COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Prepare yourself for a wargaming tour-de-force! Conquest of the Aegean is the next generation of the award-winning and revolutionary Airborne Assault series and it takes brigade to corps-level warfare to a whole new level. Realism and accuracy are the watchwords as this pausable continuous time design allows you to command at any echelon, with smart AI subordinates and an incredibly challenging AI.

Moderator: Arjuna

Post Reply
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

In the spirit of my two HTTR AAR and play guide threads, I'll be embarking on an AAR as one of the Fatherland's commanders in a life and death struggle to secure bridges across a river and prevent the escape of Allied forces.

Stay tuned!

---

HTTR Threads (still useful reading for those trying to get up to speed on COTA):

HTTR (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, tips!

HTTR (mini-guide): And even more tips!


The HTTR and COTA mini-guides are now available in offline format (PDF) for download.

I would like to thank Eddy Sterckx, fellow beta tester, for the time and effort he put in to reformating the HTML into MS Word to yield a PDF.

You may download them here:

HTTR download link

COTA download link

* Note that the HTTR guide does contain quite a bit of material that is still applicable to COTA.

Enjoy!

Mark "MarkShot" Kratzer on 01/12/06

The COTA Battle Planning Checklist is now also available for download. HTTR players should also find it useful. The link for download is:

COTA Battle Planning Checklist

Enjoy!

Mark "MarkShot" Kratzer on 02/25/06

2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

This AAR will be drawn from Build 3.0.110 which is a release candidate. So, what you see here should be very close, if not, completely identical with the final game that is released to market.

---

Scenario Title
Tempe Gorge Crisis

Scenario General Briefing
17 April 1941, 12:00 hours, Tempe Gorge, Greece.

A reinforced German mountain division attempts to force a passage through an Allied infantry brigade. Historical scenario.

The surprise appearance of strong armoured elements on the eastern flank of Mount Olympus has been a rude shock to the Allied high command. Forcing the withdrawal of 21st NZ Inf Bn, the Germans are threatening to race through the Tempe Gorge and take Larissa - thus threatening the withdrawal of at least half the ANZAC forces. Reacting quickly, ANZAC Corps HQ sends 16th Au Inf Bde to bolster the defence in that area and it arrives to find 21st NZ Inf Bn in defence forward of Tempe village and regrouping after the successful withdrawal from the Platamon Tunnel. The Allied group, now renamed Allen Force after its the commander of 16th Au Inf Bde, must delay the Germans from passing through the Gorge for at least two days - until the larger forces to the Northwest can withdraw to the Thermopylae Line via Larissa. Allen Force must then disengage and withdraw itself with a minimum of loss to personnel and equipment.

Meanwhile, Generalmajor Ferdinand Schoerner's Geb Div 6, reinforced by a battalion of tanks from Pz Div 2, has been designated the main effort of XVIII Geb Korps and ordered to force Tempe Gorge and cut the Allies off at Larissa. If the Allies can hold the Germans at the Gorge, then an orderly withdrawal may be possible for the bulk of the ANZAC Corps, who are starting to pull back from the Portas and Servia passes. The Germans will be faced, again, with a tough pursuit over demolished roads and bridges and will have to crack an Allied line again in a few days. If the Germans do establish a strong blocking force in and around Larissa, the Allies will be forced to break up and head for the hills, and the battle for Greece will effectively be over - and the Allied war effort will be minus nearly two full divisions of troops who can ill be spared.

German Side Briefing
To: GenMaj Schoerner
From: XVIII Geb Korps HQ

The strength of the Allied positions in the Servia and Portas passes has upset our plans somewhat. As a result, the Korps main effort has been changed and your division will now carry the weight of our advance. Pz Div 2 has already been successful in clearing the Platamon Tunnel and you can have most of Pz Regt 3 to help you force Tempe Gorge.

You will probably find Gonnos to be a useful base for operations against Allied forces in the Gorge, especially since an attack south from the town will cut across their line of retreat. Force the Gorge as soon as possible, and try and get some intact bridges over the Peneios River as this will help future operations against Larissa and further south.

Once through the Gorge, you will be able to exit your men to Larissa and further orders will be issed at that point to establish a blocking position astride the line of retreat of the Allied Corps currently defending the Servia and Portas passes. A regiment of your mountain troops and the tanks from Pz Regt 3 should be enough for this purpose.

