[Just Jack]

Hey Darby, glad to hear from you, hope all is well! Yeah, tough fight, with a few more coming, but then it’s a break over Christmas 1942 where the task force will receive replacements and get some wounded back.

V/R,

Jack

[Just Jack]

Thank you for the kind words, I’m glad you enjoyed it!

”…reminded me of the commando war comics I read as a kid.”

Yes, my games focus on the characters and the drama, the comic-book feel is certainly what I’m shooting for.  Magnificent victories and glorious defeats! 😉

V/R,

Jack

[Just Jack]

Hello, Tony, thanks a bunch, I greatly appreciate your comments!

Regarding the tables, I wish I’d made them a bit larger and more sparse.  It’s not until fight #13 that I actually get there!

I’ve delved deeper into the character aspect of this campaign and I’m telling you, it really adds a tremendous amount to the games, where you’re no longer simply making the best wargaming move, you’re trying to make the best wargaming move that matches that individual leader.  It’s really a lot of fun.

And thanks regarding the French tanks, I’m still not sure whether I’m happy with those paint jobs or not! 😉

V/R,

Jack

[Just Jack]

Thanks Darby!

V/R,

Jack

[Just Jack]

Tony – Thank you Sir, I appreciate it!  Regarding Sgt Kidd, from my standpoint it’s just down to Captain Henry being a petty, conniving @#$hole…  Regarding Capt Henry being ‘slow,’ that actually happened because he’d already been in a fight and I wanted his XO to lead the next one (which was fight #3), but then the fight went haywire: the American attack failed and the XO was KIA, so then I just sort of turned the narrative into what it became and now I’m running with it.

Thomaston – Yes Sir, that’s the one, ‘A Bridge Too Far’ is about Operation Market Garden, and what you’re describing is the British XXX Corps’ attempts have its armor and infantry break through and relieve the Allied airborne divisions (US 101st, US 82nd, and British 1st, in south-to north order).

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Hey man.  Yeah, the 1st Platoon column didn’t take that many casualties, just spent a lot of time pinned/suppressed.  That’s an interesting observation about Market Garden.

V/R,

Jack

[Just Jack]

Hey man, hope all is well.  Yeah, the French made good progress, but the American mortars did good work that allowed the anti-tank guys to take care of business.   Yeah, bazookas were sent to Tunisia, but not Morocco, I screwed up! 😉

“The constant theme in your battle report seems to be Army bashing”
Certainly, it brings me much joy.

“Have you thought about putting a Marine company in there?”
Nah.  Aside from the fact the only Marines in the MTO/ETO were OSS and ships’ company, I already have a Marine platoon I’m following on my other blog (Island Hopping).

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Tony,

Thanks, and regarding the story, absolutely!  Especially playing solo, not much fun for me otherwise 😉

Regarding the gridded surface, yes, I played some Napoleonic Portable Wargames on those boards years ago.  I also gridded up a mat (years before that) to play Peter Pig’s Poor Bloody Infantry.

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

My pleasure, John, and thank you.

You’ve got to be laughing at me; my intent was to follow ‘real-life’ much more closely, to play three fights where the French soldiers’ hearts really weren’t in it, just to say my Task Force is ‘blooded,’ but then I get the toys on the table and lose all control, rip off a string of seven knock-down, drag out fights in Morocco…

The good news is I’ve since pushed into Tunisia for another six fights so far (as part of ‘Blade Force,’ before being pulled out of the line prior to Sidi Bou Zid, Kasserine, and El Guettar), I no longer have to contend with the idea of battling a foe not totally committed to the fight (though it will pop up once again with the Italians when the Task Force reaches Sicily)!

Hope all is well.

V/R,

Jack

[Just Jack]

Hey Darby, glad to see you, hope all is well!  Yeah, the French have been quite stout (just wait til you see the next one!); not following history very well, am I? 😉  I didn’t intend on making them very tough, but then, once I got into the games, I couldn’t help myself, so not very historical but a whole lotta fun 😉

Thank you so much Tony, I really appreciate it!  Yes, the fighting withdrawal scenario can be a tough one to pull off; I’ve had a few that worked well, and a few that didn’t.  I can recall one a couple years ago when I was playing the side conducting the fighting withdrawal and my opening round of fire was just absolutely vicious, really ripped holes in the enemy’s line, made the need to withdraw sort of pointless…

And yes, popular opinion seems to be with me in allowing MGs to pin/suppress armored vehicles.  We’ve all read about plenty of times when that wasn’t the case, but there are plenty of WWII fights where tanks, particularly unescorted tanks, were driven off by opposing infantry, many times without even much of a fight.

