EXP G40 Game 3 Trout vs JCat

[JohnnyCat]

@beelee Thank again mate for stepping in here. I deeply appreciate it.

Dare I even ask about this? ahahahahaha

[beelee]

@johnnycat

yes I will explain 1st Army Group as well but as per your request addressed Caucasus first

Read through the Captain's rules and understand how they work on the physical face to face board.

The triplea Game Notes assume understanding of those rules and then explains how triplea implements them. Therefore triplea notes don't explain the actual rules itself for the most part.

Edit
So for "1st Soviet Army Group" it is represented by the symbol in POL.

At Game start the 1st Soviet AG symbol is in the "1st Army Group" Box. In this shot you can see both 1st and 2nd AG ( Army Group ) symbols in their respective Boxes.

To form a AG you need 2 Armies or Corps. Any combination works. So 2 Corps or 1 Corps 1 TankArmy or 2 Tank Armies. Plus an additional 10 land units.

Page 47

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jI_1JdIC-1KiTihBICJAbtX3GpVYnNgf/view

So when a Corps or Army forms, as in the 1st Corps example in Cauc, instead of moving their symbol to the board, you move it to the AG they are going to be part of.

Then the additional 10 land units join them in the AG Box and the AG symbol is moved to the board.

So in your game 1st Soviet AG, it's Box is called 1st Army Group for brevity, has the 1st Tank Army and 2nd Corps plus 9 Inf and 1 Arty.

A Tank Army will always consist of the same units. 5 Tanks and 1 Tank General. For 2nd Corps, you go to the 2nd Corps box and see what is in it.

In this case 3 Tanks plus the Commisar. Which all adds up to TankGeneral 9 Tanks Commisar Arty 9 Inf for the total number of units in AG 1.

Army Groups will usually have 20 total units.

Corps and Waffen Armies will always have 4.

[JohnnyCat]

@beelee I have a copy of the Captains rules tattooed on the back of my hands, my retinas and every window I have open...

Yet I have never seen any mention of these boxes.

I DO understand that basic concept that Army Groups (Page 47) An Army Group consists of:

• 2 Armies
• 10 land based combat units

But, I need to understand how the triplea implementation is. I get that that First Corps is called "1st" and a red star... easy enough.

But First Army Group is not defined and while there are units in those upper level boxes I cannot see how "First Army Group" is defined. Unless it just implied that anything up there is in the First Army Group.

What might be helpful is to see one of your screen shots of Poland Turn 5 so that I can see what you see.

[beelee]

@johnnycat

as mentioned previously page 8 of the captain's rulebook https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jI_1JdIC-1KiTihBICJAbtX3GpVYnNgf/view

for how he explains the boxes. His terminology may be slightly different but

[beelee]

@johnnycat said in EXP G40 Game 3 Trout vs JCat:

I have a copy of the Captains rules tattooed on the back of my hands, my retinas and every window I have open...

yes i know exactly what you mean

Going gaming back in an hour or so for other questions

[JohnnyCat]

@beelee OK so I guess I got it but that entire text in the box is not displayed on my game. This maybe is because it goes away when units are added or some Mac thing. And there is some new second version of "1st Army Group" to the right side that apparently has the group in the Caucuses.. And that is thoroughly confusing.

Anyway I gather that EVERYTHING (except the confusing issue of the marker in the Caucasus) up on the upper boxes is inside that symbol in Poland - had I known that I probably would have done even turn 3 differently , lol.

But ok @Trout has been kind enough to let me fix this so I will redo that Germany turn with the knowledge that there are a million hostiles on the doorstep as opposed so just so 6 unit recon group as I had first thought.

Meanwhile, however, in the Caucusses is some random group that IS NOT PART OF ANY ARMY GROUP Right?

This thing just says "1ST" and has a big red star. So WHERE IS THAT on the upper boxes? I thought that was the 9 inf and 1 art

But Trout says something else and I just don't get this.

PLEASE NOTE I DO UNDERSTAND PAGE 47 and the concept of groups and all that.

What I DO NOT understand is how these markers map to units and what sense, if any, there is in the layout of the units and the boxes. WHY IS THERE A "1St" [red star] that is in the Caucasus and what is inside that marker and how do I easily find this in the upper boxes? That part IS THOROUGHLY confusing.

I love this game but I'm a chess player so I tend to need to see the pieces or some very clear system and so far I cannot find any sensible way (sensible to me) to see that mapping of units and labels. And again, this may be some Mac version issue or maybe Triple just loses those key labels or renames them once pieces are added to the upper boxes.

THANK YOU again both of you. I am SO HAPPY that I made the choice to play the bad guys this time. Despite not purchasing any of the shiny special units so far I am still impressed by all this complexity. I am rather drawn to it actually.

[beelee]

@johnnycat

This is the map at Game Start. Note 1st Corps and the symbol in it.

Closeup

Red Star represents Russia. 1st represents 1st Corps. Hover on any image you aren't sure of what it is and you will receive additional information.

So when the 1st Corps symbol is on the map, it means the units in 1st Corps Box are in that TTy.

I really don't know how to explain it any better.

[Trout]

@johnnycat There's no "AG" on that circle thing in Caucasus so it's just the 1st Corps. In the 1st Corps box you can see two tanks and a mech infantry so that along with the Commissar is all that is there.

