Mud Effects

[BK6583]

I forgot to bring the manual with me so I'm bugging this forum. I'm playing the "On to Paris" scenario and I'm on turn 35. After getting spoiled with a great deal of good weather, I'm now facing several turns of mud. The first mud turn as the Allies left me scratching my head just before I retired for the evening. Where I had numerous 10-1 odds attacks available, when mud came I can't get any higher than 4-1 attacks, with one or two 5-1 attacks! All of my trucks are in an Orange state. I know mud affects movement, but does it affect combat too? All of my Allied units have any where between 2-4 bullest each, so that can't be the reason.

[pterrok]

Mud doesn't affect the CRT per se, except it may change the amount of AT that terrain gives. Usually it goes up, so you won't be able to get a + on the combat.

What you are probably seeing is that since your units can't move far enough to participate in as many attacks, the Advisor is showing lower odds. Mostly this could be due to the Rec units not being able to shoot through holes in the line to get green arrows and extra combat shifts.

In addition, if you have a GREY unit--one that didn't get supplied but is NOT out of bullets--the Combat Advisor will NOT use that unit in the odds it shows. So actually, this may be a bigger contributing factor than the lack of movement...

Note that using these grey units in attacks is a VERY important thing to learn to do--if you can make an overrun they don't use a bullet at all, and you also need to learn when to use them in non-overrun attacks when they will still have a bullet left afterwards. Using them in an attack even when you drive yourself into a red, isolated condition is the mark of a master--be sure that ONE unit, even a non-combat one--can 'cover' them so they're not counter-attacked on the Isolated CRT. (And make sure you have plans to get them supplied next turn!)

[BK6583]

"Note that using these grey units in attacks is a VERY important thing to learn to do--if you can make an overrun they don't use a bullet at all, and you also need to learn when to use them in non-overrun attacks when they will still have a bullet left afterwards. Using them in an attack even when you drive yourself into a red, isolated condition is the mark of a master--be sure that ONE unit, even a non-combat one--can 'cover' them so they're not counter-attacked on the Isolated CRT. (And make sure you have plans to get them supplied next turn!)"

I must confess that I'm at a loss to understand what you're refering to above - can you elaborate further? I just briefly experimented with clicking on several greyed out units with bullets left and initiating combat. Their combat strength is shown as zero. I stopped there. Are you saying that I could click on that gold resolve combat button and force the defender to lose another bullet?

[pterrok]

Hmmm, the only units that have a combat strength of zero are:

1) Units still on naval transports
2) Non-combat units
3) Units which have already used their action for the turn and are yellow (or orange)

The game DOES allow you to extend move a unit, thereby using its action capabilty, and moving it next to an enemy AND launching an attack IF there are other units that could participate. But that first unit itself isn't really in the attack and the attack strength looks like zero. If you add other units normally or click on Max you should get SOME sort of attack strength.

If you actually saw the big gold 'fire' button to resolve the combat you must have had some sort of attack strength to generate at least 1-2 odds. If you DON'T have enough attack strength then the fire button is dimmed and so you couldn't make the attack.

As the US, MAKING a 1-2 attack isn't a big deterent to me if I'm using Infantry--so I roll an A2 and a couple of guys go to three steps. They're still pretty darn effective AND I have all those replacements coming in. Just be careful to check and see if there is a large chance of two dice--an A4 CAN ruin your day!

So yes, IF you can make an attack the enemy will lose a bullet--but so will your guys so make sure you know which ones are participating--especially if they started out grey!

[BK6583]

Ok - I phrased my query poorly. Simply put, what did you mean by, "Note that using these grey units in attacks is a VERY important thing to learn to do...?"

[pterrok]

Well, since the Combat Advisor does NOT count grey units when showing odds you have to be aware that you might get higher odds--even an overrun--by using them in an attack.

Similarly, if you always just hit Max to run your attacks you could drive some grey units out of bullets and end up in big trouble!

Getting them to be grey in the first place might just be because of the change in weather, in which case moving a supply truck up and/or seeing that the weather is going to chnage back means there's no reason NOT to attack with a grey unit with at least two bullets. But you also need to use your 4 bullet units to deliberately move behind enemy lines. You pretty much KNOW they will have to start their next turn grey, but they may be able to attack from the rear for another shift and/or seriously discomfit the enemy's movements or HIS supply line.

You just have to plan that the enemy WILL hit your guy to use up a bullet and have a good idea of how you're going to extricate him if you can't force the enemy to get out of your way!

Finally, the Combat Advisor also has a small weakness in that it sometimes misses combat shifts due to the step limit in adjacent hexes. So you might be able to move a grey unit into a hex and gain the shift by the added steps and NOT have the grey unit attack. (Similarly, a unit can extend move into a hex to add enough steps and the CA will never think of that--you have to be aware when you light up a combat that you're missing a green arrow due to steps and see if you can overcome it.)