---

The scenario runs for 2 days and 0 hours. I will be playing it with the default settings. I will be playing at the highest level of order delays (painfully realistic).
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
SeaMonkey
Posts: 796
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2004 3:18 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by SeaMonkey »

Alright MarkShot,

It was this very thing that led me to buy HttR and I would like to extend a belated thank you for your dedication of time on elaborating the game mechanics.

For you gentlemen that are undecided about the AA game genre, pay particular attention to MarkShot's contribution and don't hesitate to ask questions for issues that are not clear to you.

Go MS.......[&o]
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

Here is what I would like to accomplish with this AAR.

In terms of generalities:

(1) Give a sense what it feels like to play the game.
(2) Point out some the new features/changes since HTTR.
(3) Cover some more tips and tactics.

I should point out to you that one of the most significant new features of the game will not really be touched upon in this AAR. That is supply. With a short two day scenario such as this, violence and force of arms applied directly will be our main focus as opposed to interdicting or protecting supply lines.

In terms of game play strategy:

(1) Combining macro/micro management in a single game.
(2) Hasty action in lieu of a methodically coordinated attacks.
(3) Using the speed of armor to cause and take advantage of enemy disruption.
(4) The use of support weapons at long range and mortar firebases.
(5) High rate of fire arty barrages under direct player control to accomplish key missions.
(6) Taking advantage of day and night phases for your movements.

For those who are interested, this scenario took me roughly about 4-5 hours to play. This includes thinking time, playing time, making some notes, making save games for later use, and chatting with other beta testers.

With #1 being the slowest and #3 being the fastest simulation speed: Most daytime action was played at #1 and #2. Night time action when out of contact with the enemy was often played at #3. Also, the way I play, I generally pause when issuing orders.
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

A quick note about the screenshots. They will be at 1024x768. I won't be cropping anything so that folks can get more of an opportunity to look at the interface.

1024x768 is the minimum resolution supported. Custom resolutions are easily available by making a Window's shortcut with the appropriate command line specifying the resolution you want.
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

There are a total of 8 objectives for the German side in this scenario. Rather than stepping through each individual objective here, I would prefer to summarize them and high light some key areas of interest on the map.

We have been tasked with accomplishing the following:

(1) Get across the river. In particular, secure the bridges at Tempe in order that we have use of a high capacity crossing. (The Allies have primed the Road Bridge and the Rail Bridge with explosive charges to make sure we don't succeed. They will blow them if they cannot hold us back.)

(2) Cutoff Allied forces from withdrawing through Larissa in the South. This includes both Allied forces that are actually on the map in the scenario and conceptual forces that could also pass through Larissa while the Allied forces on the map tie us up.

(3) Keep pressure on the Allies and not permit them to establish a new defensive line further to the South. Meaning to pass our own armor and motorized troops through Larissa so that we stay hot on the heals of the fleeing enemy.

(4) Neutralize Allied forces who are making a last ditch attempt to stop us at the river.
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

I have numbered various locations.

(#1) This is a new COTA feature; a SEP (supply entry point). This is where we draw our supplies from off map. They move out to our supply bases to possible other sub-supply bases to our units.

(#2) This is where we, the German forces, are. I will refer to this in the discussion as being the West bank of the river even though it is really North-West. (call me lazy)

(#3) This is where the Allies are.

(#2-#3) Between these two locations, you see the river with various crossing points. Most crossing points are low capacity ferry or ford points. The key crossings are the two bridges which show as pink, since they have been primed to blow. It looks like there is a third crossing to the North-East, but it is just an artifact of zooming out. It does not span the river, but actually another small branch of the river on the East bank.

(#4) The city of Larissa. Aside from the bridges at Tempe, this is the other key prize for both sides. The Allies want to keep it open and withdraw their forces. We want to cut them off and pursue any forces who have already withdrawn before they can establish a new defensive line.

(#5) The objective list for the scenario. We see that the big points are awarded for holding the bridges, passing a portion of our forces through Larissa, and destroying the enemy. Along the river and route South to Larissa, there are scattered smaller objectives. All our locational objectives are of the occupation type; meaning they became active at a certain point during the scenario and we accumulate points gradually as we hold them. Larissa is actually an EXIT objective (our units will physically leave the map).

