The Commander Series Forum

Last night we played our first game of BC2 at my place. We had all played BC 1 several years ago so the game progressed reasonably well, though we had forgotten quite a lot of the nuances, and frankly got some things wrong. I read up several rules over breakfast this morning and I'm now sure I have most things right.

However, one thing that did crop up, and which I can't find the answer to, is when are artillery zone (particularly barrage) templates removed. Last night we played that they were fired in the active players turn and remained in place until the end of other players turn - any new targets entering the zone took the appropriate fire for passing through a barrage - is this right?

If it is, is there an effect on visibility distance - does it act like a screen?

Also, and this is an effect question rather than a rule question, why are infantry without AT weapons so good against tanks in close assault (especially when dug in)? We were playing a W. Desert 41 game, where I'm assured by all I've read that infantry were creamed by armour if unsupported by artillery or tanks. Infantry didn't have magnetic AT mines (Gernany didn't get the panzerknacker until 42 and the Germans had developed Zimmerit by the time Britain had developed one making it obselete before production could begin), they were not generally issued satchel charges and the war office refused to issue sticky bombs (even to the home guard!). So how do they kill tanks?

For your question about artillery barrage templates, I've been pondering the same thing. This morning I read through the rules again and here is what I found (Square brackets [] are my insertions into a quote from the rules.):

Pg 8 -- "Scheduled [artillery/air] support is resolved during the Scheduled Phase of a turn (see Scheduled Phase on page 9)."

Pg 9 -- "Scheduled Phase. All scheduled artillery and air support is resolved during this phase. Refer to page 26 for details of how artillery support is resolved and page 28 for details on how air support is resolved in the game."

Now pages 26-27 and 28-29 do give the procedures but neither section makes any reference to how long the artillery concentration/barrage or air strike attacks last. The only attacks that lasts is the artillery smoke attack which "... will remain in play for one complete game turn, i.e. from the current turn to the end of the opponent turn. Smoke will block line of sight."

From this and the two examples on the bottoms of pages 27 and 29, I deduce that an artillery concentration/barrage or an air strike, whether pre-planned and occurring in the Scheduled Phase or on-call and occurring in the command phase, only last as long as it takes to resolve the attack just like any other fire. So it won't create an effect on LOS or on any unit entering that particular area after the attack has been resolved.

Hopefully this has helped.

Jim

P.S. I always enjoy looking at your blog. It energizes me to do a better job with painting, terrain, or games.

Hi Col'

Thanks. You are almost certainly right.

However, we're playing that concentrations are removed immediately after resolution. Barrages are treated like smoke effecting anything new moving into it.

Right or wrong, we like it because artillery can be used as a shield - defending with artillery. We adjust visibility by calling the zone low area terrain (lots of dust in the desert). Given that the effect of a barrage is generally quite light compared to a concentration this seems reasonable.

Given the usual player penchant for 'go for the kill' we've found that concentrations are almost always used over barrages. This makes a barrage a little more serviceable as an artillery tactic. Sometimes playing rules wrongly is better!