(Many playtesters have written in and asked for a copy of John Astell's Second Front Playtest Newsletter #1 - it seems to have failed to reach a number of you for some reason. It occurred to us that we could insure that everyone was brought up to date by reprinting the newsletter here in the magazine. Those readers not participating in the playtest should also find the newsletter interesting reading. We will continue this practice by printing future Second Front Playtest Newsletters in the magazine. This should guarantee that everyone is kept abreast of developments on this much-anticipated project. - Editor)

WE'RE OFF AND RUNNING

Dateline: Europe. Allied forces today have landed in France.... In Italy American troops liberate Rome....

No group has reported playing a game to completion yet, although several are in progress and all sound exciting. Our Virginia group seems farthest along: they've reported up to October 1944, and the Allies have liberated northern France and breached the Westwall in one place.

All of you should have your kits by now. Yeah, it may not the best looking playtest kit in the world, but it gets the job done. Almost all the formatting was lost when we transferred my IBM files over to Winston's Macintosh. (I had everything nicely formatted, although my printout ran a couple hundred pages. The Mac transfer killed all my tabs but got things down to manageable size.) We've reprinted the charts where formatting was crucial they're the ones on the blue paper. You should have gotten them either in your kit or in a separate mailing.

My printer (who shall remain nameless) claimed he could print the draft counters on cardstock thick enough to use them directly. Well, maybe he can use them, but I can't. The solution is to get some posterboard or the like, some glue, and mount them yourselves. Many of you have already done this. Many have also figured out that the draft counters don't contain every single counter called for in the OBs. You'll have to draw up the missing ones when you need them.

The rules and OBs run to 66 unnumbered pages, so be careful not to get them out of order. (I hand numbered mine, highlighted the major headings, and put them in a three ring binder. I find this works well.) By the way, the Axis OB starts on page 24 (page 27 for the 1944 initial forces), and the Allied OB starts on page 48 (page 49 for the 1944 forces).

Finally, a couple people have asked if the final game is going to look like the kit. Absolutely not! The kit's art was slammed out simply to get it out to players. We'll be discarding all of the playtest art and doing the final art from scratch when the time comes. The model for Second Front is how Scorched Earth looks.

RESPONSES

Keep sending me your reports!

Some of you have figured that if you send Second Front rules questions organized for easy answering plus a stamped, self addressed envelope, you might get a reply from me. Well, you're right - you might (and may have). Alas, I can't reply the day or often even the week I get your letter, but I do what I can.

Thanks for not phoning in your reports. It really helps. And, thanks to those who include rule number and case references (such as 20F20 when asking about or commenting on particular rules. This helps me to go through the reports quicker.

ERRATA

Rules and Charts

3J. Theaters. Luxembourg is in ETO/West.

28C2, Followup Wave. You can have a followup wave only in a major operation.

36, 1944 Campaign Scenario. 1) The Anzio enclave is 1825 (not 1826) and 1925. The final Axis front line hex is 2123, not 2023. The Germans own Elba. The Allies have a short bombing total of 0 and have done no special efforts so far in 1944. 2) Here's a new, improved port fortification deployment rule for the Germans: Place port fortifications in all mega, major, and standard ports, except those in hexes with fortresses, along the Atlantic coast of Greater Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.

38F3, V-Weapons ranges: V1 range is 9 hexes, V2 is 12 hexes. V8 may look like tomato juice...

Allied Replacements Chart. The time periods for the columns here are the same as for the Axis chart: 4-6.43, 7-12.43, 1-6.44, 7-12.44, all of 1945.

Playtest Counters

In general, when the OBs and the counters disagree, the OBs are correct!

General:

All static AA got their AA values printed as their movement ratings. US static moves at 6, British at 5, everyone else at 4.

American:

5-8 Cav XX should be Inf XX Grps.
0-2-8 Pipeline Eng X should be 0-2-6.
2-1-10 mot AT II should be 1-2-10.
5-6-8 Art X should be 6-5-8.
2-8 mot Eng X should be Eng. X.
Para-Inf III should be Para.
1-8 Mech Cav II should be 1-10
Para-Inf II should be Para.
7HB7 B-17F should be 5HB6.
6NF1 Bftr 6 should be 6NF5.
0T0 C-46 should be OT3.
0T90 C-46 should be OT3.
4F2 P-39D, P-39L should be 4F5.
5F2 P-39N should be 5F5.
6F2 P-39Q should be 6F5.
USMC Inf units should be Marine.
USN AsIt Eng II should be Amphib AsIt Eng II.

