Transcaucasus Tricks

As I reviewed Trey Nelson's thoughtful analysis of the Transcaucasus Military District (see page 38 of this issue), I was reminded of two tricks I had seen pulled there over the years. Since Trey was either too dignified to mention these, or else has had the good fortune not have witnessed them, the burden falls upon me to expose these tacky tactics.

The sickest of the Transcaucasian tricks is the "double duty" ploy, whereby a devious Soviet player places most of the 10 REs of the Iranian garrison within 3 hexes of Turkey, and declares that these REs are serving double duty as part of both the Turkish and Iranian garrisons mandated by Scorched Earth rule 31H1. No, no, no! A unit may only be part of a single garrison in each Soviet initial phase.

Still a little gamey, but at least legal, is the "0- strength garrison" gambit. This sees a motley assortment of 0-strength units join the Turkish garrison over time, so that before long much of the garrison consists of 0-5 construction, 0-6 railroad engineer, and 1-0-6 siege artillery regiments. If you try this, you'd better hope you don't actually need the garrison to defend the MD in 1942!

Another Garrison Grievance

A provision of garrison rule 31H that is frequently flaunted by unscrupulous players is the requirement that "...every transportation line crossing this border must be occupied by or in the ZOC of a Soviet unit." The problem is that there is no penalty specified for failing to meet this requirement. Thus, along the border with Finland, for example, a sharp Soviet can just ignore the transportation line clause in the rule, and so long as he meets the 50-RE requirement, suffer no ill effects for his lawlessness.

Let's eliminate this Laplandish legerdemain. Change the wording of rule 31H to read:

"For each RE missing from a garrison, the Soviet player loses one infantry replacement point; for each transportation line crossing a neutral border that is not occupied by or in the ZOC of a Soviet unit, the Soviet player also loses one infantry replacement point."

Leningrad. 1941

The intrinsic AA rule 22A1 in Leningrad. 1941 states "Each permanent airfield (for both sides) has an intrinsic light AA strength of 1" Would this include the permanent airfields at dot and reference cities?

No. The confusion between what is an airbase and what is an airfield has been an ongoing source of rules- interpretation trouble for years.

A permanent airfield is exactly that--a marker that is placed on the map. A permanent airfield is an airbase, but not all airbases are permanent airfields. In fact, if it's a city, it's an airbase and not an airfield. It is explicitly stated that Soviet major cities and Kronshtadt have intrinsic AA. If Soviet dot and reference cities also had intrinsic AA, the rule would have stated this.

Note that when any Soviet airbase is captured by the Axis it does not gain intrinsic AA, even though all German airbases in Greater Germany, except permanent and temporary airfields, have intrinsic AA per the Scorched Earth rules. No temporary airfield has intrinsic AA in SE or Leningrad. 1941.

In the surprise air attack phase, is +1 added to the TBFs of the participating fighters as it would be in a normal air unit bombing mission?

Yes. This is fairly clear due to the specific mention of the air unit bombing mission in the rule; however, rewording SE rule 31F2b would have left no doubt:

"Total the tactical bombing strengths of the remaining German air units, treating fighters as flying the air unit bombing mission."

For Leningrad. 1941 this means that if the Germans commit all their initial air units to the surprise air strike they will have 35 TBFs, less any one air unit aborted. Depending on which type unit (an Me`109F or Ju88A) is aborted, the Germans will have either 32 or 33 TBFs remaining. In either case, the Soviets lose 16 air units in a maximum strike.

Are hexes 1B:2408 and 1B:2609 considered to be Soviet supply sources for as long as the Soviet player can hold them?

Yes.

Scorched Earth

In admin movement, does the prohibition against using MPs for anything other than movement apply to the MP cost for a unit to transport resource points? In other words, can a unit using admin movement transport resource points?

A unit may carry RPs and use administrative movement. The unit's MPs are reduced, but this does not constitute "spending MPs."