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Madman,

“Need to play a game with armour once I get the basics down.”
And for the record, don’t get fooled by all the chaff, the basics are this: pick a side and roll a D6. If you roll a 1, everyone can move without drawing react fire, but then every enemy that saw it gets to move without drawing react fire too, and then it’s the enemy’s turn.  Roll a D6, rinse and repeat.
If you roll a 6, everybody that can shoot gets to shoot, then every enemy that can shoot gets to shoot, then it’s the enemy’s turn.
If you roll a 2-5, count the number of your units and divide by three, that’s how many units you can activate to move and shoot/shoot and move.  Enemy units that can see you can react, but then they don’t get to activate during their turn.  Now it’s the enemy’s turn, roll a D6 and carry out.  If they roll a 2-5, any of your units that didn’t activate during your turn can react during the enemy’s turn.
Shooting is simple: you have the two kinds of dice (Shock and Kill), and you roll them at the same time, looking for 1s and 6s.
1 Shock: The unit is pinned, it cannot move but can fire or rally when activated, can’t react, -1 in close combat
6 Shock: The unit is suppressed, it cannot move or shoot, only rally when activated, can’t react, -2 in close combat.
1 Kill: The unit is taking casualties and panicking (“Men Down!”), cannot move, shoot, rally, or react (can only be rallied by another friendly unit moving into base contact with it), -3 in close combat.
6 Kill: The unit is knocked out of the fight.
Rallying requires you to roll a D6 to see what happened; 2-5 is successful, 1s and 6s are bad news, carry them out just as you would being shot at , with the exception being that suppressed units that roll another 6 actually fall back 6 inches and stay suppressed.
Close combat is a D6 vs D6 roll with modifiers for troop quality and morale state (described above).

That is 5Core in a nutshell, couldn’t be simpler, buy the rules and get the eight million different pieces of chrome/flavor and add in to taste, but you can play a game of 5Core with what I just gave you, so everyone should be playing 5Core.  Now go play! 😉

“Probably needs house rules or scenario specific rules. In a game between near peers wrt technology not an issue as written. It is when one side has a technology advantage and how that is implemented.”
I do it all the time, and it’s no different than what I was talking about with a 37mm ATG firing at a Tiger.  You can’t hurt it, but if you’re really lucky you might make them hesitate, or even back off (if you manage to suppress them and then they fail a rally roll with another suppression; happens quite frequently in my games, actually).  And you can do whatever you want; if I’ve got particularly brittle troops, when they roll to rally, I’ll make them use 2D6 and force them to take the WORSE of the two rolls!  If they pass that once then I’ll typically go back to a 1D6 rally roll to show they’ve kind of “cowboy’ed up” for this fight.  Conversely, for heroes and really veteran/committed troops, I’ll typically roll 2D6 for rally rolls and allow them to take the better roll, but nothing aggravates you more than rolling snakeyes or boxcars!!!

“To me these need to be addressed before games.”
Certainly, but I suppose I have an advantage here, I’m either playing solo or I’m umpiring for little boys, not playing against another adult.  Having said that, I used to play IABSM against my father and we’d have to talk through the ‘type’ of shot and work to an agreement, so it can be done.

“Thanks for the ideas and I am sure to pick that brain a few times in the future.”
It’s my pleasure, happy to help.  I certainly hope Ivan isn’t mad with me laying out the guts of the rules; I haven’t spoken to him in awhile, but if he’s the same dude he was, he’d just be happy people were playing 5Core.

