S D Thomas - Mar 21, 2006 12:41 am (#4240 Total: 4302) Blitzkrieg 1940 Well, I’ve been trying to catch up on my backlog of VV games recently and now reading through the rules for the Blitzkrieg 1940 games. Like Paul Rohrbaugh I’ve also got a query about the effect of emplacements. It’s an interesting game system and my first reaction is that they have come up with a fairly effective method of depicting the different forms of combat in one easy system. Emplacements. The rules give no indication whatsoever but presumably there is some combat effect and possibly movement as well? What is ‘La Petite Guette’ sorry but I can’t translate that and the English rules give no indication of what it is meant to mean. Assault. How do you conduct assault when there are several units on both sides? Do all the attacker units move units into the hex at the same time? Do you fight on a unit by unit basis as in Direct Fire. • If so, who decides which units to fire at. • What happens if there are more attacking units than defending units – does the attacker get to fire two units at one defending unit but the defender can only fire back once? Alternatively do all the attackers units engage all the defenders units in a combined battle? If Armoured units enter a city, orchard or wood they are disrupted. Does this rule apply when they assault such a hex. If so do they become disrupted for that combat? In the example of play the German unit is defending in a city but no dispersed modifier seems to be given. What is the effect of being out of command on combat? Rule 6.1 mentions that it fires with a negative modifier but this is not listed in the tables. Can it Assault? Range in combat. The combat modifiers say that there is a -1 effect ‘par hex’. Which is the first hex? Is the adjacent hex the first and therefore firing into the adjacent hex incurs a modifier of -1. From the example of play this appears to be the case. Line of sight. The example in the back of the map gives examples of blocked (dotted lines) and valid (solid lines). This includes a blocked LOS between 1610 and 1811. The way I read the last sentence of the LOS rules (English version) it implies that this is a valid LOS as hex 1710 is not higher than the elevation of the two units. Having said that my own view is that the LOS should be blocked. I can’t find the two armoured troop transports. I assume there are meant to be separate counters. Perhaps I lost these when I made up the counters. Do rivers have any combat effect? Presumably these are only small rivers, perhaps little more than streams but even those tend to give some kind of defensive advantage. Is there any cost for going into column formation or does it effect stacking limitations? I find it strange that a unit can go straight from column formation into an assault without any movement cost. Thanks Steve T Peter Bogdasarian - Mar 26, 2006 10:40 am (#4264 Total: 4302) There is no amount of sarcasm that will allow me to adequately express just how terrible this plan is. - Goats Blitzkrieg 1940 Roy, I also asked some questions a way back. Mine were: 1. is the indirect fire column modified by the target's defense stat? 2. are all activation markers mixed in a single cup? (seems so) 3. is there an activation marker for the 1/121st? (or did I misplace it) 4. do available artillery batteries shoot once per turn or each time an artillery activation marker is drawn? It would be great if any of these could get answered Roy K. Bartoo - Mar 27, 2006 11:17 pm (#4269 Total: 4302) "Everybody has the answers, or they'll make them up for you. Just once I'd like to hear a brand-new question." - Rod McKuen, Lonesome Cities BLITZKRIEG 1940 Note that these answers are NOT OFFICIAL! I am only the translator of the games, not the designer or developer. I’ve merely gone through to check that the English translation agrees with the original French rules as I was given them. ‘TIC’ indicates that the translation is correct, i.e. agrees with the French rules. [8.2 Indirect Fire] Is the indirect fire column modified by the target's defense stat? >TIC. The language of 10.1 certainly seems to indicate this. I imagine that the artillery columns are marked on the CRT as a convenience, denoting the starting point for the various calibres. [2.A.1] are all activation markers mixed in a single cup? >TIC - Almost certainly yes, the language of 2.A.1 is not entirely clear but this is almost invariably the case with chit-pull games. 