of game & must come from your end of the map, start from your 3 arrows. This is because if no one fires at despite seeing replay may not show them at all so no idea of flight path. Used to be a bigger problem I think for player 2 though not sure if still applies

[Cross]

Originally Posted by gila

One i like to have is no 1st turn bombardment as all the first player has to do is count hexes from edge to plot to a fixed deploy, second player is screwed as first player has already moved, big advantage.

I use 'No plotting artillery until first move turn' which has the same effect as Gila's suggestion.

[c_of_red]

Originally Posted by Cross

I use 'No plotting artillery until first move turn' which has the same effect as Gila's suggestion.

Counting hexes is a goood idea at any point in the game, not just turn zero. My problem with turn zero arty (or even UAV, Air Strikes etc, is that there is no replay for turn zero. The VCR isn't turned on until AFTER player one starts. So player two never gets a chance to see any turn zero action.
I can and will count hexes and try to hit my opponent at the end of his turn 1 move. I see nothing wrong or gamey about that.
I had 1 opponent get bent out of shape about that but frankly, his bag of marbles wasn't close to full anyway. We just agreed not to play, which left us both relieved.

This gets me ( at last) to what exactly "plotting artillery" means.
At set up it is possible to plot arty for several turns into the future. As a matter of fact, this is EXTREMELY historical. A player using Soviet forces should be required to plot ALL his arty bfore the game starts, at least until the mid 60's.
Soviet doctrine was to order massive shoots ahead of the advance. It was the job of the recon units to find a way around those arty shoots for the exploiting formations.
As far as realism, the Soviets would have 20 to 30 percent of their 'point's in SP standards as arty.
This is including Meeting engagements ( called movement to ontact by the US Army)., which NO professional Army does beyond range of their artillery.
Soviet doctrine calls for exploitation formations to go thru a broken line and head for the enemy rear areas. Meeting engagements happen when the enemy moves formations up to restore the ruptured line and bump into the exploitation units ( Manuver group in USA terms). So both sides in a meeting engagement will have arty support. Neither side will allow their formations to move beyond arty support, although the USA has a little more flexibility on this, since they are more willing to replace arty with air power.
Soviet norms for a assault are 20 tubes per hex. A M/E would be about 1/4 to 1/2 that or 5 to 10 tubes per hex. Quite a bit more then 10%
The 10% rule tends to give NATO an advantage it doesn't need.
You should try playing with the Soviet player having twice the arty percentage of the NATO player. Of course, if the Soviet player knows how to work Soviet formations, you will get your head handed to you.
That is where the extremely artificial 10% rule comes from. Players that thought they were a re-incarnation of Rommel, Patton or Sharon would whine and cry after getting pounded and blame it all on something, anything except themselves. Arty was the normal culprit. I blame it all on the Leadeaters ladder, which was poisonously competitive. I have played games where my opponent had 75% of his points in arty. M110's to be exact. I beat him. He didn't have enough non-arty units to keep me from climbing down his throat, which made his arty useless. Once in the belly of the Beast anything that harms you, kills the Beast.

[Lt. Ketch]

C of Red, you make a valid point. I gerenally try to have a balanced/historical force, although I'll be the first to admit that I understand little of modern formantions. This means that I have a limited amount of artillary. However I do understand the Russian doctorine and know that if I'm facing a historic Russian force to expect to get rained on.

In my PBEM game I expect a fair and honest opponent. I figure that regardless of the force I'm fighting I'm trying to learn from the experience and beat the mind behind the force. An uneven battle every now and then might help me learn a few things. Granted I say that now when I haven't really had an uneven battle. All of my opponents have been great.