From: "Skip Franklin" Subject: From Roy Bartoo A buddy and I have been playing GMT's Caesar: The Civil War and its module, Jugurtha, and had some questions that didn;t seem answered by the rules or official errata, so I posted them on the GBoH folder of Consimworld. The answers are almost all by the series developer Alan Ray, and for brevity I condensed a series of exchanges, without changing the content. anyway, attached is a text file of the Q&A. Roy Bartoo ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Caesar: The Civil Wars Q&A Alan Ray - GBoH Series Developer(GMT) 05:20am Sep 9, 2000 PST (#3114 of 3116) 06:03am Sep 10, 2000 PST (#3117 of 3118) 06:11am Sep 10, 2000 PST (#3118 of 3118) 04:30pm Sep 13, 2000 PST (#3159 of 3159) 04:34am Sep 14, 2000 PST (#3163 of 3170) Can you Orderly Withdraw if you are already in the ZOC of a different enemy unit? >No. Can you still use Reaction Fire if you are already in the ZOC of a different enemy unit? >Yes. [Somone else] Interesting - I haven't been playing it that way. This represents a major bonus for legionaries who would effectively fire twice (into each frontal hex) when shock attacked by another line. Is this really the intent of the rule? - if so roll-on SGBOH! >Not so.Take another look 8.23 [Entry Reaction]. The last sentence reads: "When friendly units are moving as a Line or Legion, ALL movement is completed before any Entry Fire takes place." This means that the reactor gets only one shot if two units enter his ZOC with the same Legion/Line command. Are berms (Lesnikia/Dyrrhachium) fortifications within the meaning of the rules? (6.71 says yes, but the Play Note for Lesnikia seems to indicate otherwise). Ie, in scenarios other than Lesnikia, may units retreat across berms? Across camp walls? >Yes. Units may not retreat, rout, or withdraw across a fortified hexside. See 6.73. But what of the play note for Lesnikia (Caesar scenario booklet, p. 8) "Remember, units may not retreat across fortified hexsides. The only way they can Rout OUT (my emphasis) of a camp is through the gate. This does not apply to the circumvallation and contravalation berms, which may be crossed by routing units." >I don’t know if Richard has a special scenario rule in mind here or not, but a "6-8 foot high earthen wall with a ditch" seems pretty impassable. Ignore the play note for now, and I’ll check with him when he returns from cruisin’ the Med. >Richard H. Berg - 02:12am Sep 20, 2000 PST (#3185 of 3187) >Roy, while the facts surrounding Lesnikia are somewhat in the distant past (and it was Mark H's battle for design), I would go with 6.71. [6,27] Movement Costs Chart, note (b): Does 'negates the cost of the other terrain in the hex' include the gate and tower costs? >No. The Movement Cost Chart and Fortifications Effects Chart are different charts. Note b only applies to the Movement Cost Chart. [4.37 & 5.34] If a Section Commander issues a Section Command, after executing that Activation/Orders Phase can his Tribunes then try for Momentum? >No. The activation belongs to the Section Commander only. [4.1, 4.36, & 8.16 Play Note] Is LOS a requirement for Command Range purposes OTHER THAN LC commands? >There is no LOS requirement for Command purposes in Caesar. See 4.1 But see 4.36 "A Leader may issue a Legion or Line Command to any or all of the units in his command ... that are within his range ... and Line of Sight (LOS) at the start of that Orders Phase ..." and see 8.16 Play Note "We suggest that ... Command Range LOS rules be interpreted liberally." >Ignore 4.36 and the playnote. This is a leftover from SPQR where there is definitive LOS requirement for Line Commands. Can a Ballista REALLY fire once in EACH Phase (including Auxiliares, Leader Activation, each and every Orders Phase, each Momentum Phase, Camp Movement and Rout/Reload Phase)? Ditto for Scorpiones ... Who needs machineguns! >The original rule has been revised with Caesar:CoG. When the player is active he may fire his Ballista once per TURN (Catapult’s twice). When an opponent is active, he may fire his Ballista once per ORDERS PHASE (Catapults twice). Errr... I'm confused (haven't pulled the shrink off Caesar's Garlic Wars yet). When is a player active/inactive? Do you mean that I can fire my Ballista ONCE during any of my activation Phases of a turn, and once during EACH of my Opponent's Activation Phases? >No. Once per Game Turn in any one of your Orders Phases, and once for each of your opponent’s Orders Phases. [6.77] A Cohort moves adjacent to an enemy Cohort on the other side of a ditch/berm, and both chuck spears. Do both add +4? >No. Firing in is +4, firing out is +1 per the (confusing) chart Thapsus: who commands the Pompeiian Elephants? Or must they rely on Individual Orders from their Section and Overall Commanders? >The OC and any SC can give Orders or a Line Command to elephants (4.24,4.27) Alan Ray - GBoH Series