World at War : Blood and Bridges AAR

[Tinkershuffle]

Rules are doing my nut in!

After reading the Battle of Britain rules, I find these a mess.

Here's my new confusion...

The manual states in section 3.0 Outline of Play like this
3.1 Operations Phase (pulling a chit from the cup to activate a formation
3.2 Marker Removal Phase

Question - why the hell is the marker removal phase within/after the operations phase? The way that's laid out is suggests you remove all markers from the board each time you activate a unit - which just can't be right!

The manual really needs an outline of play - and in the proper fashion, not piecemeal - and a tutorial scenario

Yeah, they're a mess. I'm a noob to the game also but the way I've understood this is that in the marker removal phase all the markers are removed from both sides but in the operation phase only the ones that are concerning the current actived formation. Of coure my interpretation can also be wrong?

[bob48]

Gents,

Once all formation chits have been pulled, or the turn ends due to both EoT markers being pulled, the marker removal phase is triggered signifying the end of a turn.

This will be basically all the Ops Complete markers and Out of Command markers (command status is checked again at the beginning of the next turn). Disrupted markers remain in place as disrupted units check for recovery once a formation is activated).

Hope this helps.

[Tinkershuffle]

And in addition to Marker Removal phase Ops Complete and Out of Commad markers are removed in each Housekeeping phase from the activated formation?

[Barthheart]

And in addition to Marker Removal phase Ops Complete and Out of Commad markers are removed in each Housekeeping phase from the activated formation?

Yes. When a formation activates Ops Comp and OOC markers are removed from it's units before they take any actions.

[bob48]

Just to add to that. Remember that units of an un-activated formation may conduct opp-fire against a moving unit, after which they are marked with an ops complete marker. These will be removed when that formation then activates.

[JudgeDredd]

I guessed that was the case bob thanks - I was just pointing out the rules aren't laid out in that way...the rules suggest pulling a chit THEN all markers are removed.

The process of a turn of play, as laid out in the manual is not at all straight forward. Maybe I've been spoiled by other rule sets.

[bob48]

I agree, the rules don't always scan in a logical order and could do with being a bit more concise.

[Nefaro]

I guessed that was the case bob thanks - I was just pointing out the rules aren't laid out in that way...the rules suggest pulling a chit THEN all markers are removed.

The process of a turn of play, as laid out in the manual is not at all straight forward. Maybe I've been spoiled by other rule sets.

The Marker Removal phase was only listed in the brief Turn Order Summary on my Eisenbach Gap Deluxe version's rules (thanks again Jack Nastyface!) just after the Activation Phase which had most of the turn's stuff lumped in on the summary.  However, the next section was the full description of the full expanded turn order so it didn't give me any fuss when I noticed the earlier one was just a brief summary.

The odd part about the rules were some of the rules references located in the component description section near the front of the manual.  Most notably the accompanying examples showing those rules in action,  before you had even started learning anything about the game mechanics.   I just didn't pay much attention to those early examples since I hadn't reached their accompanying rules yet.  The rules weren't difficult after skipping those mechanics examples, which weren't really needed there.

The toughest time I've had was with Labyrinth's rules.  While the rulebook is quite small compared to nearly everything else I have, the game system is just so alien.  It also feels like there are many different terms for effects, counters, actions, etc that I'm having to stop and actively try to commit to memory.  As if the game has it's own separate dialect I must learn.  ???

[Tinkershuffle]

I was soloing B&B "Angels of Death" scenario and this was the outcome, a bloodpath for the Soviets trying to capture Rieden. Overwatching Apaches seemed to be a bit overkill.