LnL Band of Heroes - Rules Trial

[Barthheart]

TURN 1
Rally Phase
Roll for initiative sees the Germans roll 1 and the US roll 5...US has the initiative. (loaded dice?)

There is no rallying required at the moment.

Operations Phase
Impulse 1 - US
There are no spotting opportunities here. Both US squads are activated this impulse for movement.

I wouldn't do this normally - but I'm going to now to try something and get your views on my interpretation of the rules.
I'm going to Assault Move Lt Clarkson and his squads and Double Time (+2MP's) into the LoS of Cpt Weiss. In Assault Move they can move for 1/2 their modified MP's - giving 3MP's. So I move them to I3, H3 at a cost of 2MP's.

They now come into LoS of Cpt Weiss and because they are in Clear terrain, they are automatically spotted...right?

Yes this is correct.

I'm hoping my interpretation of the rules is correct in that because Lt Clarkson is Assault Moving, he can Op Fire on the Axis hex which is performing Op Fire...correct?

No, the enemy always gets the choice to OP fire first. If he choose not to fire then yes the Assault Moving (AM) troops could fire. Also just firing dos not draw Op Fire.

Anyway - that's how I'm playing it out.

The Axis squads in E4 Op Fire on Lt Clarkson and his mob. As the US are moving, there is a +1 modifier to the Op Fire die roll.

So the Axis units will fire with an FP of +6FP (+2*2 for the squads) and +2 for the SW MG42. They will also get +1 for the Leader and +1 for the moving US unit. There is no degrading terrain between the Axis and the US units.

Almost. You get the "first" squads full FP and each additional squad adds 1/2 their FP rounded up. You get to choose whoe is the "first" squad. SO you would have:
2FP (1st squad) + 1 FP (2nd squad) +2 FP for MG +1 Leadership +1 moving leg target = +7
You roll a 6 so your attack is 6+7 = 13.

A roll of 6 resulting in 12. The defender die roll is 3. As the Axis die roll is greater than the defenders die roll, the attack is successful. I then have to roll a 1d6 to determine the attack value, adding the difference between the attack die roll and defender die roll (which was 9 (12-3)). I roll a 1 giving a difference of 10. I then check the Direct Fire Table (DFT) for each unit. For each Good Order MMC in the US hex, the 10 is greater than their morale but less than 2* their morale - and therefore they are shaken. As there is a Good Order leader in the US hex, I can use his leadership value to reduce the DFT value - alas it's not enough (only reducing it to 9) and as the morale value of each of the squads is 6 the attack and hit stands. Each US squad in the hex is reduced to SHAKEN. (NOTE I cannot use the Leadership value to help the leader) - and therefore 10 is still greater than 7 and he suffers a hit...

Almost. You would roll on the DFT for each unit separately starting with the leader. His leadership can not help him. Since 9 is greater than 7 he his shaken. Since he is shaken he can't reduce the DFT result so each squad would face the full 9 result, shaking each of them.

The Axis unit is now marked as FIRED

(This is very complex to me!)

Now - as the US units were Assault Moving - it means they can return fire (Op Fire) before the hits affect their units. So the US unit opens up on the Axis units. They are in range and in open terrain - AND the fact they fired means they are spotted.

The US troops fire - and roll a 6. With an FP of 7 (+2*3 for the squads and +1 for the BAR) and a +1 from their Good Order leader, that's a +8 which = 14FP total. A defender roll of 4 gives a difference of 10. That is less than 2*the morale value of the units but greater than 1* the morale value - and therefore each of the Axis units takes a hit

It's unclear to me whether the Leader can influence attack and defence values during Op Fire - even so it wouldn't make a difference here - but there may be an occasion when it does!

Anyway - each of the Axis units are also shaken.

WoW - is that how this plays out? If so - that's going to take getting used to. If not - I can only think it's more complicated!
Comments and help than welcome!
[/quote}

Combat is not simultanious in BoH. Since all the US troops are shaken they are finished for this turn. They can not fire when shaken.
It would now be the German's impulse to activate a hex.