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

“My one mental block is are leaders, and their effect, gamed on the table, or is their presence abstracted?”
The overall commander in 5CCC gets a ‘free’ activation each turn, which is very useful for rallying under fire, and provides a bonus to troops in close combat.  I’ve also used additional command stands similarly, as a sort of ‘bonus,’ in order to help model qualitative differences between opposing forces on the table top.  In IABSM, they sort of just fight like any other stand (if I recall correctly), but their command cards are removed from the deck should they become casualties.

“I like more detail to my armour rules.”
I suppose you could ‘bolt it on’ to either set of rules.  The lack of detail doesn’t really bother me in company-level games as I my viewpoint is the Company commander is not concerned with where a tank got hit, or what kind of ammunition it uses, only whether it is still in the fight or not.  But, as always, to each their own, and I don’t see how it would adversely impact either set of rules to add more detailed tank/anti-tank mechanisms (other than making the game longer).

” Secondly: in my case I intend on having infantry centric games the large majority of ones I play.”
That’s part of what I love about 5CCC.  The armor rules are seamless because they use the exact same mechanisms as the infantry rules, which keeps the game simple and quick.

“It also can come into play when using the same rules for near future or sci fi where infantry wears armour so modeling the effects of that armour is considered. Either a penetration is required for effect or a combined penetration and effect of armour on combat result (damage) is implemented.”
See, from my standpoint at company-level, the lack of that level of granularity doesn’t bother me: either the firing unit has the capability to render the target combat ineffective or it doesn’t (and thus warrants Kill Dice), and/or the firing unit has the capability to affect the target’s combat capability (to pin it down or suppress it) or it doesn’t (and thus warrants Shock Dice).  For example, we could say that an M8 Armored Car firing its 37mm main gun at the frontal armor of a Tiger I at point-blank range cannot knock out the target, so warrants 0 Kill dice, but could adversely impact the Tiger’s crew, so warrants 1 Shock dice, maybe even a second Shock dice if we’re feeling charitable due to the shooting occurring at point-blank range, the quick-firing capability of the armored car, and let’s say they’ve got a cool, veteran crew that knows it’s survival rests on not panicking and delivering fast, accurate fire on the Tiger’s vision blocks, for example.

It’s a super easy, quick system.  I suppose a potential downside to it is that the players/umpire have to constantly make ‘value’ judgments on capability/effectiveness (rather than being able to look in the book and see exactly how it should be rated), but that doesn’t bother me in the least (is actually a strength, which allows me to constantly tailor the action to my beliefs and preferences), and is the same as IABSM’s judgement calls on ‘good/okay/bad’ shots in any case.

V/R,
Jack

 

 

[Just Jack]

Tony – I certainly did, it felt great! 😉 I appreciate it, and yes, 5Core certainly works very well for me, and the campaign is progressing very nicely, I’m almost all the way through Morocco and almost finished with Blade Force, then it will be on to Kasserine and El Guettar to close out the campaign in Tunisia.  I’ve played twelve games so far, working on getting them written up, my plan is to post one batrep per week.  Gotta pace myself so I don’t completely drop out and disappear again.

Madman – Thanks, glad you liked it, and yes, it seems I’m caught up in the ‘ooh shiny,’ must keep looking for new stuff despite the fact I’m perfectly happy with 5Core.  And I recall we discussed some of this previously; I’m not sure which version I’m using, probably the original one I’d imagine, I was heavily involved in getting it published but didn’t really pay too much attention to what came after.  I’m happy to hear you’re looking to adapt them; if there’s anything I can help with, just ask, I’m happy to help, and I’m told that I have a knack for explaining some of the concepts in a bit more of a simple and straightforward manner than is laid out in the book 😉

I’m not familiar with ‘Hell and Uncivil Disorder,’ but I’ve played, and enjoyed, quite a bit of IABSM.  I kind of get on spurts where I’ll play a string of several games and have lots of fun with them, then kind of burn out on them.  The card-based activation is super fun and super aggravating at the same time, and the more games I play in a row, the more the latter starts to outweigh the former.  Another aspect for why I’m not really playing it right now/anymore, is that it seems to work better for me when I have a ton of troops on the table (usually a battalion’s worth, you can see a series of six fights here: http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2019/10/on-northern-shoulder-of-kursk-with.html), but now that I’ve made the move to 15mm it doesn’t work because it’s too many troops for a 6′ x 4′ table.  It worked pretty well in 10mm, and would probably be even better in 6mm.

