New to the game - Basic Questions

[Joseignacio]

Yep, I always do, as a French, Although I never cared about this cause my both French Hqs were in the area. Thx.

[Ur_Vile_WEdge]

Map Question:

Does the railroad heading through Algiers and Morocco and up through Tangiers connect to Gibraltar? Can I directly rail the Algerian resource to France, or do I have to have a convoy point in Cape St Vincent (or the western med if I'm insane)?

I'd been playing that the answer is "no" for years, but then again, I've discovered I've been doing a lot of things wrong for years too, so I'm not so sure anymore....

[paulderynck]

I'm not sure this was ever an "official" Q&A, but would express the opinion that the majority play that you can rail that resource through Gibraltar.

As long as both hexes on either side of a Straits symbol have a RR then you can rail over the Straits (subject to Option 12 - Limited Access Across Straits).

[rkr1958]

I'm in the Land -> Land Movement -> Declare Attacks phase. I wanted to pull up the Land Combat CRT under the Help menu but it's grayed out. What am I missing? How do I pull up that table?

[Centuur]

It's in "Charts from WIF FE", if you use 1D10.

The 2D10 table is on the last page of the RAW.

Truth is, that this is something which has been on the "to do" list for a long, long time, but somehow the time seems to be missing to do this... Since both tables are available on other places, it's a minor issue...

[paulderynck]

There are PDFs of all the charts with the game so you can have it open as a PDF and just use the task bar buttons to flip back and forth.

[rkr1958]

Thanks guys. I agree ... it's a minor, "non-issue". Another question. I'm pulling together a set of notecards (I know how old fashion) to help me remember some of the finer, and not so finer, points of the game. One notecard is for the surprise impulse and I wanted to vet the draft of what I have so far for that card. I take it for a given that the following applies to those enemy units that qualify as surprised under the rules.

Surprise Impulse
* No enemy air combat missions
* Attacks across river hexside are not halved
* Double Number of Ground Strikes Per Attack
* Double Tactical and Strategic Air Factors

How does that look?

[Ur_Vile_WEdge]

Don't forget that AA is halved, notionals are one weaker (so a default of 0) and the biggie: 0 surprise points in any naval combat against units solely of the surprising power.


There's also a few more minor effects such as you kill face up planes on an overrun, and get to roll against face up ships, instead of auto-rebasing and flipping them.


Also, IIRC, there is no effect on strategic bombing due to surprise, other than no interception.

[rkr1958]

ORIGINAL: Ur_Vile_WEdge

Don't forget that AA is halved, notionals are one weaker (so a default of 0) and the biggie: 0 surprise points in any naval combat against units solely of the surprising power.


There's also a few more minor effects such as you kill face up planes on an overrun, and get to roll against face up ships, instead of auto-rebasing and flipping them.


Also, IIRC, there is no effect on strategic bombing due to surprise, other than no interception.

Surprise Impulse
* No enemy air combat missions
* Attacks across river hexside are not halved
* Double Number of Ground Strikes Per Attack
* Double Tactical and Strategic Air Factors
* Enemy AA halved
* Notionals weaker (Default 0)
* 0 surprise points for enemy in naval combat solely against surprised enemy
* Overrun planes are destroyed
* Roll against organized ships

[rkr1958]

I'm also trying to get the finer points of controlling combat. Specifically when, as the attacker, I can choose the combat table. "And" is assumed after each bullet (i.e., *).

Attacker Chooses CRT
* Attacking non-city in clear, forest or desert
* One attack is across non-fort hexside (paradrops and invasions on hex count)
* Attacker has more ARM & HQ-A or
more mechs and defender has no ARM & HQ-A

By the way, for the 3rd condition, if the attacker has 3 ARMs and 0 HQ-A and the defender has 1 ARM and 1 HQ-A is that condition met? That is, is the condition the total of ARMsa and HQ-A or does the attacker have to have more ARMs s(3 to 1) and more HQ-A (0 to 1, which it doesn't in the example given)?

[paulderynck]

HQA only matters in that they are Armor... so 3 of any has the hammer over 2 of any.

[rkr1958]

Offensive Chit
(1) HQ benefits for power’s units within Reorg hexes (no terrain or weather effects) for impulse played
• Air Action
o Ground Strike – roll extra die for each target
o Ground Support – 2x factors except naval air or naval air interception
o Reorg – ½ cost for air units reorg by HQ
• Naval Action
o Applies to unit in port with HQ with benefits
o May require one or both sides to reroll dice in any round of naval combat
o Allocate rerolls to naval / air units after movement and before combat
o Reroll request immediately after search, air-to-air, anti-aircraft or defense roll by either side
• Land Action
o Double land combat factors within reorg range when calculating final odds (overruns and land combat)
o Reorg – ½ normal cost for land units reorg by HQ
• Combined Action
o Max # for each action is # of activities for each individual action
o Reorg – ½ normal cost
(2) Reorg HQs
• Play at the start of air, naval, land or combined action
• All HQs are reorganized

[rkr1958]

I just finished my second ran at the Barbarossa scenario using the default setup. Here's the situation at the end of the game.

[rkr1958]

I know I played the axis, and offensive action, much better than I did my first time. I had a much better understanding of game mechanics, strategy and tactics; however, I still wasn't able to achieve the results that I feel are necessary to move up to more complex scenarios. In my first run, the VP total was USSR 31 and Germany 14. In this second go the total was USSR 27 and Germany 18, which as first blush doesn't seem much of an improvement. However, if I look at margin of victory in my first game the USSR won by 17 VPs and only won by 9 this game. So I guess I'm making progress.

I had a lot of fun playing this scenario again. Though the scenario is 5 game turns, Germany really only has 3 turns to capture significant ground. Germany only captured 1 victory city (Kharkov) on turn 4 and 0 on turn 5. The weather was blizzard for all impulses of turns 4 and 5 for the arctic. So, I was able to do nothing as Germany in the north.

[Ur_Vile_WEdge]

Some Guards Banner army questions.


1) If, before Germany and the USSR go to war, the Soviets demand the Finnish Borderlands, and the Finns want to fight, and the Soviets kill some Finnish units, can you use that to promote a GBA, even though you're not at war with Germany? (Assuming the Finns are a minor controlled by Germany, or the Soviets chew up some German peacekeepers)

2) If I do a paradrop on an otherwise unguarded hex, and I kill the notional, can I use that to claim I destroyed a division and promote the para? (German or aligned minor controlled hex)

[paulderynck]

1) It was clarified recently that they must be German units or no promotions.

2) Good question, but I'd say no because there is no definition of whether a notional is a corps, a Div, or something else.

[Joseignacio]

IIRW the notional is not a division but a brigade. Not sure though.

[paulderynck]

Thinking it and finding it in the rules are different things.

[Ur_Vile_WEdge]

Well, 2D10 considers the notional a division for purposes of counting it as a flipped unit in combat. And the section on invasions says

The notional unit is treated like a normal unit for all purposes during combat except that they only have a ZoC into their own hex and are always face-down.

. I suppose you could say that the "promote GBA" step isn't "during combat", but at least intuitively, it seems to me that if you're fighting a notional, and it's a unit that you have to kill, it's well, a unit.

[paulderynck]

The GBA rule says the combat has to affect a Div or a Corps. Yes it may "walk like a duck" but when the rules actually say it's a duck, then it will be a duck.