[House Rules] How to Solo with Hidden Units and Still Surprise Yourself

[Shad]

(posted these long ago on CSW, dusting them off for archival purposes)

A method I've employed successfully to play with hidden units and still surprise yourself is:

• if the Japanese are allowed X hidden units, choose the units you'd like to start hidden and give them X identical additional units.
  
• before play, fish out 2X minefield tokens - X real numbers and X decoys (if you don't have enough decoys, use decoys & 1's or decoys and 2's...)
  
• shuffle the minefield tokens face down, and without looking at their numbered sides place them under your chosen JPN units (& their "clones"), these are now all treated as "hidden units"
  
• play rules-as-written with respect to revealing hidden units, and once revealed (or once attacking/attacked) check the counter underneath - if it's a decoy that unit is removed from play and was never really there, if it's not then carry on.
  

Strengths of this Method

1. Most of the element of surprise is preserved, because as the non-hidden player you don't know if you're manuevering against real enemies or shadows in the bushes.
   
2. Setup is easy and requires no bookkeeping.
   
3. The same scenario will not play out the same way twice because the "ghost unit" allocations are random.
   
4. At start the non-hidden player must face 2X enemy forces, which ably simulates the tension of facing off against an unknown enemy.
   

Weaknesses of this Method

1. As the hidden player you may find your defensive position was just ghosts, and the enemy is allowed to waltz into a sensitive area unopposed.
   
2. There is no mechanism for re-hiding. Though in my experience this happens very rarely so I do not consider it a serious flaw.
   
3. Having to move and manage 2X the OOB for the hidden player can be a burden in large scenarios.
   

Final Thoughts
In the end, hidden unit scenarios are always best played with... really hidden units! However, should you happen to live alone on a sailboat, or in a hermitage, or just have really offensive body odor... well, these rules might be useful.

I have used them with satisfying results, and I encourage you to try.

All feedback politely considered!

[tanzerleader]

i like this and will give it a try on a small scenario. but i can definately see my self getting confused when manouvering the hidden units. still worht a go though

[Shad]

i like this and will give it a try on a small scenario. but i can definately see my self getting confused when manouvering the hidden units. still worht a go though

Basically the mindset for the JPN "player" is: they're all real platoons until they're not.

And the mindset for the US "player" is: I know half of these are ghosts, when and where am I willing to gamble that a platoon is a ghost?

I use player in quotes "" because you're soloing, of course.

[waynebaumber]

Shad, Hmm I have stayed away from Pacific PG solo games because of the hidden units, I will try your idea and see how it works.
Thanks

[Shad]

Wayne,

You can play face-to-face with Vince. I'd recommend saving hidden unit scenarios for those sessions. Playing with true hidden units is much more tense!

[Matt W]

Shad,

I do something similar but to avoid the breakup of the units into "pennypackets" of hidden units and losing their impact, I usually choose three sites on the board where I might want the hidden units to be and then assign probabilities to each. Like you the attacking force must "see" the hidden units before I resolve through dice whether the units are there or not. This way the full weight of the hidden units can be available.

This obviously works better when there are only a few hidden units (3 units and a leader or so). I haven't tried it in situations where substantial numbers of troops are hidden.

I also try to make sure that my attackers are moving with the spirit of the rules. If the historical information provided with the scenario indicates that the attackers blundered into an ambush, I will confidently approach the hidden units without cover or concern, getting appropriately blasted by Op Fire.

[broadsword]

Could something like this work with preplanned barrages?
As the barraging player, I have to pre-assign the target hexes for the timed barrages, and then pretend I don't know what they are.
One thing that helps is a rule I borrowed from Infantry Attacks, which randomizes (D6 roll) whether the barrage hits its target or falle 1 hex or 2 hexes away, then a second D6 roll to determine the direction of the scatter.
So even if one knows a barrage is scheduled for a particular hex, it's never certain exactly where the shells will end up falling.
Still, it would be better yet to really not know the targeted hexes as a solo player.

[waynebaumber]

Wayne,

You can play face-to-face with Vince. I'd recommend saving hidden unit scenarios for those sessions. Playing with true hidden units is much more tense!

Yep you are right about that we have one coming up soon from Winter Soldiers which has German hidden units which I am sure will cause me some headaches.

[Bluebell88A]

Winter Soldiers: half of the 30 scenarios feature a few hidden units.

Regarding solo play: where possible, how about writing brief operation orders for the attacking side, then setting up the defenders. The attackers can only deviate from the plan once the defending units start to become spotted. A further opportunity arises if more than one set of op orders can be written for the attackers: after the defenders have been set up, roll a die to determine which op orders will be used.

Tim

[larry marak]

Now HERE is where the print function of this forum is worth its weight in gold.