With Hunters from the Sky, the Tactical Combat Series rules have reached their final versions 3.1.1. In this article, I give an overview of the important changes from version 3.0 and some of my observations on how these changes affect play. As this is not an exhaustive list, players used to playing version 3.0 should read the 3.1 rules carefully, as there are numerous minor changes throughout.

Command and Control

The Command Rules, the core of the TCS, remain essentially the same with a few modifications that make careful writing of op, sheets more critical:

• Players can give units only one mission per Op sheet. This means that you cannot order a given unit to attack an objective and also defend it when taken. Units with different missions can coexist on the same Op sheet as before, but each unit can have only one mission. This limitation is not as disastrous as it sounds, because of the next change:
• Rolling for implementation of an Op sheet is optional. You can be working on a defense Op sheet while an attack is underway. Upon securing the objective, you can begin rolling for that Hasty or Prep Defense Op sheet you started 15 turns ago. Sometimes, this will leave your opponent a window where your forces are on their objective but unassigned (particularly if you blow your implementation roll for a few turns), leaving you vulnerable to counterattack.
• Unassigned units cannot fire SFAs. They can fire overwatch normally. Motto: You do not want to be unassigned when in contact with the enemy.

Movement

The Movement Rules have undergone a number of minor changes:

• Mode change. Entering Move Mode costs a unit 1/2 its MPs, while entering Fire Mode costs nothing. Note that a unit enters Fire Mode after undergoing any Overwatch fire caused by its move.
• Units may interrupt movement and then continue later. This means more flexibility in coordinating attacks. Units beginning in move mode can enter fire mode, provide overwatch fire, then enter move mode again and move 1/2 their movement! This rule opens numerous possibilities...
• Vehicles cannot enter hexes with 2 or more contours (except on roads) and now pay +1 MP to change elevation.

Direct Fire

Fire Combat. It is here that version 3.0 players will need to learn a number of new habits:

• The Area Fire Table now contains twice as many columns between 0-25. This makes individual differences in firepower between units more important. In version 3.0, units with firepower factors of 4-8 firing alone all used the same 4-8 column. The new table breaks this range down to 4, 5, 6-7 and 8-9, yielding 4 different columns! Because there are more columns, positive and negative shifts do not affect combat as dramatically as before, where being dug-in in protective terrain rendered you virtually immune to large fire attacks. The addition of a 0 column makes the tactic of numerous small attacks against dug-in targets ineffective.
  
• Crossfire. If fires from a single SFA cross non-adjacent hexsides (i.e., you have fires coming in from widely different angles), you get a + I shift on the Area Fire Table and a +2 morale modifier for any morale checks resulting from that attack. Developing crossfire is now a viable and important tactic.
• B-Class targets are now treated the same for area fire, whether with a defense of I or 0. There are no longer special rolls for half-track and truck losses. The player can take them as step losses like infantry. This change makes half-tracks (and light tanks such as in GD'40) more vulnerable, and will require re-thinking a number of previously used tactics.
• Road moving units act as bottle-necks; each must move individually. Do not move down a road in view of the enemy!
• LOS. Consider hilltops and valleys flat to simplify determining LOS; round elevations to 1/4 intervals between contours; towns and woods are now 20m, not 10m.
• SFAs. Now, you declare a hex as the target of an SFA and fire anyone at it in any number of attacks you like. You may observe the results of each fire and then decide to fire again if you wish; only when you are finished firing at a hex does your opponent get a single overwatch trigger. This will make you reconsider stacking 5 tanks in one hex, because they could all be destroyed in an SFA without being able to return fire.
• Overwatch. Units with Fired Markers can never fire overwatch (not even fire-based), and you never receive a Fired Marker from firing overwatch. A new observation table restricts the range that you can fire overwatch. (SFAs have no observation requirements and can be fired at any target in LOS.) There is no range limit for fire-based triggers, moving vehicles, and units moving in billiard table terrain or using roads, but overwatch fires at moving infantry are limited to a 3-hex range in open and a I -hex range in partly protective or protective terrain. Use the center of the hexside crossed both for LOS determination and observation. This is a big change, and will require players to readjust their tactics. You can no longer move one unit at a time, waiting until the defending units roll fired markers and then rush them. They will never become fired from conducting overwatch. However, you can close to 4 hexes through open terrain with no overwatch. Naturally, if you are trying to assault, you will get hit with overwatch at range 3, 2 and 1, so suppressing your opponent becomes even more important. Because no units with Fired Markers can fire overwatch, you will want to consider not firing SFAs with all your units in your phase so that you will have some overwatch capability.
• AT Rolls are restricted to a range of 1 hex, and can now be done in addition to regular area fires. This makes life as a B-target even more hazardous, since you can attack it in the same fire with both an AT Roll and an area attack.

Morale

Battalion Morale replaces Company Morale. The cornerstone is the new Morale Table, on which there are separate columns for each morale value from 1 to 13 (so 13 different columns). A unit's morale is the sum of its own morale + any step losses + any Bn morale. Bn morale is inflicted when any hex suffers a loss of 4-5 steps in one fire (1 morale) or 6+ steps (-2 morale). Each turn during the cleanup phase, you roll a D6 for each Bn with Bn morale. If this roll is equal to or lower than the Bn morale, reduce it by one. This means that it will take you a while to reduce a high Bn morale (a high Bn morale is 3+).

