30-04-2012, 04:44 PM
I'll gladly spend some time with you whenever to organise an army.
For me because I am so crap at this wargaming thing, it's the building of the army that is just as much fun as playing.
A lot of ppl play ww2 because they have an interest in a unit, person, battle or theatre of war, like Steve and his Arnhem fixation 8¬). So deciding on an army to field for them is easy.
If you're coming into it from a completely unknowing dispassionate perspective then picking an army is like any other system. And as with other systems you need to know the strengths and weaknesses of certain units, and some element of how the game works.
It's also worth bearing in mind the other armies people are fielding and I think it's currently running like this:
Steve, Late War British
Si A, Late War British, Late War Germans, Mid War British/American (in the pipeline)
Paul, Mid War Germans
Kris, Late War Americans
Chris, Late War Russians
But you do need some points as guidance so if you decide on say 1500 points, you can then pick a nationality and an army type. The army is generally a company but there is some semantic difference with British regiments. However, the idea is essentially the same.
The 2 basic tenets of an army are motivation and skill. These are important as it can directly affect how the game plays for you.
Skill can be: Conscript (worst), Trained or Veteran (best).
Motivation can be: Reluctant (worst), Confident or Fearless (best).
For shooting, the skill of you troops directly affects their ability to AVOID being hit. When under artillery fire it determines how easy it is for the enemy to range their guns on you (targets skill), and then how difficult it is to hit you (firers skill). For assaulting (melee, Hand to hand) it determines how successful you are at hitting the enemy.
The better the skill level, the better your troops will be at either avoiding hits, or giving hits.
Motivation is more about the morale of your troops. Their ability to remount bailed out tanks, and also whether they will continue fighting when the going gets tough.
This time, the better the motivation level the more likely it is that your troops will carry on fighting.
There are special rules for commanders and warriors that can help mitigate some of these effects.
The next thing to decide is whether you want an army that is primarily tanks, with infantry support, or infantry with tank support. Sometimes this can be down to what you prefer painting.
Now it gets interesting.
You need to now have a look at the armour lists and get some idea of the power of the vehicles, and also understand how shooting works.
In its simplest form tank combat has 3 parts...Attacker rolls to hit, Defender rolls to save, Attacker rolls firepower test.
Rolling to hit is easy, roll greater than the skill level of the target (plus any modifiers).
The number of dice you roll to hit is dependent on the Rate of Fire of the weapon firing, and whether you moved in the move phase of the same turn.
Rolling saves. So you've hit the enemy tank what now ? This is where the stats come into it.
Defender rolls a save and adds this to the armour rating of the vehicle being shot (Vehicles have front, side and rear/top armour stats), and adds 1 if the range is 16" or more.
If the save value is less than the anti-tank rating of the firing vehicle, the attacker rolls a firepower test to either knock out or bail out the vehicle that's been hit.
If the save value is equal to the anti-tank rating of the firing vehicle, the attacker rolls a firepower test to bail the vehicle out, otherwise no effect.
If the save value is greater than the anti-tank rating of the firing vehicle, then its no effect.
Bailing a vehicle out means the crew have panicked and jumped out.
They need to successfully roll a motivation test to get back in during the start phase of that players turn.
The Anti-tank rating, Firepower and Armour ratings are all on the armour stats sheets in the army list books.
So...if you know someone is fielding Tiger 1E's you can look up the stats and you'll find that they have front armour of 9.
You can then look up vehicles that have good anti-tank ratings for your nationality and army type and decide the best ones to buy. Speed can also be important. Side and rear/top armour was always the weakest, so you might want to field lots of quick tanks with high rate of fire in order to out manoeuvre your opponent and get side/rear shots in.
This is a very simplistic view of it, but it's how tank combat in FoW works.
Generally vehicles that have good armour, and good anti-tank values are the most expensive, but can also be the slowest.
So in the end it doesn’t matter whether you know the names of the tanks, how many were made or who had the most kills in one. What does matter is knowing the anti-tank, armour and firepower ratings and what special rules may be applicable to the vehicle that can affect its overall performance.
Expanding a bit on Chris' post. Each Company is made up of a number of Platoons, with each Platoon being made up of a number of squads or sections. All this is led by the Company HQ. Platoons can either be combat platoons or support platoons. Some of the platoons are compulsory depending on the type of company you're fielding. Armour companies will have compulsory armoured platoons, infantry companies will have compulsory infantry platoons. Some platoons are of a fixed size, others you can spend more points to get a bigger platoon.
The art is trying to get the balance right.
