This is an experimental set of rules for adding a recovery function to TCS. They are not by any chance tested with all games, but so far they have worked well towards making especially the longer games' "flow" a bit more realistic. These ideas grew in my mind while I was playing a Leros campaign. Why was it that the British battalion that had lost nine-odd steps the first day was just as shot up three days later? Are all these men in those steps supposedly dead or in hospital? Why was it that there was no point in resting your units (except to get rid of the odd battalion morale point)? The more I thought of it, the more convinced I became that this was not just me complaining about some minor detail again.

This was, rather, a blind spot of the system.

The thing is that most of the "kills" in TCS represent stragglers, lightly wounded, and broken equipment, and if left alone for a day or two all but the most miserable units would sort themselves out and recover most of that strength-unless, of course, the unit has been totally gutted. In fact, part what makes good units good is that the men don't follow the rather sane reflex to walk away from murderous fighting. Instead they come back and get shot at again, a tendency that explains the often shocking casualty rates in elite units. While the lack of a mechanism to portray recovery can be ignored in a day-long scenario such as GD'40, it creates bigger problems in the longer games. Especially in A Frozen Hell, that goes on for close to a week, this phenomenon gets kind of strange. You won't, as any real commander would have done, rotate your troops to preserve their strength. Nor do you get any understanding of the Finnish raids, main purpose of which in real life was to keep the Russian reserves from getting any rest. Anyhow, here they are. The R&R rules for TCS.

General

Formations can recover lost steps and even counters by carrying out a "recovery order." The formation written up for recovery accumulates weighted turns, and when the order is implemented a certain number of steps and units are recovered and placed on the map again.

Dead and Very Dead Piles

Units eliminated during play are placed in the Dead Pile, unless the units suffer a Surrender morale result or are P type targets eliminated by rolling a double (11, 22, 33, etc.). In those cases the unit goes into the "Very Dead Pile" (yes...) and are gone for good.

There are of course scenario-specific exceptions to the above. Perhaps only every fifth sunk DD tank (in Omaha) should go into the Dead Pile. The rest are Very Dead as they are beyond reach of anyone but an underwater archaeologist. Similarly something like every third infantry unit that dies by shipwreck or by paradrop into the Mediterranean should go into the Dead Pile while the rest are Very Dead. For now it is up to the players to work these issues out.

The Recovery Op Sheet

Any formation (company, company-equivalent, or larger) can be assigned to a Recovery Op Sheet (i.e. given orders to recover). Even an annihilated formation can be assigned to a Recovery Op Sheet, either by itself or along with other formations.

Each recovering formation must be assigned a "center." This center must be out of reach of enemy direct fire weapons and must feature some sort of (at least) partly protective terrain as well as a track/road. The center of an annihilated formation must be either somewhere near where the formation was "last seen" or to the rear of the formation's parent formation. As long as the formation is going through the Recovery process all its "living" units must stay within 2 hexes of its center. If attacked, a recovering formation is treated as a formation with "No Orders."

If already on another Op Sheet, the recovering units still need a "center." This in effect limits recovering units to manning defensive Op Sheets. Should the recovering formation be forced or moved off its center before the Recovery Op Sheet is implemented, it becomes unassigned and half the units in its Dead Pile are moved to the Very Dead Pile. Both some honesty and common sense are needed when assigning a center for an annihilated formation. In most games it is quite easy to point out the rear area where a lost private would wind up if he tried to find anyone from his regiment, but in some cases, such as in Leros, even concepts such as "front" and "rear" can be very hazy. Also, silly tricks such as recovering units in the enemy rear are of course against the spirit of these rules, and anyone prone to do such things is better off playing Risk.

Recovery Op Sheet Implementation

A Recovery Op Sheet accumulates weighted turns at the same rate as any other Op Sheet and the player rolls for its implementation on the Prepared Defense line.

