Subscriptions and Call Fire I recently subscribed to the Command Post (in June 1991) and was promptly sent last year's issues #14. I then sent a check for eight dollars with the subscription and anxiously awaited my first copy of the year. One month passed and I received a statement from GDW showing my payment and indicating that CP #5 was out of stock and CP #6 was not yet through the presses. It is now late September and I still have not gotten any of the 1991 CPs or any further explanation as to the delay. I certainly hope that the CP has not dried up and blown away, both for the sake of my eight dollars and the fact that the publication is just what I have been looking for. See what you can do to either get me the issues or let me know you are still alive. When I wrote you a letter requesting info on the CP, I indicated that I game almost extensively with Command Decision. I continue to have one nagging concern about CDs rules for indirect fire, basically the the ineffectiveness of artillery. I recently umpired a game in which an experienced German Panzer Grenadier Battalion, defending a town attempted to get it's 12 cm mortar stand into action against an attacking American Task Force. Six turns of fire were either preplotted or called for by company and battalion CO's. Not once did the indirect fire come in on target. By this time the German player wanted to trade in all of his artillery for one stand of 12cm mortars which are automatically on target. However, there was some consolation when the Americans over ran the town and the mortar stand was committed to action as infantry. The American Player had only slightly better results with his artillery (two battalions ofM-7 Priests) This was due to the inclusion of Forward Observers in the task force, and because the Germans targeted were in defensive positions and interested in moving, so that their was time for the artillery to be auto targeted on their positions on the following turns. As according to most of what I have read on WWII, 65 to 80% of all casualties were caused by artillery, this figure is a far cry from what happens in most CP games. The problem seems to be that by the time that you spot a target, plot the fire, (next command phase), which in turn comes in the general fire phase, your target has moved away, making your plot useless. Even when the target remains stationary there is at best a 50% chance (FO's excluded) that the fire will be on target. Although the next turn the fire will be adjusted onto the original target point most stands, once they realize that they have been targeted, decide to move to a safer local. I like the addition of the Call Fire Rule because it gives the player the opportunity to get indirect fire when and where he needs it. However, with the accuracy roll required, the best chance (veteran, FO,) being only 50% negates any Teal chance of it effecting the current problem. One other concern that the American player had was the inability to have a preparatory barrage brought down on the town, since no fire comes in on a targeted area unless there is an observed enemy standing in it. Since the Germans were in cover, the Americans could not effect fire until they were close enough to see the Germans, which occurred at a point where the Germans were able to drive off the spotting stand with small arms fire. I hope that you can shed some light on how either the game tactics or rule modifications indirect fire can take its rightful place on CD battle fields. --Michael Patterson, Palm Harbor, FL What more can I say as editor to the question of the missing CP's? In regard to your questions/concerns on artillery, there is no area of our planned rewrite that is causing as the problems as artillery. In regard to the game you mentioned, my personal view is that 12cm mortars are battalion weapons, and should be treated in the same manner as the mortars. Frank is opposed to this, as it makes the 12cm very nasty weapons. Insofar as the Germans added them for this reason, as did the US after WWII, I let them be used as battalion weapons, with the rule that they may not fire a converged sheaf on a moving unit. (One can also allow that, if the scenario calls for the defense of a prepared position, the ability for the defenders to indicate up to six targets on which their indirect fire will be considered to be prep fired. Any fire called on those positions will fall without the need of a die roll.) As to your comment on the casualties from Artillery Fire, you are correct in that the numbers rarely match in a CD game, though (as you mentioned) one reason for this is that players know that if they move more than 4" they are safe for a turn, so that we have