Bob Hurst and I battled for the town of Abit. We each had 10 units on the field, plus 2 in reserve. This was the first of a 5-battle campaign in which we had pre-assigned certain forces to defend certain sites. Then, when we diced to see which sites were to be fought for, we simply looked up whch units were at the site in question, and the battle was on. Using this type of force assignment, a campaign map was unnecessary. The only maps required were those pertaining to the particular battle sites of interest. At the site for Abit, we decided on the terrain features by each selecting 5 types of terrain and alternately placing them down. The sequence started out with Phase (1)… the active side moving its forces 10 inches. Regardless of the type of unit, the distance was 10 inches. On Phase (2), the non-active side then fired all its units. This made for a regular A-move/B-fire routine. The first several moves of the battle were uneventful, as each side moved up the table, trying to get units in range. A unit was defined as a single stand. An infantry rifle unit… call it a company… had a range of 20 inches. The farthest firing unit was the heavy tank… its range was 60 inches. Around the 3rd turn, the units were within range of each other and opened up. I noted that the town of Abit, the objective for both sides, was slightly closer to Bob’s baseline than to mine. But Bob’s units refused to enter Abit… he thought it would prove a death trap, drawing fire from all quarters… and so it turned out to be… I can testify to that. But not realizing this at the time, I had my men race forward, occupying Abit with 2 infantry units (2 stands). By definition, the maximum number of units permitted within a town was 2. After the first two phases I previously described, Phase (3) was a movement phase… it had the non-active side moving all its vehicles (tanks, armored cars, etc.) 10 inches. And then followed Phase (4), wherein the active side could use ‘Reaction Points’ to counter the non-active side’s movement, and Phase (5), wherein the non-active side, using his own Reaction Points, could counter the active side’s counter. Phases (2), (4), and (5) were, in essence, the firing phases. On Phase (4), when the active side could attempt to fire using its Reaction Points, it would do the following: First, it diced for the ‘cost’ of sending a reaction order, i.e., seeing if the order was transmitted. Usually the sides had about 6 Reaction Points in the kitty, and the cost of sending an order was either 2, 3, or 4 points. Second, there was an 80 percent chance that the order, if sent, was successfully received… a dice throw under 80 percent and the unit in question was ready to obey. Third, the unit would then fire, or move as required. Now, after all this movement and firing, we come to Phase (6), wherein close assault is resolved. The units, during the first 6 phases, accumulated a number of casualty figures on them, and on Phase (7), these were evaluated. A casualty figure, via a lousy dice throw during this assessment, could result in a number of hits, or Efficiency Levels, crossed out. An infantry stand had 5 Efficiency Levels (EL), hence could take 5 hits before it was destroyed. The heavy tank could take 6 hits at which time, it was removed from the field. Bob had 3 medium tanks and 2 armored cars, while I had assigned 2 light tanks, 1 heavy tank and 1 armored car to the Abit site. We each had an anti-tank gun, and the remainder of our 10-unit forces were composed of infantry. I used my heavy tank poorly. With the tank’s range of 60 inches, I should have remained way, way out, and simply fired away. Instead, I tried to close the range, and got zapped for my troubles. When any unit fired, it started out with a basic to-hit dice toss of 01-to-70. This basic probability of hit (POH) of 70 percent was modified as follows: First, a range factor. Simply look at the ten’s digit of the range measurement, and multiply by 10. Thus, if the range measurement was 34 inches, the ten’s digit was 3… multiply it by 10 to get 30, and subtract the 30 from the basic toss. Second, a modifier for armor value. If I fired my heavy tank at one of Bob’s medium tanks, the heavy tank, being one armor grade above a medium, would add 10 to its basic POH. If I fired at a light tank, the heavy, being 2 grades above the light, would add 20 to the basic POH. Comversely, when a lighter unit fired at a heavier one, the basic POH was reduced accordingly. Third. A modifier for cover. If the target was in town, deduct 10 percent from the basic POH. Looking at the above, moving my heavy tank forward wasn’t the brightest idea in the world. But what I wanted to do was have it coordinate fire with the other units. Which meant that it couldn’t stay out on the fringes, simply firing away, but get in close. Both sides were assigned a couple of Coordinative Fire (CF) points, and to use these, two firing units had to be within 5 inches of one another. For coordinative fire, the first two required items were that (a) two firing units had to be within 5 inches of one another, and (b) an officer had to be attached to one of the units. Then a CF point had to be expended. Normally, when a unit hit its target, the target noted on its data sheet a single hit, and received a casualty figure. If, in coordinative fire, both units hit the same target, not only did the target record a hit from each of the firing units and receive 2 casualty figures, but it would receive 2 additional casualty figures, 4 in all. The presence of casualty figures boded ill for a unit. During one of the final phases of the half-bound, all units with casualty figures referred to the following chart to see how many Efficiency Levels they lost: Each casualty figure added 10 to the dice throw: 01 to 33 Lose 1 Efficiency Level 34 to 66 Lose 2 Efficiency Levels 67 to 100 Lose 3 Efficiency Levels Over 100 Lose 4 Efficiency Levels One bad dice throw could just about destroy a unit… consider that an infantry unit could take a maximum of 5 Efficiency level losses. I called on an armored car from my reserve, off-board force, giving me 11 units on the field, but even that didn’t help. I took lots of losses, and after one huge blast by the enemy, when I finally was down to three stands, I threw in the towel. End-game analysis. Bob’s tactic of staying out of Abit proper was a good one. I think I lost four units there, trying to occupy the town to the last man. But after I lost my long range armor, Bob simply drew his tanks off, out of infantry range and kept zapping away. Back to PW Review August 2000 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com