Small Scale Solitaire Infantry Boardgames?

[Ubercat]

I don't want to turn this into a bash LnL thread, but their printing contractors need a lesson in how to do their jobs. I bought The Swift and the Bold a while back and the counters were backwards! backwards as in the reduced strength half squads were on the smooth front of the counters, and the full strength squads were on the wrinkled back of the counters. No, of course it doesn't break the game, but it's annoying and slightly immersion breaking, especially after paying good money. I'm not the only one who got a crappy SaB counter sheet.

[JudgeDredd]

I had this reply from Tracie

***********************************
Thank you Billy. Unfortunately, this problem did arise with many customers. We have used many different printers since to be sure that the mistake does not occur again. Again, I apologize!
Please let me know if I can help with anything else!
***********************************

So - apparently I'm jus unlucky in that I guess any spares they did have were already dished out.

[Staggerwing]

Really!?
They didn't offer to exchange the whole game if they were out of the separate components? I'm surprised. Did you get it directly from them or from a reseller? If the latter I'd try to hit them up for an exchange as well or at least some credit.

[Arctic Blast]

Really!?
They didn't offer to exchange the whole game if they were out of the separate components? I'm surprised. Did you get it directly from them or from a reseller? If the latter I'd try to hit them up for an exchange as well or at least some credit.

If they didn't offer any sort of exchange, I suspect they don't have anything Band of Heroes sitting around at the moment.

[JudgeDredd]

It's fine - I'm cool. I'm over the initial disappointment and if they can't do anything - well...they can't.

I'm not sending it back because, as I said, it's more cosmetic and I've no need to report t to the reseller so they give me something back for something that isn't their fault.

It's all good. The rules are starting to make sense and I'm looking forward to an outing sometime in the week...just a few units on the board to work the rules.

[Pinetree]

Now you're making me want to break out my copy of 1st Ed. Forgotten Heroes and Anzac Attack...

[JudgeDredd]

I'm a bit confused by the Ops Complete section - when to use the marker and who can and cannot do anything if they have one.

The manual says

Units that Spot, attempt to lay smoke, or perform other actions described in the subsequent rules as rendering them Ops Complete are marked with an Ops Complete (Operations Complete) marker. Except for the instances described below, units beneath Ops Complete markers may not Spot, fire (including sniping), move, or use their Leadership ability.
MMCs under an Ops Complete Marker may Opportunity Fire, but subtract two (2) from the total Firepower of the attacking stack. The Firepower is modified BEFORE considering any other Attacking Unit's Die Roll Modifications.

However, further on it says

A unit under an Ops Complete marker may fire at FULL Firepower at a hex it Spotted, during the same impulse in which it Spotted the hex. By the same token, Leaders under an Ops Complete marker may add their Leadership to this fire's 1d6 roll, but only if directed against a hex that the Leader Spotted during the current impulse. In other words, a unit may immediately fire upon any hex it has successfully Spotted.
Designer's Note: The intent is to allow a unit to fire at an enemy hex that it Spotted. It only makes sense that if a unit was focusing on a specific area, it would have time to fire its weapons at it.
All units in the same hex with a unit that has successfully spotted an enemy unit can fire with their full FP at the just spotted hex, along with the spotting unit. Note that in the case of multiple attacking units, 5.2 applies as well.

I'm confused  :o

I mean, one minute it's saying a unit under an Ops Complete marker can't fire or give it's leadership ability bonus, and the next it's saying a unit under an Ops Complete marker can fire at full value and leaders can give their leadership bonus?

[Ubercat]

Only to the space that the leader successfully spotted. If he fails to spot, he's done. If he succeeds, he can help attack THAT space (the one he just spotted).

Remember, a spotting attempt does not cost an impulse. If the leader succeeds in spotting a hex, you can immediately attack that space with the units in the leaders hex, using his leadership modifier. If the leader fails, he's done for the turn, but you can immediately do something else with the units in his space as your impulse action(or leave them for now and use units somewhere else.)

[DV8]

Out of the 3 games below, which one has the better solitary play?  Not just can, but has enough randomness to make it interesting.

- CoH
- BoH
- Screaming Eagles

I'm personally leaning towards SE just on simple elegance but I'm not sure it plays well solitaire.

[Jack Nastyface]

I'm a bit confused by the Ops Complete section - when to use the marker and who can and cannot do anything if they have one.

The manual says

Units that Spot, attempt to lay smoke, or perform other actions described in the subsequent rules as rendering them Ops Complete are marked with an Ops Complete (Operations Complete) marker. Except for the instances described below, units beneath Ops Complete markers may not Spot, fire (including sniping), move, or use their Leadership ability.
MMCs under an Ops Complete Marker may Opportunity Fire, but subtract two (2) from the total Firepower of the attacking stack. The Firepower is modified BEFORE considering any other Attacking Unit's Die Roll Modifications.