much more movement on the table than would be present in reality. Also, hospitals don't bother to ask whether the shell damage was direct HE, or indirect HE, which means that damge from aircraft, tanks, and artillery tends to be considered as HE. The rule that forbids fire on an areas where the enemy is suspected, but not seen was wended to stop recon by fire -- the US used it in Vietnam, and the Israelis in Lebanon, but usually troops can ill afford to bang away without a target in mind. On the other hand, if you are attacking a known enemy position,a barrage should be allowed, with the limitations that must be plotted in advance, with length and targets spelled out, and that the firing player may not be told of any results. The barrage rnust continue as planned, and if aborted, is lost for the remainder of game. In addition, units that fire a barrage may not be used for a fire mission until the start of the secoond turn after the barrage ends. For game balance, if you allow the American player a TOT as part of his barrage, then allow the Germans the use of their 12cm mortars as battalion weapons -- they will need all the help they can get! Hope that this helps out. Pinned Units Herein is posed a question concerning pinned units and close combat; specifically, can units which have suffered a pinned morale result still participate in close assault? Here's the situation which provoked this question: Two Soviet BMP/infantry platoons charged a dismounted Italian infantry unit (both sides experienced, Morale 9) taking cover in a town. The Italians disable done BMP on its way, but the other BMP made it to contact for the close assault. In the ensuring morale phase, the Soviets suffered a pin result. Now, since Pinned units can't fire or move towards the enemy, could the Soviets complete the subsequent close combat? I allowed the close combat, rationalizing that units in close proximity would fight for their lives, here's how I resolved it: First, I computed Morale for each side: Italians 9 (base) -2 (enemy AFV within 10") -1 (enemy personnel within 10") +2 (cover) TOTAL: 8 Russians 9 (base) -1 (BMP disabled) -1 (Russian stand hit) -1 (Enemy personnel within 10") -1 (Pinned morale result) TOTAL: 5 The Russians didn't get a cover morale modifier as I figured that they were dismounting. Next came the close assault modifiers: Italians: +3 Morale Bonus Russians: +2 Additional Stand (The BMP) The Italians rolled a 2, which became a 5, while the Russians rolled a 7, which became a 9. The Italians were forced back out of town. --Don Kreipke, Zionsville, IN Well written letter and example, but the key is the fact that the Soviets are pinned, and may not close therefore on the ltalians. Thus, the Close Assault will not take place. The Soviets should be backed up to 1/2" or 1" away from the Italian troops and remain there at the end of the turn. This is implied in the rules, but not actually stated. (It will be in the 2nd Edition.) Very good math, though, as many players forget that the enemy AFV within 10 ", and enemy personnel within 10" is cumulative for a total of -3 to the units morale. Subscription Problem I am having a problem with my subscription to the CP. Can you help me to get the problem fixed, or do I need to write GDW. Also enclosed are some questions on CD that have come up. --Jerry Lane, Walpole, MA Answer to your problem--see page 1. Answers to your questions are below: Rules Questions 1. In the German Data Charts the PkPzB has a bigger penetration multiple at 5" than at 2". Is this correct? I thought this weapon was similar to a bazooka. No. The RkPzB is similar to a bazooka, and the RKPzB factor should be x2, as a HEAT weapon range never effects the damage modifier. 2. AFV Passengers (p 8). The examples of acceptable AFVs include the Stug IV and the SU-100, both of which have weapons that are listed in the data charts as casemate guns. They do have enclosed gun departments. When we play I allow any AFV with a fully enclosed gun to carry passengers. Do you have a better rule? You are correct in your ruling, though perhaps the correct term should be riders instead of passengers (Passengers implies that they are being transported inside, where as in reality they are carried on top.) The goal of the rule is to prevent players from double loading vehicles, i.e. loading an infantry stand onto a open topped AFV which is already carrying a weapon or a load. 3. What happens when you shoot a flarnethrower at a structure? If the flamethrower hits, then the structure is considered on fire, with the same results as if it was a wooden structure which takes 6 points from HE fire. Any stands within the structure must vacate it on the following turn, and it may not be reoccupied for the remainder of the game. (See Destruction, page 21) 4. Very often in reading about WWII they report firing bazooka's, etc. at structures. How do you handle damage to a structure from an ATRL. Very good question - I would count it as direct HE fire, but no chance of a fragmentation hit, and no permanent damage to the structure. Roll your basic modified chance to hit, with a hit taking effect on the target stand. Panzerfausts and PIATs may use this as well, but remember that ammo restrictions should be in effect. 