Ambushes

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T13A
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Ambushes

Post by T13A »

Hi

When deciding and noting down where to put ambush units, how specific do you have to be? Do I say that they are in the north-west corner of a wood for instance or just in the wood somewhere? And following on, when it gets to the point of actually replacing the ambush unit with a real unit, if the answer to the above is the later then I presume I can put the actual unit anywhere within the wood?

On a more general note regarding ambushes, I see that the rules say that they must be in some sort of cover. Thinking of terrain where there might not be lots of cover such as woods or built-up-areas could they be deployed on a ridge or hill just below the crest?

I’m really liking the rules just trying to clarify a few things in my head before introducing them to some friends.

Cheers Paul
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DCRBrown
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Re: Ambushes

Post by DCRBrown »

P,

When deciding and noting down where to put ambush units, how specific do you have to be? Do I say that they are in the north-west corner of a wood for instance or just in the wood somewhere?

The Ambush unit is free to deploy anywhere within its terrain feature,

And following on, when it gets to the point of actually replacing the ambush unit with a real unit, if the answer to the above is the later then I presume I can put the actual unit anywhere within the wood?

Yes.

On a more general note regarding ambushes, I see that the rules say that they must be in some sort of cover. Thinking of terrain where there might not be lots of cover such as woods or built-up-areas could they be deployed on a ridge or hill just below the crest?

Yes, crest lines are cover. As are cropfields for infantry.

DB
T13A
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Re: Ambushes

Post by T13A »

Hi David

Thanks for the clarification as usual.

Cheers Paul
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IanKH
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Re: Ambushes

Post by IanKH »

In this technological age in which we live, a very easy way to note the positions of your Ambushes is to just take a photo of the area with your phone.
T13A
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Re: Ambushes

Post by T13A »

Hi

Absolutely, I was just trying to clarify just how specific you had to be when placing ambushes. One example given in the rules is: "MMG in the church tower", which is pretty specific in my book, as opposed to being able to place the ambush unit anywhere in its terrain feature after the ambush is exposed.

Cheers Paul
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Derek H
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Re: Ambushes

Post by Derek H »

But remember the rule in section 11.4 "If placed in a very large feature then divide the terrain up into sectors, for example use 6"
square for 15mm figures as a rough guide to one terrain sector."
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MLB
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Re: Ambushes

Post by MLB »

We had a situation in a Cristot game where the British put a battalion mortar barrage on the large hill which, at the time, had no deployed German unit on it (it was a speculative shot in the hope of a critical hit revealing ambush units. The British got lucky and rolled a critical hit. As it happened the German Pak40 was in ambush there, however although it was revealed how do we determine if it’s in the beaten zone given it could deploy anywhere?
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Mike H
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Re: Ambushes

Post by Mike H »

Using a photo is exactly what I do as IanKH suggests( and for other games in other periods). Once it is on my laptop I use the prt sc key (top right)to paste it onto a page of Word and can draw text boxes and arrows to overlay labels and then print it, (Not sure what other packages and apps provide) No ambiguity, It does need the terrain setting up in advance of course which will not usually be feasible in a club setting for example and is perhaps otiose on a smallish table .

It is gratifying to come across a game system where hidden deployment is a fundamental part of the design and cannot be avoided without messing up the whole concept . It can get a bit confusing/awkward if you end up with a combat patrol entering the same feature as an ambush and the feature is not quite big enough for both units when you deploy onto the CP! oops!
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DCRBrown
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Re: Ambushes

Post by DCRBrown »

MLB,

As it happened the German Pak40 was in ambush there, however although it was revealed how do we determine if it’s in the beaten zone given it could deploy anywhere?

The German player may deploy the PaK40 anywhere in the terrain feature as per normal.

If the artillery beaten zone covers this position or can cover the whole terrain feature it is attacked.

If the terrain feature is large enough to permit the player to position the gun outside of the beaten zone then it avoids an attack but is nonetheless now exposed.

Hope that helps.

DB
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MLB
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Re: Ambushes

Post by MLB »

Thanks David. Yep, that makes sense. The barrage is purely speculative so lucky it exposes the hidden unit, hitting it as well would be very fortunate (not that it couldn’t happen of course).
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