3. is there an activation marker for the 1/121st? (or did I misplace it) >Don’t know, I don’t have the game nor do I have a scan of the counter sheet. With Vae Victis games, and DTP games in general, I ALWAYS recommend making a color copy of the countersheet, and mounting the copy up. that way if you make a mistake in mounting the counters, or lose one, just make another copy and be more careful. [3.2] do available artillery batteries shoot once per turn or each time an artillery activation marker is drawn? >TIC. I would assume from the language of 5.2 and 5.3 that each impact marker may only be used once per turn, since 5.3 prohibits artillery reactivation. Emplacements. The rules give no indication whatsoever but presumably there is some combat effect and possibly movement as well? >TIC, but PROBABLY units in emplacements benefit from the ‘Def’ line of the Terrain modifiers, same as City - the original French rules may have been too terse here. I see no indication of any movement effect. What is ‘La Petite Guette’ sorry but I can’t translate that and the English rules give no indication of what it is meant to mean. >Translation gives no indication because translator did not know either. The phrase is not standard French - ‘Guette’ means watch or lookout, however it is possible that this was a local term for a river ford? (ford being ‘gué’, perhaps the term should have been La Petite Guétte, the Little Ford?) [9] Assault. How do you conduct assault when there are several units on both sides? Do all the attacker units move units into the hex at the same time? >I would assume that attacking units enter one at a time, since 9.1.1 refers to ‘the active unit’. Do you fight on a unit by unit basis as in Direct Fire. >The translation sloppily dropped a subtlety here, the original of 9.1.3 says literally “The attacker makes one shot at distance 0.” Assuming that only one attacker enters at a time, after he has survived all of the defensive shots, he apparently takes one shot at a defending unit, I would assume of his choice. If so, who decides which units to fire at. >9.1.2 seems to indicate that ALL of the defending units fire at the sole attacking unit. If he survives, presumably his owner chooses which defending unit to fire at? • What happens if there are more attacking units than defending units – does the attacker get to fire two units at one defending unit but the defender can only fire back once? Alternatively do all the attackers units engage all the defenders units in a combined battle? >Again, the language of 9.1.1 seems to indicate that only one attacking unit enters the hex at a time, so this situation cannot occur? [7.2] If Armoured units enter a city, orchard or wood they are disrupted. Does this rule apply when they assault such a hex. If so do they become disrupted for that combat? In the example of play the German unit is defending in a city but no dispersed modifier seems to be given. >TIC. I would assume that the Example is in error, since the rule seems clear enough, and section 9. Assault talks of entering the enemy occupied hex. [6.1] What is the effect of being out of command on combat? Rule 6.1 mentions that it fires with a negative modifier but this is not listed in the tables. >TIC. One of my questions when I was doing the translation. The only out-of-command modifier that I am aware of is the +1 to the reaction test for an out-of-command unit trying to opportunity fire. [6.1] Can an out-of-command unit Assault? >I would assume so, given the language of section 9, provided that it had sufficient movement points to get into the target hex. Range in combat. The combat modifiers say that there is a -1 effect ‘par hex’. Which is the first hex? Is the adjacent hex the first and therefore firing into the adjacent hex incurs a modifier of -1. From the example of play this appears to be the case. >TIC. Again the French rules may have been too terse, but I would assume that the adjacent hex is indeed at a -1 modifier, and so on. [4.3.2] Line of sight. The example in the back of the map gives examples of blocked (dotted lines) and valid (solid lines). This includes a blocked LOS between 1610 and 1811. The way I read the last sentence of the LOS rules (English version) it implies that this is a valid LOS as hex 1710 is not higher than the elevation of the two units. Having said that my own view is that the LOS should be blocked. >TIC. A literal reading of the rules suggests that the LOS should be clear, though common sense says otherwise. I can’t find the two armoured troop transports. I assume there are meant to be separate counters. Perhaps I lost these when I made up the counters. >The scan that I have of the unit types box - thanks Gio! - shows one of the troop transports as being 1/131 R., with a front view of a German halftrack - perhaps you are just using them as combat units? Do rivers have any combat effect? Presumably these are only small rivers, perhaps little more than streams but even those tend to give some kind of defensive advantage. >Doesn’t appear to be, though perhaps this is what is intended by the la Petite Guette modifier? [7.2] Is there any cost for going into column formation or does it effect stacking limitations? I find it strange that a unit can go straight from column formation into an assault without any movement cost. >Does not appear to be any such MP cost. Presumably, then. Column modifier only applies during Opportunity Fire, as there would be no reason to leave a formation in Column at the end of its movement. Remember, I am not the designer or developer, just the translator, so take these answers with appropriate grains of salt.