WWII Micro Armour: The Game - Questions

[RedLeif]

John taught me to simply measure "up and over", which meant find the number of inches 'up' from the lower right corner of my force's side of the board and then 'over' the number of inches from the right side of the board. As long as the starting point is always the same this grid system works great and a ref or other players can check your plots if they question you about it. Make sure you also note the sheaf status and direction of any open sheaf you intend to fire.

John also taught me the method that Sven mentions but I found this more confusing from a verifiability standpoint - a concern at tournaments or with new players that you're not sure fully understand the rules. But it's faster and easier than the plot system outlined above.

As for your comment "I can't picture placing the inch square "impact" markers on the board the turn before." You're right, they are not placed 'the turn before'. You plot your fires on paper for future turn(s) in step 5 of the game turn. But you actually place the markers on the turn of arrival (after a successful cohesion roll) in the "joint artillery fire phase" (step 3 of the turn of arrival). And since the artillery arrives (step 3) before the movement phase (step 6) you CAN drive (or walk) around the artillery impact zones. But if you put your infantry in the movement posture in step 2, and artillery lands on them in step 3, well, life can be short in the infantry! I remember a player once commenting that this seemed unrealistic, but John explained that artillery is often used to channel the movements of your opponent, to get them to go where you want them to go and where they don't want to go.

This games' mechanics are beautiful and cool. It's one of the many reasons I really like them.

As John taught me his game we didn't play with the optional 'national artillery effects' rule (12.7) and my opponents grew to fear my artillery. After he put that rule into play it got a lot harder to play Soviets. But thinking of artillery fires as a 'terrain feature' made much more sense to me when I play soviets and use the national artillery rules. It takes so long for the indirect fire to arrive, you're merely lucky if it lands on a stand of moving infantry or softskins when it arrives.

Clear skies
Leif Edmondson

[RedLeif]

]Firing: All bases firing at one stand are marked out (somehow). If the target is eliminated before all have fired, have they still "shot their bolt"? That is, they cannot now join some others in firing at another base. That's my understanding but can't find it.

You have interpreted the rules correctly.
The opening paragraph of section 7 states 'an attack is the application of the firepower of one or more stands against the defense value of a single stand'. Then one reads the "standard fire procedure" at the back of the book. In step 2 you 'designate all firing stands' at the specified target. And rule 7.1.4 says that a stand may only fire once per turn. From this one learns that once 'fired' at a given target, a stand may not switch targets until the next turn.

Since the combat effects are cumulative often times it is important to allocate a whole group of stands fire at a target to insure the combat result desired. Sometimes you allocate a few more than you need, but this is one of the subtleties of the game. If you're playing a low cohesion force like the Soviets or the French you'll find you'll need to allocate companies or even battalions worth of stands to damage (S or D) or eliminate an opposing stand, while high cohesion forces like the Germans or Americans can get away with fewer stands concentrating their fire.

And John argued this was realistic as follows. If a tank company was taking fire from an ATG battery on the edge of a wood, they could all go into action against it together and after a few minutes of fire, the enemy position is smoking of its own accord and no longer firing on them. But during this response, the tanks of the 3rd platoon would not realize that the first shots from the 2nd platoon did in the enemy battery. They'd conduct their fires right along with the 1st and 2nd platoons, simultaneously, and after a few rounds, halt and judge their effectiveness.

In games I play we use little colored beads, obtained from general hobby or craft stores. You can see this in pictures in the rules on pages 12 and 13. Green meant the stand or unit was in the movement posture. Red meant the stand had fired, white was suppressed and black was disrupted. you can also use the S and D paper stands provided in the rules, by marking the back sides with an M and F and just bending them as needed. The green and red beads were automatically removed at the end of every turn. The white and black beads could only be removed with the proper successful cohesion roles in step 7.

Best regards
Leif

[General Retreat]

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated. I'm mounting more units and reworking my terrain. I was too fancy years ago when I first made them. Wiggly roads and walls all over the place. I've removed the trees and "potted" them; I just put three in a hex to indicate forest. Straighter roads are in order, too. I've realized that the terrain shouldn't be the show.

[dougeagle]

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated. I'm mounting more units and reworking my terrain. I was too fancy years ago when I first made them. Wiggly roads and walls all over the place. I've removed the trees and "potted" them; I just put three in a hex to indicate forest. Straighter roads are in order, too. I've realized that the terrain shouldn't be the show.

You realize that you are going to have to show us some pics right

[General Retreat]

Where/how do I do that?

[dougeagle]

Where/how do I do that?

Take some pics with your digital camera...if you have one. Then you need to find another site that you can upload your pics into...such as Photobucket, Flickr...I use photobucket. Make sure your pics that you take are saved as a jpeg as it will take up less bandwidth when uploading to your photo site...lets use Photobucket as an example.
Once your photos are uploaded, move your mouse over the picture you want, it will show a few tags and the one you want is IMG Code. Left click on the line next to the text that says IMG Code...it will say Copied when clicked.
Then, making sure that you have GHQ site open, right click in the posting then just paste it...you should get the pic you wanted when you submit the post. The image below is from using the instructions I mentioned above.



