Blackcloud's PG Lament

[triangular_cube]

Doesn't IA do something similar to doubling firepower in assault? Having never actually played IA yet, I can't recall.

No, but infantry in IA are companies, not platoons.  So, most fire power is in the 4-6 range, so, 2 companies and a leader put you on the 9 to 13 column.  Stacking is usually limited to just 2 companies.  

The column breaks and casualty totals per roll are exactly the same, as are most of the modifications.  IA doesn’t have the AFV mod or the engineer mod, so IA has a few less possible shifts.  But, it still has the -2 for entrenchments and towns.  

I guess this is why PG has yet to venture into street battles, like Stalingrad or Berlin.  But doubling the fire power of infantry will certainly make it bloodier.

Flipping through the 'IA rulebook, I must have been thinking of the Cold Steel rules. Which isnt a doubling of attack, but a +2 modifier for each side more or less. 

I always wonder if the problem is more the -2 modifier for the town. We focus so much on making the assaults deadlier in the towns through firepower, we may end up making rural assaults a complete wipe each time. 

Im interested to see what potential solutions APL brings to the table when the city fighting mod comes out (heck maybe thats just gold club rumors I cant remember anymore).

[Hugmenot]

Town and Entrenchment
Demoralized units in an assault hex must exit the hex if they fail a recovery attempt (14.35). That includes entrenchments.

The 4th edition Assault Chart was a step forward towards pushing enemy units out of town and entrenchment hexes. It still remains a difficult task with low-strength units and there are times when you better off using direct fire from an adjacent hex.

Balance
Matt and I tried but even when we were both spending 10+ hours each every week developing scenarios, in the end we just expressed an opinion based upon our experience and limited playtesting. Balancing a tiny scenario (< 30 counters) can be done through multiple plays but playtesting even a medium size scenario (~75 counters, 18 turns) is more difficult because a single play may take 4-5 hours and we developed maybe 100+ scenarios a year in addition to editing the special rules, orders of battle, introductions and conclusions. It was painful when the victory conditions proposed did not work at all; we had to spend even more time exploring the scenario while keeping the spirit of the proposed victory conditions.

As an aside, I mentioned years ago I played some scenarios multiple times solitaire (5 or 6 times in some rare cases) and almost all responders wrote they rarely play a scenario more than once. I think that's relevant for some of the tiny scenarios we developed because a few were really puzzles and the key is unlikely to be discovered during the first play. I was never fond of tiny scenarios because one bad and/or great roll has too much influence on the scenario. The same with leader draw; the balance is strongly tilted in your favor when you draw a "2" morale leader when your task is to defend an objective with 6-10 units.

Anyway, back to balance. I had to set my bar to (1) I think each side has a 30% chance of winning, or (2) I am don't know if side X can win 30% of the time but the scenario is more fun than usual and side X has several interesting strategies to try.

Finally, I looked through my 88 recorded shared plays on PG-HQ, I think only in 6 or 7 scenarios did I think it was way too unbalanced for one side to have a 30% chance.

[treadasaurusrex]

It would be great if the game play deletion function was restored. It's been nonfunctional for quite some time.

[Shad]

It would be great if the game play deletion function was restored. It's been nonfunctional for quite some time.

That'll be fixed very soon. I'm getting back into the swing of things on the back-end.

[Shad]

WRT weakened or badly overmatched platoons holding up advances because they're hunkered down in town hexes, many MANY years ago someone published an optional rule on AP's site that added some sort of morale penalty if the defenders were completely surrounded by the attackers. To my memory it was well-designed and I liked the concept quite a bit, though not well enough to be able to remember enough details to link you.

Maybe someone here with better brains can understand the document I'm talking about and find it. As I recall it elegantly solved the invulnerable speedbump platoon problem.

[rerathbun]

It was a Daily Content article by Alan Sawyer titled "Unit Isolation."  It can still be found here:

http://www.avalanchepress.com/pg_isolation.php

[Shad]

9 years ago! Give this man an award!

[cjsiam]

This is the page...
I like this....
I think this is good for LOTS of reasons....

[cjsiam]

So I had a thought----
and Peter added wood to the burgeoning bonfire....

In jungles (apparently as I don't have those rules ....yet...) Commanders can only influence morale if they are stacked in the same hexes as the
units they are attempting to influence(for MC or Rally attempts).  Makes sense---200yrds of jungle would mitigate the influence me thinks....

I would postulate that perhaps City/Towns--and possibly even forests would have the same impact.
This would mean that sticking a strong commander in center of that 7 hex city (or any such) out of harms way would no longer
provide the invulnerability to those guys 200yrds away in front line buildings taking fire....
Thus the difficulty in reducing such bastions would be reduced to some extent---if you want to hold it--your commanders have
to get into the front line to influence the troops(and take damage possibly).....or stay back(safely) and rally those who flee into your hex.

I think this would work well within the mechanic, and help to address the problem....Difficulty in communicating through obstructing
terrain seems to make sense in influencing instantaneous morale decisions of troops under fire.
Activations would work the same---you can still issue orders---you just can't suddenly chide them back from the brink of MC failure
from 200yrds away

So---what think you players and Lamenters?

[Blackcloud6]

I've aways thought it odd that the leader could influence morale in adjacent hexes.  I always had the image of a guy running around like a madman trying to motivate the troops with "follow me" poses.  But I guess it is his presence that is boosting morale, and the ability to issue good orders.