• SYRs use a different table based on its overall morale, not just Co or Bn morale. Retreating units must end the retreat farther from an enemy unit than when they start or they are destroyed. Units retreating next to an enemy unit are destroyed (except at night). The SYR result is more frequent on the morale table now, so SYRs play a more active roll than in version 3.0.

  While some players may miss the feel of the old Company Morale, I think the change to Bn morale and the new table are great additions to the game. The system plays much faster, since you do not need to constantly readjust the Co morale levels after each fire and morale check. It is no longer a viable tactic to fire a large number of small attacks at a company to jack their Co morale into the twenties. Larger games are less messy, since there are usually only a few Bus with Bn morale. Now the important thing is the unit's basic morale level + any losses they have, which makes a unit's morale rating critical. The new Morale Table has more SYR and surrender results. You will want to consider withdrawing a battalion that starts with poor morale (say 4-6 per unit) and has acquired Bn morale; otherwise, you can watch your battalion evaporate under fire.

• Buttoning Up is a new feature. Tanks and tank-like vehicles are buttoned up when:
  a) a point fire attack results in a kill in their hex;
  b) an area fire directed into their hex calls for at least 1 step;
  c) attacked by an artillery fire zone;
  d) attacked by an air sortie, regardless of the result.

  When buttoned up, tanks have 1/2 area firepower, -2 on the point-fire table and + I to AT rolls made against them. They cannot spot for mortars or artillery, can fire overwatch only out to their nominal range, and pay double MP costs for actual movement (costs for overrun and consolidated assaults remain +3). This makes overrunning more difficult if the target is in terrain that costs 3 or more MPs for tanks. Soft targets can save themselves by firing overwatch and buttoning up the approaching tanks so that they do not have enough MPs left to conduct their attack.

The Big Guns

And now for ARTILLERY. Take a deep breath, folks. Gone are the artillery phase, effective sheaves, choosing firing patterns, pre-plotting, and rolling for an adjustment point. Calling for and executing artillery missions are now incorporated directly into your action phase. Simply designate target and spotter and roll on the adjustment table to see what kind of shoot you achieve. If you get a Good or Bad Shoot, place an appropriate barrage marker on the target hex and attack all units in or next to the attack zone.

• Barrage Markers affect the map after the mission is conducted. Remove Bad Fires at the end of your action phase, so they affect movement for the rest of your turn. Good Fires stay until the beginning of your next action phase, and thus can interdict enemy movement. Units moving into or next to an attack zone are attacked before they continue their movement.
• Attack Zones are the target hex for battery missions and target hex + adjacent hexes for a battalion mission (7 hexes total). Units in the Attack Zone are attacked at full strength, while units adjacent to the Attack Zone are attacked at half strength,
• Fast Fire missions allow you to double your fire factor and add +1 on the Artillery Point Fire Table, but require 3x normal ammunition expenditure. These missions are available only to guns 122mm and smaller. A Fast Fire Battalion Fire costs 9 battery fires (36 sheaves in 3.0!) but can have a tremendous impact. Just pray it doesn't scatter...
• On-Call and Unobserved Missions are gone.
• The Adjustment Table considers the range from the spotter to the target hex (0-3, 4-6, 7+) and the nationality of the firing artillery (US, Commonwealth or German, Other, Japanese or Soviet). Possible results are Good Shoot, Bad Shoot, No Shoot, and Bad Shoot with Scatter (D6 hexes).
• Smoke Missions. Handle these like regular missions, but if a Good or Bad Shoot occurs, place a Level 2 Smoke Marker instead of a barrage marker. This represents the presence of smoke out to a radius of 2 hexes. During the next Cleanup Phase, the flip the marker to the Level 1 side: smoke out to 1 hex. Remove Level one Smoke Markers during the next cleanup. Only batteries, never battalions, can fire Smoke Missions.

The artillery system changes speed up the game considerably. There is no more plotting 2 missions for each of your many batteries per turn, then rolling twice to see if each mission is fired (which rarely happens), then rolling for EFS placement, then rolling for any actual attacks, then placing huge stacks of smoke markers. One barrage marker handles it all (much like rocket fires previously). Calling missions during your turn adds a great deal of flexibility, but the adjustment table makes it difficult to count on artillery, as the possibilities of no shoot or scatter always exist. National differences in fire control are now evident, making the artillery rules less generic.

Assault-Style Combats

• The defender always fires first in assault-style combats. No roll is made for fire order.
• The attacker can leave an assault only by conducting an SYR.
• Paralyzed attackers conduct an SYR.
• Morale Checks still occur after each fire, but first double the morale rating of the unit checking, then add step losses and Bn morale as usual. This means that a fresh unit with a morale rating of 3 checks on the 6 column. Militia-type units with morale of 6 and a step loss check on the 13 (i.e., maximum) column. Motto: Don't assault with lousy units or they will evaporate without inflicting any damage. 2nd Motto: Assault bad units with good units and watch the fun!
• Overruns remain largely unchanged (though the Buttoning Up rule adds a new dynamic). Units being overrun have their morale doubled only if they are in Billiard or Open terrain; keep your units in cover when enemy armor is mucking about.

There are other changes not covered here, but this should give you an idea of the major ones. [Ed. note: Look also at the Point Fire and AT Roll Tables, to name two examples.]

Overall, the TCS games play much faster now (mainly due to the simplified Battalion Morale and artillery rules), the map is cleaner and players are free to focus more on Op Sheets and conducting operations. The version 3.1 rules are rich enough to allow for a multitude of tactical problems and innovations, yet streamlined to allow game completion in a shorter time.