Fire and Movement#91

OPTIONAL RULES & COMMENTS

1) 1 think that German Gebirgsjaeger (mountain divisions) would negate
the +1 modifier to the defense of a unit in a hills hex. They have
special training and I would give them this benefit if: 1) the attacker
solely consists of mountain units and the defenders are non-mountain
units in hills only (not mountain or alpine hexes). 

2) The vehicles pictured on page 5 of the rules are Skoda built Pz
35t's, and should be captioned as such. 

3) The same weather affecting all threeboards is simplistic considering
the size and scope of the game. Roll for each map separately. I even
roll for each subsection (divided by the map creases) and treat it as a
rain squall by placing a counter marked clear or rain in each
appropriate subsection. It seems to work just fine. (You could get even
more realistic by studying the weather patterns over each game map area
and having separate tables for these.) This may be going a little too
far, but other hard-core East Front garners would enjoy this. 

4) As I have studied both Soviet and German doctrine for 15-20 years, I
feel safe, in saying that the German infantryman was well coordinated
with the StuG battalions even at this early stage of the war. I would
also give an armor bonus to any infantry division stacked with one or
more StuG battalions. (This, of course, coming under the same
restrictions as rule 8.21, e.g. attacking cities, etc.) Additionally,
see comment 5 below. 

5) I do not believe the armor bonus is enough. I think it should
actually be a -2 to the die roll, with the above mentioned StuG-Infantry
benefit being the -1. This feels unich better. As the war (and this
series) progresses to the later battles, this can be reduced to -1
(exactly as presented in rule 8.21) with no benefit for StuG-Infantry
cooperation. This should take effect with the opening of Kursk (May
1943) and after. Soviet countermeasures like anti-armor methods and
tactics were well developed and coordinated by this time and would
reduce this benefit for the Germans down to the present rule of -1
(armor) and no benefit to StuG-Infantry combinations. 

6) BitS should include a detailed sequence of play on a separate card or
on the back of the rules book for ease of copying, both to facilitate
play and give additional reminders of special rules for a particular
game in the series. 

7) 3W should provide markers for destroyed Stalin Line hexes, as this
becomes quite a pain later in the campaign scenario. Maybe 3Wc ould come
up with a "standard" destroyed marker that could be used for destroyed
bridges, Stalin line hexes, or for any other type of destroyed
hex/terrain feature for that matter, and just include these with every
game in the series (maybe 20-40, or so). 

8) In future series games 3W should make a note in the counter
description section that on the regimental-sized units, the number on
the upper left corner is the regimental designation and the number on
the upper right is the divisional designation (similarly for any
non-independent battalion-sized or brigade-sized units). 

9) The Axis Unit Organization card should have gray shading on the unit
symbols to help distinguish motorized from non-motorized and to make the
setup easier. (The Soviet card has exactly this type of shading on it.)
Also, the Soviet NKVD and security units on the corresponding Soviet
card should be darkened to indicate that they are indeed a different
color. 

10) Currently, bomber units can intercept fighters. This is due to rule
10.4 which states in part: "...air units in the game represent only
approximations of the effect of the actual air power necessary to
achieve the desired game, effect." Why are historical designations on
the counters even used? If this was the intended effect, it would be
better to have generic fighter and bomber counters for each side. Just
make the number of counters and the values on them correct to fit the
historical air operations which occurred in this sector. 

11) Air interdiction (especially German interdiction) should disrupt
supply (by shortening the effective LOC). Also, it should impede
movement (say a +1 mp to any unit moving through the zone). This would
be in addition to strategic movement effects. 

Some of these may be "nit-picks", but this is what distinguishes a great
game from one that is just so-so. During setting up and play of
BlitzIrleg in the South, all four gamers I played made similar comments.
Notice that almost every item mentioned above would definitely speed up
play, thus producing a game system that gets played as much as possible.
In the final analysis, a game that is played over and over is what
counts.

NB submitted by John Kula (kula@telus.net)
on behalf of the Strategy Gaming Society
(http://www.boardgamegeek.com/~sgs), 
originally collected by Andrew Webber 
(gbm@wwwebbers.com)