When the Recovery Op Sheet implements the following things happen:

• The units immediately become unassigned. (If they are on another implemented Op Sheet, the units stay on that one.)
• Each company or independent platoon rolls one die on the following table and adds the average raw morale of its counters plus the current battalion morale. AT guns have an assumed morale of "3" and Artillery of "6." Units with no morale (tanks and such) have a morale of "0" but use the following modifiers instead:
• German and American units +1
• British and Commonwealth units +2
• Everyone else's units: +3

Modified die roll	Inf Coy	Hwy Coy	TO Coy	Tank Coy
1-3	5	2	1	2
4-7	4	1	1	1
8-10	3	1	1	0
11-13	2	0	0	0
14+	1	0	0	0

Inf Coys includes everything that moves at 5 MP or faster on foot.

Hwy Coys includes all kinds of mortars, heavy machine guns and such, still capable of moving on their own.

TO Coys are all towed weapons including howitzers and similar things. If a company has both Hwy and TO equipment, choose one table to roll on.

Tank Coys are tanks, armored cars and anything armored and mobile that doesn't fall in one of the above categories.

Further modifiers might be appropriate here in case a formation is known for lousy or very good rear services, if the enemy has broken into the formation's idea of "the rear," and so on. In games such as GD '40 or Black Wednesday this may add a nice incentive for people to actually use armored units as they are meant to be used, that is to leave the battle and ride on to wreak havoc in the enemy rear.

The number in the table is the number of steps the company recovers. These steps can be distributed in the following ways:

• Steps may be added to counters that have suffered step losses. Simply reduce the step loss markers under the counters.
• Steps may be spent on bringing eliminated counters back in play. Any counter resurrected this way is placed in any protected or partly protected hex in or adjacent to the center hex. The counter does not need to be brought back at full strength. For each counter resurrected in this fashion one other counter from the formation's Dead Pile, if there are any, must be moved to the Very Dead Pile. This requirement applies even if a roll would bring back all dead units.

Units in the Very Dead Pile can never be recovered.

If there is only one counter in a formation's Dead Pile and the player wants to bring it back, all steps recovered must be assigned to recovering that unit. Any recovered steps in excess of that unit's full strength are lost. Finally, when a reorganization Op Sheet implements, units in the same hex and of the same type and from the same company may redistribute their remaining steps between them. Units that cease to exist by this procedure are placed in the Dead Pile. ("Company" is a very loose term here. Apply some common sense.)

Soviet FOs are an exception to this system, as "recovering" a Forward Observer is more about finding the right guy and giving him a map and a radio than sorting out a horde of straggles. Therefore, as soon as an FO dies, put it aside in a pile of its own. Then, on every whole hour, roll two dice for each dead FO. If the roll is equal to or higher than the "FO Recovery Number," place the FO either on map with his battery or have him enter the map from the general direction of his off-map unit. The "FO Recovery Number" should vary from scenario to scenario, but this is probably a good guideline:

A Frozen Hell 12 (Those guys were abysmal)
GD '41 11
Black Wednesday 9

This also puts some restraint on "FO-hunting," which is an utterly unrealistic activity.

• After this recovery is done each complete battalion or similar organization on the Recovery Op Sheet recovers 1-3 points of battalion morale (one die halved).

Example #1

After really rotten day near Tolvajarvi, the ErP 112th is pulled back for some well-earned rest.

Strolling up the Tjokki Road, the battalion looks like this:

• 1/ErP 112th: One platoon with three steps left remains alive. The other three platoons are in the Dead Pile.
• 2/ErP 112th: Two platoons, each missing three steps, remain. The other two reside, respectively, in the Dead and the Very Dead Pile.
• 3/ErP 112th: All platoons are in the Dead Pile.
• The Battalion MG is still alive.

Furthermore the battalion has a battalion morale of 4.

The battalion settles down on the road and is written up for recovery. So that the units may at least stand in the way of any funny Soviet moves, the companies are each assigned a separate center, placing 1/112th ErP at 23.15 and 2/112th ErP at 17.21. 3/112th ErP + the Bn MG go to 8.21, but for starters only the MG will be there.

