Battlegroup Question

[Dice Roller]

Quick question on Pinned and Rallying.

Firstly, can a unit have more than one Pinned marker? The rules insinuate they can but I can find nothing making that explicit.
Secondly, when Rallying and rolling dice to remove Pinned markers, do all Pinned markers have to come off the same unit or can they be spread across multiple units?

Cheers

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Greetings,

I’ll have a stab at this but I can’t guarantee I’ve got it correct, rather this is how we play it.


Q1:

Units can only have 1 pinned marker (they are not cumulative). On page 21 of the small soft back rulebook there is a boxed text body entitled PINNED (just under the Pzr IV) this is clarified.

Copied below from p21

PINNED
A common game-term throughout these rules, a pinned unit (be it an infantry squad, deployed gun, tank, or anything else) is one that is under so much fire that it can do little else except look to its own survival. The men or crew might be hiding in a ditch nearby, manoeuvring to find better concealment or just hugging any cover, but they can’t do much else. A unit can only have one pinned marker at a time. Additional pinned results have no further effect. A pinned unit cannot be given any orders, and will thus do nothing until its pinning marker is removed.

Q2:

From the answer to Q1 we can infer that you must be able to remove pins from multiple units as each unit can only have 1 pin and you can take multiple battle counters to reduce 1,2 or 3d6 pins.

From pg 15

RALLY
The last part of player’s turn is to rally pinned troops . Units marked as pinned can have their pinned markers removed, thus getting them back in the battle .
To do this, the player must take a battle counter from the pot . For each counter taken, they may remove a D6 markers from any pinned units he wishes . If two counters are taken then 2D6 counters can be removed . If three counters are taken, then 3D6 counters are removed and so on . Declare this before taking any counters .

The bold section feels slightly clumsily/badly written. I would read it as “ For each counter taken, they may remove the amount of pins (from any of their units) equal to the value rolled on 1d6”

 I did check the dispatches (mini magazines with scenarios and Q&A’s) but this didn’t come up. I did find this note:

49. In the Rally phase, if I want to draw multiple counters to rally 2D6 or 3D6 units, do I have to declare this first, or can I do it one after
the other and see how it goes first before drawing a second counter?

Declare it first, ie; ‘I’ll take two counters’. We play nice though,
and if a player rolls badly and then wants another counter, I let them take it - who I am to stop them taking counters? That’s our house rule though. Literally, declare it.

Hope this helps, someone a bit more knowledgeable may chime in (V?) but I think I’ve got it correct. Anything else give me a shout (and if you want the dispatches pdf’s).

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

[Dice Roller]

Cheers, Andrew.
Yes, I like your explanation, and that's how I initially read it.

Here's the bit that made me question if a unit has one or more Pinned markers.
On page 37, under Allocating Pinning. The last sentence reads, 'If there are more Pinning Hits than units in range, the start again, allocating multiple Pinning Hits to the closest units again.'

That clearly states that a unit can have multiple Pins. So how does that work - a Pinned result is a Pinned result regardless of number of Pinned markers (in which case, what's the point in allocating them?), or does a unit get multiple Pinned markers and must rally off each one?
I prefer your explanation and would be happy to play it that way, but is that what was intended?

[BeneathALeadMountain]

DiceRoller you’re really making me work! 

4. ALLOCATE PINNING
Take any Pinning dice (result 2-5) and allocate them one at time to a unit, starting with the closest unit to the spotter marker and working outwards, up to 10" away. This includes any units that have already taken Direct Hits, so the units closest to the marker are likely to take the worst punishment. Again, this includes any friendly units. If there are more Pinning Hits than units in range, then start again, allocating multiple Pinning Hits to the closest units again.

Here you are allocating potentially pinning hits not pinned markers in themselves  i.e. units may receive multiple chances to be pinned (see page 38 in rules or below)

6. RESOLVE PINNING HITS
Any units that take a Pinning Hit should be rolled for exactly as if they were under Area Fire (they are) by the guns. Cross reference the guns’ high-explosive size (very light, light, medium and heavy) versus the target type and roll to see if it is Pinned. The unit still gets its Cover save.

In the boxed text next to this entry on pg38 there is an example:

The other Pinning hit is resolved against the infantry. 105mm howitzers are Medium HE against infantry, causing Pinning on a 3+. The roll of 5 Pins them. The infantry get their Cover save (they are in the open) of 6+. They roll a 1 and fail and are marked as Pinned. In addition they take one casualty due to their poor Cover save roll. They do not need a Morale check for this casualty.

So a unit may take 3 pinning hits because it’s the only one in range but it may roll well and avoid the effects.

Hope this helps! Next question?

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

[Dice Roller]

My hero!
That answers perfectly and makes sense.

Much appreciated.

[BeneathALeadMountain]

No worries. I was shocked by how easily I remembered and managed to reference the rules as it’s been literally years since I convinced anyone to play with me    (anyone living in or near south wales feel free to give me a shout if you fancy a game!). I’ve always found that Battlegroup is a set of rules that have a great level of granularity without being overly or unnecessarily complex.

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

[V]

Yep... he nailed it.

Only one pin marker, but you can have many attempts to put one on and you may end up causing a casualty so worth rolling if a unit is already pinned.

Cheers

Piers

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Huzzah!

Thank you Piers.

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain