AM(Almost)A - Author of A War Transformed - New Weird WW1 game (Osprey)

[fred]

Thanks - hadn’t spotted the shooting impact.

It is a bit confusing that these 3 appear as keywords, but aren’t in the list of keywords - and the rules for them are quite spread out. Fine once you know, but just makes it a bit harder to put everything together at first

[Snackelwolf]

Hi all,

What size bases are you putting your Manifestations on? For example, a medium sized creature.
And, are you placing your witches and other solo leaders on something bigger than the suggested 25mm?
In this pic I'm weighing between what I'm assuming is standard for a medium creature, and one size larger (about 30mm
in black).

It's a hard call -- consistency, vs. helping special models be a bit easier to identify on the field

[Ultravanillasmurf]

My current basing plan is use 25mm bases in general and larger as required.

[fred]

More questions, as we get close to our first game tonight!

1) Command Tokens - do unused ones carry over from turn-to-turn, or is the total calculated afresh each command phase?

2) Manifestion Dice - these do carry over turn for turn (unless used)?

3) Saving Throw for Armoured vehicles - when is this used - as on page 68 Anti-tank weapons have their own tables and a note that Saving Throws aren’t allowed? I think it may be used for Anti-tank rifle shots as these are the only Ordanance weapons that aren’t Anti-Tank.

4) Arcing fire - any limits on this? Can I put my field gun directly behind a house and shoot at anything on the table (within the 72” range - which is pretty much the whole table). The way this is described sounds OK for grenades and mortars which could be fired/thrown nearly vertically, but a bit odd for Field guns which were pretty flat trajectory. Does a unit have to use Arcing Fire always, can it shoot normally if it has LoS?

5) Direct Fire - can’t see a definition of this, and it’s only on a couple of weapons.

6) No Man’s Land Recovery scenario - when are the objectives scored?

7) Cavalry - there are notes that say cavalry are fragile to shooting - but I can’t see any rules about this and Lancers get a ST3 which is better than Line Infantry.

Thanks!

[A_War_Transformed]

More questions, as we get close to our first game tonight!

1) Command Tokens - do unused ones carry over from turn-to-turn, or is the total calculated afresh each command phase?

2) Manifestion Dice - these do carry over turn for turn (unless used)?

3) Saving Throw for Armoured vehicles - when is this used - as on page 68 Anti-tank weapons have their own tables and a note that Saving Throws aren’t allowed? I think it may be used for Anti-tank rifle shots as these are the only Ordanance weapons that aren’t Anti-Tank.

4) Arcing fire - any limits on this? Can I put my field gun directly behind a house and shoot at anything on the table (within the 72” range - which is pretty much the whole table). The way this is described sounds OK for grenades and mortars which could be fired/thrown nearly vertically, but a bit odd for Field guns which were pretty flat trajectory. Does a unit have to use Arcing Fire always, can it shoot normally if it has LoS?

5) Direct Fire - can’t see a definition of this, and it’s only on a couple of weapons.

6) No Man’s Land Recovery scenario - when are the objectives scored?

7) Cavalry - there are notes that say cavalry are fragile to shooting - but I can’t see any rules about this and Lancers get a ST3 which is better than Line Infantry.

Thanks!

So -

1) no, they refresh at the start of each round
2) yes, you keep those until you use them
3) armoured vehicles use their saving throw in close combat too
4) not RAW, though I do take your point - this is probably something that will need a house rule or just an agreement on what is (and isn’t) acceptable/sensible. Arcing shot weapons always scatter, and this is part of the trade off inherent in using them given their destructive power.
5) direct fire weapons use the scattering tables on page 69, with the shot veering either to the left or right by an amount which is largely dependant on the distance to the target.
6) at the end of the sixth round all the points objective points are tallied and the remaining selection points added, with the winner being the one with the most combined points.
7) as cavalry don’t gain the benefits of cover they are more vulnerable generally, although their relative speed makes them a little hard to hit!

Hope that helps!

[fred]

That’s great thanks.

We played our first game last night - was good fun - we got the core mechanics fairly quickly - took quite a lot of rule flicking to work out a few things - but to be expected for a first game.

We were surprised how little impact CSM had in the game - quite a lot of units got 1 for dropping below half-strength, but these had little impact on game play. And no unit got close to needing to take a Battle Shock Test. Casualties were for more important in taking out units. We couldn’t see any morale type mechanism for units that have taken heavy casualties from shooting?

Broken - is this only triggered from a very heavy loss in close combat, as this seems a very fringe scenario, and it seems far more likely for a unit to be destroyed long before in breaks?