Once the Op Sheet implements, the player rolls one die for each company. The 112th ErP's battalion morale has dropped to 2 while resting and its companies all have morale 1, so 3 is added to each die roll.

1/ErP 112th's modified roll is 8 meaning that 3 steps are returned to the company. These are spent on bringing back one lost platoon at 3 steps strength. One of the still dead platoons is moved to the Very Dead Pile.

2/ErP 112th's modified roll is 4 meaning that 4 steps are returned to the company. All four steps are spent on bringing back the platoon in the Dead Pile at a strength of 4 steps.

3/112th ErP's modified roll is 7 meaning that 4 steps are returned to the company. Two platoons are brought back at a strength of 2 steps each and the other two platoons are moved to the Very Dead Pile.

Finally one die is rolled for the ErP 112th's battalion morale. The roll is a 3 (halved and rounded up to 2), meaning that the battalion is returned to normal.

Example #2 (from GD '41)

In Lechanowka, East of Mtzensk, the 4th Tank Brigade is taking a break. The brigade looks like this:

• 1/10th Tank has one KV1 still on the board and three in the Dead Pile.
• 2/10th Tank has three BT5s still on the board, two in the Dead Pile and two in the Very Dead Pile.
• 3/10th Tank has no BT5s still on the board, four in the Dead Pile and two in the Very Dead Pile.
• 1/253rdTank has two KV1s still on the board, one in the Dead Pile and one in the Very Dead Pile.
• 2/253rd Tank has five BT5s still on the board and two in the Dead Pile.
• 3/253rd Tank has one BT5 still on the board, three in the Dead Pile and two in the Very Dead Pile.
• 1/4th Motorized has one full strength platoon on the board and two in the Dead Pile.
• 2/4th Motorized has two platoons with two steps each left on the board and one platoon in the Very Dead Pile.
• 3/4th Motorized has all three platoons in the Dead Pile.
• The 4th Motorized's Battalion Troops have two MGs and one mortar still on the board, three MGs in the Dead Pile, and one MG and two mortars in the Very Dead Pile. All units still on the board are at full strength.

As the brigade's Recovery Sheet is implemented it is time for a lot of die rolls.

1/10th Tank's modified roll is 7. It has one KV1 is recovered and one put in the Very Dead Pile. The company now has two KV1s.

2/10th Tank's modified roll is 8. It recovers no units and still has three BT5s still on board.

3/10th Tank's modified roll is 6. It recovers one BT5 and moves one to the Very Dead Pile. The company now has 1 BT5 onboard.

1/235th Tank's modified roll is 8. No units are recovered and the company still has two KV1s onboard.

2/235th Tank's modified roll is 4. Despite having two units in the Dead Pile only one can be recovered. The other one must go to the Very Dead Pile. The company now has five BT5s onboard.

3/235th Tank's modified roll is also a 4. Of the three units in the Dead Pile, only one can be recovered as there are three counters in the Dead Pile and for every recovered unit one must go to the Very Dead Pile. Therefore one unit goes to the Very Dead Pile and the company now has two BT5s onboard.

Just to sort things out a bit the Soviet player kindly asks permission to treat his two diminutive battalions as companies and reshuffle them a bit. The German player agrees and the Soviet player consolidates both battalions to one company of KV1s and one of BT5s.

Finally it is the 4th Motorized's turn. All the battalions rolls are modified by +3 as its companies all have a morale of 3.

1/4th Motorized rolls an 8, returning three steps to the company. One of its platoons in the Dead Pile is brought back to life, 3 steps strong and the other one goes to the Very Dead Pile.

2/4th Motorized rolls a 4 recovering four steps. These are used to bring the company's two platoons up to four steps of strength each.

3/4th Motorized rolls a 9 recovering three steps. One of its platoons in the Dead Pile is brought back to life, three steps strong, and the other one goes to the Very Dead Pile.

The 4th Motorized's Battalion Troops roll a 4 on the "Hwy Coy" column and recover one step. One MG is resurrected at half strength and one goes to the Very Dead Pile.