[JohnnyCat]

@beelee Yes I see that ON YOUR MAP hahahaha

Too bad it's not on mine.

But ok so now I understand there are 23 units in Poland under that marker

And under the Caucasus marker is 2 tanks a commissar and 1 mech. WHY That stuff is located in the upper boxes amidst the First Army Group stuff is rather confusing and unintuitive but at least I got it.

Or do I?

Please confirm that there are 23 units in the poland marker and 4 units in the Caucasus marker. THANK YOU SO MUCH BEE!!!

[JohnnyCat]

@trout Yes thank you. I am redoing Italy since I would not have moved east knowing that there were mech units in the Caucasus.

I don't want to complain ok? I just want to learn.

But when I see something that is very counter intuitive to me I feel I should at least mention it. And this is the first time that I have used these BOXES and it's just required me to slog through all this - so thank you again for the patience.

[beelee]

@johnnycat

There are 20 units in the 1st AG in POL. An additional 5 Inf are outside the AG in POL

Edit
learning moving in and out of the Boxes is one of the most difficult things for triplea play. It usually takes 2-3 games before one starts to get comfortable with it.

You are starting at a greater learning curve due to the limited number of OutOfBox game experience you have. So you are learning those rules as well, which will make it more difficult initially.

You are improving

The AG symbol next to AG 1 in the Boxes is AG 2. Has the same characteristics as AG 1

[JohnnyCat]

@Trout @beelee
I have read through page 18,19 etc about paratroopers but I cannot find any information in the rules for the word, "Boost" so I do not understand why paratroops turn into two guys: A regular guy and a doppelgänger guy with a big red circle (I recall this being called a boost).

Can you please tell me where to find this information or what to search for?

[Trout]

@johnnycat Yes, no problem changing your Italy turn

[JohnnyCat]

@beelee OK yes 20 NOT 23 like I said. I keep getting fooled by that other group up there that is actually in the Caucasus

[beelee]

@johnnycat

ParaBoost is explained in in Game Notes

it is unique to triplea as it is what triplea uses to give the Para a +1 in the first round combat for Attack and Defense.

Captain's Rules page 18 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jI_1JdIC-1KiTihBICJAbtX3GpVYnNgf/view

[JohnnyCat]

@beelee said in EXP G40 Game 3 Trout vs JCat:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jI_1JdIC-1KiTihBICJAbtX3GpVYnNgf/view

Right but NO MENTION of the term "boost" in the Captains rules.

I just assumed that TripleA knew what to do when rolling dice.

OK now I have to wonder why there ever was those paratrooper units with the red dot still on the map. What I just read in the Game Notes (something I had not even thought to check OMG) it states that these are just first turn markers that get automagically removed - but they did not get removed so is that a known bug or a Mac thing?

[JohnnyCat]

@trout Much the same turn but now knowing about those upper boxes some obvious changes...

PS I guess we have to hunt down all those paratrooper boost units and remove them - or is that a Mac thing? Do you ever see the red boost guys still sticking around the map like I do? How do you handle those?

trout-cat-game-3-ITALY_5_REDONE.tsvg

Look at Trans Jordan to see what I am referring to. There is a new paratrooper guy there in red but he should have done away right?

[beelee]

@johnnycat

yea the red boost is for triplea only. They auto remove during phases and reappear. That is when they are by themselves or only a AA Gun present, as any other unit negates there 1st rd +1 combat bonus.

So if you end your turn with only Para units, triplea will automatically deploy the red boost so you will defend correctly if attacked without anyone then having to do anything.

Offensively they behave the same. Paras only and the red boost will show up.

e.g. if you have 2 Paras and 2 Tanks in S Italy the red Boost will not showup. If the 2 Paras attack Syria by themselves you need to add a red Boost at start of CM and then move them to Syria to attack.

Basically, you need to move the red boost when attacking with Paras only to get the bonus.

Defense pretty much auto works

Edit
You don't take the red boost as a hit. It will auto die after first rd of combat and then respawn after combat if conditions are met

Edit 2
Yes so Jordan is correct. triplea auto spawned red Boost so if the Para gets attacked, it will automatically get it's defensive bonus of +1

Note that if other axis non Italian units show up in Jordan, it will not negate red Boost and you will heve to edit him out as your Allies have to be Para units only also or it negates the Bonus.

For the most part they work pretty good and you don't need to do much

Attacking with Paras only is risky because if they miss they only attack at 1. That's why i like to send air with them or LCV support.

Defense they just basically work except for the rare above circiumstance with their Allies present.

[JohnnyCat]

@beelee OK thanks that makes sense now

Is there some way that I could help to teach this wonderful game because without you helping me I doubt I could have made sense of half of this.

[beelee]

@johnnycat

heh heh

When modding for triplea I read the rules at least once everyday for 3 years. Yep I got a life The last year I may have had to take both shoes off to count the number of days I didn't read them but I didn't have to drop my trousers

I have a few examples at the other site. Ideally one would make a Tutorial similar to what triplea has but for HRE specific.

Edit
You can download the tutorial in download maps

It's an idea that I haven't really put any effort into yet

Edit 2
But with the number of new players showing up it's something i should probably do. You know how these things go, start small and then boom a buncha people are playing.

So a tutorial would be best I think. That and isolated situations of which of I have a few.