The following is not intended as the last and final rewrite of the Command Decision rules, but is intended as an updated errata. In the course of this summer, Frank and I will continue collecting input from the gainers out there on what they want. There are a number of areas where people have presented us with some very good ideas that bear looking into, i.e., spotting. My thanks to Tom Harris, John Holtz, and all of the members of the CD Mailing List for the questions they have raised with the rules and the problems they have helped us identify (we hope) solve. The following errata is organized as follows: The rule section is presented, with any changes in itallics. 2.22 Placing Orders: Orders are issued by placing an order chit next to the stand or group of stands to which it is intended to apply. The chit is placed with the order to be used facing up. The distance from the stand issuing the order, and the point at which it is placed will depend on the type of stand issuing the order. The radius of effect of the order is 6" from the spot where it is placed, unless the unit is moving along a road or trail in column, in which case the order is placed at the head of the column, and all stands within the column will obey it. A stand need not be able to see the point at which the order was placed. If it is within 6"of the order, it may obey that order. A stand must be subordinate to the stand issuing the order for it to obey it. If a stand that is under that command is not intended to follow the order, that fact must be stated when the order is revealed. Stands that do not intend to follow the order are considered to have been given a NO order. 2.323 Vehicle Command Stands: Vehicle command stands may issue an order to any point within their visibility, with that order affecting any stands subordinate to the command stand within 6" of the point where the order was placed. They may fire in any fire phase in which they are otherwise eligible., In addition, vehicle command stands can serve as spotters for any indirect fire units attached to the unit to which the command stand belongs in place of issuing any other order. 2.52 Function of Patrol Stands: Patrol stands operate as other personnel stands, with the following exceptions: A patrol stand counts as a half stand for transport purposes. A patrol stand may always move at the running rate. A patrol stand may only fire in the Close Fire Phase. If fired on during any firephase, at the end of that phase a patrol stand may immediately move 8" away from the enemy firing stand, if that stand is visible to the patrol. The patrol may not move any closer to any other visible enemy stand when making this move. 2.53 Recon/Patrol Stands and Morale: Recon patrol stands pperating as self-ordering stands are considered as separate groups, and hits on them will not cause a morale check on their parent group. However, if lost. they will be considered as a separate group eliminated for purposes of morale for any friendly units within visibility. 3.14 Disengage: A disengage order allows stands to move directly away from the nearest visible enemy stand up to its full movement allowance. It need not move its full movement, but it must move at least half of its movement, unless it retreats into a higher state of cover. Stands that receive this order may only fire in the Close Fire Phase. Stands operating under a disengage order may NOT be fired at during the Opportunity Fire Phase. The only exception is if the disengaging stand moves closer to an enemy stand. in which case only the enemy stand(s) which had the range decrease may fire. Note that as a stand operating under a disengage order must move directly ,away from the nearest enemy unit. It is possible to move toward another enemy unit. A disengage order may never be issued to unlimbered towed weapons, Green units, or units which are pinned. Vehicles must use their cross-country movement allowance when using the disengage order.  3.81 Closing to Contact: A unit given a cautious advance order may never move more than halfway toward any visible enemy unit. If it encounters a previously unspotted enemy unit during movement, it immediately stops at the normal autospot distance for that terrain, Units may only close to contact with enemy units if given a full advance order. 3.82 Previously Unspotted Stands: If a stand encounters a previously unspotted enemy stand during movement (only possible under a full advance order, see 3.81), the moving stand must stop and the owning player must indicate its final destination. If the moving stand destroys that enemy unit or forces it to retreat from its path in the upcoming fire or Morale Phase, it then gets priority of movement in the next Movement Phase. Priority movement takes place before any other movement in the following Movement Phase. The stand is moved to the point that it was originally ordered to move had it not been interrupted by the unseen stand. No other stand can move to intercept it before it reaches its destination. The stand may continue moving pass its announced destination, but it will not have priority movement past that point. 4.34 Forest and LOS: A line of sight between stands in the same woods is not blocked if the stands are within 1" of each other. A line of sight may not be traced into a woods area from outside. Stands wishing to spot out of a forest must be placed on the edge of the forest. 5.15 Close Fire Phase: The Close Fire Phase is resolved after the General Fire Phase. All stands may conduct small arms or direct fire at any enemy stand within 10". Stands farther than 10" from an enemy stand may not take part in close assault. Stands which are attempting to engage in close assault may not fire or be fired at in the Close Fire Phase. 5.47 Marking Hits: Hits are best marked with the counters provided with the game, using the following, code: Green Counter 1st hit on Elite Yellow Counter 2nd hit on Elite, 1st hit on Veteran or Experienced Red Counter 3rd hit on Elite, 2nd hit on Veteran or Experienced, 1st hit on Regular or Trained  7.18 AT Rifles: Due to nature of the weapon. ATRs are limited to a maximum of 1 hit per shot. regardless of the penetration roll. 7.22 Direct Fire HE Against AFVs: If the target is an AFV, and a direct hit is made, check for penetration in the same manner as if for antitank fire using the damage modifier on the weapons chart. In addition, one hit is inflicted on any stand that the AFV may be transporting. In addition to any damage from the direct fire HE, an, additional roll must be made for possible damage per Rule 7.26. 