5. For terrain modifiers does a man handled gun (p.8) count as a wheeled item or a personnel stand for accessing terrain costs. If the weapon is light, count it as a personnel stand, if weapon is medium count it as a vehicle. 6. Can an unlimbered gun change facing? What about a heavy gun with a restricted rate of fire? If on a turntable, the weapon may change facing freely. Other weapons can change facing, but must be issued a Cautious Advance order. If the weapon has a restricted firing ability, i.e. may not fire opportunity fire, then it should only be allowed to fire in close fire, and not in general fire if it changes facing. 7. Medium Mortars (addenda/errata) When can these mortars fire? I allow them to fire in opportunity fire, but they have to engage the same target in general fire. Medium mortars may fire in any phase that they can see their target (if within 10" for close fire to take place). If their fire is being spotted by another stand from the battalion, it falls in the general fire phase only. Note that no roll is needed for accuracy for a battalion mortar, the fire automatically hits where it was called. Hope this helps. If you have any other questions or comments, please feel free to write me at the above address. More Questions Having recently purchased your game Combined Arms, and being relatively new to armor miniatures, I was fortunate to be able to join a Command Decision scenario at my local game store. I had briefly played two other series of miniature rules, the venerable Tractics and Angriff but had not enjoyed the experience. I had only purchased Combined Arms to interface it with Harpoon. The other players had not yet played a large scenario as they were also new to the system. By the end of the day, fighting as an American force attempting to capture an airfield near St. Lo, you had five solid converts to the Command Decision system. Congratulations! Most of the spectators at the Armory that day will be playing in our next game, probably buying the system as well. In the course of playing, we did encounter some questions: (See Below) Thank you for producing an enjoyable system. I look forward to hearing from you soon about these questions. --Gregory Kuntz, Baltimore, MD Answers of a sort to your questions of May 28th, which I managed to find this week on Frank Chadwick's desk. (Frank did read your letter, but never had a chance to answer it - that's my job!) 1. With regard to movement, Cautious Advance allows you to one half the movement rate. Does this allow you to choose this move and not move at all? This is implied in a statement in Combined Arms, but not explicitly stated. The importance of this is if you choose "No Order", you can not pivot an AFV until the beginning of the General Fire Phase, so if you have a side aspect to the enemy you will have to take Opportunity Fire that way, rather then being able to pivot to face the enemy and present a frontal aspect. A unit given a Cautious Advance order need not move, but may not carry out Opportunity Fire, unless it is an SMG unit, or an AFV firing its Machine Guns or Stabilized Main Gun. Thus, as a player, you need to decide between the need to move your vehicle, and the need to carry out opportunity fire. If a Cautious Advance order is issued, that unit is considered to have moved, even if the owning player decided not to do so. This makes it difficult to ensure that your frontal armor is always presented to the enemy, as well as showing the problems with those AFV's with casemate weapons if you want to carry out opportunity fire. 2. SMALL ARMS FIRE - The procedure confused us. Do you choose one target stand and fire on it, and then hit one stand within 4"? Or do you roll for each stand within 4" of the target, potentially hitting all of them? Our confusion stems from the term "distributed at random" We are not sure that you intended to have each shot effect an area 4" (or 200 yards) of terrain. This seems a bit extreme, and very devastating. The procedure is as follows. You pick your target stand and fire small arms at the target, keeping track of the total number of hits. You then take the total number