Alternative Solo Hidden Units method

[plloyd1010]

Fred, I been vaguely following the thread. In general I like your idea. I think it might get a little complicated with Razvedka. There are a couple of restrictions to the "surprise" which I would add, perhaps you just assumed them. They must appear in the legal setup area and they cannot be in a hex previously observable by any except the currently activated unit.

Anyway, I think I'll try it.

[Hugmenot]

One thing I usually do when the defenders are a much smaller force than the attackers, is set a number of tile spacers on the the map in close proximity to where I want my hidden units to be. One tile spacer per hidden unit, and a different color for leaders.

I place the hidden units within one hex of the tile markers whenever it's convenient for the defenders to do so. I roll a die to determine if the hidden units are revealed in their optimal location (usually point blank range) or an adjacent hex. One important point is the decision as to which exact unit is hidden in the location is left until I chose to place a hidden unit on the board.

It helps the defenders, which is a good thing in my case because I have more trouble defending than attacking.

[Matt W]

I found that it was much easier to play with hidden units solo after I had played a couple of times face to face. I don't do anything with respect to "hiding" the units but I run my unhidden side in such a manner as to ignore the exact location of the hidden units but in the knowledge that there are units hidden. As a result I run into ambushes and sometimes completely ignore a hidden force that can jump into the battle at an inopportune time.

My philosophy in playing with "hidden" units in plain sight was honed by playing the Civil War, Brigade series from the Gamers with its orders system. In that version it was noted that the system required that both players play honestly since there really was no way to provide the opponent with any way to double check short of a referee. The way I look at it, if I can't trust myself to play it straight it isn't worth playing anyway. So my hidden units aren't hidden - they form a rational part of a line and integrate with other hidden and nonhidden forces and my opponents stumble into them just the same.

[Blackcloud6]

My philosophy in playing with "hidden" units in plain sight was honed by playing the Civil War, Brigade series from the Gamers with its orders system.

I also put some discipline into playing solitaire by using 'mission orders" and order, say, a battalion to take a certain hill, then proceed to take the village beyond. I don't write these down but keep the general scheme of maneuver in my head and follow it.

[Dale168]

Hey mate,

I wrote up some rudimentary solo rules for hidden units in a game of Menacing Dokshitz that I mucked around with a while back, the basic just was: I identified six locations and marked them with a smoke counter (from memory I think that might have been double what was in the scenario). When one could be spotted as-per the reduced range in the rules or I wanted to activate one, I would roll 1D6 and on a 3 or less the hidden units appear - if not remove the counter; then roll a D9 and if it's 7,8,9 then they appear in the hex, any other result they appear in a location as-per the smoke rules.

I use something similar for solo HIP guns: pick three locations, mark them with a concealment counter and when I want to take a shot with the gun, roll 1D6 it pops up on a 1/2, if not remove that counter, the next one 1-4, if that one doesn't come out to play then it's the last one.

[zaarin7]

The funny thing is a SciFi skirmish game called "Stargrunt II" used a similar method (3 markers for one figure) for snipers as you wrote up for HIP guns.