Some examples of the Orders of battle are:
Early War British-Armoured-Regiment
Early war British-Rifle-Company
Online PDF army sheet
Si
For me because I am so crap at this wargaming thing, it's the building of the army that is just as much fun as playing.
A lot of ppl play ww2 because they have an interest in a unit, person, battle or theatre of war, like Steve and his Arnhem fixation 8¬). So deciding on an army to field for them is easy.
If you're coming into it from a completely unknowing dispassionate perspective then picking an army is like any other system. And as with other systems you need to know the strengths and weaknesses of certain units, and some element of how the game works.
It's also worth bearing in mind the other armies people are fielding and I think it's currently running like this:
Steve, Late War British
Si A, Late War British, Late War Germans, Mid War British/American (in the pipeline)
Paul, Mid War Germans
Kris, Late War Americans
Chris, Late War Russians
But you do need some points as guidance so if you decide on say 1500 points, you can then pick a nationality and an army type. The army is generally a company but there is some semantic difference with British regiments. However, the idea is essentially the same.
The 2 basic tenets of an army are motivation and skill. These are important as it can directly affect how the game plays for you.
Skill can be: Conscript (worst), Trained or Veteran (best).
Motivation can be: Reluctant (worst), Confident or Fearless (best).
For shooting, the skill of you troops directly affects their ability to AVOID being hit. When under artillery fire it determines how easy it is for the enemy to range their guns on you (targets skill), and then how difficult it is to hit you (firers skill). For assaulting (melee, Hand to hand) it determines how successful you are at hitting the enemy.
The better the skill level, the better your troops will be at either avoiding hits, or giving hits.
Motivation is more about the morale of your troops. Their ability to remount bailed out tanks, and also whether they will continue fighting when the going gets tough.
This time, the better the motivation level the more likely it is that your troops will carry on fighting.
There are special rules for commanders and warriors that can help mitigate some of these effects.
The next thing to decide is whether you want an army that is primarily tanks, with infantry support, or infantry with tank support. Sometimes this can be down to what you prefer painting.
Now it gets interesting.
You need to now have a look at the armour lists and get some idea of the power of the vehicles, and also understand how shooting works.
In its simplest form tank combat has 3 parts...Attacker rolls to hit, Defender rolls to save, Attacker rolls firepower test.
Rolling to hit is easy, roll greater than the skill level of the target (plus any modifiers).
The number of dice you roll to hit is dependent on the Rate of Fire of the weapon firing, and whether you moved in the move phase of the same turn.
Rolling saves. So you've hit the enemy tank what now ? This is where the stats come into it.
Defender rolls a save and adds this to the armour rating of the vehicle being shot (Vehicles have front, side and rear/top armour stats), and adds 1 if the range is 16" or more.
If the save value is less than the anti-tank rating of the firing vehicle, the attacker rolls a firepower test to either knock out or bail out the vehicle that's been hit.
If the save value is equal to the anti-tank rating of the firing vehicle, the attacker rolls a firepower test to bail the vehicle out, otherwise no effect.
If the save value is greater than the anti-tank rating of the firing vehicle, then its no effect.
Bailing a vehicle out means the crew have panicked and jumped out.
They need to successfully roll a motivation test to get back in during the start phase of that players turn.
The Anti-tank rating, Firepower and Armour ratings are all on the armour stats sheets in the army list books.
So...if you know someone is fielding Tiger 1E's you can look up the stats and you'll find that they have front armour of 9.
You can then look up vehicles that have good anti-tank ratings for your nationality and army type and decide the best ones to buy. Speed can also be important. Side and rear/top armour was always the weakest, so you might want to field lots of quick tanks with high rate of fire in order to out manoeuvre your opponent and get side/rear shots in.
This is a very simplistic view of it, but it's how tank combat in FoW works.
Generally vehicles that have good armour, and good anti-tank values are the most expensive, but can also be the slowest.
So in the end it doesn’t matter whether you know the names of the tanks, how many were made or who had the most kills in one. What does matter is knowing the anti-tank, armour and firepower ratings and what special rules may be applicable to the vehicle that can affect its overall performance.
Expanding a bit on Chris' post. Each Company is made up of a number of Platoons, with each Platoon being made up of a number of squads or sections. All this is led by the Company HQ. Platoons can either be combat platoons or support platoons. Some of the platoons are compulsory depending on the type of company you're fielding. Armour companies will have compulsory armoured platoons, infantry companies will have compulsory infantry platoons. Some platoons are of a fixed size, others you can spend more points to get a bigger platoon.
The art is trying to get the balance right.
Some examples of the Orders of battle are:
Early War British-Armoured-Regiment
Early war British-Rifle-Company
Online PDF army sheet
Si