This is not a major point, but it's something I've wondered about in FITE/SE and not seen mentioned anywhere. Is there a bona fide rationale for accumulating naval repair points? In our games it's standard practice to accumulate the points for as long as possible so as to surprise the opposition by "popping up" two or three river flotillas at an unexpected port. I suspect the idea behind naval RPs is to simulate the length of time needed for naval repair and construction, and not to represent a growing pile of steel. Not a big deal, but when FITE/SE is redone I believe the rule would be better written to prohibit or strongly restrict naval repair point accumulation.

Your point is well taken and reflects the current thinking of the GR/D development team. However, we'll have to see what John Astell thinks about it before making it official.

Grand Europa

Since a unit can always move a single hex, can it participate in an overrun while so doing? For example, could a stack in 113:2622 with a modified attack strength of 10 (which includes a 1-8 artillery unit) overrun a 1-6 cadre in forest hex 113:2522, even though the 1-8 artillery unit's movement allowance would be exceeded (6 MPs for the forest hex + 1 MP for the river + 3 MPs for the 10:1 overrun = 9 MPs)?

No. The latest wording of Rule 13 in First to Fight and A Winter War expresses this clearly: "A unit with insufficient MPs to pay full terrain, ZOC, and overrun MP costs may not participate in the overrun, even if it has not moved at all in the phase."

First to Fight

Rule 13-Overruns. A 10-point stack of German c/m units is in hex 37:2225 and is in supply. The Polish player moves 5-6-6 Inf XX into 2224 and 2226, and 1-8 MG II into hexes 2325 and 2326. Can the German c/m units in hex 2225 overrun either of the units in hexes 2325 or 2326? As I understand the rules, the German units would spend 2 MPs for leaving a ZOC, 5 MPs for entering a ZOC, 3 MPs for the overrun and 1 MP for the hex. This totals 11 MPs, making an overrun impossible. Is this correct?

Yes, your calculations and conclusions are exactly right, and serve to illustrate the rule cited above.

Rule 27A5. German Occupation. If the German player captures a city on turn 1, by what turn must it be garrisoned to avoid a victory point penalty?

A Polish city captured on game turn 1 and lacking its garrison would incur a victory point penalty starting with the German initial phase of turn 3.

Doesn't this mean that cities captured on turn 9 or later would not need to be garrisoned at all, as the lack of a garrison would not incur a victory point penalty during the time frame of the game?

Yes. I realize this isn't in the spirit of the rule, but I don't think it's a big enough problem to worry about.

First to Fight Polish Campaign German Order of Battle: What, exactly, are "any" units?

"Any" units are the 2-10 mot hv AA III and 0-6 railroad engineer Ill. Due to their composite nature, their exact assignments are not entirely known. What this means for game purposes is that, for example, when deploying the Army Group South Reserves, you would select any one (1) railroad engineer Ill and any one (1) mot hv AA Ill from the units listed in the "Other Forces" section of the OB.

First to Fight Polish Campaign German Order of Battle: The OB calls for an Hs123A, while the counter reads He`123A. Which is correct?

Hs123A is correct, per the order of battle listing.

What is the rail movement allowance of units with a movement rating of "14"?

Oops! The rail movement allowance of units with movement ratings of "R" is 40 hexes.

Can combat engineers achieve a +1 die resolution modifier against fortified hexsides?

No. (Maybe JMA will expound upon this later.)

Restricted supply sources for the Poles supply a limited number of REs. When the Poles mobilize cadres into divisions, REs are gained. For restricted supply purposes, are such mobilized units counted as 1 RE or 3 REs?

Rule 12B covers this in its first paragraph. The unit would mobilize before supply is checked, and so it would count as 3 REs.

The Germans must withdraw an air unit turn 6. What happens if this air unit is flying an air mission (such as DAS) when it must be withdrawn?

It is removed from play during the German initial phase of turn 6, regardless of where it may be on the board or what it might be doing.