of stands within 4 " that are within the same range as the firing units, and distribute the hits among these stands. Example - there are three German Panzer Grenadier stands firing at a Russian Stand at 8". The German player rolls two dice per stand, and gets 4 hits. There are an additional five R ussian Infantry Stands within 4 " of the target unit, but two of those stands are at 11", and are thus in a different range band, which exempts them from being hit. Therefore, there are a total of four (6-2) Russian stands that will have the hits distributed at random. The German player decides to roll four D10 to distributed the hits. He states that a die roll of a 1 or 2 will affect the first stand, a 3 or 4, the second stand, a 5 or 6 the third, and a 7 or 8 the fourth stand. If a 9 or 10 is rolled, he will reroll that die. His rolls are a 3, 4, 8, and a 2. The first stand takes one hit, and second stand two hits, the third stand one hit, and the fourth stand no hits. (If there were only three target stands, the German player could use a 1, 2, or 3 to indicate the first stand, etc. In some causes the use of a D6 or D8 might be helpful to determine which stands are hit. It is possible that the intended target stand may not be hit in this manner, or that all hits might fall on the same stand. If that happens, those hits are NOT rerolled, but rather all take effect on the same stand. 3. Effects of fire--p 14 says that the first hit on a stand that affects it (except for green stands) is a pin. The game reference charts say that it is forced back. Which is correct? The game reference card is correct, however any stand forced back by fire is considered pinned for the next turn. 4. The command range during the day is 6". and at night is 3". Does this affect morale, such as when having to roll for LOS morale due to the destruction of friendly units, and for group units within 6" of each other, or is it now 3" at night (see paragraph 2 under Morale on p 20)? The size of the morale group at night should be reduced to 3", the same as command radius. For morale checks, the need to check will depend on the current visibility, but ifone element ofthe group sees the unit which was destroyed, then the group must check morale. 5. If a personnel stand runs, is this automatically considered "Full Advance'"? No, a stand may run, but still use a Cautious Advance Order, and only move 8" forward. It could then carry out fire during the General Fire Phase. Units may only run if they were fired at the turn before, or can see an enemy unit during the command phase of the turn they were given the order. Running does not count as a Full Move unless the player so orders. 6. Small Arms Indirect Fire (p 17) The rules state that any stand listed as a weapons stand has intrinsic mortars, Weapons stands are mentioned again on p 21 under "Command Stands". Checking the organizational Charts, I find no mention of weapons stands. How and where are they indicated? The use of weapons stands decreased in the 1980s and only now is making a comeback. In the US Army, one finds them in the 82nd and 101st Divisions. (See the Desert Shield Supplement to CP #4). 7. Concerning Rate of Fire and Fire Priority - do Elite stands, or stands with better ROF fire all of their shots prior to a lessor troop quality stand? For example, an infantry elite stand would fire before an experienced stand. Would it fire twice before the opponent fired once? Does this apply to AFVs and artillery, where ROFs are sometimes 3 or more? Yes, the elites fire first, and fire all of their shots before there is any return fire. I used to argue against this procedure with Frank, until the recent Gulf War where there occurred several cases of American Tank Battalions driving into Iraqi "killing zones", and still getting the first rounds off and destroying their opponents before the Iraqis could return fire. 8. When a unit suffers an adverse combat result, i.e. Forced Back, does this take effect before the next shot by the enemy? For example, would all three shots be taken and resolved before any damage result was applied? All fire within a phase is resolved before the effects of that fire are carried out. Thus a unit which is hit and forced back, will not be forced back until the end of that turn. If hit again, it would be destroyed and removed from play. 9. If a unit is pinned again, is there any additional effect? No, the unit remains pinned, and subject to the -1 on the next morale check. 