Scenario editor: unit exits?

[Stafford]

I've been putting together maps for a campaign in which the ability to retreat will be an option, unfortunately I have yet to be able to get an objective 'exit' to work properly.

I played a scenario in CMRT last year where exits featured but I'm buggered if I can remember the name of it! Any ideas....?

 

[BornGinger]

In the editor you go to territory objectives, or what it's called, and in the drop down option choose Exit. You then go to the 2D scenario map and paint the exit area. It should work without any problems.

I have never tried to have the exit area inside a building or a group of buildings, although I believe it should work, but always painted the area on the border of the map.

What is the problem with your exit point? If you are trying to have both occupation areas and exit areas for one of the sides, I doubt that's possible to do.

 

[Ithikial]

What BornGinger said. Ensure the painted area is for the side you want to exit. Any unit from that side that is touching the exit action square will depart the map. The only warning I'll add is that for campaigns it's not the easiest system to use, particularly if the aim is to give players the option to withdraw units if they so wish. For a Game Master given you can't readily spot which units moved into an exit space, you'll be required to have a lot of faith and assume honesty with your players. Shouldn't be a problem around here but one honest mistake or bad apple will stuff it up for everyone. It's also a lot of work for the Game Master to keep tabs of this kind of thing.

 

[Stafford]

Thankyou @BornGinger and @Ithikial , yes I wanted to have a toy around with it to see if it would be useful in the campaign. The idea being that both players will be going into the game completely blind, even their COs will be blind, unless they have prior intel (another part of the campaign) they will have no idea what the enemy will bring. So, they might have a reinforced infantry company, and upon discovering that the enemy brought a platoon of tanks and a battalion of mounted infantry, may wish to extract their forces and cede the field to their opponent (as would be likely to happen IRL).

If the exit thing doesn't work the way I want, I will simply designate an area back past the start zones on each side that will serve as the 'evac point', once units are in it they will be considered 'safe' but can no longer take part in the battle.

...and don't worry, I will be watching closely!

 

[Rico]

Thankyou @BornGinger and @Ithikial , yes I wanted to have a toy around with it to see if it would be useful in the campaign. The idea being that both players will be going into the game completely blind, even their COs will be blind, unless they have prior intel (another part of the campaign) they will have no idea what the enemy will bring. So, they might have a reinforced infantry company, and upon discovering that the enemy brought a platoon of tanks and a battalion of mounted infantry, may wish to extract their forces and cede the field to their opponent (as would be likely to happen IRL).

If the exit thing doesn't work the way I want, I will simply designate an area back past the start zones on each side that will serve as the 'evac point', once units are in it they will be considered 'safe' but can no longer take part in the battle.

...and don't worry, I will be watching closely!

You can use a steep(ish) slope to create a LOS dead zone at the end of the map as a withdrawal zone -- once the commander has all his forces he can safely withdraw in that zone, he declares a withdrawal and any units left on rest of map are considered captured.
Enemy can shoot into withdrawal zone, but not enter it, so timing for retreating side crucial.
Have used that in compaigns successfully quite often.

(the example below is quite generous ... usually make them much narrower ;-)

 

[Stafford]

Yep that's exactly the kind of thing that I was thinking of @Rico , although to dissuade players from bailing out at the first opportunity I'm considering something like a certain amount of time must pass in the battle before the 'evac' can be enacted, so a certain rearguard action would have to be fought, as both sides are entering the battle blind and should have no idea what they're up against, a weaker side that wishes to withdraw should try to engage in some sort of visual deception in order to buy time.

The 'evac timer' would be something like 15 to 20 mins from battle start.

 

[Rico]

Yep that's exactly the kind of thing that I was thinking of @Rico , although to dissuade players from bailing out at the first opportunity I'm considering something like a certain amount of time must pass in the battle before the 'evac' can be enacted, so a certain rearguard action would have to be fought, as both sides are entering the battle blind and should have no idea what they're up against, a weaker side that wishes to withdraw should try to engage in some sort of visual deception in order to buy time.

The 'evac timer' would be something like 15 to 20 mins from battle start.

That's pretty much the standard approach.

 

[Rico]

Yep that's exactly the kind of thing that I was thinking of @Rico , although to dissuade players from bailing out at the first opportunity I'm considering something like a certain amount of time must pass in the battle before the 'evac' can be enacted, so a certain rearguard action would have to be fought, as both sides are entering the battle blind and should have no idea what they're up against, a weaker side that wishes to withdraw should try to engage in some sort of visual deception in order to buy time.

The 'evac timer' would be something like 15 to 20 mins from battle start.

That said, the withdrawal zone can get a bit messy if you have hills and high elevations close to the map edge

 

[Ithikial]

Rico's way makes life a lot easier as a GM given you can visually see the units that have 'exited' the engagement when you receive the final file to process the results. The only rule you'll probably want to have in place is that players don't use this elevation change for hull down/spotting positions. If you are playing CMRT you may have a problem with aircraft given they roam freely and attack what they wish that can sort of defeat the purpose. Or it may actually be accurate as it simulates aircraft attacking fleeing enemy formations. In the other titles, players should probably not be allowed to target this area with off map support. Food for thought.

 

[Stafford]

Good points all, here is what I am thinking for the evac area.

Ugly as sin but it should get the job done, trees block LOS in and out, and the road has a couple of curves to 100% break LOS from the battlefield to the evac zone. In any case, if a stray round lands in the zone and causes some problems it can be ignored, as once anything is in the area it is considered 'safe' but no longer usable.

I'll be using CMFI for this campaign, aircraft will probably be rare anyway and if they do cause an oops, it can be discounted as above.