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My House Rule for Arty vs AFVs
I have been reading a book on the battle the Bulge and it discusses how US heavy artillery would get mobility kills on German armor by damaging tank treads or wheel axles. One may recall that in AP published an optional rule for using artillery against tanks but it did not seem to catch on, and perhaps for good reason in that even Dr B did not seem to be too bullish on it. I thought a simple house rule to include this effect that takes advantage of some new rules that have been added since then.
When firing BF on AFVs a M2 result causing on to check for a mire condition (in addition to many M2 checks for non AFVs in the hex. If the smallest arty factor in that attack is less than 16 then plus one is added to the more roll except for armor with 0 ratings (to reflect smaller caliber rounds are less likely to do damage to heavy tank treads but even light shells can damage smaller treads).
If two or more AFV units are in the hex the mire check is rolled for each (in the AFV owner's choice) and the first more rolled would cancel any other rolls, i.e one can only have one AFV unit in the stack mired for a given artillery attack. Thus the more AFV units in a hex the higher the chances of one becoming mired but never more than never more than one can be mired per BF attack and the first checked are the more likely to be mired in that given one is mired that ends the check for the remaining AFVs in that stack. Also, since the player can choose the order the smaller AFVs are likely to get the mire in that is probably the order the player would roll the mire check.
Once an AFV is mired the standard mire rules apply with the exception that if a mired afv is mired by subsequent BF it is reset to having all three mire counters (but no additional penalty for being A mired again while still mired). To distinguish between the two causes of being mired one might call the more from moving M mired while the being mired from arty fire one can call, A mired, if there is any need to distinguish between the two.
Now if one wants to be gamey and puts a HT in that hex as a hedge against being mired by artillery fire it may pass its more check and the heavy may fail its so that would only work so far so it probably isn't worth adding any more complexity to this rule to prevent that. But if one doesn't like even that potential for gameness one could add a rule that if one rolls a (unmodified) 1 (but not for a 2) then that mire effect does not end that round of further mire checks for that stack so that one adding an extra AFV to the stack to act as a hedge can backfire.
And for any daunting souls that are not adverse to added rule complexity but like all the crunch they can get one might add an option to this that if the player is willing, they can take a half step loss and cancel the mire and move normally. This would simulate that it is probably only one of the vehicles or maybe two that were mired and the other could move on a leave behind the mired ones behind. But these left behind AFVs may think, why not sit out this battle and take our time in fixing the treads or are abandoned when seriously threatened and thus are eliminated (but not with any VPs but as if they moved of map).
And for those that really don't mind rule complexity one can add that mired AFVs (regardless of how they become so) have one subtracted from their morale. And that if an demoralized AFV fails a RC and hence must flee it can only do so by flipping to a half step as above or else is lost if it is already in the half step strength. And if the mired units is turretless its DF is halved and it is treated as a AFv that has suffered a step los unit in regard to AT fire. And if a mired AFV is fired on with AT (given there are no other AFVs in the hex) for assault it gets a plus one for being so. So it is a bad thing to get mired not just forma mobility factor but that one becomes more of a sitting duck and they feel it too.
The above house rules would be in addition to the other effects like rolling a X causes one to make a morale check for all AFVs in the hex.
BTW, since I have bought lots of PG games I this have lots or marker counters and have made my own homemade mire counters by taking some surplus MOVED FIRED counters and with a black water erasable marker pen (so I could erase it later if I so desired but they don't smudge once they dry so those work pretty good) I marked out the OVE in MOVED and the F in FIRE leaving only M and IRE which spells MIRED. Pretty cool, huh?
At any rate I haven't tested this rule very much to see how well it works but it seems to work OK but perhaps may need top be tweaked a bit to get what might seem to be right amount that this happens. So this makes even mighty Tigers a bit more afraid of heavy artillery and gives them an added incentive to not bunch, just as it seems they had in real life.
[edit] Oh, and one other optional rule is that AFVs do not get any column shifts in towns due to arty fire. For the AFVs are in the streets and not in buildings and the buildings can hurt rather than help in that they can collapse and partly bury any nearby AFv in rubble so that towns would not give that -2 to AFvs from arty fire.
And so (in summary) is the basic simple rule plus several options to suit ones taste in regard to house rules and their threshold of pain in rule complexity.
[edit] And here are some updates.
1. here is an optional rule if one thinks that too many AFVs are getting get mired with the normal rule. Only the M2 that is rolled by a die roll less than 7 causes a mire check for those AFVs in that stack. This should half the probability of getting AFV B Mire rolls.
2. Two step Mired units in an assault use their flip side DF value and are treated as if they were flipped for any shift bonuses such as efficient armor in modern PG. AFVs with only one step that are mired suffer an addition 1/2 reduction (in addition to any due to other reason such as not being in good order).
3. The crews of Mired AFVs must typically have to exit the vehicle to repair the damaged treads (or get the AFV unstuck ) and thus a mired counter is treated like a leader counter in regard to any additional fire (DF, BF, AF). If it is eliminated the mired condition ends and the AFV is flipped (if it was at full strength) or eliminated if at half strength. (i.e the fiore killed the exposed crew). As such the mired counter can suffer disruption and demoralization and must be restored to good order before it can be removed at the counter removal phase at the end of the turn.
However, if one wants to button up the repair crew to protect them from such fire they can do that as a normal activation and indicate that by turning the move/fire counter upside down (not to be confused with being flipped over to its back side). In that condition the crew is not subject to fire other than as part of the AFV bur neither can the mored marker be removed at the marker removal phase at the end of the turn. Likewise such a buttoned up mired AFV can return attempting to un-mire the AFV by a normal activation where the crew can exit the AFV and resume trying remove the more effect (which is indicated by return the moved /Fore counter so that it is longer upside down and as such the Moved/Fired counter can be removed as per the normal mired rules at the end of that turn given that it is in good order
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