10. Your notes on stand sizes (p 4) are confusing, as double sided stands are mounted on smaller bases than single stands. What is the proper size stand for a 1:285th personnel stand? What is the proper size for a 1:285th vehicle? Double sized stands for 15mm/20mm are 1 1/2 " by 3/4", single sized stands are 3/4" by 3/4". All personnel stands for 1/285th should be 1/2" by 3/4", while vehicle stands should be 1 " by 3/4". Hope these answers, though belated, help you out. Even More Questions From Alan Tibbetts, Vassalboro, ME Answers to his questions 1. Where do the British get to enter? On the left side of the map, though Art cut off an additional row of map boxes. 2. Do the British get any special night fighting abilities? No, in fact after the campaign was over the British Army complained about the fact that the Argentinean night equipment was better than that issued to the British. 3. How much amino is needed for artillery, mortars, RR, Milans, and SAMs? The Argentinean artillery, mortars, and SAMS get one ton each, while the British Artillery gets one ton, and the mortars have a half ton. Each Milan and SAM has three shots. 4. Do aircraft operate at night, or do we start rolling for them at 0600? Aircraft only operate in the daylight, so the first roll is at 0600. 5. Can aircraft engage in Air to Air Combat? No, all aircraft employed were tasked with air to ground operations, and not equipped for air to air. As the pilots of either side do not know that the other aircraft were also so tasked, their response upon seeing other aircraft would be to leave the area. 6. Can the British fire Milans at buildings? No, but they may use them against entrenched Argentine stands as direct HE Fire. 7. Are the buildings stone or wood? All buildings are considered as stone. 8. What is the ground scale of the map? Each square covers an area 2' by 2' -- As mentioned, there should be some additional space to the left of the map. You can fit the area on to a table 4' wide if need arises. 9. How much and what type ground cover should be put on the map? Scrub can be put out for cosmetic effect, but there really isn't any. (Stationary units get the -1 for being fired at.) 10. Do the Argentineans get any land mines? No. 11. What are the movement effects for streams? No effect on personnel stands, vehicles may only cross where roads exist. 12. Does the Argentine FO have the same abilities as a NATO FO. Yes. 13. What are the statistics for the Pucara? The Pucara has Punishment of 5, Ordnance load of 3, Strafe of 1, AA gun 1. 14. I always play at 1:285, am I right in converting all your distance to cm? Yes, though to be honest keeping the scale at 1/285 and using 1" instead of CMs actually gives a bette feel for scale. 15. What are the pilot ratings? British are veteran, morale 10, Argentine are experienced, morale 10. 16. British Morale: other than the Commandos and the Blowpipe Stand, I don't see anything up airborne troops. Are the Commandos only veteran, or are you referring to the "augmentation" GPMG stands as the other stands? Everything under "attached" forces is considered as Veteran, morale 9. The GPMG Stands were part of the support company, and were attached to the other companies for this battle. 17. Does either side have a re-supply capability? No, both sides were on the end of a badly stretched supply line. The British lacked the means to move supplies to Goose Green, while the Argentine supply ship had been sunk en route. The following information was left off the game, but should be included as well. A. The British Paras have a ROF of 2, Range 10"/20". These rates include their elite modifier. If a British Para Infantry stand overruns an en trenchment from which Argentine Infantry stands were forced, allow that British stand to increase its ROF to 3. The British Paras carried the semi-automatic version of the SLR, while the Argentines had the fully automatic version of the SLR. As a result, during the course of the battle, paras re-equipped themselves with captured Argentine weapons as the battle went on. B. Do not use Fire Priority for this action--all fire within a phase is simultaneous. C. The 2nd Para (only) does not need to use a TAKE COMMAND Order to attach or detach stands. It was small elite regular unit in which everyone knows everyone, so that command can be quickly passed off as needed. D. If the Argentine Recoilless Rifle is captured, it may be used by any British Para Stand. Answers to other questions. The map for Stalemate before Tunis was to be made with 12" GeoHex Tiles. The entire map was included to allow players who used to extend their map to be able to do so. Hope these answer help. Thanks, Greg Novak, Editor, The Command Post Back to Table of Contents -- Command Post Newsletter #7 To Command Post Quarterly List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1992 by Greg Novak. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com