From: "Mircea Pauca" Subject: Thunder at Cassino AAR, balance, house rules Greetings from Romania ! I've played Thunder at Cassino (AH) several times solo and once with a human opponent, and I suspect the victory conditions are strongly pro-German in the two main scenarios - Thunder at Cassino and The Final Days. There is some Allied superiority (1.2 :1 by my valuation formulas) but it's much less than needed to offset German advantages: - being on defensive, with substantial depth (6-8 areas between start and VP objectives); - the inherent defender's advantage in the AH Impulse rules: attacker moves OR fires, and becomes substantially more vulnerable; - excellent flexibility of German arty from Turn 3 on, when observers reach the Monastery and can direct fire _anywhere_ on the map; - inflexibility of Allied arty observers; they cannot direct bombardments and move in the same turn (of 12h !!) unlike the HQ units in Storm over Arnhem (SoA) - slight German qualitative advantage My game have gone like this: - German setup: very dispersed (max. 2 units/area) and in strong buildings (def. modifier +3) to survive Allied pre-game air bombing; - Turn 1: the first NZ battalion assaults Area 9 (Castle Hill) to install the three arty observers; German try to resist and regroup - Turn 2-4: supported by the powerful arty support, Allies clean the NE part of Cassino town - within 2 areas, the arty obs. range - German arty kills first the Construction units, who can clear Rubble - Allies can try to assault directly the steep Hill to the Abbey, but Germans can withdraw step by step, bring reinforcements and butcher the Allies with arty, while Allies cannot do so, except with the MATAF air unit; - Turn 5-8: substantial German reinforcements pour in; they do well not to counterattack, but consolidate defences where it's possible, notably in Area 18 - Continental Hotel and along the river line W of the city - by now, a bloody stalemate has been reached; attrition was nearly equal in Turns 1-4 but _very_ unbalanced afterwards, like 3:11 (Allied : German units lost) - on Turn 10, only 10 VP held instead of the 16 required; - surviving forces: much fewer Allied and more Germans than in the historical continuation scenario - I wonder how it was possible to gain so much ground AND take so few losses ? I can provide detailed statistics for anyone interested. (It's right to say that I played the German for the first 5 turns ? Thereafter my opponent's time ran out and I finished it solo.) Pass-ive defense tactics has worked even better than in SoA, with units waiting for the enemies to Commit, and then returning fires with single units. So I propose the following house rules to TaC to alter a bit the balance (not entirely, as the Germans had historically a +) 1) Allied player can refuse to use the pre-game bombardment, after the German setup - no German losses, no rubble; 2) Arty observers do not become Committed when they direct fire [so than they can move in the same turn] This favors mostly the Allies, but the Germans too (for turn 2). and/or 2') Any full company (3 units) can direct arty fire of parent units at a penalty of -2. 3) Eliminated Allied Construction units come back the next turn in any reinforcement area, in the state they were at the moment of elimination (Committed/Uncommitted) and/or 3') Any 3 units can clear one level of Rubble in a turn, and become Committed in the process. Any other suggestions and comments, please ? Mircea (mpauca@fx.ro)