Optional Rules

[Blackcloud6]

(pumping some life into this thread)

I am thinking about smoke today.  I always play with the smoke optional rule when I paly solo.  However, I've just set up the first scenario from C&CV2; it is the Italians vs. brits in the desert in Sept 1940.  The Afrika Korps game was , what, a first edition game?  So smoke was not even played then, right?  So, for scenario design and balance 9and "balance" was not an important thing back in the early days of PG), adding smoke might give the Italians, who are attacking in this scenario, an edge, maybe a significant one.  But that is OK, I'm playing solo.

That said.  Did the Italians have smoke for their guns in the desert in 1940?  Maybe, and I would likely say yes they did because it was not a new technology nor hard to make.  maybe supply issues would matter in the desert but then this scenario is at the start of the campaign.  But it does beg the question of how does one find out about smoke use of the various forces in WWII.  back some years ago, I looked into that question for an ASL discussion of smoke.  I thought smoke was too plentiful in ASL and often used.  One does not find a lot of mention of smoke use in tactical descriptions.  But I came to realize that smoke may have been a common thing in tactical use during WWII that it just simply was not always mentioned in writes ups... it was just used.

maybe, the Smoke optional rule has it right by seeking middle ground with the limiting of each gun/artillery with one available smoke use per ten turns.