266. FWtBT., Supply Steps

Q: Steps of supply are received according to the OB. Are these attack supply?
A: Yes. Only attack supply is referred to as "steps", general supply is referred to as "points" of supply. Any reference in the rules to "steps of supply" can be read as "steps of attack supply". By the same reasoning, any reference to "points of supply" can be read as "points of general supply".

267. FWtBT. Factories

Q: Factories produce supply. Are these attack supply?
A: Yes, as per above. Also see Rule 37B, second paragraph, where it says, "Factories in production produce steps of attack supply . .....

268. FWtBT.- Pacification and purification

Q: Can the Loyalist player use RR through a city that has not yet been purified?
A: Yes. The only game effect due to failure to pacify a city is an inability to trace supply through that city, per Rule 39A. A city which has not been ideologically purified also produces no infantry replacement points, per 39CB, in addition to the effects of 39A.

269. FWtBT: Garrisons

Q: Are garrisons released according to the rules or OB?
A: I'm not sure I understand the question. Rule 38D, third paragraph, states, "A Gobermto's garrison may be released when the conditions specified for its release (per the conditional reinforcements section of the Loyalist OB) are met." If these conditions are met for a Gobermto, then its entire garrison i's released. Regardless of any conditions, if the OB calls for specific units to be released from garrison, then release, only, those units. (as always, specific historical designations may be ignored) Note that garrison reinforcement activities due to the regular reinforcements section of an OB are distinct from any garrison reinforcement activities due to the conditional reinforcement section of an OB.

270. FWtBT. 'Terrain costs

Q: Movement across a mountain hexside should be +3, not 3, correct?
A: No, movement across a mountain hexside is treated as if the unit entered a mountain hex, ignoring the actual ter-rain of the hex entered. For example, a c/m unit entering a clear terrain hex, in clear weather, by crossing a mountain hexside would pay 6 MPs to do so. In Winter (Snow) weather it would not be able to enter a clear terrain hex by crossing a mountain hexside, since a mountain hex is prohibited terrain for motorized and artillery units under these conditions. If the effect was an additional modifier, this would be listed as such, as is done with rivers and wadis.

271. FWtBT. Rivers

Q: When do rivers feeze?
A: Never. The map includes only weather zones D and E, as per Rule 36A I. As stated in note #5 on the Terrain Effects Chart, "Rivers and lakes freeze in weather zones A, B and C during cold weather.... Since no portion of the map is affected by the provisions of the note, no provisions of the note effect the playing area. Often times the rules use something like 11 conditional operators" in computer usage. "If x then..., else ...... If I say you can have desert if you eat supper, this also means, without it needing to be stated, that if you don't eat supper, you can't have desert. This rule is an example of this; since rivers can only freeze in zones A, B and C, which don't appear in the game, we can infer that rivers never freeze, it being impossible to satisfy the requirements for their freezing. But then again, maybe you just didn't see the all- important note on the bottom of the Terrain Effects Chart.

272. MST NTs

Q: When naval transport points arrive as reinforcements there are no counters for these. What should we use ?
A: Assuming you are talking about the Spanish Civil War scenarios, I believe that all NTs which appear through the OB, except for an Insurgent NT on Feb I, '37, a Loyalist NT on Sep I '37 and a Catalan NT on Aug I '37, are replacements of previously sunk NTs. For example, the Loyalist OB entry for Nov I '37 has a listing for:

Replace at any standard or major port:
1 pt naval transport any (PA or Cat)

There are enough counters in the game to allow the Insurgents to have 3 NTs, the Loyalists 2 NTs and the Catalans 1 NT. Note also that these "free" replacements may be accumulated, if no NT is in the replacement pool. They are not lost simply because you have not taken "enough" naval losses!

273. FWtBT. Rail movement

Q: On Aug 136, when rail movement is no longer prohibited per 37C, many rail hexes will still be unowned by - either side per either 41B1 or 44H. I wish to confirm that rail movement per 7A is not allowed in the above situation.
A: One may only use rail movement in friendly owned hexes, per Rule 7A. An unowned hex is not friendly owned, therefore no one may use rail movement through unowned hexes.

274. FWtBT. Rail movement

Q: Would you address the following situation? If rail hexes between cities (to be used to connect cities for the purpose of full general supply) remain "unowned by either side " on the Aug II 36 turn (when units are no longer automatically in general supply per 37C), are those cities considered unconnected for full general supply source purposes?
A: Yes, they are unconnected, since they are not connected by friendlyowned rail lines and are not connected by rail lines which the tracing player is able to use for rail movement.

