The Commander Series Forum

Well we had fun last night, the Germans got pounded back into world war 1.

Anyway, as i hoped the game did bring up a few questions that i could use some answers on. I havent dredged through the forum to find them as i thought it would be nice to get all the answers on one place.

So here we go.

1 - Recce. These are not assigned to formations at the begging of the game, so who orders them?

2- LOS, Linear terain, can ave profile vehicles be seen over it? or again do they need to be next to it. Also if your on higher ground can you see everything?

3- Combat - Mortar Strikes, do mortars get any advantage at firing at entrenched infantry or guns as the shells are coming from above?

4- Formations - You assign which bases are under which CO and HQ at the begining of the game, is this then fixed for the entire game, or can sections peel of and become part of someone elses formation?

5- Formations - Command. When the commander issues his orders, does he do it to everything in his formation at once, so if you have 3 platoons of inf and 2 troops of tanks do you have to order them all at once? and if not does the multiple order penalty carry over?

6- Reinforcements - In our game last night the Russians were due 2 bases of T26s in at turn 6 when they come on the table who gets to order them, or should that be picked at the start of the game when you sort out formations?

7- Command - It seemed a bit tight only having 1 CO and 2 HQs on the table even though we were only playing with a def force of 800 and an attacking force of 1250ish. However if we were ordering things wrong, that could resolve that.

Final comments, the game was really fun, we played in 20mm :( as we havnet as yet picked our armies up to do in 10mm but it worked ok. My mate, who has more experience in wargaming than me, really enjoyed the system a lot. He felt that the ability to do initiative actions really helps in a game which in theory you might not be able to order anyone due to bad rolls (this happened to the german commander) and also the opertunity fire system was a nice a simple mechanic (no initative action and counts as its first order) so that the IGOUGO routine is not so fixed. So yay

Thanks Pete for a cracking system.
And thanks in advance to everyone for clearing up our questions.

Regards
Brian.

Hi Brian,

OK I'll have a crack at a few answers.

1. Recce can either do their "recce" action at the start of the initiative phase, OR they can move in the command phase. If moving, they need to get commanded by a CO/HQ. If they pass a succesful recce action, the NEAREST CO/HQ/FAO/FAC gets the benefit.

2. You can't see over linear terrain unless you're touching it, or you're on a hill. If you're on the flat and an enemy is touching the wall you can see them (unless they're miles away and were previously hidden).

3. As far as I'm aware - no.

4. Depends on tactical doctrine of the army. Germans yes with no penalty, Brits and USA yes with -1 penalty. Check the book/army list for full details.

5. You can leave units out if you want.

6. No idea! Never done it.

7. 1 CO and 2 HQ is more than enough for 800 points. I usually use 1 CO and 3 HQ in 3000 point games!

Hope this helps. I'm sure others will drop by to explain more or to tell me I got something wrong!

cheers

John

On 5,
The penality does not carry over; once you stop ordering a unit you cannot order it again that command phase. If you fail an order any un-ordered units can only be ordered by the CO (I am not sure about this with the German tactical doctrine - in theory any un-used HQ could order them).

On 6
I would play they have a command allocated at the begining of the game but I am not sure what the rules say

On 7
I use less commanders on the defender to the attacker for a more fun game. Usually 1 or 2 per 1000 defender and 2-3 for the attacker. I often have a defender CO with lower leadership than in the tables - again just for game balance. You want people to run out of orders so planning becomes more critical

Just my 2 bits
Tony

Thanks thats pretty comprehesive.

So with the Recce it can be ordered by whomever is most appropriate at the time.

And its either Recce action OR move/fire in the command phase not both.

If anyone else has more points to raise please do.

Thanks
Brian.

"6- Reinforcements - In our game last night the Russians were due 2 bases of T26s in at turn 6 when they come on the table who gets to order them, or should that be picked at the start of the game when you sort out formations? "

I can't find the rules for re enforcements, but IIRC they have to have a CO/HQ attached to them (ie the CO/HQ unit is first on the board and makes the command roll for the unit.)