Five men at Kursk, some queries

[Mark75]

[Mark75]

[Ivan Sorensen]

That’s a pretty impressive skirmish set up you got!

Let me know how you guys got on with the rules 🙂

[Mark75]

Hi all,

Hi Ivan.

A short time ago, I purchased Five men at Kursk and after the first reading I realised that thiw ruleset was fully suitable for my wants. Quick gameplay, easy learning, low reference on rules, great campaign and solo rules, enough optional advance rules,….really awesome game.

Well, I tried it once with a friend who is coming from the community of  heavy boardwargames and it was the first attempt on miniature  wargame for him. Morever, in order to succeed my purpose to approved it, I modified the combat field, adding 1” square grid to facilitate the measurement of movement and the weapon ranges. On my mind,  was to simplify the line of sight also, like board games. Unfortunately, the last didn’t succeed. He rejected it , due to the true line of sight, likely this isn’t acceptable by persons belonging to this category. Anyway, this improvement helped me enough also, so much on thinking to keep it this way on my solo games. I’m posting a photo to take a look, before and after…. any opinion is welcomed.

Also, I’ve changed some rules. like sprint… I determined on 8” rather than a randomly dice roll. Also, the excess damage hits allocated on 3”, instead of 6”. Same, when a gigure is going down.

So, yesterday I gave a go, solo and some queries created. Maybe some of them are heard silly, excuse a…. newbie.

Those are:

1. A model is going down or scared, he must hug dirt, regardless If it’s in cover or not? If he is not, he remains steady? It’s not clear to me. Page 24, 26.
2. Some weapons have two modes of firing. On long range the figure for certain will choose the mode with the most Shock dices. Does all the modes fire on long range, because, for example the sub-machine gun has 4S on spray and 2S on aim, and look too much for long range.
3.  Does the reaction rule apply on solo?
4. The line of sight/fire passes through many elements of cover suffice you can see part of the enemy figure, right? For example two low walls and a hedge, or three woods and a low wall.
5. Finally, when the line of fire breaks?

Last,  do you plan to issue historical scenarios, with specific forces, terrain and rival positions, like Tide of Iron for example. I also, purchased Polish Campaign and it use force generator too.

Thank you very much In Advance.

Nice work. Cheers.

 

[Ivan Sorensen]

Hey Mark!

Answers below:

A model is going down or scared, he must hug dirt, regardless If it’s in cover or not? If he is not, he remains steady? It’s not clear to me. Page 24, 26.

Figures only Hug Dirt if they have any sort of cover.
So behind a hedgerow or in a rubble building? Hug Dirt.
In the open? Cannot Hug Dirt however he is still Scared.

Some weapons have two modes of firing. On long range the figure for certain will choose the mode with the most Shock dices. Does all the modes fire on long range, because, for example the sub-machine gun has 4S on spray and 2S on aim, and look too much for long range.

You are correct and this is intentional.

If you wish, you could drop 1 Shock die at long ranges to limit it a bit, but bear in mind the gaming table (in 15mm) is only a few hundred yards across.

Does the reaction rule apply on solo?

Yes, but if you want to adjust the difficulty of the game a little, you could reduce or remove enemy reactions.

The line of sight/fire passes through many elements of cover suffice you can see part of the enemy figure, right? For example two low walls and a hedge, or three woods and a low wall.

I didn’t define that very narrowly, because each group likes to do this in a different way.

I personally play it that if you can see a part of the figure that isn’t an arm sticking out beyond the base, you can fire, but some groups prefer stopping any line of sight that crosses more than 1 terrain piece.

Finally, when the line of fire breaks?

Typically line of sight is only broken if you cannot see the figure at all.

Woods, bushes etc will Conceal figures (they no longer count as being in the open).

It’s common to have deep woods block sight after 3 inches or so.

Last, do you plan to issue historical scenarios, with specific forces, terrain and rival positions, like Tide of Iron for example. I also, purchased Polish Campaign and it use force generator too.

I currently lack the time to sufficiently playtest set-piece scenarios like that.
If that changes or I find sufficient recruits to do so, I would love to publish some scenario booklets.

I hope that helps!

[Mark75]

Ηi Tim,
The reason, I’ve made the grids was, to completely remove the measure tape from my table and really succeed. You now just measure squares that are 1″ each. Of course the main reason was to have a more clear line of sight.

[Mark75]

Ivan, thanks,
You helped me enough.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Awesome, keep us posted how you get along, your table looks great!

I am always curious to hear how introducing board gamers go. They tend to start with completely different assumptions than mini’s gamers do 🙂

[Mark75]

[Mark75]

[Mark75]

[Mark75]

Ivan, I decide to think conversed, after your answers.

I ‘ll take for granted that you can see any figure regarding the terrain elements, except those being behind buildings, area of cover like fields and woods, hills. All others are considered targets with cover or concealed in order to fire at them.

 

[Mark75]

Hi Ivan, hi all,
Last few days, managed to play three matches. one solo of my campaign and two with my 14 years old son. The games head on head had duration 6-7 hours, for sure were long but we used large table and a lot of scenery. The first was squad vs squad with one support each and the second match 2 squads with 2 supports each. My son really liked, it was the first ever touch of miniature tabletop game, and he was askind me to play again and again new scenarios.

Well, I faced some subjects, after all and I need your lights.

Always, I take  Americans and the enemy is German. The German squad and every squad, always has Mg34 machine gun in its team, sometimes as support Mg42 (the last game I played). These two guns are really lethal because they are the only (and snipers), that may shoot on reaction on long range with all the shock dices (4-6ds Mg34,  6-8ds Mg42). Also, If your scenery has more woods and hedges and less walls and buildings and these guns firing all the time above your head, then you ‘re always retreat(too much shock dices to avoid it) going back not finding cover, as these elements are not consider cover but concealments(photo).  Machine guns always pinned me on.  It is really something that bothers me on this, maybe I’m doing something wrong. I thought, to consider all the elements cover, then I thought to stop the potencial to shoot on reaction while you ‘re on long range and last I thought +to half the dices. I can’t decide. Give me your personal practise, please. Of course, I have to mention that I didn’t use the hugging dirt rule at all and maybe this is the key.

Also, I can’t figure out where  is mentioned the mortars, for example 6Omm. On section Supporting Fire you ‘re reffering on Artilleries and mortars off the table. On Weapons section, on grenade launcher you mentioned the very light mortars.  I think is the explosives section but next to blast radius column is missing the dice per figure column.  Moreover, mortars, cannons, grenades can react?  Mortars, machine guns having assistants are moving together using one action or separately?

Can a figure to hug dirt behind a hedge or a wood, or it must always be an element of cover, such a wall? And If he is doing so, the line of fire still is broken?

 

Two different scenarios.

I have created counters for everything and especially on solo games are very handy. On my campaign, I took the first objective but lost the second. The after battle period before next with all these tablets and all of a sudden results create a amazing challenge.

Thanks Ivan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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