Developer(GMT) Some Caesar anwers: One friendly cohort is attacking two enemy cohorts, one through the front, one through the flank (or rear). Is the attacking cohort Attack Superior? >Yes. Similar situation. One cohort is attacking two enemy units, a cohort frontally and an SK through flank/rear. The defending player selects his cohort as the defending unit-type. Is the attack cohort vs cohort, Flank Attack with Attack Superiority, despite the fact that the defending cohort is not being attacked in the flank? >Yes. You should’ve OW the SK ought of there. Similar situation. One cohort is attacking two enemy units, a cohort frontally and an SK through flank/rear. The defending player selects his cohort as the defending unit-type. Is the attack cohort vs cohort, Flank Attack with Attack Superiority, despite the fact that the defending cohort is not being attacked in the flank? >Yes. You should’ve OW the SK ought of there. Well almost Yes. It would be a Front Attack with Positional Superiority. Defender gets to pick the unit to defend with respect to the Clash of Spears Chart. [Someone else] From answers I've gotten in the past from RHB, I was under the impression that the defender always got the benefit in cases where two different columns/positional superiorities applied. I would have thought that the attacker would not be AS here. >I don't have that in my "RHB log" but he'll be back shortly and will surely chime in. As far as System Superiority is concerned, you are correct -- defender always picks. In the cohort-cohort example the AS will most likely cause two hits on each defender. So the cohort that isn't flanked is receiving the same number of hits that he would get if attacked alone. This cohort is in effect helping out his flanked comrade by absorbing some of his damage. If we take the no AS case, the defenders will get one hit each, which is less than either would get if attacked alone despite the advantage the attacker has over one of the units. The former case makes more sense to me. An SK has a ZOC into its flank hexes as well as its frontal hexes - it can therefore attack through its flanks? >It may Missile fire through its flanks. However, it may not Shock through its flank hexes. Played the Muthul form Jugurtha the other night, and (you guessed it) we had some more questions ... Jugurtha questions: p. 2 of the Jugurtha rules has a column entitled “Errata for Julius Caesar. The following ... apply to the Basic game for the purposes of playing Jugurtha ...”. Are these items (a) errata which apply to Caesar and the battle in Caesar (in which case why aren’t they already part of the Caesar errata on WebGrognards etc); or (b) really just more special rules for the Jugurtha battles ONLY? They read as though they are intended to apply to the Caesar battles as well ... The Muthul map has Olive Groves, but there is no mention of their effects on Movement, Cohesion, combat, in the Jugurtha rules or tables. Treat as woods? Route March. Very confusing. As I understand it, the situation would be as follows: Romans pass with all their Tribunes, Praefects, and Section Commanders; when it is the Overall Commander’s turn to go, he may declare Route March (for the suicidally daring?). So far, so good. The puzzling part is in the Mandatory Route March rule - “In any turn in which the Romans are in RM, and the Numidian player declares that he will pass with all his leaders ... the Roman must use Route March”. This seems to imply that the Roman would have to have declared Route March before any of his Leaders activated/passed - or should the Route March rule be read as meaning that once the Romans use Route March, the RM marker remains on the OC into the next turn, which would give the Numidians the opportunity to force Mandatory Route March? Muthul (Jugurtha) questions: What are the Roman SC assignments? Is Marius SC for Legios I and XXX, while Rutilius is SC for Legios XVII and III? In which case who commands the LI that Rutilius starts with? Or is Marius SC for all four Legios, and rutilius ONLY commands the four LI units? Jugurtha & Aspar: Jugurtha begins offmap with a bunch of LC and LI, and leader Aspar. Per the Play Note, p. 6, Aspar doesn’t function as a Leader on the turn he enters (tagging along with Jugurtha), so only Jugurtha can command his mixed group on the turn he enters. But ... then how does Jugurtha get everybody from his group onboard? The Numidian Command System rules, Command Specificity, p.3 “If there is no [command unit type notation], that leader (here, only Jugurtha) can command any units, but only one type at a time.” So, while offmap, Jugurtha activates ... but can give commands to only one type (inf or cav) of the units he starts with?! So the type that he doesn’t chose to command when entering has to sit offmap? Note a under the Numidian deployment - does this mean (a) the Numidian player has the two EL leaders