Thomaston – Yeah man, that’s just your natural penchant (you and Rod) for wanting to see me lose! 😉  Hope all is well.

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Ootkust – No doubt, thanks!

Dave – Yep, that’s exactly what I did, called them Task Force Reisman, after their commander.  It’s a tank company, a rifle company, a recon company (armored cars and halftracked infantry), and attached platoons of engineers, ATGs, MGs, 81mm mortars, and M7 SPGs).

Rod – Yessir, no doubt I am.  Klink isn’t dead, I’m dying to get into Barbarossa, but after two false starts I’ve decided to head off in a different direction for a bit.  I’m planning on beginning to post this new stuff next week.  Hope you and your family are doing great, Happy New Year!

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Thanks, Andrew and Willz, I appreciate it.

Thomaston – Two games and no painting!!!??? What the hell have you been doing?  Not still trying to kill yourself running, or picked up some other non-wargaming habit, have ya?  ‘Cause we both know it’s not worth it 😉

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Hey buddy, hope all is well, and hope things are looking up; if I recall correctly, last time we talked you had experienced a calamity with your figures.

Yeah, camo is definitely easier on 15mm figures than 10mm 😉

Haven’t played a game of Blood Red Skies yet. Yeah, I’m a wargaming imbecile (maybe just a regular old imbecile, too): I just can’t control myself, the ‘ooh, shiny’ effect was too much for me, took me from ‘Tiny Air Combat’ to ‘Pretty Damn Big Air Combat’…

Regarding 3mm and BKC/CWC, I don’t have any pics of it, but back when I first started out in wargaming (2009), I actually began with CWC in 3mm, then moved into BKC in 3mm, with probably a hundred games played between then and 2012, when I moved on and sold off all the 3mm gear, before buying some more for Africa Imagi-nations (and a couple side projects), but sold all that off as well (found a sizable batch of WWII aircraft lying in a box not long ago, need to sell them to someone that will use them).

In any case, yes, played quite a bit of BKC/CWC games, mostly against my father, but quite a few solo as well. I made some changes to play a skirmish version (http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2013/12/insurgent-commander.html?m=0) and I made some alterations to make games against my kids quicker, but I don’t know that I did anything special to make it solo; its activation system seemed to take care of all that!

I certainly miss your crazy-ass campaigns, regardless of setting, and hope to get the opportunity to see some more. If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.

V/R,

Jack

[Just Jack]

Hello John and Darby, it’s good to see some old friends still around!  I hope all is well, and I appreciate the kind words.

I have good news regarding the gaming: I’ve played seven fights in North Africa so far, with number eight all set up, just waiting for me.  Will begin posting them soon.

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Thomaston – Ahh, gotcha.   Yes, trust me, I wasn’t happy about the tanks, either.  Trust me, I was hoping to see a bunch of cat and mouse played out between the two Tigers and three bazooka teams, but never saw a single rocket fired…

I have the boys roll to contact arty if they use any unit other than the CO or FO to call for fire, and I think I’ll keep it that way (or maybe even eliminate that as an option, so that only the CO/FO can call for fire) in the interest of speeding things up.  Similarly, I do ‘scatter’ in a lot of my games (typically use a D12 for direction using the ‘clock method,’ and a D10 for distance in inches), but again, want to keep things moving.

“…your plan to comply with USMC.”
I feel quite lucky that I don’t have to comply with that plan.  The thing about tanks is that you really don’t need tanks, until you REALLY need tanks…  They certainly saved my ass a couple times in Fallujah (bringing it up because this past Monday, the 4th, was the 18th anniversary of when we breached through the Soda Factory in the southeast corner of the city, and spent the rest of the month fighting house to house)…

John – “…it would not be historical.”  That is quite interesting, coming from a Flames of War player! 😉  And I’m just joking, to each his own.  And while I agree artillery certainly claims the majority of casualties, that doesn’t make it the, or even a, decisive element on the battlefield.  If it were, you wouldn’t need infantry, and artillery wouldn’t be called a ‘supporting element’ providing ‘supporting fires’ 😉  And I’m not just being a ‘homer’ here; history is replete with poor grunts watching a preparatory environment and saying things like “My God, nothing could survive that,” only to advance and find an enemy that not only survived, but was quite capable (when allowed time to recover).  So, for my games at least, I don’t really mind the idea of allowing arty only the opportunity to suppress, not kill, and I’m looking forward to giving it a shot.