British:

Para-Inf X should be Para.
3-4-8* Arm X should be Inf.
1x 2-3-4* Fort X should be 1-2-4*.
2-1-6 Tank Training II should be Flamethrower Tank II.
1-2-10 Mech II aren't SAS.
13V10 1/10 Sword should be 2V3 2-1C16.
4A4 A-30 should be 4A5.
5A4 A-30 should be SA5 A-30A.
5F1 P-40D should be 5F5
6F1 P-40E should be 6F5
Spit 7 is 8F8 0/10
Canadian 1-2-10 Mot II should be Mot AT.

Misc Allied:

Czech 6-10* Inf X should be Arm.
Fr. Para-Inf III should be Para.
French 1F3 Mxd should be 1T3.
Greek 2-8* Mtn X should be 3-8*.
Polish Para-Inf X should be Para.

German:

9-8 Pz XX should be Res Pz.
2x 10 Pz XX HQ should be PzG.
7x 1-2-4 Fort X should be Punitive Fort.
6-4-10 Mot Rkt Art X should be 6-2-10.
4-3-8 Rkt Art X should be Aslt Eng.
1-4-4 Fort III should be 1-2-4.
2x 2-10 Mot II should be 1-10.
ET 3-6 Inf XX should be Inf X.
ET 2-3-5 Sec X should be Sec XX.
ET 2-3-6 Inf XX should be Inf X.
ET 2-3-6 Static X should be Inf.
ET 1-1-2 Static X should be 1-2-2.
ET 2-3-6 Fort III should be 1-4.
Foreign Cont. 2-3-5 Alarm X should be Sec XX
Foreign Cont. 3x 4-6-6 lnf XX are Croatian (CO.
Foreign Cont. 2-5 Alarm X (Bel) should be Sec.
Foreign Cont. 6x 1-5 Alarm X should be Sec.
Kriegsmarine 1-3-2 and 2-4-2 NvI Trp X are supported.
LW 1JB3 Ar 234B should be 4JB6.
OKW 9-10 Mot XX should be 8-10.
SS 1-2-10* Training II should be PzG.
SS 1-10 Static II should be 1-4.
SS-Pol 2-4-8 Pol X should be Political Pol.
SS-Pol 1-8 Pol X (lots but not all) should be Political Pol.

Italian:

0-1-5 Sec X should be Border.
1-3-6 Arm Cav III should be 1-8.
1-8 Lt AA III AA=2.
8F6 G.50bis should be G.55.
10RF8 2/9 Me163B should be 10RF8 0/1.

RSI Italian:

Marine units should be NvI Inf.
1-2-8 Alarm X should be Sec.
1-8 Alarm III should be Sec.
2T4 2/9 SM.82 should be 2T4 0/33.

Allied OB:

1944 Initial Forces, ETO:
1) A tab got lost between "Art X" and "V," making it look like "Art XV."
2) US tac air 17x P-17D should be 17x P-47D.
3) MTO resource points are placed in the MTO, not ETO.

OCT I 43, MTO: The two British 8-8 units in the conversion are XX, not X.

DEC I 43, MTO: 7-8 Mtn XX 3 Carp (Pol) is listed twice, once under British and once under Other Allied. Delete the one under the British listing.

May II 44, MTO: The British conversion of one armored division and two armored brigades lists both brigades as 6-10. One brigade (the 9th) should be 6-4-10.

SEP I 44, MTO: The tac air transfer is to ETO tac air.

OCT II 44, MTO: 3-8 * Mtn X 3 (Greek) is listed twice, once under British and once under Other Allied. Delete the one under the British listing.

1945 US ARMOR UPGRADES: 17-10 goes to 20-10, 15- 10 to 18-10, 13-10 to 16-10, 6-4-10 to 9-7-10. And, yes, these should be free conversions, not costly upgrades.

Axis OB

1944 Initial Forces, West: Delete the line, "1x 4-6-5 Static XX 49."

APR I 44, Greater Germany: Note that 2x, not 1x, 5-7-6 Inf XX withdraw.

MAY I 44, West: Delete the 1x 16-10 Pz XX 116. (its appearance in May 1144 is correct.)

JUN I 44, Greater Germany: A tab got lost between "V-Weapons II" and "1/155," making it look like you get VWeapons Ill.

JUN I 44, West: A tab got lost between "RR Eng II" and "1/3," making it look like you get a RR Eng. Ill.