If you have any other questions...feel free to ask

[General Retreat]

OK. May be a while. Work's held up by a short holiday. Hey! Not my idea. Bad priorites.

PS Wait till you see the tanks. My son's paint jobs are a work of art. (I just spray 'em one color!)

[General Retreat]

OK. More questions have arisen in play. About Overrun & Close Assaults. Book isn't clear about the column to use or terrain effects. Here's how I understand it--correct me!

Overrun: The defender is attacked as if shot at. Does terrain further modify cohesion rolls? I take it all vehicles find their roll result in the +6 column of the CRT. Even a roll of 12 disorders. But does terrain modify the dice roll? Does the range of 0" subtract from its roll?

Close assault: Seems to be mutual combat at 0" range. Does terrain modify the cohesion roll? Seems not. Does terrain add to roll? I could argue they're all mixed up and benefits cancel out. Would be very hard to assault an improved postion since attackers are outside.

Bridges! I have bridge tokens (that I've mounted on the same one-inch square steel plates I had a metal shop cut for me) but no rules about laying, removing, or destroying. At least, I can't find any.

What do you all think?

[Firefight]

General Retreat,

I asked those same questions years ago when the rules were first issued. John responded by saying:

1) OVERRUNS - The only part terrain plays is the cost to enter it by the attacking unit. (NOTE: my homerule is that you CANNOT overrun units in buildings , i.e., built up areas)
2) CLOSE ASSUALT - Terrain plays no part since both sides are in the same terrain in face-to-face combat.

You are correct...there are no bridging rules in the WW2 version. The MODERN version does inculde some bridging rules for Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge (AVLB).

Mitch

[General Retreat]

Thanks for the quick reply. Sounds right. Another reason not to add terrain effects is impact. Assaults will be bloodier. And should be.

Bridges: My roughly formed idea has engineers laying or taking up a bridge section for each turn not moving or firing and passing its cohesion test.

[Firefight]

General Retreat,

The MODERN rules for AVLB are as follows. Perhaps you can modify them:

1) The AVLB MUST start the turn adjacent to the obstacle to be crossed.
2) a cohesion roll is made.
3) If successful, the bridge is laid.

Pretty simple and of course the cohesion roll plays a key part.

Mitch

[General Retreat]

Sounds reasonable to me!

[General Retreat]

Here's one for WWII Micro Armour: The Game: Mortar fire at armor. Mortars have a "0" value against armor. Does this mean mortars cannot even target armor or from Zero subtract the armored vehicle's halved defense. Against halftracks' [3] halved to "1" the roll would be found on the minus one column. Is that your understanding?

A weak attack but suppressing, at least.

[dougeagle]

Here's one for WWII Micro Armour: The Game: Mortar fire at armor. Mortars have a "0" value against armor. Does this mean mortars cannot even target armor or from Zero subtract the armored vehicle's halved defense. Against halftracks' [3] halved to "1" the roll would be found on the minus one column. Is that your understanding?

A weak attack but suppressing, at least.

Why would you use mortars against armour anyways?
Unless it has a defense of 1 or 2, you might suppress it, but otherwise,it's pretty much useless. But yeah, if it has a defense value of [3], loses 50% rounded up, becomes [2], then there would be a left column shift. Unless you roll low, say a 3 (no Terrain Effects) then the target would be [S] Suppressed. Would work against halftracks and other really lightly armoured vehicles, but that's about it.
I mainly use mortars to deal with them pesky infantry...works really good when you make a good roll Hope that helps.

[RedLeif]

GR: You are correct, Mortars can target and fire on armored stands. Your example is right in the main. Rule 7.6.6 says to round the halved armor value up, not down though. So in your example the half-track would have a Def. Value of 2 not 1. you got it though.

dougeagle: The reason one would attack armored units with mortars, despite their having a low probability to inflict much lasting or deadly effects is that per the CRT If the attacker is Artillery or Support, treat 'No Effect' as 'Suppressed'. So if your mortars fire directly or indirectly and don't drift off target or other artillery firing indirectly doesn't drift off target, their fire suppresses that King Tiger platoon that is trying to make you have a bad day. For that matter anything in the impact zone (where ever it lands) is suppressed, whether the fire was on target or not.

Mortars are more effective against lightly armored or unarmored targets than heavily armored ones, but a suppressed tank is easier to 'D' with future attacks (in the fire phase) than an unsuppressed one. If the mortars have nothing better to shoot at or the advancing enemy tanks are a significant enough threat then shell them to make them easier to destroy and less effective at moving and shooting during their turn.

Have Fun,
RedLeif