275. FWtBT., Supply sources

Q: I wish to confirm that in order for connected cities to be used as a full general supply source, all the rail hexes connecting them must first be owned per 3D.
A: The rules seem quite clear on the matter, the rail lines in question must be friendly owned and must be ones which the player could use for friendly rail movement. An unowned rail line is neither. To be clear, an unowned rail line may not be used for rail movement, neither may it be used for any purpose of the rules that require friendly owned rail lines; an unowned rail line can not be both unowned and friendly owned, and if it is not friendly owned, then it can not be used in situations that require it to be friendly owned.

276. World War II scenarios: Air units

Q: I have a couple of questions on the rules for the World War II scenarios from FWtBT. How does the British player get his aircraft from the holding box to Spain? The Blen, Whitleys, and the A-22 have the range to make it using a transfer mission, however the shorter range fighters cannot (based on the distance reference on the of off-map port summary). Rule 31 - Naval Transport suggests that aircraft can be carried by naval transport moving cargo (per Rule 27B3, ground units, air units, resource points, and supply points) between friendly-owned ports or beaches. Rule 27B3 says "Naval transports and landing craft ... may transport ground units, resource points, and supply points. " No mention is made of aircraft. If they can be carried as cargo, what is their RE for transport costs?
A: Treat single engine fighters as one RE in size, with all other air units being two REs in size. Air units are considered to have flown a mission in the player turn in which they are transported by sea; they must be transported to a friendly owned port with an airbase with a capacity of one or more. Upon arrival, they are flipped to their inoperative side. They may operate normally from that point on.
A number of rules patches for this problem have been proposed over the last while and none of them are perfect; the idea is to get the planes into play as easily as possible. Transporting planes to Gibraltar would not have been a big issue for the Allies in this campaign, so lets keep it simple!

277. World War II scenarios: Naval transport

Q: Game play chart (3) - Off Map Port Summary: Listing for the Britain holding box, 21 hexes distance from hexes 33:012510130. Those hexes are immediately off the coast of France. Doesn't that force the British player to bring his naval transports through those hexes during the naval movement phases? It would seem logical to have a distance reference to somewhere on map 23A as well.
A: Again, we are dealing with issues that while present in the game, reflect game manufacturing concerns and not the pure recreation of history. The problem with having Allied shipments routed near the game map edge is that it encourages ahistorical use of the Luftwaffe to interfere with these shipments.

Well, that shouldn't be an issue, and wouldn't be if we all paid double for the games to get maps of empty ocean thrown in....

As with the proposed changes to off map shipping for Second Front, the easiest solution seems to be to allow the Allied player to do all of his shipping off-map, until near Gibraltar. It is 88 hexes of movement from southern England to Gibraltar per the unofficial off-map distance chart published in TEM #59/60. You could round off to 100 MPs to account for some extra movement to avoid land based air and other sundries thrown in

278. World War II scenarios: Morocco

Q: Rule 38B2: "Success: French Morocco joins the Allies, and all rail net. Forces from either side may enter French Moroccan territory. The Allied player" The sentence stops there.
A: Ignore the last partial sentence.

279. FWtBT. Amphibious repair

Q: The orders of battle say amphibious repair occurs on a roll of 1. (34G) says on a roll of I or 2. Does one take precedence?
A: The rule is correct, ignore the listing in the order of battle.

280 FWtBT Mines

Q: Rule 34E says "If a player has a [BBTF] in play and has not yet taken random mine damage... " Does the phrase "...and has not yet taken... " refer to the player or the BRTF? If it refers to a player, then I would assume that one roll per turn would be made (until successful.) If it refers to a BBTF, then I would assume that one roll per BBTF would be made per turn (until successful.) This may be more confusing to its because of the results of the variable rebellion (44H): both BBTFs are Loyalist controlled. So this rule does not affect the Insurgent side the Loyalist side cannot determine if they, should roll once or twice per turn, and if rolling twice per turn, should use of 34E be discontinued ("...the player does not roll again during the game') upon the first successful (2 hits of damage) result?
A: It refers to the BBTF; roll once for each BBTF in play that has not taken random mine damage.

281. FWtBT. Supply

Q: Situation: per 12C3a, Gijon generated 3x general supply points in the initial phase of the Loyalist Jan 137 player turn; these general supply points will last through the initial phase of the Loyalist Jan II 3 7 player turn; on the Insurgent Jan 113 7 player turn (initial phase), may the Loyalist player use Gijon as a limited general supply source (for up to 3 REs of Republican units) even though the general supply points generated there last turn are still in play?
A: Yes.

282. FWtBT. Naval transport

Q: Rule 30: may NTs embark/disembark supply/resource items at (friendly) beaches?
A: Yes.

