Posts made by Der Leiter

You need to remove a Hero; remember under official rules you’re only allowed one. Obviously if your opponent agrees to a different limit it won’t be a problem for a casual game. It looks like you have far too many foot soldiers, and I think it unluckly your tanks will be relagated to troop transport status to pick up any more units. This leaves them stumbling along at half speed, unless you want to waste your Cossack Captain on them; I’d suggest a Commissar to lead them.

The Cavalry is a good, you can do nasty tricks with that tactic such as having Soviet Grenadiers displaced into an enemy hex. The Fuel Depot is alright for the purpose you seem to want it for; I generally prefer fielding more units to take advantage of it though.  However it’s nice and not a high priority target like the Ammo Depot. Speaking of the Ammo Depot it’s usually a must, especially for that many units.

I would suggest perhaps using less Mosin-Nagants, adding some DP-27s, and more Grenadiers; I find the Grenadiers are usually one of the better Soviet infantry despite their lack of range. If you decide to keep the Nagants, then add a Commissar and a Sniper to go with him for AA.

I do not like the Cossack Cavalry, but in using an all Soviet force you have little choice. The idea of your army seems fairly good, it just needs a little tweaking.

Yes, like most of the other hype (yeah I’m talking to you, Rhino) it’s turned out to be not all that bad. It’s a threat for sure, but counterable.

Random terrain or preset?

You need to be able to deal with T-34/75s, and the 88 helps but depending on the terrain they can easilt avoid it.  If you’re opponent is stuck using SU only units then at least you don’t have to worry about aircraft and can take a little more time to set up the 88. The WESnipers are good, help you against those nasty T-34s. It’s an interesting choice between the StuG III D or Panzer IV D;

The StuG III D has slightly better armour (4%/8%/12% better… but 83% chance of being hit at long range is still not exactly good), and seasoned crew going for it. However it has less firepower than the PzIVD and fixed howitzer. The PzIVD’s odds of hitting a T-34 are 92%/86%/74% compared to the StuG III Ds 62%/50%/36%; pretty significant especially at long range where the PzIVD has more than double the chance of hitting.

Panzer IV D x2
StuG III D x2
Me110 x1
Fallschirmjager x2
Grizzled Veteran x1
Wehrmacht Sniper x1
SS-HSF x1
SS-PG x3
Ammo Depot x1

This is going on the assumption there’s no planes; if there is then switch the Me110 for the Fw, and perhaps remove the Ammo Depot.

Of course, if you want to play something really fun…

Panzer II F x7
SS-HSF x1
Fuel Depot
HQ
Ammo Depot

SS-HSF & HQ means you should usually get the Initiative, especially since the best he’ll have is a Commissar, and just torch away. Of course I can’t guarantee it’ll work ;)

As dictator_wanna_be said, it’s the Panther G that is incorrect. The only version of the Panther produced in 1942 was the Panther A, and that was only a handful of prototypes. The Panther D’s first major battle was Kursk, though it was actually in the field a month or so before that (and plagued by technical difficulties). Lastly the Panther G wasn’t produced until '44.

The Panther G should be a '44 unit, though don’t hold your breath for official errata ;)

While the KV-1 was used in the Winter War they weren’t the same that were fighting in Kursk; they were early prototypes that hadn’t even finished being tested. They had many serious defects that weren’t fixed until after the war. Also the tank was upgraded to the KV-1 Model 1940 and still had defects. None of these tanks were on the level of the later KV-1s, such as the only one currently in AAM. In 1941 the armour was upgraded and the KV-1 Model 1941, or KV-1e was born; this is the tank the fought in the Great Patriotic War. In July 1941 it was upgraded once more with the 76mm gun (F-34) mounted on the T-34/76s. The tank was given even  heavier armour (ahem, hulking mass), which reduced it’s mobility to less than that of a T-34/76 (which would be… speed 3); creating the KV-1 Model 1942, or KV-1c - the unit used in AAM.

Some subsequent models were the KV-1s (for increased speed), the KV-85 (1943, 85mm gun).

As the Panther G highlights though, there are some… quirks with the years. Part of this can be explained by the fact they only use years and not months for the dates; effectively there’s no difference between a unit becoming available in January of a year, and December of that year. There’s also the decision to be made of whether it should be ‘rounded up/down’ or not to make it a little historical; i.e. if the unit was available in November 1942, would it be better as a 1943 unit or leave it at 1942 even though that could mean you have it appearing now in scenarios where it shouldn’t really be available. Sometimes simplicity makes things more complicated.

