The following hints and tips are in response to questions we received during the last year. One basic consideration that all players should keep in mind when using our rules is that our rules are not meant to cover every possible contingency on the battlefield. No rules set could cover every possibility, even if you did not care about being able to actually play the game. We expect players and umpires to make decisions based on the circumstances and in line with what seems reasonable. If you are not sure, make a decision, and later do some research to find out what would have been the historical reality. Even reality can change as troops gain experience or are worn down by combat and privation.

One area of rules that you should follow closely is that which defines weapon and vehicle capabilities. Players often want to upgrade the capabilities of tanks, especially German tanks, because they do not seem as successful in game terms as the Germans were historically. The fact is, the success of the Germans was due to training and small unit leadership, not super tanks. German equipment was often inferior to that of their opponents, such as in France in 1940, Russia in 1941, and Russia in 1944 and 1945.

When constructing your own scenarios, try to use equipment that historically fought against each other. In 1944 in Russia, do not pit Panthers and Jagdpanthers against T34/76Cs; instead, give the Russians JSIIs, ISU 122s, and other late model equipment. Avoid overloading the board with equipment. Tanks should not be wheel-hub to wheel-hub on the table. In most scenarios the infantry should outnumber the tanks. Include normal support weapons like 60 mm mortars. Terrain should not be flat and open. Even on the steppes of the Ukraine there were rolling hills with lots of dips and gullies. The desert in North Africa was also not flat, but filled with wadis and low rises.

In summary, Battalions In Crisis! is basically a technical manual for simulating small unit actions. It provides the framework for gamers to simulate both historical and might-have-been situa tions in a realistic manner. Gamers who use their understanding of combined arms warfare and small unit tactics will be successful; those who do not, stand to learn the hard way in the course of play.

1. When firing at units in cover, woods, brush, etc., remember to check the Observation Table. Even units that have fired may not be clearly visible. Units firing from cover or from concealment would be counted as "Target spotted, but not visible" with a fire modifier of -8 on the Small Arms Fire Table and -12 on the Direct Fire Table if they are beyond the observation distance for the firing unit.

2. A vehicle mounted MG gets no fire bonus if the vehicle is moving. If the vehicle is moving, treat the fire as if it were fired by a person "Walking" with a modifier of 0. Be sure to use the sighting penalties as they apply, however. You really can't see very much or very far from inside a buttoned up tank. If you are also moving, you can see even less. So, you will either be firing at clearly visible exposed infantry close to the vehicle or you will be paying the fire penalty of -8 for "Spotted, but not visible."

3. If the tank is listed as having a cupola on the vehicle data sheet, treat the thickness as the same as the turret front or as 100 mm, whichever is less.

4. When artillery fire is announced and measured, the artillery template is placed on the table to indicate the general area of the fall of the spotting round. Before the actual fall is rolled and marked, any infantry in the general area must announce their reaction to the artillery fire. Infantry may choose to go prone and cover up in a foxhole or in the open. If they do cover up, they may not fire. This allows artillery to have the capability to suppress infantry even though it does not hit anything. If infantry goes prone in a foxhole, they are safe from anything but a direct hit. Infantry that goes prone in the open will be out of action on a roll of 1-10 and safe on a roll of 11-20, if they are in the actual blast diameter of a round. An infantryman who ended the normal move prone would receive the defensive benefit and be allowed to fire, because he had taken the time to pick a place before the shelling started.

5. Artillery has three basic uses on the battlefield--to destroy, to suppress, and to provide cover. Most gamers are used to destroying targets with high explosive rounds or using chemical smoke to protect exposed troops. However, due to the inaccuracy of artillery and its general inability to kill dug-in troops, artillery is most often used to suppress enemy troops and their fire. When planning artillery attacks, remember that the enemy will have the opportunity to move several times before the barrage lands, so you will want to target for suppression the area you think he will be occupying rather than individual specific targets of opportunity.

6. We have heard the German MG 34 described by one gamer as the "light machine gun from hell." In fact, if a light machine gunner wants to reach out and touch someone, he will score almost without fail, no brag, just fact. That is also a gross misuse of a machine gun. The machine gun is an area denial weapon. Remember that the machine gun is allowed to cover multiple targets within a 15 cm x 5 cm ellipse or a 10 cm circle (templates for these fire areas are provided in the center pullout section of this issue). When using area fire, calculate the base to-hit against one target as usual up to the automatic weapon bonus. The base without the bonus is the base for each target fired at. The bonus is then divided by the number of targets; so a German MG 34 firing at 6 targets rushing his position would get a +3 to-hit automatic weapon bonus for each target. When trying to take a machine gun position, you need to spread out and go as a group with other troops providing support fire-do not give the machine gunner a series of individual targets!

7. Moving troops may never return fire against previously hidden units that reveal themselves by fire on the turn they reveal themselves. This allows defending troops to take a pot shot from concealment then sneak away to a fall-back position. It is essential for the attacker to set up a base of fire before launching an assault. Even at the squad level, an LMG and several rifles can provide covering fire for the advancing section. Covering fire may only be provided by troops not moving at all during the turn. Instead of moving, the troops providing covering fire must announce to the referee that they are doing so and they may provide covering fire to their front only. Units providing covering fire may return fire against units that reveal themselves by fire, but since they are reacting to the fire, count them as seeing the firing unit for less than 1/2 of the turn.

8. The number of figures for crew-served weapons varies. For game purposes you can use these numbers as minimum guidelines. Players may assign more figures to the crew. LMG, MMG, and light mortars have a crew of two. HMGs have two or three; two is enough to crew the weapon, but three are needed to move the weapon on the battlefield. Medium mortars and small anti-tank guns have three. Heavy mortars and medium anti-tank guns need 4. Large anti-tank guns, 88 mm and up, need 6.

9. The effects of casualties on crew-served weapons can be handles in several different ways. Some players allow only the original crew members to fire their weapons. This approach solves the questions of training to use the weapon, possible damage to the weapon or ammunition, confusion about who actually has the weapon, and endless machine gun duels where both sides continuously replace combat ineffective machine gun crews. We generally permit anyone to pick up a weapon and use it if their training would reasonably allow them to use it. Most infantry soldiers had only a rudimentary knowledge of the workings of artillery, anti-tank weapons, tanks, and special combat engineering weapons. You could reasonably limit green troops and militia to their original weapons. Crewserved weapons that are in place with their ready ammo are not affected by the loss of one crewman. For those interested in the detail, a machine gun moved without a loader could have its automatic weapon bonus permanently halved due to lack of ammo. Anti-tank guns and other heavy weapons that lose half of their crew have their rate of fire halved. In all games it is within the umpire's authority to make decisions based on the specific circumstances.

10. The rate of fire for indirect artillery is one to three rounds (within any ammo limitations established by the scenario). See pages 32 and 33 in the basic rules for a detailed explanation. When heavy artillery is firing direct, it has a rate of fire of one. Medium and heavy mortars firing direct have a rate of fire of three. Remember when firing mortars that the target must be visible to the mortar crew and beyond the minimum firing range.