[Barthheart]

Brilliant - thanks Barthheart. I just noticed the other day when re-reading the rules that you can activate ONE hex in an impulse - the exception being if the hex being activated contains a good order leader in which case he can activate units in adjacent hexes also

On movement - I get the "if you are moving ALL unit's in a  hex in the same impulse they must move together" and "if they fire they must fire together and at the same target (exception Weapon Teams?)".

Correct except weapon teams.

QUESTION - what if the stack in the hex has differing movement values? Are the ones with more MPs allowed to move that extra hex or two? Or is the move performed based on the unit with the lowest MP's?

No the faster units could only move as fast as the slowest unit.... if moving together in the same impulse. You could choose to move the faster, or slower, unit later in a separate impulse.

[JudgeDredd]

^ yep - so a unit with a MP of 4 stacked with a unit with MP2 can leave the MP2 unit behind this impulse and use it's 4 MP's to move or move WITH the MP2 unit and move only 2 MP's

Ta

I am getting there - but there are alot more rules to this game than I have seen in others that I thought were complicated enough.

[Barthheart]

I also just noticed that you move the MG42 in it's assembled mode. If you flip the counter you'll see it have a disassembled mode, it not clear I agree. The US MG also has an disassembled flip side. These represent large MG that can't move when fully assembled. The MG42 has the advantage that it can still fire at reduced FP when disassembled while the US .30 cal could not.

Also you probably picked the worst board to start on.  ;) Hedgerows are very complicated terrain.

[Barthheart]

^ yep - so a unit with a MP of 4 stacked with a unit with MP2 can leave the MP2 unit behind this impulse and use it's 4 MP's to move or move WITH the MP2 unit and move only 2 MP's

Ta

I am getting there - but there are alot more rules to this game than I have seen in others that I thought were complicated enough.

Yes.

What other games are you comparing this with? Just curious to see where you are coming from. To me, this game is fairly simple where as ASL is complex. But I also play lots of games that have 30+ page rulebooks...

I found that this game will suddenly "click" and you almost never have to read the rulebook again. In fact I almost never use the DFT as there are so few results that it gets easy to remember them.

[JudgeDredd]

Well - from OLD -

TSR - Red Storm Rising
TSR - Hunt for Red October
DVG - Leader games
Academy Games - Conflict of Heroes

That's about it. Nothing too complicated in there.

I have also recently bought LnL Blood and Bridges which I was keen to get into - but I got side tracked with a small scale squad sized tactical game (LnL BoH)

I'm starting to treat my boardgames like my computer games - buy them with every intention of playing them to death and getting sidetracked. Thankfully they aren't as plentiful as computer games...

[Barthheart]

OK. I still have my copy of Red Storm Rising. Fun game.

I would rank BoH only slightly above CoH in overall complexity. BUt the rule book does throw a lot of people off.
Playing and watching other people play makes things gel much quicker.

I too seem to gather more board games again. Took about a 20 yeear break from board gaming when computers came out - C64 was my first gaming rig.

Keep at BoH, it will "click". And ask away. I'll try to answer more timely.  8)

[JudgeDredd]

Thanks Barthheart - it is definitely clicking. I just need to keep checking rules and watching a few vids here and there.

Already today a video Arctic Blast linked to helped with a couple of points I was unsure of.

[Barthheart]

Thanks Barthheart - it is definitely clicking. I just need to keep checking rules and watching a few vids here and there.

Already today a video Arctic Blast linked to helped with a couple of points I was unsure of.

Cool! That second video is me teaching Charles to play.  8)

[Arctic Blast]

Thanks Barthheart - it is definitely clicking. I just need to keep checking rules and watching a few vids here and there.

Already today a video Arctic Blast linked to helped with a couple of points I was unsure of.

Cool! That second video is me teaching Charles to play.  8)

LOL. You know, I kind of wondered briefly when I saw the text about thanking Vance for the help. "No, it must be a completely different guy..."  ;D