GAVRUS commentary at 1700

2ASH are under severe pressure. A and B companies are almost out of action. C company plus the remnants amount to about 4 platoons of about 100men. There are about another 80 men North of the river. They really need to get some artillery down on the Germans or they will be overrun. Even more German infantry are due in 30 minutes [though I think I will amend the scenario to make it 1830 hours].

Interesting playing - the new rules change a lot of things.

2ASH Buckling under Pressure

GAVRUS - 2ASH Buckles under German Pressure

Post iMac notes

My new iMac 27inch with Mountain Lion OSX 10.8 is running VASSAL very smoothely and far faster. I've had to alter a few hotkeys not to conflict with the operating systems hot keys - but it's much better overall. The big screen is a dream to look at and vindicates my policy of constantly overdetailing my pngs, since now they are viewable in 200% size and look fine.

Anyway - even better than I'd dreamed it would be....

GAVRUS post iMac!

GAVRUS new rules notes

OK. Everything pretty much does what I want. The Germans have plenty of advantages and can overcome the outer defences easily enough BUT the British artillery tends to ruin all their hard work in a sudden crushing blow.

One thing I like is it's NOT possible for the Germans to use their firepower to just kill the British in their foxholes. Once pinned they are pretty much invulnerable except to airbursting HE.

The British 2" mortars also wrought havoc but the ammo is dwindling and when it does the Spandaus rule.

I feel a need ot extend the map about 100m 2 hexrows) to the West and South to allo more room to deploy the mortars and other German units. I will tackle that with my new computer - should be the ideal learner project.

GAVRUS with new rules

BRECOURT MANOR - TEST

Easy Company survivors. All the Dog Company men died including Spiers. Winters lost about 2 men [A rifle cadre KIA and an MG crew reduced to a team]. Germans lost all their trenchline men and the rifle platoon in the headline were all reduced and replaced and are now surrendering.

A thorough success and the same result pretty much as the real battle. It did take well over an hour though and I think this is still out of step.

New rules worked well. Easy to keep heads down once they are pinned and easier to move as a result. US leadership and firepower plus large and increased number of heroes carried the day. There was a lot of Heat of Battle. 2 new US HEROIC 9-0s. Malarkey raised to a 9-0 and the Germans gained a Heroic 9-0 leader from their 8+1 and also battlehardened the crew of the last gun. This enabled them to kill off Spiers and his men and to hold on a little longer.

MORE PINNING - LESS KILLING

My Updated AIFT. [Accumulated Infantry Fire Table - maybe - can't find a really good acronym but I do like it to be AIFT not IFT]. Anyway. It has a lot more Ps which mean PTC = pin task check.

Thus it doesn't matter how much cover you are in if you are fired at you must take a PTC. Most units will pass 1 PTC no problem. Half will pass 2. Only one in 3 will pass 3 etc.

The effect of this is to make PINNING a lot more likely and feasible even with small amounts of firepower. Also, once the enemy are pinned it is easier to keep their heads down because PINNED not under fire targets do not take PTC - they automatically become PINNED UNDER FIRE with no DR and no chance of HOB. [I decided to apply this to PRONE/HEADS DOWN targets too, since they are effectively 'voluntarily pinned']

Another feature is BROKEN units will take a lot more PTC = MC for them and therefore have to ROUT or RALLY rapidly. They cannot hang about under fire and expect to survive for long. I like this effect though I hadn't thought about it before.

The HSR to ignore PTC unless already PINNED NOT UNDER FIRE by fresh troops will now have more impact. A maxim I have is that if a rule is too effect subtle to register in play it is best deleted. Chances are it would be forgotten anyway.

NOTE - The NOT IN COMBAT -1 ATC DRM is very important but as soon as someone within 100m is PINNED UNDER FIRE it cannot be used, even if that unit manages to unpin and move/fire the UNDER FIRE marker is separate and remains in that location until the INITIATIVE switches over.

PLASTIC RULES

F&M has for me the virtue of plasticity. I can change anything whenever I like and see how it works without any expense or need to square it with anyone else. Sometimes it might be nice to have another pair of eyes to proofread and another point of view, but on balance the ability to go my own way is a bigger positive.

So - lately I've been reading a lot about SUPPRESSION and how hard it is to cause casualties on troops in COVER who keep their heads down. Even troops in open ground who lie down are hard to spot let alone hit.

As such I've altered all my TEM [TARGET EFFECTS MODIFIERS] to better reflect these ideas.

Biggest change is a +4 for PRONE/HEADS DOWN targets that is cumulative with all other TEM for terrain. I used to have it at +2. Each +2 halves the FP and roughly halves the effects of the fire. This means troops lying flat in open ground are 8X harder to effect than troops standing up.

I've got a quirk in that linear features such as walls and bocage have only +3 TEM and if firing the troops behind them cannot be heads down. You are therefore better off lying down on the other side of the wall! Except - if you do go heads down behind the wall you can have +7 which is practically invulnerable to enemy fire and you can still pop up and shoot if you have an opportunity.


Current TEM

STONE BUILDING             +4
WOODEN BUILDING        +2
WALLS                                 +3
BOCAGE                              +3
LIGHT BOCAGE                 +2
FOXHOLES/TRENCHES    +4

I have a lot more. I used to have a lot of variation in TEM for HE fire, but have dropped this. It's fiddly and seldom matters. If anything the concussive effect of HE and tendency to pick up debris and turn it into shrapnel offsets any disadvantage because the fire is not 'aimed'. Aimed fire is rather exaggerated for small arms and even MGs anyway. I just have special HE drm for AIRBURSTS and in soft ground or stony ground.

I embarked on this because it had been too easy for Germans on the defence to pin down advancing infantry (OK with THAT effect) but then kill them off with sMG fire which I think was quite difficult. The MGs PIN and mortars or HE broke the attacks (when this did happen).