Image
Attachments
01map1.jpg
01map1.jpg (87.22 KiB) Viewed 1041 times
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

Zoom in to the North ...

Image
Attachments
02map2.jpg
02map2.jpg (126.34 KiB) Viewed 1041 times
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

Zoom in to the South ...

Image
Attachments
03map3.jpg
03map3.jpg (127.38 KiB) Viewed 1035 times
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

Here we see a very low level zoom in of Tempe and the bridges. I mainly did this to point out a new feature. COTA provides for separate terrain textures at different zoom levels. So, you will notice that both colors and terrain patterns changed from the high level zoom to the low level zoom.

Image
Attachments
04map4.jpg
04map4.jpg (95.1 KiB) Viewed 1037 times
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

Another new feature here. Right clicking on the map will give detailed information about the terrain under the cursor: movement rates (relative), elevation, slope, vulnerability to fire, ...

Image
Attachments
05map5.jpg
05map5.jpg (99.94 KiB) Viewed 1039 times
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
User avatar
wodin
Posts: 10709
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2003 3:13 am
Location: England
Contact:

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by wodin »

WOW
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

Okay, let's begin to dig a little deeper into the problem at hand.

First, what is the situation of the enemy?

I have two sources of information: the briefing and initial intel reports.

My analysis of the situation is this: the Allies are scrambling, have limited manpower, and are for the most part on foot. (This will be the key insight which more than anything else will set the tempo of our actions and determine victory or defeat.)

The initial intel shows possible up to 1,000 troops on the move along the river by foot.

To just display the Allied troops and remove my own from this screen shot, I selected a filter that would match nothing my force of units. Then, I used a mouse drag to select all of them to get a quick head count and an estimate of their fatigue. Finally, I've select the deployment unit info box showing that they are on the move as opposed to dug in and waiting.

Of course, the initial intel could be absolutely wrong, but I am inclined to accept it.

Image
Attachments
06intel1.jpg
06intel1.jpg (121.37 KiB) Viewed 1039 times
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

One important reminder ... they may be weak on the ground, but they got those bridges rigged to blow and it is not going to take much to make that happen!
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
elmo3
Posts: 5797
Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2002 10:00 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by elmo3 »

Come on Mark, keep it coming. [:D]

Would you prefer a different thread for somments and questions or do you want them here?
We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing. - George Bernard Shaw

WitE alpha/beta tester
Sanctus Reach beta tester
Desert War 1940-42 beta tester
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

You can put your comments and questions in here. However, so as not to get side tracked, I may ignore them for a while. But I'll get to them eventually.
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

Okay, let's look at how I am entering this action.

I am the Divisional Commander.

To the North-West, I have two regiments of infantry, the 141st. and 143rd. Along with them, I have associated support units (anti-tank guns, field guns, artillery, mortar platoons and AAA).

To the North-East, I have Regt 3 which is composed of armor, motorized infantry, and recon troops on foot. Once again, there are a few support units too.

You can look at the map to see where my forces are set.

Don't bother with the OOB. (I'll put a larger one in the next post.)

Image
Attachments
07oob1.jpg
07oob1.jpg (138.67 KiB) Viewed 1037 times
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

Here is a blow up of my top level OOB.

This is a new feature in COTA. You can expand and collapse tree branches. Single clicking on a unit will take you to it on the map. Double clicking take you to it and open its specific in the left panel. Having a unit selected on the map and pressing "O" will take you to it in the OOB. Well, you get the idea.

Image
Attachments
07oob2.jpg
07oob2.jpg (46.96 KiB) Viewed 1038 times
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

The OOB only shows the organic structure. It will not display the dynamic command structure. (this is on the wish list for the future) Reinforcements are displayed after they have arrived.
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
MarkShot
Posts: 7321
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2003 6:04 am

RE: COTA (mini-guide): Tutorial, AAR, and tips!

Post by MarkShot »

Another new feature I want to point out is the merging of various information items that were in HTTR on two separate tabs to a single tab in COTA. Additionally, force rollup data is available. This is the second column of numbers. The first being just for the selected unit.

As we can see, I have almost 11,000 troops under my command with 47 AFVs.

Image
Attachments
08rollup1.jpg
08rollup1.jpg (56.68 KiB) Viewed 1037 times
2021 - Resigned in writing as a 20+ year Matrix Beta and never looked back ...
Post Reply

Return to “Conquest of the Aegean”