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Rod – Thanks buddy, hope all is well! Yes, my goal is to recruit, indoctrinate, train, task, and deploy my entire 12-man team of eight year olds! All in good time 😉 And no problem with mothers yet; I am in Texas 😉

And you’ve captured my dilemma perfectly: artillery does indeed rule the roost, but it doesn’t make for the most fun on the tabletop. I’ve literally been thinking about taking away artillery’s ability to knock out targets, make it so arty can only suppress them (roll three dice, ‘to hit’ as appropriate, but no saves or kills, any hits simply suppress). And leave small arms fire as is, which can get lucky every now and again. These changes should make it so that supporting fires are used to suppress and infantry are used to close assault.

Thomaston – This game was a by request delivery for you 😉 And whaddaya mean ‘again’? The Germans won the first two! But you do bring up another issue: the Tigers haven’t played a significant role in any of the three fights. I chalk it up to the boys being too impatient to wait, and the tanks were best used in the second game, where a platoon of infantry was left back with them.

John – Yup, lots of fun.

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

I s’pose so.

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

John,

The correct answer is, “as many as possible” 😉
Of course, there is no correct answer, everyone should do what suits them, but to answer your question, I think (anecdotally) most WWII gamers have multiple armies/forces.

And since the trend was begun, I’ll catalog mine as well:

American: US Army (desert, temperate, winter, and urban -not completed-)
-US Paratroopers (desert, temperate, and urban)
-US Marines (tropical)

British/Commonwealth: Army (desert, temperate, and urban -not completed-)
-Paras (temperate, urban, and desert -not completed-)
-Commandos (temperate and desert -neither completed-)
-Australian (tropical and desert -not completed-)
-Indian Army (desert – not completed-)

Soviet: Army (temperate, winter, and urban)
-Naval Infantry (temperate -not completed-)

French: Army (temperate and desert -neither completed-)

Italian: Army (desert)
-Bersaglieri (desert -not completed-)

Japanese: Army (tropical)

German: Army (temperate, desert, winter, and urban)
-FJ (temperate, desert, winter -not completed-, and urban -not completed-)
-SS (temperate and urban -neither completed)

I’ve also got 10mm Soviets, Germans, and British, and 6mm US, British, and Germans, as well as aircraft and ships of several nations.  It’s a sickness…

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

John – Excellent, now get on with it! 😉

Thomaston – Thanks man, it was lots of fun.  Not sure what we’ll get into this weekend, but I definitely want to keep the ball rolling.  And why are you so happy the Germans won?  Good point about the made in Hollywood story 😉

Rod – Thank you, Sir.  The mechanics are super simple: when you shoot at a unit you either miss or you hit them, and if you hit them they go ‘down,’ which means they can’t do anything.  They stay this way until the end of the turn, at which point you test all ‘down’ units to see if they break (removed from the game) or rally (back to normal).  There is no ‘down’ in close combat, if you’re beaten you’re out of the fight, and units that are ‘down’ are automatically defeated and out of the game if they are attacked by an enemy unit in close combat.  So there’s no use shooting at a unit that is down, but if you can touch them they’re automatically out.

You’re comment about the German mortar and US pack howitzers is interesting; they didn’t feel overpowered to me; they didn’t cause many casualties, but they sure as heck suppressed quite a few units, which the Germans were good about then close assaulting off the table (while the Americans were never in a position to exploit, the Germans being able to rally before the Yanks could reach them).

And you’re absolutely right about the time with the boys, it’s fantastic, and they seem to be learning.  Whether they join the military or not is up to them, but they’re (hopefully) learning how to analyze situations, think about and prioritize goals, think a few steps ahead, and try to forecast what the opposition’s moves might be.  It’s really cool.