AUG II 44, Greater Germany, Wehrkreis V: Note that 2x, not 1x, 4-6-6 Inf XX go to full strength.

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS AND ANSWERS

Q. It turns out I was playing the game wrong. Doesn't this invalidate my results?

A. Almost certainly not, unless you did something major like forgetting to use armor effects. I've found that Europa games are pretty robust, and you have to change the rules or OBs fairly radically before you get invalid results.

Q. Is Helgoland in hex 0311 (per the port listing) or 0212 (per Map 16)?

A. We've replotted it to 0311 for the new maps, but you can use 0212 for now.

Q. Isn't Amsterdam a port? Vlissingen?

A. Amsterdam is a major port; Vlissingen standard. Add them to the list under the Netherlands.

Q. The draft Italian map shows ports at 27:3502 and 3601, yet they're not on the port list. Are they minor ports?

A. Yes.

Q. Aren't some sea areas around Germany like the Sivash?

A. Yes. We plan to mark "Sivash"dike waters with a special symbol on the new style maps. (We'll call the terrain "restricted waters" or something like that.) On the Second Front maps, the North Frisian mudflats (16:0108, 0208, 0308) and the Ijsselmeer (16:0519, 0520, 0521, 0618, 0619, 0620, 0621, 0719, 0720, 0721) qualify. Use the Sivash rule from SE (30E) for this. (Amsterdam is a port via- a canal to the North Sea.)

C. Bari actually is an artificial harbor.

A. Yeah, and so are Molfetta and Barletta (I think). The Italian Adriatic coast is pretty bleak in places. Count these as artificial harbors if you want, but it's unlikely to make any difference in play.

C. The Wehrkreis map shows Liege as a partial hex city.

A. Yes. It squeaks over the cutoff point for being a partial hex city, so upgrade it to one. People with time on their hands can play Fall of France to see what effect this has!

C. There are some problems with the theater rules (3J) when you try to stage Anvil-Dragoon, landing in southern France (ETO) from the MTO.

A. Yes. It may work best if each side, on a turn by turn basis, can decide whether southern France is part of his ETO/West of MTO/South theater. Use any convenient definition of southern France for now.

Q. Can overstacked units (81)) do anything at all, such as engineers building things?

A. No.

Q. 1) In Rule 12G, does "limited supply source" mean "limited source of regular supply"? 2) How come major and mega ports don't supply this?

A. 1) Yes. 2) This had me stumped, as major and mega ports are conduits for full scale supply. Then I noticed that the two cases work differently. OK: to use a minor or standard port as a limited source of regular supply, it must be functioning and must trace a naval supply line to a supply source.

Q. In Rule 14B, how do excess Allied artillery behave on defense?

A. Same as German.

Q. 1) Can amphib. tank and LVT markers (14L) be dropped off in a hex and picked up by other units, or left until needed? 2) The LVT rule says the marker's for "nonmotorized" units. Can an artillery unit use it?

A. 1) Two units can't use one of these in the same turn - only the unit stacked with it in the initial phase can. Yes, you can drop them off in a hex during a turn, but there they stay until a new unit picks them up in your next initial phase. 2) No. "Non- motorized" does indeed refer to the non-motorized category on the UIC.

Q. 1) What's the die roll to see of you did short bombing in carpet bombing (20F20 2) What's the die roll mod for a successful carpet bombing attack? 3) How do points two and three in the rule work? The way I read it, you can't carpet bomb if your base attack is less than 1:1. 4) Carpet bombing is real complicated. Isn't it really just ground support by HBs?

A. 1) There isn't one - every carpet bombing attack involves short bombing and uses point 6 of the rule. Note that short bombing doesn't have any effect except to eventually stop you from carpet bombing.

2) There isn't one. Carpet bombing adds to the total attack strength (per point 1 of the rule), like and in addition to ground support. Example: Twenty USAAF HBs (tac bombing strength 2 each) carpet bomb a hex. The short bombing running total is 12. They contribute 20 strength points to the attack, even if there's max ground support with the attack. The Allied player rolls a die for short bombing, rolling a 5. The short bombing total is now 17, exceeding the limit. The Allied generals give up carpet bombing in disgust, as the heavies can't stop bombing their own troops, which is making the grunts fear their own air power more than the enemy.

