Alternative Solo Hidden Units method

[Blackcloud6]

I'm setting up a solitaire play of Scenario 3, "Collision Course," from Liberation 44. The Brits are allowed four hidden units. I have yet to play a solo scenario with hidden units. Looking at this one it seems the Brits also have to move out as the scenario is a meeting engagement so the idea of having double the possible places where a hidden unit could be and then doing a random drawing when an enemy unit moves into LoS the unit will not work. (I've never liked this idea as it could cause a defense to unhinge by a fake unit showing up)

I wonder if it simply would be better to simply set up the Brits minus the four units, then set up the Germans, and then set up the four "hidden" units. That way it is some sort of "surprise" to the Germans and give the Brits a bit of advantage they lost through not having real hidden units. This way you have no record keeping, no randomness to you defense and you don't have to increase the Brit OB.

What do you guys think?

[vince hughes]

Fred,

If it helps I don't believe the British had hidden units in the original design. So it may not be anything you need worry about too much. The hidden units was something later added on down the road.

[Blackcloud6]

Fred,

If it helps I don't believe the British had hidden units in the original design. So it may not be anything you need worry about too much. The hidden units was something later added on down the road.

Thanks Vince. yes, in this scenario it would not seems to matter much

[campsawyer]

Fred,

I had the same issue with the St. Gabriel scenario. Vince is correct that it was not in the original version from the designer. The developer added these in later. With St. Gabriel, he was trying to "throw off" the German defense with some unseen units and with the Germans setup second there is little merit. With the attackers becoming visible on turn one it has little effect. I am not sure of the setup for #3.

[JayTownsend]

For some reason, John does love those hidden rules. But I am not a fan of them. They should always be an optional rule in my opinion.

[Blackcloud6]

>I had the same issue with the St. Gabriel scenario. Vince is correct that it was not in the original version from the designer. The developer added these in later. With St. Gabriel, he was trying to "throw off" the German defense with some unseen units and with the Germans setup second there is little merit. With the attackers becoming visible on turn one it has little effect. I am not sure of the setup for #3.

seems like my idea would fit then as it does not make much of a difference

[Blackcloud6]

BTW, I played two turns of this scenario so far and have posted pictures on my CSW blog starting here: http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@@.1dd17da2/22725

This looks to be a very interesting scenario.

[Hugmenot]

Fred, I played Collision Course solo. I hid the 6 pdr and the Sherman. The gun survived without taking a shot and the Sherman eventually moved forward to support the attack.

I think hiding the gun made sense because it forces the Germans to move very close before they can discover and bombard it. The Sherman I hid because something else needed to be hidden and I knew the foot units would move forward right away.

John's love of hidden units is as bewildering to me as Jay's aversion to them. From my perspective, hidden units shine in two specific case when playing face-to-face: (1) search and destroy missions in which an overwhelming force must find a smaller force and destroy it and (2) a larger force must take terrain on a tight timeline against a force maybe half as strong.

[Blackcloud6]

Fred, I played Collision Course solo. I hid the 6 pdr and the Sherman. The gun survived without taking a shot and the Sherman eventually moved forward to support the attack.

I think hiding the gun made sense because it forces the Germans to move very close before they can discover and bombard it. The Sherman I hid because something else needed to be hidden and I knew the foot units would move forward right away.

John's love of hidden units is as bewildering to me as Jay's aversion to them. From my perspective, hidden units shine in two specific case when playing face-to-face: (1) search and destroy missions in which an overwhelming force must find a smaller force and destroy it and (2) a larger force must take terrain on a tight timeline against a force maybe half as strong.

Were you playing solitaire?

[Hugmenot]

Yes, I was playing it solitaire. I gave it a "4" rating because I thought there were difficult decisions to be made for both sides.

If I were to play it again, I would be more aggressive with the Brits because I felt The Germans could push really hard the last few turns to cause more than 10 step losses and thus deny the British one of their victory conditions. I found my Brits were not in a good position to respond because not enough units were in position to be potentially able to exit the board (another victory condition) by the time the Germans made their push.

I love the super thick counters!