And negative, we get plenty of 1:1 scale baseball (both boys play, and my daughter plays softball).

Take care, and thanks everyone!

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

John – I’m working on it.

Rod – Thanks buddy!

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Hi John, and yep, good to finally get a game in again, and the boys had a great time.  Guadalcanal, eh?  Sounds fantastic, I need to get back to my own Pacific campaign as well.

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Darby,

It’s also from War Sigil. I’ve got a beach, a desert, a snow, and a Martian landscape (which I intend on using for bombed-out cities, though it is a bit too orange) from them.

V/R,

Jack

[Just Jack]

Oh my goodness…

How dare you impugn my integrity? I’d have mind to fly down there and knock your block off, IF you weren’t the model for the dad on Bluey 😉

V/R,

Jack

[Just Jack]

Shaun – I was expecting a lot more praise from you, after all the trash you’ve been talking 😉 The rules are cool, but I’m with you, if I’m playing by myself I’m using something else.

Rod – Glad to see you’re still kicking! Yup, good fun for all, and my stuff looks a lot better now that the carpet goes under the mat 😉

 

V/R,

Jack

[Just Jack]

Tin Man,

Cool stuff man.  On the strength of your last batrep I picked up the rules and gave them a run out with my sons this past weekend.  They’ve got some clever mechanisms and we had a lot of fun.

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Tony,

Gotcha, and that’s certainly what they were made for, but I just replaced figures with stands and pretty much kept everything else the same (so a rifle stand got 1 card, an LMG stand got 2 cards, an MG stand got 3 cards, etc…).

I did change the anti-tank fire though; instead of using his points value, I just rated weapons and armor on a spectrum: Softskin/MG (1 card), Light Armor/AT (2), medium armor/AT (3), heavy armor/AT (4), and super heavy armor/AT (5). I rated the 75mm pack howitzers as light AT and the bazookas as medium (but only gave them a 10″ range), rated the Pz III as light armor and light gun, rated the Tiger as heavy armor and heavy gun, with weapons getting +1 card and armor getting -1 card if they shooter got on the flank/rear. To me it streamlines things by keeping the firing mechanism the same as anti-personnel fire (a hit puts the vehicle down and you check for casualties as normal at the end of the turn).

I think it worked pretty well for the boys and can’t wait to give it another go.

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Darby – Thanks man, and it was a lot of fun, but yes, the little guy really pushed his luck. Having said that, by all accounts Gavin should have one. The rules use opposed card draws to determine the victor, and in this case the German defender could pull only one card while Gavin was pulling a whopping five!  But the older boy (playing Germans) pulled a King, which can’t be beat (Aces are low and attacker has to beat, not just tie).

Tony – Thanks a bunch! Yeah, I really love this mat, and putting towels under it to show elevation/depressions, I just worry that it doesn’t show up that well on camera.

“I will have never guessed that you used those rules!”

That’s funny, why’s that? I’m always on the lookout for quick, simple rules with interesting activation mechanics, particularly when I’m playing with the youngsters.

And I thought the rules worked pretty well, but for the timing of reinforcements (which, to be fair, is a problem for a lot of rule sets, I think).

V/R,

Jack

[Just Jack]

Hello, John, and thanks! Hope all is well.

V/R,

Jack

[Just Jack]

Hey Darby, hope all is well!  Yes, I certainly have, and thank you.  I can’t wait to play out their adventures, I’ve just been on too much of a roll getting stuff painted that I actually haven’t played a game in over a year!  A travesty…

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Version 1.09???  How very interesting 😉  Glad to see the process worked, and hope the rules do you right.

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Madman,

Not sure where Ivan’s at.  I’d try shooting him an email; I think it’s runequester at gmail or something like that (he used to put it in all the rulebooks).  If he doesn’t answer I’ll email you the original version.

If I can find some time I might go download the ‘People’s Edition,’ just to see what’s in there.

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

TinMan – No sweat, I know all about ‘real life’ intruding on wargaming time.  I’m happy to help, hope you get some great games in.  And post them on your blog 😉

Tony S – Yep!  No one needs to accuse you of cheating, you just get a real bad feeling deep down inside 😉

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Damn, sorry man.  Let me know if I can be of any assistance.

