Tournament Etiquette and Sportsmanship

 Having recently ventured back into the tournament scene after mostly playing amongst ourselves for the year so far, as a group we have noticed a few “quirks” in the way the wargames in general are played. Thus, we offer the following observations on gaming etiquette, particularly at tournaments where you are often playing unfamiliar opponents:

It's "grumpy old(ish) men" time! We're not nearly as grumpy as this post sounds. It's just sometimes a good old rant is more entertaining to read and write :-)

 1.  Dice rolling, specifically the physical act of dice rolling. Massive kinetic energy does not enhance your odds of getting the required number! Much time can be wasted retrieving dice from the far end of the room. There is no +1 bonus for added height on your dice roll/throw/launch. If you throw dice into terrain that frequently results in cocked dice, continuing to throw dice into the same terrain will continue to result in cocked dice. A die is cocked if another die will not sit on top of it, with out falling off. Do not throw dice into piles of other dice, its then difficult to see which dice you threw and what the resulting number was, as the dice all bounce about from the impact. Just shake up the required number of dice in your hands, and then drop or gently roll them onto a flat, open area of the table. Easy.

If you really just can't keep the dice under control, then for everyone's safety maybe you need these? Knitted dice! Perfect for winter.

2.  Dice rolling, specifically the declaring of. Do not start rolling dice without declaring what you are rolling for, what number you need, and how you arrived at that required number if need be, eg: “rolling to unpin my artillery, needing a four” or “three main gun shots at your Panthers, they’re Veterans so that’s 4’s, long range 5”. Remember that you need to declare the targets for all shooting teams in a platoon before any dice are rolled. If you just start rolling dice in front of yourself, scooping them up and claiming success without your opponent having any idea what you are doing, do not be surprised if you are asked what you are doing. Full disclosure at all times is a good rule. Likewise, pay attention when your opponent is declaring. Don’t claim you didn’t know what was happening if you weren’t focused on the game.

3.  Declare your force at the start of the game. This entails a quick run down of what is in your force, any special rules or characters you may have, any proxy models you are using and anything else your opponent may need to know. This doesn't need to be your life story, just a heads up on any relevant points. Having done this does not relieve you of all obligations to be sporting on these points during the game. Don’t expect your opponent to gain an instant knowledge of the ins and outs of your force. Answer their questions, correct any mistakes, eg:  if you have mixed skill levels in your force, point out if your opponent is shooting at Trained troops as though they were Veterans (i.e. he thinks he needs a 4 when all he actually needs is a 3, not correcting this, is poor sportsmanship indeed). Declaring dice rolling (and listening to your opponents) helps to avoid errors like this impacting a game. When deploying, and throughout the game, be clear about where platoons start and end. Remember too, it is your responsibility to know when your platoons need to take morale checks and to take them at the required time, it is not up to your opponent to request that you take them.

Never a truer word! So don't try and hide them or use confusing proxies please.

4.  Declare intentions. This means be clear about what you are doing. If you are fully inside a wooded area, state that you are moving to be fully inside the area. Most of the time you will be able to show this with no problems, but it will save you being caught out if a base gets bumped later and a corner is poking out of the wood. It also reduces the need for tedious micro measuring where you have ample movement ability to execute what you want to do. Declare lines of sight and concealment, eg: if you move a tank forward behind some cover, state whether you can see an enemy team or not. You may assume there isn’t a line of sight to a particular target, so you don’t shoot at it. It’s not good to find out in your opponents turn that you can suddenly see each other. You may have shot, or not moved there at all.

5.  Discuss terrain at the start of the game. Make it fair. A good general guideline is “keep it simple”. Terrain should obviously have an impact on the game, but you should be fighting the enemy first and foremost, not the terrain. Be really clear about what constitutes area terrain, concealment etc and then stick to it. Different groups play these things different ways, so long you are both playing the same interpretations it often doesn’t really matter.

6.  Rules disputes – play the ball, not the man. For anyone unfamiliar with the sporting metaphor, take this to mean stick to the issue in question. If you can’t resolve a rule issue quickly and to mutual satisfaction, look it up in the rule book. Don’t try and force your view on your opponent without backing it up. Nobody likes a bully. Don’t try and brow beat someone into your point of view, and then back off saying “ok, we’ll play it your way because I’m such a nice guy” when you realise you don’t have a leg to stand on. If you’re wrong, admit it. Stick to the issue, reach for the rule book. If in doubt, dice for it and move on. Simmering tensions will quickly lead to more issues if anyone feels they are “owed a break”. Similarly, don’t question someone’s integrity or call them a cheat without being able to back it up. You may know they cheated, but you won’t achieve anything positive without being able to prove it. Conversely, just because you forgot something or didn’t ask about something you were unsure of, or had a genuine miscommunication, does not make the other player a cheat. An error on your part does not constitute cheating. Deliberate, contrived cheating is extremely rare, and most issues can be sorted in a gentlemanly fashion, so don’t be too quick to start name calling. There would be few sadder sights than grown men having fisticuffs over a game of toy soldiers! Plus, you never know who’s secretly a ninja-trained killing machine when they’re not painting little tanks…

Don't be this guy.