8.521 Converged Sheaf: A converged sheaf means that all shots fired for this mission land on the same target point. If the fire is on target, then a single template is used, with all rounds fired landing in that area. A converged sheaf may not be used against a moving target. If a stand moves through a converged sheaf. only one die roll is made for possible damage. Stands receiving a terrain modifier do not use this as well; it only applies to stationary stands with no other modifier for terrain. @ The halving is done after all other modifiers are added or Subtracted. 8.72 Duration of Indirect Fire Smoke: Indirect fire smoke is not placed until the start of the General Fire Phase. and then it does block line of sight until the end of the following Opportunity Fire Phase. 10.2 PERSONNEL VS. PERSONNEL Each player rolls a die. Each player's die is modified by the following: The side with the lower modified die roll loses the close assault. Each losing stand will suffer one hit and be considered as forced back. pinned. Example: A Veteran Soviet SMG cavalry stand engages in close assault combat with a Regular German gun crew. The Germans subtract 2 for being a gun crew, so their die modifier is -2. The Soviet stand adds +2 for being an SMG stand, +2 for better troop quality (Veteran is two levels higher than Regular) and +2 for being a cavalry stand, so its die modifier is a +6. The German player rolls a 9, modified to a 7. The Soviet player rolls a 3, which is modified to a 9. The German stand takes one hit, and moves back 16" for being forced back. and is considered pinned.  10.4 PERSONNEL VS. AFVS A close assault against an AFV is resolved by the player with personnel stand(s), who rolls one die. If the unmodified die roll is a 1 or a 2, then each personnel stand in the close assault takes one hit, and is considered as forced back. pinned. If the modified result is 9 or higher, the AFV is eliminated. If there is any other effect. then the attacking stands fall back 1" (not pinned) away from the AFV. Example: An American M3 halftrack (open-topped vehicle) is close assaulted by a German engineer stand. The German stand adds 3 to the die roll (+2 for being engineers, +1 for attacking an opentopped vehicle). If a 1 or a 2 is rolled, the engineer stand takes one hit and is forced back pinned. On a roll of a 6 or better, which would be changed to a 9 by the various modifiers, the M3 is eliminated. On a die roll of a 3 to 5, the attacking stands would fall back 1 " away from the M3. 18.8 SPOTTING FROM THE AIR Aircraft attempting to spot targets on the ground use the same spotting chart as ground units, but with different modifiers. Spotting by aircraft is independent of spotting by ground units and vice versa. Spotting is measured from the base of the aircraf. For each level of altitude that the aircraft is at. add 10" to the visibility. An aircraft at medium would have an visibility of 90". The modifiers for aircraft spotting are: 20.3 FIRING AA WEAPONS All AA weapons which are to fire at a target must declare their intent to fire before any dice are rolled. If the AA weapons firing are in effective range. the AA fire is resolved before any attack is made by the aircraft. If the AA weapons are at lone range. the AA fire is resolved after the aircraft carry out their attack. All rolls for ground fire are taken after the aircraft has made its attack. The basic chance to hit for an AA weapon for each round fired is a 1 at long range, and a 2 at close range. To these numbers, add the following modifiers: Veteran or Elite crew, +1; Green crew, -1; transport is the target, + 1; autocannon at medium altitude, -1; light AA cannon at high altitude, -1. 20.4 DAMAGE FROM AA WEAPONS All hits from AA weapons damage aircraft in the following manner: For each hit inflicted on the aircraft, roll a die, adding to it the damage modifier of the gun, and subtracting from it the defense value of the aircraft. (The defense value of fighter aircraft is halved, rounding up for AA purposes.') 27.3 RADIO JAMMERS Radio jammers broadcast a powerful noise signal on a given frequency or frequencies to overwhelm other messages. A radio jammer stand may be used by a player in any turn that he wishes. Jamming takes place during the Command Phase, and continues throughout the turn. Jamming interferes with any orders issued by radio, and all call f re orders. Order chits which are placed adjacent to the stand giving the orders, with the exception of call f re orders, are not affected by the jamming. At the end of the Command Phase, before the orders are revealed, roll one die for each order. On a die roll of a 5 or less, the order has not been received. Remove the order from the playing surface, as it is not carried out this turn. For every two troop quality levels that the jammer is above the stand issuing the order, subtract 1 from the die roll. For every two troop quality levels that the unit issuing the order is above the jammer, add 1 to the die roll. Whenever a jammer is in use, and the opposing side has a radio locator, the jammer is automatically located. EQUIPMENT DATA CHARTS The ROF figures given with the French tanks on pages 2 and 3 are too high, as they are the ROFs for the weapon itself used as a field gun with a full gun crew. French tanks of this era are notorious for providing insufficient crew to operate these guns, either in the form of the infamous one-man turret or by requiring the driver to operate hull-mounted guns. Reduce the ROF of all French tank-mounted guns by 1. For example, the Char B 1 and B 1 bis should have the ROF of its 47L34 reduced to 2, and the ROF of its 75L17 reduced to 1. Back to Table of Contents -- Command Post Quarterly # 5 To Command Post Quarterly List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1994 by Greg Novak. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com