Recently, two gaming buddies and I got together for a crack at Hunters from the Sky and the new TCS 3.1 rules. Garren, a Marine I work with, had played TCS 3.0 a few times. Sal I met at a local gaming convention. He had only played TCS 3.0 once. I've had plenty of experience with the 3.0 rules. Although we liked that version of the rules, there were some anomalies that we hoped the 3.1 rules would correct. We were not let down.

After arriving at Sal's house at 9:45 am, we quickly picked sides, then set up the first scenario. Sal took the Commonwealth. Garren took I, III, and IV Bns, I Sturm Rgt. I got II Bn, I Sturm Rgt. Until my battalion arrived at 0800, I handled the game mechanics since I had the most experience with the system.

We used the historical setup for the Commonwealth. Sal deployed the 22 NZ around the airfield, 21 NZ on Vineyard Ridge, and the 23 NZ, 28 NZ, and Engineers near the primary road in their sectors. His plan was to defend the airfield with the 22 NZ for as long as possible and counterattack with any released troops.

Garren plotted half the I Bn to land on the west edge of the airfield and the other half southwest of Pt 107. At 0740 the III Bn would drop in scattered drop zones south and west of the airfield. The IV Bn's drop zone was west of the Tavronitis. At 0800 the 11 Bn would drop southwest of Pt 107. The direction of drift was inland. All units would converge on the airfield.

Dawn Assault

The battle started with the Luftwaffe Stukas and Messerschmitts causing light damage. At 0720 the German gliders landed and the Sturm troops immediately assaulted adjacent Commonwealth units. After heavy losses the Germans cleared the west edge of the airfield and Pt 107. The Royal Marine 4-inch guns were still intact. Sal lashed out with a vengeance in his phase. The 4-inchers wiped out a Sturm platoon. Artillery came crashing down to cause more casualties. The Matildas moved out to take position next to the airfield. The New Zealanders fired with everything they could. By the end of the turn, the I Bn was down to half strength.

Much-needed German reinforcements parachuted in at 0740. A Stuka destroyed one of the Matildas, but the 4-inchers were only suppressed by air attack. Garren couldn't do much as his paratroopers needed to form up before moving out. Fortunately, his paratroopers didn't suffer too much this turn as they didn't land close to many Commonwealth units. Sal kept his troops in their entrenchments and fired away, trying to cause as many casualties as possible. At 0800 the 11 Bn landed unscathed southwest of Pt 107. The Luftwaffe performed miserably, failing to knock out the Matilda and the 4-inchers. III Bn began assaulting and, although they took heavy casualties, they began to break the back of 22 NZ's defense. After causing much destruction, the 4-inchers were finally close assaulted and their crews abandoned them (SYR). So far, none of the overrun Bofors were captured: Garren was 0 for 8 on a 33% chance of capture.

The regimental 105s set up. AT guns were racing to cross the Tavronitis to deal with the Matilda. In his phase, Sal rushed C/23 NZ FPC Plt, Band Plt, and 27 NZ Arty to the airfield to try to stem the tide So far he had failed to release anyone else.

Decision and Aftermath

From 0820 to 0900 the Sturm Rgt continued to assault and clear the airfield. The Matilda was knocked out when Garren rolled a 65 with his first shot from a 37min AT gun. 27 NZ Arty was destroyed by air attack in transit to the airfield. The remnants of I and III Bns swept across the airfield from west to east. The New Zealanders put up a spirited fight, but they were being steamrollered. Finally at 0920 the 28 N was released. They were too late. The Sturm Rgt was consolidating on the airfield. At this point we concluded play. We had played non-stop for eight hours.

The Sturm Rgt had suffered. I Bn was almost extinct. III Bn was at less than half strength. II Bn and IV Bn were almost intact.

On the Commonwealth side, 22 NZ, C/23 NZ, and D/ 21 NZ were wiped out. All the hodge-podge RAF, FPC, Band, 27 NZ Arty, and machinegun units were gone. Artillery ammo was down to 22 rounds of HE.

In a hard-fought 2-hour battle the paratroopers were able to seize the airfield. It is doubtful whether the Commonwealth would have been able to retake the airfield unless they received off-map reinforcements. We will have to wait for a campaign game to play out that possibility.

Notes on the 3.1 System

Action is very fluid with fire and movement occurring every turn. In Hunters, the command rules are not used so turns don't take as long. We spent a very enjoyable eight hours, and play will proceed much quicker with more experienced players. The turn sequence is almost as clean as you can get: Command Phase, Aircraft Fires, Action Phases, Clean-up Phase.