3) Point two says you must hit the enemy with a minimum bombing strength. For example, you've got to hit a hex containing 15 defense strength points with at least 15 carpet bombing points. Any less, and you're not achieving the minimum saturation you need. Point three puts an upper limit on the carpet bombing: the extent to which you can magnify the ground units' attack. For example: if you've got 30 attack points going in, then your carpet bombing limit is 30. And yeah, this means you can't carpet bomb if your base attack is less than 1:1.

Carpet bombing is a coordinated air/ground operation. The heavies first come in and blast the defenders. The ground forces then jump off and hit the defenders while they're still shocked, before they can reknit their lines.

By the way, carpet bombing broke down in part because short bombing prevented the air and ground elements from coordinating properly. The heavies always short bombed, as they were not that accurate en masse, which meant that the ground troops had to be pulled well back before the strike. The Army wanted a withdrawal of no more than about 700 yards. They feared a deeper pull back would give the Germans time to recover from the strike, while the Allied troops moved up again. The USAAF wanted a pull back of 1500 yards or more, and couldn't guarantee no short bombing even at that distance. In general, the pull back was around 1000 yards and Allied troops got hit by their own bombs, with bad morale effects. Also, the Germans caught on as to what a pull back meant and took measures, including infiltrating the evacuation zone and forcing the Allies to fight for it.

4) It is complicated, but I hope to simplify it. I want to get it into testing now, and I'll apply the polish later. I wish I could count it as ground support, but the explanation above shows why it's different.

C. I assume an Allied airborne division HQ in para mode (25F) can't assemble the division.

A. Right.

Q. When calling up the strat air for a special effort (26E2), are there any theater restrictions?

A. Oops. The Allied player may call 8 special efforts per year. A special effort consists of the strat air of any one theater. For example, two special efforts are required to call-up the ETO and MTO strat air in a single turn.

C. I suggest naval movement (28) be restricted: naval movement may be traced into but not though an enemyowned land hex. This would stop things like the Allies sailing up the Schelde estuary and invading at Antwerp.

A. This is too restrictive, closing things off that should be open or attemptable, such as the straits at Gibraltar, Messina, and the Dardenelles. We'll be adding narrow straits crossings to the new-style maps. For now, you can use: Naval movement can be traced into but not through an enemy-owned hex that contains a narrow straits crossing. Ground units treat a narrow straits hexside as if it were a major river hexside. The following are important narrow hexsides in Second Front (you can mark them with a "=" symbol if you want): Map 16: 0217/0317, 0217/0218, 0218/0219, 0219/0220, 0220/0321, 0727/0827, 5017/5018, and 5018/5019; Map 17: 0915/0916, 1420/1520, 2322/2422, and 2725/2824.

C. Mulberries (28A3d): 1) If you roll two 6s, you lose both Mulberries and your invasion! We suggest you have a damage check on the Mulberries during each storm/rough turn instead, with damage possibly occurring then. 2) If you grab the Channel Islands before placing the Mulberries, shouldn't you be able to place them within 14 hexes counting from these UK ports?

A. 1) Two 6s gives you a 1/36 chance of losing both Mulberries, and its by no means certain the invasion is lost if both go! Rolling every rough/storm turn is annoying and ignores the fact that one was lost right away but the other ran fine, period. 2) Right.

Q. Say a major amphib operation (28C2) is scheduled for May II, but the seas are stormy. Can the op be postponed one turn (occurring Jun I) or must it be cancelled and replanned (making Jun II the earliest turn)?

A. It can be postponed.

Q. May a followup wave (28C2) remain at sea rather than landing in the exploitation phase?

A. It must land. Note that there's nothing prohibiting it from returning to a friendly port if you don't like what's happening on the beaches.

Q. The rules (28C2) say landing craft can't carry heavy equipment for amphibious landings, but the followup wave has them doing this. What gives?

A. I need to firm up the terminology here. For rules purposes, the followup wave isn't making an "amphibious landing" and the LCs here can carry HE.

A. The Allies were very reluctant to make landings outside fighter cover. I'm considering an optional rule that prohibits Allied major operations from landing in hexes outside Allied fighter cover. If an Allied fighter can't fly to a hex using normal (not extended) range, then the hex is outside Allied fighter cover.

Q. Port Fortifications (31A5d, 36): 1) Can a port fortification be in the same hex as a fortress? 2) Should mega ports have port fortifications? 3) "Mega" doesn't sound right.

A. 1) No
2) Yes.
3) I'm not thrilled with the term"mega", and some of you aren't, either. It really is a modern term and wouldn't have been used in WW2. Even "super ports" is too post-WW2. Perhaps "supermajor port" would be more appropriate, but this seems clumsy to me. Anyone got any good suggestions?