Edit:  The KV-1 text is correct, it just happens to be a non-sequitur with the actual unit on the card which causes just a little bit of confusion.

I’m not sure which panther you mean, but both are pretty decent. The Hetzers are usually pretty nice AT units because of the extra cover, speed, and low cost. It all depends on what type of army you want I suppose.

sorry but pak 40 against a tiger?

Yes.

In competitive games the only restriction a player gets is that they must use units of only one faction; Axis or Allies, so if you and your opponent both happen to be playing Axis then so be it. Personally I think it’s a little silly, and that players should have an army for each but then I don’t run these things, and perhaps it’s just easiest to do it that way.

While some players, myself included, prefer to keep to at least semi-accurate/historical games, not everyone does so I try to keep an open mind about that. However if it makes you feel better just replace Tiger with Pershing ;)

Apart from a few errors, I believe they’re all N scale or close enough to it. I’ve been trying to find some Trucks of that scale for use in our games, though unfortunately the only ones I’ve found are quite expensive.

It is of course up to you and your opponent if you want to use house rules in casual gmes, just be aware that in tournament games that IS the rule. I believe it’s supposed to reflect the timescale of having to reposition it; hooking it up to the Sd Kfz 250, etc.  There is also of course the stacking rule that prevents the Half-Track from entering the same hex.

However the 88mm Flak 36 in particular was designed to be used for Blitzkrieg attacks and was supposed to be much easier to move… although again it’s questionable under the 1 minute per round timescale. Personally I think it should have at least had relocate 1, but I play it as is for now; there’s usually not too much of a problem with it.

Pak 40s aren’t bad, but not always enough against units like the IS-3s and Tigers; some of the more common tournament pieces.

A case of starters? Ok…

The original starter is comparable to two boosters - you get one less rare but IIRC you get a higher number of uncommons, though everything but the rare is fixed. In the new starters… well they’re literally just two boosters.

@AgentOrange:

At least that’s the impression I get from reading the card.  Has anyone else noticed that there is no “Relocate 2” ability on the 88’s Stat card?  Does that actually mean that the durn thing is so big that it can’t move by itself?  I’m thinking this has to be a misprint…

It’s not a misprint; the 88 can’t move by itself.  As dictator_wanna_be said, you can use the Sd Kfz 250 to position it though unfortunately once you unload you can never load it back up. So simply take care positioning it; remember you can chose where the 88mm unloads because it overstacks the hex.

I’m not particularily fond of units that can’t move by themselves, but I respect the firepower of an 88.

Can’t say I disagree.

There’s other things that don’t make sense either; such as the Sd Kfz 251 having the same capacity as the '250 or a Jeep. Overall though the basic guidelines work.

When making American Companies, Battalions, or Regiments I usually use the Vickers since the 30cal is still MIA.

Aircraft and Vehicles are supposed to represent a single unit, while officially soldiers represent “several men,” which of course leads it wide open to interpretation.

My view is that for regular infantry it represents a Half-Squad or Fire Team. For support units such as the Bazooka, Panzerfaust, etc, it represents roughly two teams. Commanders are the commander plus staff, which could be largely non-combatant such as with the SS-Hauptsturmfurher or a command squad using more regular soldiers such as the Red Devil Captain.

I’m also fairly sure that artillery pieces such as the Anti-Tank Guns represent one unit. As for the Light Mortars it’s likely a battery of them, though the Japanese one seems more equivalent to a full squad (which is actually how the Japanese fielded them in Rifle Companies).

Maybe, but I don’t use them in my Brit builds; everything in it is mobile.

I’ve honestly been a little busy to play too many games and try out the new units to give you proper builds, but if you want a quick solo game here’s one for you:

Here’s a solitaire game if you’re interested: http://boards.avalonhill.com/showthread.php?t=14636

It’s using Japanese units, but you could easily replaced them with European/Axis units (and the Americans/British with SV units).

It’s hard to say with the Goliaths; their ‘pre-attack’ roll is a little odd at times, they have low defence and 7 points isn’t cheap for an infantry… but they potentially have a good attack against vehicles, and fairly decent against infantry.

At range 2 they have less than a 50% chance of their Remote Control working (Range 3 - 25%, Range 4 - 11%), and then they still have to roll 12 Veh / 8 Inf dice against the target to see if it even does anything. It has the possibility of being a bit more effective at medium range than say a Panzerfaust/schrek, and is good against both vehicles and infantry, but has some drawbacks, or at least oddities.