Note the absence of an Artillery Fire Phase in the above sequence of play. As had been done with SFAs, artillery fires have been moved into the Action Phase. You can now call in artillery fires anytime during your Action Phase, and in the case of a good shoot, the fires remain in effect until your next Action Phase. This provides more flexibility and eliminates plotting. No more called fire delays. With a twenty-minute time scale I always wondered about those called fire delays. Also gone are the EFSs. The fires are now Battery or Battalion Fires with one marker. Overall, the artillery rules have been completely revamped, making them quicker and easier to handle.

The system rewards the use of good tactics. Unit morale, doubled in close assaults, is now the deciding factor in most close assaults, as it should be. To assault, you must suppress the enemy first. Unless you don't mind heavy casualties, that is. In Hunters, the paratroopers enjoy a decisive advantage in close assaults because of their superior morale. Still, to avoid heavy casualties, the German is better off establishing a base of fire, suppressing the target, then assaulting. Although this is a basic tactic, players often fail to do this, as evidenced by the dirty took I received from Sal when I wiped out one of his platoons as it attempted to move towards one of my platoons to close assault it. Immediately afterwards, he fired on the same platoon with an SFA and suppressed it. I couldn't help blurting out, "You should have done that first," to which he replied "No" (or words to that effect).

Company morale has been eliminated. Good riddance! It is replaced by battalion morale, which has a minor effect on the game. The only problem now is that battalions tend to fight to the last man instead of withdrawing when the going gets too tough (e.g. the 22 NZ Bn). [Ed. note: During the development of TCS 3. 1, 1 made the case in favor of company morale for similar reasons. Company morale made the player cycle his companies out of the action for, usually, a couple hours of recovery Otherwise, the - v would soon reach the point where even a single step loss could disintegrate the whole outfit through modifiers on the Morale and SYR tables. You had to develop methods to spare your troops not unlike the CWB technique of pulling a division back to recover stragglers before its brigades get wrecked. Company morale also encouraged you to use companies as unified formations (see below). But the trouble with company morale was that after a while in combat, the difference between elite forces and ordinary troops faded out.]

The system is, and always will be, an infantryman's system. Armored vehicles are definitely supporting weapons in these games. No dynamic armored penetrations. Just head-to-head infantry slugfests. The scale is actually too small to simulate classic armored engagements. The 3.1 rules do have minor changes to the modifiers on the Point Fire Table. Tanks can also be forced to Button Up now, which reduces their effectiveness. But the above is still true.

A minor change that has a major effect is the SFA sequencing rule. Instead of suffering return overwatch fire after each SFA, the attacker can continue SFAs against a single hex until he declares he is finished firing at that hex. Then the defender overwatches. This rule encourages dispersion, because if all your firepower is in one hex, the attacker can nail that hex hard before you overwatch. For example, if you have five AT guns, and put them all in the same hex, your opponent will fire at that hex as many times as possible to try and destroy all five AT guns, or at least suppress them, before you return your overwatch fire. If the same five AT guns are dispersed to separate, mutually supporting hexes, then he can only fire at one of them before you return fire with one of the others. [Ed. note: Of course, the AT guns must be stacked to fire Overwatch together against a single trigger. This is yet another interesting dilemma the system offers.]

A word of caution on the Line of Sight (LOS) rules. These have gone through several evolutions in this series, each time trying to make them clearer and easier to use. Unfortunately, it can occasionally be difficult to determine LOS, especially for people not used to military maps. I have found the best solution is to discuss with your opponent whether an LOS exists before the situation comes up. If you are contemplating a move where an LOS situation might arise, ask before making the move. Amongst friendly gamers, there shouldn't be any problems.

The command rules are almost unchanged, Be careful, though, Units without orders cannot fire SFAs, only overwatch. Make sure your units get at least hasty defense orders before they are engaged.

One thing that I don't like about the TCS command rules is that, below the battalion level, they do not encourage unit integrity. Companies intermingle without penalty. A house rule solution I've tried is to limit firers in an SFA to one company and their supporting arms (remember, armored vehicles are supporting arms in this series). If two companies want to fire an SFA at the same target, then they must fire two separate SFAs. This will encourage you to keep your companies together to get the best results on your SFAs.

Overall. the TCS rules are excellent for simulating smallunit tactics during WW2, They have evolved to the point where they are also easy to use (with the possible exception of LOS). In addition, the games are fun and challenging to play. I look forward to the continued growth (more games, not more rules) and success of this series.

[Readers who have followed SSgt Chacon's TCS replays in our pages may be interested to know that this Illinois home-boy was a chem/pre-med student before he turned Marine. since joining the Corps in 1982, Ron Chacon has served all over the globe and been through some training, including Airborne and Scout Sniper Instructor school, that may have something to do with making him an aggressive guy with a fistful of fallschirmjager counters. At 32 years old, SSgt Chacon has a wife, 3 children, and 18 years of wargaming experience.]

More Hunters from the Sky Special Section

Additional Notes and Scenario
Variable Greek Option
Death From Above Replay