Dave
Glad you liked them.
In answer to your queries. No, a section may not use its own dice to
remove wounds, this is a function peculiar to a "Big Man". In effect
the term "wound" is actually shorthand for something like "negative
cohesion points", the more a unit has, the less well it does
anything, firing, moving, aiming a crewed weapon etc. This reflects
the lack of cohesion in a unit that is left to its own devices and
gets a lot of crap thrown at it, it just goes to ground and as our
colonial cousins would say "hunkers down". It needs a "Big Man" to
come along and roll some dice. This represents him effectively
saying, "Pull yourselves together chaps! Right, you, bandage those
wounds up, Corporal, clear the blockage on that bren and put down
fire into that tree line, you two chaps, stop skulking in that damned
hole and smarten yourselves up!". Again the dice roll is shorthand
for him taking charge and getting the section into something like
fighting order.
Spotting IS something that a section can do on its own. And in fact
the more of it that it does the better off it should be!
Firing at tight groups should have several effects. For a start it
should have a very positive impact on the firing dice. The fire
chart makes some presumptions, one of which is that what you are
firing at is a section in extended order using some basic
fieldcraft. If, however, you find the target lumbering along in some
huge mass then the umpire should feel free to upragde the effect of
firing. For example, were I umpiring and the above situation
occurred, I would shift one column to the left, so if you would
normally be firing on the "great" effect table at 9" to 18", and this
close order column appeared I would immediately upgrade that fire to
use the 0-9" column at Great effect. In that situation I would apply
the casualties to the groups as a whole, probably applying them
evenly throughout the sections, but skewing them to do more to the
sections at the front. Certainly a pinned or Suppressed result
should apply to all of the sections. I should say, however, that
advancing in that formation is unwise!
Sorry to hear about your chum who feels the rules are unfair. I
always though life was, but no bugger changed it for me! The
uncertainty of movement, combined with the Big Men is absolutely key
to the rules in their attempt to look like warfare rather than an
alternative to a game of Risk. However, some will love it, others
will hate it. I am glad you feel they are achieving their goal in
doing the former. My fellow Lardy and co-author Nick Skinner
utilised all of his Special Forces experience in the Dagenham Girl
Pipers to bring us up to speed on certain technical areas.
I hope to have two more supplements out in August. The Desert War is
causing me some problems, but I am persevering, however the Finland
and Norway supplement will be done, as will D-Day to the Arnhem.
Following thet I am determined to finish the Desert War, which will
probably also cover Crete 9and Greece?). Russia is well down the
list, I'm afraid, as I known little about the conflict. I shall keep
everyone informed through this list.
Cheers
Richard
--- In Toofatlardies@..., "britcrusader83"
<britcrusader83@y...> wrote:
Thanks for the rules and supplements, especially the late war stuff
which got us started without buying a whole load of gear.
Weve had some great games using the sort of force sizes you
suggested, and had some excellent results. I see what you mean't
about them not suiting everybody, one of the guys gets really
pissed
off when his platoon does nothing, and feels that the rules are
unfair. I dont think he will ever be converted. For the rest of
us
we are very impressed, especially with the way the games flow, and
as
you mentioned the firing calcs are very simple. Makes a change
from
some of the crap weve waided thru.
A couple of questions have come up. Can a unit use some of its own
dice to remove wounds, or is it just big men, the same goes for
spotting? Also when firing at a tight groups of sections should
the
casualties be spread between all of them or can a section be
singled
out, if so does any pinned or supressed result apply to everyone
one
or just the ones hit?
I must say these are a great set of rules, and in my twenty plus
years of soldiering I can say that this is as close as I would want
a
game to come to the real thing! A good training exercise for
troops
leaders.
Keep up the good work.
Dave.
"Head down an' diggin'"