However, further on it says

A unit under an Ops Complete marker may fire at FULL Firepower at a hex it Spotted, during the same impulse in which it Spotted the hex. By the same token, Leaders under an Ops Complete marker may add their Leadership to this fire's 1d6 roll, but only if directed against a hex that the Leader Spotted during the current impulse. In other words, a unit may immediately fire upon any hex it has successfully Spotted.
Designer's Note: The intent is to allow a unit to fire at an enemy hex that it Spotted. It only makes sense that if a unit was focusing on a specific area, it would have time to fire its weapons at it.
All units in the same hex with a unit that has successfully spotted an enemy unit can fire with their full FP at the just spotted hex, along with the spotting unit. Note that in the case of multiple attacking units, 5.2 applies as well.

I'm confused  :o

I mean, one minute it's saying a unit under an Ops Complete marker can't fire or give it's leadership ability bonus, and the next it's saying a unit under an Ops Complete marker can fire at full value and leaders can give their leadership bonus?

Here's how I interpret the rules...assume events occur in 1 game turn.
Situation 1:  Leadership bonus allowed
Allied Impulse 1.1 - Lt. Nastyface (SMC, but stacked with an MMC) successfully spots German MG.  Mark Lt. Nastyface "ops complete" and mark German MG "spotted"
Allied Impulse 1.2 - Because it is the SAME impulse...Nastyface can "call fire" for the MMC. ("Kraut MG!  Easy Company - open fire!")  As per rules above, this is the ONLY allowed action that Lt. Nastyface can make on this impulse (ie:  can't call for mortar fire, move, etc) because he is "ops complete"
Allied Impulse 1.3 - MMC fires.  Because the MMC elects to fire on the SAME impulse that Nastyface spotted the MG, AND they are in the same or an adjacent hex/square, AND they are firing at the unit that was spotted by Nastyface...they can add his leadership bonus to their firepower calculation.

Situation 2.
Allied Impulse 1.1 - Lt. Nastyface (SMC, but stacked with an MMC) successfully spots German MG.  Mark Lt. Nastyface "ops complete" and mark German MG "spotted".
Allied Impulse 1.2 - Allied MMC does nothing (except takes smoke break and complain about rations).  Since no ops taken, impulse/action is over to the Germans.
Axis Impulse 1.  - MG attempts to spot Nastyface et alia, but fail.  Mark ops complete
Allied Impulse 2.1  Allied MMC elects to direct fire at German MG.  The German MG is SPOTTED because Nastyface spotted them in impulse 1, BUT because the MMC is firing in a diffferent impulse, no leader bonus added.

Situation 3:
Allied Impulse 1.1 - Lt. Nastyface (SMC, but stacked with an MMC) fails to spot German MG.  Mark Lt. Nastyface "ops complete"
Allied Impulse 1.2 - Allied MMC successfully spots MMC, but decides not to attack.  Mark MMC "ops complete" and German MG "spotted"
note: - Nastyface and / or MMC CANNOT: move, rally troops, call mortars, etc...cause they are ops complete.
Axis impulse 1 - MG moves into open ground in LOS to allied MMC.
Allied Impulse 2.1 - Allied MMC CAN Opfire at MG at penalty, but not "full direct fire" because they are "ops complete" for this turn.

So...if you DO something, you are ops complete for the turn.
If you SEE something, then you are ops complete for the turn UNLESS you want to immediately (in the same impulse) blast the thing you just saw.

That's how I play it, anyways.

[Jack Nastyface]

FWIW...just re-reading the rules on Ordnance vs infantry....now that's an obfuscated couple of paragraphs....

[JudgeDredd]

What I'm finding a tad confusing is the To Hit values - the modifiers are reveresed and yhou ned to get LESS than the To Hit value rather than normal attacks where modifiers (leadership etc) are POSITIVE and terrain is NEGATIVE and you have to roll MORE than the value...I can;t really understand the logic behind coming up with an attack formula - and reversing it

I'm desperately wanting to get into this - but I'm finding the rules very confusing. And these are the "enhanced" v3 rules. Maybe I'm just too old to take new things on board. Perhaps I should have stuck to my modelling and Leader games!

Oh well...I'm finished the example tht was linked to earlier - and it's certainly clearer - but it'll be quite some time I expect before I can go hammer and tongs at a scenario without looking at every rule for every action.

LoS looks to be quite confusing too - that's going to need a few reads!

[GJK]

Glad I wasn't the only one!  Well, not glad because I too VERY MUCH wanted to give DoH a play but got so frustrated trying to decipher the developers intent on all of the rules.  And coming from an ASL background, I think the reversal of the modifiers as mentioned just really threw a wrench into the whole thing.  I couldn't understand how I could learn and play ASL, with it's reputation of being this beast of a game, yet couldn't get this one.  It just started to become a chore to learn.  Very disappointing.

[Arctic Blast]

Okay JH, it's time for the tutorial videos :

Lock n' Load Boot Camp video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bid3chlDkJI

Band of Heroes Tutorial Video 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdmN9r0e8L0   -There are a series of these done using the Vassal mod.

[JudgeDredd]

Thank you AB  :)