[Fog of War] - Large Scenarios

[Hugmenot]

Has anyone experimented with Fog of War house rules for large scenarios involving 150 units or more?

I've played a number of large scenarios from Kursk: South Flank and Workers and Peasants and the current rules are a prime consideration when the attacker has objectives as victory conditions. This is even more true if the attacker has both control some hexes and exit a number of steps objectives.

[Michael Murphy]

Here's a thought right off the top pf my head. It hit me that 3 activations before rolling FOW roughly rounds out to 1 activation per 50 units. Why not simply add an extra activation for every multiple of 50 units at or above 150 in the scenario total, fractions rounded up. At 150+ units you get 4 activations before rolling FOW. At 200+ units you get 5 activations before rolling FOW. You get the idea.

Just my 2¢.

Michael

[plloyd1010]

Yes we have. While we liked the idea, it messed up the larger scenarios too much. There was a discussion on BGG about that very issue. The notion became skewing the the roll and/or delaying when to start rolling. (I was unable to find the tread again.)

Somewhat aside, Alan had an interesting idea about extra initiative and FoW.

[Michael Murphy]

Alan?

[plloyd1010]

aka campsawyer

He proposed that a player holding an activation due to extra initiative (rule 17.2), would immediately use that activation in the event of a FoW roll. We keep it mind, but the opportunity has never come up.

[Michael Murphy]

That sounds like it could work as well. My thought was geared more to the number of units in play. For me its moot as I simply won't be able to play anything that large.

[campsawyer]

Peter has it correct. If you get extra initiative from the opening roll you can bank them to keep the turn going. Example, an initiative roll of 8-1 would give the player 4 turns to move first. He will have to take 2 per the extra initiative rules, but the other two can be used to "extend the turn", if FoW occurs. This only benefits the player with the extra initiative by allowing him 2 more turns after FoW.

Works well with both solo an FtF and it hasn't been a game changer although it gives you something more to think about when planning your moves. As for the original post about size it will not help too much unless you have a large initiative differential.

[vince hughes]

Another simple way is to decide (in your house) what level of game demands an extra FOW allowance, such as 100 units for example and up the FOW to a 17 rather than 16.

For 150 units or 200 units, maybe 4 x 6d need to come into play for FOW ?

[plloyd1010]

As I said, "somewhat aside".

As to the problem at hand... 2 ideas came up in BGG discussion. One was very much like yours, perhaps you even suggested it over there. The other was to subtract from the FoW based on the number of units in the scenario. I don't remember much of the specifics.

As for me, I thought added a couple extra non-FoW activations didn't change much. Shifting the FoW number was a bit strange as the pobabilty curve is even steeper than that of AT fire. In that case the steps are 4.7%, 1.9%, 0.5%. (Btw 15 or higher is 9.3%)

Perhaps a combo solution based on changing probability vs. number of activation rounds. How about a cancel option for each player based on the number of counters in play?

[Hugmenot]

What Peter is saying in terms of probability can be described as follows:

FoW: 15
You will roll 14 or lower 9.8 times on average before you roll a 15+ and cause FoW

FoW: 16
You will roll 15 or lower 20.6 times on average before you roll a 16+ and cause FoW

FoW: 17
You will roll 16 or lower 53 times on average before you roll a 17+ and cause FoW

Increasing the expected extra activation (those past the first 3 for both sides) from 20.6 to 53 is just too drastic a solution from my perspective.