[Metternich]

In the list of major nations involved in the conflict (Germany, UK, France, Russia, US Volunteers), I noticed that there is no list for Austro-Hungary.  Deliberate?  Or an oversight?  The AWT "history" notes that the Germans helped the Austro-Hungarians beat the Italians - but at least in our world that wouldn't have meant the Austro-Hungarians would have dropped out of the fight (certainly not while there was still a threat from Russia).  The AH Empire would be a very interesting faction choice - what with the large number of Slavic troops (Czechs and Slovaks; Serbo-Croats; Bosnians - who were very tough fighters, much like France's colonial troops - another elite force would be the Kaiserjaeger btns. made up of Alpine Austrians); Hungarians; Romanians (6 1/4% of the population) among its forces (not to mention Austrians), making for a wide mix of traditions and folklore (and languages - even within one regiment).   After 1916, Austro-Hungary had storm troops; flamethrowers; a submachine gun (the Riegel - issued in very small numbers and used almost like an automatic rifle); light mortars; heavy mortars; potent 37mm guns (two platoons per regiment; 4 guns per platoon); and a stylish armored car (they were even working on a practical helicopter).  A Theosophical Society was founded in Vienna in 1887 and included several prominent members, and there were other prominent occultists in Vienna engaged in Spiritualism (e.g. mediums holding seances).

[Metternich]

In WW 1 (in our timeline anyway), the French did have flamethrowers (adopting their own version following the first German flamethrower attacks), as did the Italians (utilizing the French Schilt model).  I note that the Army lists for the French do not include flamethrowers -  a deliberate omission, or an oversight?

[Snackelwolf]

That’s great thanks.

We played our first game last night - was good fun - we got the core mechanics fairly quickly - took quite a lot of rule flicking to work out a few things - but to be expected for a first game.

We were surprised how little impact CSM had in the game - quite a lot of units got 1 for dropping below half-strength, but these had little impact on game play. And no unit got close to needing to take a Battle Shock Test. Casualties were for more important in taking out units. We couldn’t see any morale type mechanism for units that have taken heavy casualties from shooting?

Broken - is this only triggered from a very heavy loss in close combat, as this seems a very fringe scenario, and it seems far more likely for a unit to be destroyed long before in breaks?

We are playing our first game in two weeks. I wager CSM will be game-changing, but only on occasion.  We'll see.
Any other insights to share from your first experience with the system? How much terrain did you use? were your lists standard, with a captain or did you replace with something more esoteric? Did you manage to summon anything?

[fred]

From 3 games so far

CSM - for typical units these have low impact, most often units only get 1. For single stand units they can have a bit more of an impact but very dependant on the special rules for them. Haven’t ever had to do the test for getting 4 CSM on a unit.

Terrain - you need loads - the ranges are big and move distances short. It only felt on our third game we got close to getting this right.

Upgraded Captains are good - but I wouldn’t bother for the first game - it just gives you more special rules to cross-check.

Definitely put together army lists with the keyword special rules, and weapon rules it will save you a lot of game time.

Summoning is great fun. Most games we have had several things summoned. We have found rituals a bit meh. But throw loads of dice into rituals to try to get summoning dice. Remember to keep some command tokens if you summon something that needs CT for its special rules.

The turn order is interesting - especially regarding the effects of pinning - if a unit has already activated then pinning it has no impact.

[Metternich]

  Welcome comments regarding Rifle Grenadier as an upgrade, and the Lewis as a LMG: 
     I think the Grenade Rifle range should be reduced to perhaps 15" (the Grenade Rifleman is able to use his rifle when not using the grenade), and the upgrade points to perhaps 2; the Lewis should be reclassified as a LMG.  In the game rules the Rifle Grenade seems to have an inordinately long range (25") and be too powerful, especially in comparison to the Automatic Rifle (most especially if you consider the Lewis Gun an Autorifle).  The WW1 Rifle Grenade had an effective range of 160 to 180 meters (depending on nationality and type) (while the hand grenade had a 30 meter effective range, maybe 40 for German stick grenades); a WW1 rifle had an effective range of about 600 meters; the Chauchat had an effective range of 200 meters. By comparison, the Lewis gun had an effective range of 800 meters (with bipod) - which seems more that of a Light Machine Gun.  The rules as written seem to penalize the British (who have the Lewis gun - whose performance is more akin to the German MG 08/15 but in a lighter package).  Furthermore, the Autorifle (for 3 upgrade points) requires a two-man crew out of your 8-man squad (so in order to gain 4 dice for the AR, you have to sacrifice one rifle).  In reality, the Autorifles (such as the BAR and Chauchat) weren't crew-served weapons; men in the squad did carry additional magazines for them, but they were operated by one man (unlike the Lewis and MG 08/15 which were crew served). 
   

[Metternich]

Question re the Automatic Rifle, was it supposed to have keyword Quickfire? There seems to be a discrepancy in the rules.  The description of Automatic Rifleman on page 127 says: "Comparatively light, they can be brought to bear on the move ..."  However, in What Units Can Shoot (page 560), indicates "a unit may not shoot if it does not have the keyword quickfire and has moved this phase."  And Automatic Rifleman does not have the keyword quickfire.  Seems that Auto Rifle, to be "brought to bear on the move" (which is absent from the description of the Light Machine Gun) should be quickfire.