I haven’t used it enough to say whether it’s worth using or not yet; many aspects of it I don’t like, but at least around here the potential of its attack is useful as a psychological weason.

The Fallschirmjager aren’t anything special; nearly identical to UK P/Ts but with 1 less close assault, though if you’re playing year based games you can at least use them 1939+. They’re good for taking out the usual things; depots, lone mortarts/commanders, etc, or securing the objective earlier on.  They’re no screaming eagles, but they’re decent balanced pieces.

I’ve been working on that for a while not; shouldn’t be too hard to mix them both in a campaign, though obviously not in the same battle - the scales are way too off. An A&AM map is nice, though really you could just use any made up one if you’re not too concerned about historical accuracy.

I’m not a huge fan of sea battles, though I don’t hate them either, but the game’s pretty decent. Unfortunately I can’t really speculate or comment too much on units until they’re officially previewed.

I think I’ve fixed all the links now, let me know if any don’t work (although occassionaly it’s just because of freewebs being… well freewebs).

We recently had a 4 player game of Poland 1939; two players were Poland, one was Germany, and the last (myself) was Russia. The map was 4x4 with a large city in the central. Objective: Each City Hex is worth 1 point; 2 points to the Russians (due to their smaller force).

GERMAN FORCES, 300 Points
4x BMW R75
3x Light Mortar
9x Mauser
3x Me 110
4x Pz II C
4x Pz 38(t)
3x Sd Kdz 222
9x Sd Kfz 250
4x Sd Kfz 251
1x SS-HSF

POLISH FORCES, 300 Points
5x 37mm ATG
3x 40mm Bofors
6x BAR Gunner
2x Bold Captain
4x Vickers MG
9x Cavalrymen
12x Determined Infantrymen
12x Polish Mauser
3x Vickers Mk E
2x 7TPdw

RUSSIAN FORCES
3x BA-10M
2x BT-7
1x Commissar
1x Cossack Captain
4x Cossack Cavalrymen
3x DP-27
3x KMT MG
9x Mosin-Nagant
2x Soviet T-26
1x T-35
2x KMT Officers

Not quite as big as our usual battles, but we wanted something we could finish in one night.

Poland deployed first, with MGs and two 37mms pointing west, the rest pointing east. All three Vickers tanks were deployed east as well, along with a significant number of cavalry and infantry. I was starting to think the Polish might suspect a Russian attack…

With all their infantry mechanized, the Germans simply blitzed in; ignoring casualties and defencive-fire they just kept coming. On turn two the lead units were already outside the city, while back on my side the Polish were actually invading my maps! However I took only light loses and managed to push them back. The high speed of the BA-10Ms and BT-7s allowed a very mobile reserve.

My T-35 slowly trudged down the road, not even firing; I wanted to get it in or close to Poland ASAP.  I took very light casualties, though two of them included DP-27s. In return I managed to knock out all of his ATGs, damage one tank, and drive the other two off. His infantry were falling back as rapidly as possible to the city.

Back on the Western side, the German Panzer IIs had taken up firing position on the city and were hammering away at it; their 8 attacks devastating the infantry. The Pz 38(t)s, Polish Vickers, and Russian BT-7s/BA-10Ms began some sort of bizzare dance, with all sides taking pot shots at each other from long range.

The T-35 on the second last turn FINALLY gets to fire a shot; it singlehandedly shoots down an Me-110. The T-35 was actually quite useful, keeping enemy infantry and vehicles at bay since they couldn’t handle it’s firepower, allowing my infantry to move up fairly unimpeeded.

In the final rounds my fast tanks sped into the city preventing either of my opponents from capturing the locations and allowing me to squeak by with a win, though I would only call it a temporary and minor one.

All in all a very nice game, though the Germans seemed to have too much stuff for one player; we’re thinking maybe 30 units per player is the magic number.

I do think they’re great units for casual games, just as long as your opponent has the capability of dealing with it. They tend to add a little excitment to the game; he has to stop the big lumbering crocs before they reach the objective.

Ammo Depots can have a rather large impact on the game too, especially as a predominantly Croc force doesn’t have the speed to move behind enemy lines and take them out; they definately need something for that (HUmber or something similiar).

For my play style they’re terrible. I don’t like something that slow and with that little firepower at range.

I respect their high defence, low cost, and flamethrowers, but I don’t find them always that useful, and I’ve never had a problem playing against them.