(02-27-2014, 10:44 AM)Hugmenot Wrote: Yes, players complain about the rules but the situation is far from unique to Panzer Grenadier.
I have been playing the same as Vince since my first match with Matt W 20 months ago. It is, in my opinion, the most direct interpretation of the rules.
One thing I remind myself when reading any rulebook is that I am not reading a legal document and thus stick with the most direct interpretation instead of finding loopholes.
To be clear, I wasn't looking for loopholes or trying to twist the rules. The language used (e.g. "Up to three offboard bombardment fire values may combine into one fire value") genuinely led me to naturally interpret it that the fire values represent distinct artillery guns firing, and the verb "may" instead of "must" suggests optional choice about combining, and my natural assumption is that independent guns may fire at the same target or at different targets. The artillery rules were something about which I didn't even feel conscious uncertainty until they came up tangentially in this thread and I discovered that I was doing it wrong!
Quote: Even a lawyer like RHB writes rulebooks full of uncertainties.
So far the best written nontrivial wargame rules I've found are by Chad Jensen (Combat Commander & Fighting Formations); they really do successfully avoid the "full of uncertainties" syndrome. So it's possible to achieve, but somewhat rare, alas.
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As long as I am getting advice and answers from you experienced players, may I ask about another uncertainty I have? Thanks in advance for any help on the following hesitations...
14.31 Fleeing:
Fleeing is not a "state" to be remembered analogous to "disrupted" and "demoralized", right? Rather, it is a one-turn action which occurs as a result of a failed recovery roll, right?
I grok that when I activate a demoralized unit, I must try to recover it, and failed recovery means that it flees in that action segment. But on the next turn if I activate it again, then because it is (still) demoralized, I must (again) try to recover it, and so (again) it will either fail and flee, or recover... right?
(That's what I understand from "If the fleeing unit or leader cannot reach a safe hex on the first turn, and if it fails to recover on future turns, then it must keep fleeing at maximum movement rate toward the closest safe hex until it occupies it." - it sounds like you keep checking recovery for the demoralized unit in each turn that you activate it.)
E.g. to make this more concrete:
In turn 1, the opponent attacks my unit X and makes it demoralized. Then I activate X and do a recovery roll (I must do that with X). The roll fails. So X stays demoralized and flees (moving away from enemy units to a safe hex).
On turn 2 I activate X again and so again I do a recovery roll. The roll fails. So if X's current location is still "safe", it simply stays there cowering. (Right? Or does it move further?)
On turn 3 I activate X again and try another recovery roll, this time succeeding. So the "demoralized" marker is removed from X and the unit is back in normal "good order" again.
And to confirm: I only have to try recovering a demoralized unit
IF I activate it. I understand the point of rule 14.42 Required Recovery to be simply that IF I have any demoralized units, THEN I cannot pass. I.e.
if I have many activations and have already activated all my
undemoralized units and activated all my artillery,
then I will necessarily activate some demoralized unit because there's nothing else left to activate, and I can't pass.
But I could choose to activate many other units first in the turn, and if my number of available activations for the turn runs out before I've activated a given demoralized unit, then I simply don't roll recovery for that unit, and it simply does nothing that turn, just like any other unit which didn't get activated... right? A demoralized unit doesn't somehow automatically try to recover or flee even though it never got activated, does it?
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The rules about fleeing are also murky. "It must spend its entire movement allowance in moving away from enemy units toward the closest safe hex" ... what if no matter which direction it moves, it is moving closer to some enemy unit? (I.e. it's basically surrounded.) This fleeing rule seems vague (as in many wargames, I must agree, e.g. Waterloo20 as I recall also was pretty vague about this.)