Q. Is partial AEC useable in snow weather (29)?

A. Yes.

Q. How long is a canal intensive hex flooded (31A7)?

A. Only that player turn, per case 4 of the rule. And, yes, if the Germans still hold the hex later, they can flood it again!

Q. 1) How are the Axis garrisons in Italy activated? Rule 31L implies one thing, but the OBs seem to work differently. 2) Garrisons must appear in dot or major cities, but there aren't any on the Channel Islands.

A. 1) For now, the garrisons activate when the Allies land on mainland Italy, which means they're already activated in the 1944 scenario. (Simply add their forces into the Southern theater forces.) Italy will be broken up into regions, like German WKs and Soviet MDs, with garrisons keyed by region.

2) Right, the Channel Islands are an exception.

C. The Germans can take emergency replacements right away and use them as needed, because there's no penalty.

A. Yeah, but then when they really need them, where are they? OK, how about tying this into the Westwall reconstruction? The Germans have to declare a national emergency to get the emergency replacements and to rebuild the Westwall. Declare this emergency per Rule 31A5f governing emergency restoration of the Westwall. This doesn't cover the Allies bursting into Germany over the Alps, so change the triggering condition from Allied units being 14 hexes from the Westwall to Allied units being 14 hexes from any hex inside 1939 Germany. Also, the Allied units must be in regular supply.

Q. Shouldn't Allied transport counters be replaced with armor RPs (3413)?

A. Yes.

Q. Can the Allied fortify the Anzio beachhead during setup (36)?

A. Yes. Hint: They'd better!

Q. V-Weapons (38FU 1) The V1 had a higher rate of fire than the V2. Why isn't this shown? 2) Shouldn't V2s be allowed to move and fire? The launcher was mobile, unlike the V1 which needed considerable effort to set up?

A. 1) It is, but I worked this in the other way around: you're firing a lot more Vls at a target to get your chance of a hit than V2s. The higher rate of fire for the V1 compensates partially for its lousy accuracy and smaller blast effects.

2) This is true as far as it goes, but I estimate that the resupply effort (getting more rockets to the launcher to have a sustained rate of fire over the course of the turn) is difficult enough to fix the V2 in one area. In other words, it could do tactical moves within a hex, but displacing a significant distance is a problem. Also, it's convenient that both units use the same general procedure.

Q. Can you break down US tank or AT brigades once you've assembled them?

A. Yes.

C. German engineers simply start demolishing every port in sight from the start of the game. The French economy is dependent on these ports, so the Germans shouldn't be able,to do this or should have to pay some economic price,

A. Yeah, try this: The German player can't demolish a port on continental Europe in a theater unless there's at least one Allied unit on the continent in that theater.

Q. The Italian partisans are more active than the French ones! Is this correct?

A. Little known, but true. The Italian partisan war was the bloodiest, most violent one in western Europe.

Q. On the first three months the Germans get 2 pts light AA, but transfer 12 pts light AA out of Germany. Are these numbers correct?

A. Yes. The Germans are transferring some of their existing assets out of Germany, and not just new production.

C. The P-51 is rated wrong! It's too low; it should be better than the P-38, not worse....

A. The air units have their draft ratings only, not their final ones, so don't get upset. I'll be examining the ratings one by one as I always do, but I haven't had the time to rake them over yet.

C. We suggest that you include a page of large (2") hexes, which players can photocopy. They could then sketch in the terrain where they invade and display the units there with stacking problems.

A. Yeah, that's a good idea, but I doubt that most players will bother hand drawing anything. This sounds more like a magazine or freebie play aid.

Q. Can the German player attack air units in North Africa or the UK, using air units or paratroopers?

A. I've been wavering back and forth on how to handle this. The elegant approach is to let him do so, but build in the historical defenses against this, which is mostly what I've done. The simplest way is to simply prohibit Axis forces from entering any hex of North Africa or the UK (outside the Channel Islands). I'm tending toward the latter now.

C. You have task forces, landing craft, and naval transport points! You should have transport counters, and this would simplify the rules and make things work better.

A. I agree in general. I used transport points in order to keep the counters down - I don't want a countersheet with nothing but allied transport counters on it! If we have a set of varying capacity transports (1 RE, 2 RE, 4RE, and 8 RE), and concentrate on the higher capacity counters, we might get away with it. Play this way if you want.