available off to the side, and he can place them during the first R&R phase. or (b) he has the option of placinf the two EL leaders with his starting (onmap) forces? Roy Richard H. Berg - 05:11am Sep 19, 2000 PST (#3181 of 3182) Position Superiority is NOT a Defender Choice . . . as that would allow the defender to negate a flank attack. An attacker moving in from both front and flank is in rather good shape . . . As noted, each GBoH game is a game unto itself, in terms of charts/tables, unless specifically noted. However, I would go with using the Harass and Disperse rule in all games. It is not a change in military tactics, but a better expression of how to do something on the gameboard. roy, in an effort to know the rules a little better, i uncovered some things i *think* we weren't doing, or were doing wrong. 9.21 SK's size # do not affect shock combat in any way. (last sentence, 3rd bullet) Oops. Not a huge deal, though, as most of the fighting involved your LIs, not SKs. 9.22 SK's are good at running away. (1st bullet) Ooooops. So a bunch of SK shouldn’t have gotten splattered. also check out 9.18. were we doing this? No, I don’t think we were - I assume it also applies to Rampaging EL (would a Rampaging EL be enemy to ALL cavalry?). still looking, steve ps: how's this week look? Alan Ray - 06:33pm Sep 20, 2000 PST (#3189 of 3190) GBoH Series Developer(GMT) Jugurtha questions: p. 2 of the Jugurtha rules has a column entitled "Errata for Julius Caesar. The following ... apply to the Basic game for the purposes of playing Jugurtha ...". Are these items (a) errata which apply to Caesar and the battle in Caesar (in which case why aren’t they already part of the Caesar errata on WebGrognards etc); or (b) really just more special rules for the Jugurtha battles ONLY? They read as though they are intended to apply to the Caesar battles as well ... >The Errata apply to Jugurtha, though you may use them with the other Caesar battles if you wish. The official errata for all the GBoH titles is posted on the GMT website. The Muthul map has Olive Groves, but there is no mention of their effects on Movement, Cohesion, combat, in the Jugurtha rules or tables. Treat as woods? >Yes. Route March. Very confusing. As I understand it, the situation would be as follows: Romans pass with all their Tribunes, Praefects, and Section Commanders; when it is the Overall Commander’s turn to go, he may declare Route March (for the suicidally daring?). So far, so good. The puzzling part is in the Mandatory Route March rule - "In any turn in which the Romans are in RM, and the Numidian player declares that he will pass with all his leaders ... the Roman must use Route March". This seems to imply that the Roman would have to have declared Route March before any of his Leaders activated/passed - or should the Route March rule be read as meaning that once the Romans use Route March, the RM marker remains on the OC into the next turn, which would give the Numidians the opportunity to force Mandatory Route March? >Your last sentence correctly describes the intent of the rule. Muthul (Jugurtha) questions: What are the Roman SC assignments? Is Marius SC for Legios I and XXX, while Rutilius is SC for Legios XVII and III? In which case who commands the LI that Rutilius starts with? Or is Marius SC for all four Legios, and rutilius ONLY commands the four LI units? >You pick the section commander assignments. Either SC or the OC can give orders/Line Commands to the LI per the Command System rules. See 4.2. Jugurtha & Aspar: Jugurtha begins offmap with a bunch of LC and LI, and leader Aspar. Per the Play Note, p. 6, Aspar doesn’t function as a Leader on the turn he enters (tagging along with Jugurtha), so only Jugurtha can command his mixed group on the turn he enters. But then how does Jugurtha get everybody from his group onboard? The Numidian Command System rules, Command Specificity, p.3 "If there is no [command unit type notation], that leader (here, only Jugurtha) can command any units, but only one type at a time." So, while offmap, Jugurtha activates ... but can give commands to only one type (inf or cav) of the units he starts with?! So the type that he doesn’t chose to command when entering has to sit offmap? >The Play note refers to Aspar’s ability to use Trumping and Momentum on the turn entry. Aspar is used as regular leader otherwise. Aspar can bring on the LI while Jugurtha handles the LC (or vica cersa). Note (a) under the Numidian deployment - does this mean (a) the Numidian player has the two EL leaders available off to the side, and he can place them during the first R&R phase. or (b) he has the option of placinf the two EL leaders with his starting (onmap) forces? >The a's have it. The Elephant leaders are used when allowed by the Elephant Command rule. Skip Franklin wargamr@earthlink.net (new) darksan@yahoo.com http://home.earthlink.net/~wargamr (new)