And I’ll start assisting right now: forget about the six-minute mile 😉

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Madman – Sorry man, I don’t really have anything to add.  I don’t have “The People’s Edition,” never even heard of it, I guess I’ve just got the ‘regular’ old 5Core Company Command.  I suppose I could email it to you, but I’d rather wait a bit for Ivan to turn up and have him square it away.

Tin Man – You need to get over to the thread you called me out in, I answered your questions several days ago!  😉

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

“I was thinking of starting some 10mm sculpting but after seing all the armies and piles of lead you’ve got I pretty much lost my motivation.”
I’m not following, how did seeing all my trash de-motivate you?

“Had an accident, dropped my tray of minis and a good quarter of them got crushed.”
Dude, that’s horrible, I’m sorry to hear that.  That we devastate me, I’m sure it’s even worse for you, having designed and created all that yourself…

“After nearly 4 months I still haven’t build up the motivation to touch minis again.”
Hmmm….  Yeah, I think we all go through ups and downs, and periods where we feel like doing something or not doing something.  I’ve been lucky in that I’ve managed to stay involved with painting and basing forces, but I haven’t played a game in over a year, and sometimes the only thing keeping me from playing is the thought of how much work it is to pull stuff out, set it up, play, take it down, download all the pics, type up all the action, and post it.  But I do my best to navigate those eddies until my motivation returns, and I’m sure it will for both of us.

Let me know if there’s anything I can do.  You’ve been so much help to me, I’d send you some of my stuff for free if it would help get ya back up on your (wargaming) feet.   But we both know what the true culprit is; I told ya not to be running marathons! 😉

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

Madman,

Please forgive me, and trust me, I know what it’s like to be frustrated with rules, but I’m just not following here.  I’m not just ‘going with what works for me; I pulled my copy out and it’s right there on page 5, which is titled “Turn Sequence.”

“THE ACTION ROLL:
When it is your turn to play, roll a D6. If the roll is a 1 or a 6 a special turn takes place and is carried out as described below.  On any other score, the turn is played out as normal.

NORMAL TURNS:
When your side takes a normal turn, you may select squads to activate and carry out activities.
You may activate 1 squad for every 3 in your force, with a minimum number of 2.
Hence, forces from 1-5 squads have 2 activations, 6-8 squads has 3 activations, 9-11 squads has 4 activations and so forth.

Each turn, you may select which squads to activate, completely independently of which were selected in the previous turn. For example, you may activate the same squad several turns in a row.

When active, a squad may move a standard move and may fire their weapons at a visible target. Fire may take place before or after they move.

Figures that are hiding in cover may peek over the cover to fire, instead of moving.
Players may declare and resolve each action in turn. They are not required to declare all activated figures ahead of time.”

It then goes on to explain what a 1 (Scurry) and a 6 (Firefight) are.  Regarding your question about ‘who goes first’:

“Unless the scenario presents a clear attacker, simply determine who goes first with a coin flip or a random dice roll. In a solo game, the player always takes the first turn unless the scenario is a defensive action.  Once determined, the turns then alternate between the two forces for the remainder of the game.”

HAVING SAID THAT, it does not expressly say “Player A rolls command dice and activates his units while Player B May react, and then Player B rolls command dice and activates his units while Player A may react,” it simply moves into explaining the different types of activations, reaction, fire combat, melee combat, weapons types, etc…

So the rules certainly aren’t perfect, but my issue with Ivan has never been that he doesn’t put enough into the rules, it’s that he hangs too much superfluous stuff (recognizing that that is simply my taste in rules, whereas that ‘flavor’ or ‘chrome’ actually makes the game enjoyable for some folks) in the rules.

In any case, I’m happy to help out as much as I can if you have any other questions.

V/R,
Jack

[Just Jack]

“I haven’t been keeping up on things.”

Yeah, I took a break from the internet.

”Taking a break form miniatures.”

Heresy! Shit, what else would I do, sleep? 😉

“Must be a wall high stack of 15mm?”

Indeed it is.

“What happened to the old armies?”

Uhh… I sold some, but still have most of them. An interested buyer? 😉

V/R,

Jack

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