283. FWtBT.- Variable start to rebellion

Q: Rule 44H.- if Cadiz and El Ferrol end up Loyalist-owned as a result of the variable rebellion, should disbanding actions of the artillery units at these cities (as specified in the Insurgent Jan 137 and Jan 137 order of battle entries) be conducted by the Loyalist player at the appropriate times? And if so, should the same concept be applied generally throughout the orders of battle?
A No. The Loyalist player carries out replacement and reinforcement activities listed in the Loyalist OB only.

284. FWtBT. Point cities

Q: Why must point cities be pacified in FWtBT? I have used two interpretations of this:
1) They're cities. You can send reinforcements there.
2) They're not. Ignore them. Ignore the requirement to pacify them.
A: Since pacification mainly affects tracing supply, it is important to pacify point cities, since many of them are on rail and/or road lines that are critical for supply. Leave unpacified "antis" in your back line and your boys won't get the beer and bullets...

285. FWtBT. Terrain vs. Features

Q: Are hex features (such as dot or reference cities, or major ports) considered "any other terrain " for the purposes of number of turns required to construct a fort or permanent airfield? Example: construction unit begins building a permanent airfield at 16A:4708 (rough terrain) on Mar 138; does the dot city qualify the hex as terrain other than clear or rough?
A: No, because a "feature" is not "terrain".

286. FWtBT. Cities

Q: Along the same lines (that is, for the purposes of 14A 1) are major city heaves considered non-clear terrain? (I ask these questions separately because on the Master Terrain Key, major city heaves are listed as hex terrain types and dot and lower cities are listed as terrain 'features ", not hex terrain types.)
A: No, major cities do not contain clear terrain, as you point out, major cities are a terrain type, they are not a feature. The two concepts are quite separate, terrain types are one thing and terrain features are another; rules which make reference to terrain types do not normally also reference features, and that's how it should be, since the two different classes of terrain have quite different effects. Features exist within the other terrain of the hex, and do not change the basic terrain type of the hex, they merely are in addition to it. So, for example, you can't have a "dot city hex". You simply have a dot city existing in a hex of whatever terrain type it is.

287. FWtBT: Point cities

Q: According to the rules, point cities are not even features. Should I consider the hex somehow different.from another of the type?
A: No, the terrain of the hex is not the issue, tracing supply is. Regardless of the terrain of the hex, or any terrain features therein, the presence of an unpacified point city means you can't trace supply through the hex. That's why you should pacify them...

288. FWtBT.- Intrinsic garrisons

Q: A 1-6 cavalry and 1-6 artillery stacked in the same hex attack the intrinsic garrison of a reference city (clear terrain); and roll an EX. What must be taken as losses?
A: Nothing. They lose nothing since intrinsic garrisons, although treated as units, are specifically not counted for exchange losses. So in effect, you exchanged versus a zero strength unit, which requires no loss.

289. FWtBT. Forming divisions

Q: When "forming" a division, can its cadre be formed from units on the board (as per rules) and the cadre then be rebuilt to full divisional strength with the required Rep points (again as per rules) in the same initial phase? The rules contain no prohibition but don't specifically allow it.
A: Yes, there is no specific prohibition in the rules about this sort of multimultiple conversion going on. Since all reinforcement replacement activities occur in the same phase you can replace, rebuild, upgrade and/or convert a unit, all in the same initial phase.

290. FWtBT. Special replacements

The FWtBT RAW has the player calculate special reps by dividing losses by four and rounding down to the nearest one half. However, for those willing to put up with the paperwork, there is certainly no reason that one couldn't retain fractional amounts instead of rounding; the game all ready uses fractions to one half, there is no good reason, beyond playability, to limit things to this. Just what creates a special replacement is more complicated. In all other games, special reps are only generated by attack factors lost, regardless of whether it was lost while attacking or defending. Thus, zero strength units and zero attack strength units (regardless of defense strength) generate no special reps in any other Europa game that uses special replacements.

Unfortunately, the term "strength" is used in the FWtBT rules, without reference to whether it is attack, defense or combined strength. For replacement purposes FWtBT uses a unique 11 averaging" system, where a 23-4 Inf would cost 2.5 Inf reps as opposed to two points as in all other games. It certainly makes sense to extend this reasoning to special replacement generation as well, since the game is all ready using so many non-standard rules.

Therefore, to clear up any confusion, calculate special replacements based upon the averaged strength of the unit (attack strength plus defense strength, divided by two.) Then divide this by four, rounding to the nearest half. Keep in mind that this is not the usual method that would be used in any other Europa game...

291. Gibraltar

Q: What's the of official terrain for Gibraltar?
A: Consider hex 23A:3927 to be ROUGH terrain, not mountain.

EXchange?