7.  Some real basics, but you’d be surprised (or not) at some of the things we’ve seen. “Elastic tape measures” are one of these things. Also measuring movement, then taking away the tape measure and moving the model past the allowable distance. If you’ve forgotten to do something in a particular step and moved on to the next step, either suck it up and remember next time, or ask your opponent if they mind you acting out of sequence. Do not just start moving models around after shooting, or deploy a “forgotten” platoon half way through the game without asking first. 99% of the time it will be OK, and you should always try and correct these errors in a way that doesn’t adversely impact your opponent. After all, it was your mistake. I once had an opponent start making some “forgotten” movement in my turn, after I’d moved some of my platoons! He didn’t even ask, just did it brazenly. I was not impressed.  

8.  Take it like a man! Don’t deliberately play slow for a time out win. If a game times out and robs you of victory but your opponent was playing at a good pace then don’t take it out on them. Likewise, don’t blame your opponent for slow play if you spent half the game wandering off around the room. If it’s not going your way, don’t sulk. Always try and play as positively as possible. You’ll have more fun and gain more respect, and probably get better results too. 

 Whew! Quite a rant indeed! Please note that these observations are gained from years of our own experience, the experiences of others, and just general pet peeves. They are not aimed at anyone in particular, but hopefully set a standard for all of us. In my own experience, the vast majority of gamers play to enjoy the game and that will always shine through. At times things can get tense, but communication is the key. It’s all war stories in the end.

 Cheers,

 Paul and Scott.

Continued Tales of Woe - Getting the rules right for Gepanzerte PanzerGrenadiers

Over the last year I have played this force quite extensively, and have often fallen foul of misinterpretations of the rules concerning them, basically what they can and cant do.

I put the following to the Flames of War main Forum, but thought it a good idea to keep here too as a reference.

STATUS - this platoon is essentially an infantry platoon, with its own armoured transport teams (open topped armoured; 1,0,0).

The German special rule "mounted assault" means these transports may remain on the table even when empty and fire on the enemy with their hull mounted MG.

When the transports have passenger teams, things 'get interesting':

From the German special rule "Mounted Assault" in V3:

"When carrying passengers. a Mounted Assault Transport is treated as a Tank team for everything except Platoon Morale checks. If it is carrying two or more Passenger teams, it also has Tank Escorts"

MOVEMENT:
Infantry teams mount and dismount as per rules on v3 p46-7. I believe this is self explanatory.

But it should be noted that it is possible to Storm trooper out of and into transports as well. This can be useful when the transport becomes bailed or bogged down, circumstances permitting. Though see later for issues regarding 'Bailed', as there is normally something else that may then occur, such as auto remount, or halftracks Sent to Rear.

Calling half tracks forward 'from the rear' to mount troops is covered adequately in v3 p 48, but it should be noted that on the turn they are brought forward in this way, they may not shoot nor assault, though can storm trooper move.

Another point - half tracks are quick on roads; 18", but very slow through any slow going; 4", including steep hills, cornfields woods and the like. They can cross linear obstacles and require a bog check to do so.

COMMAND:
As a tank team, for veteran troops, this gives the platoon a command range of 8" between vehicles. (This gives the platoon plenty of room to spread out to avoid template weapons). However if the platoon is also comprising dismounted infantry, or empty transport teams, then any link to an infantry or empty transport team will be at the regular 6" range for veteran troops.

Any command 'tank' team that becomes bogged down, or bailed out, may at the end of the step, take over any other 'tank' team in the platoon in command range. Any Higher command tank team may take over any 'tank' team from the company. (v3 p105)


SHOOTING:
The vehicle is fitted with a hull mounted MG ROF 3.
With one passenger team, they may also fire the 'passenger fired' AA MG, giving a further die to shooting in addition to hull MG.

With two or more passenger teams (they can carry up to 5), they then count as having 'Tank Escorts'. This means they get a further die to shooting. If one of the passengers teams has a Panzerschrek (actual Panzerschrek team or Tank Hunter team from Lehr) then this weapon can fire as the Tank Escort team, at ROF 1, with no penalty for the vehicles moving, although the Tank Hunter team which is Normally ROF1, would be at a -1 to hit, if Halftrack moves. Panzerfaust teams still cannot shoot from halftrack if halftrack moves. [v3 p 200] - the summary box on p201 stating the vehicle can move no more than 6" if the tank escort is to fire is INCORRECT.

BEING SHOT AT: [v3 p101]
If the platoon is fired upon, it will be Pinned if it suffers Five or more hits as per normal rules

In addition, if it suffers a destroyed halftrack, any passengers teams get a 5+ passenger save, any survivors "dismount under fire" [again v3 p104], and the platoon becomes Pinned.

At the end of the shooting step - If the platoon suffers any Bailed or Destroyed half tracks, the platoon must take a Motivation test.

If it fails, all half tracks are immediately sent to the rear, with teams dismounting under fire as before.
If it passes, all bailed out half tracks immediately remount, ceasing to be Bailed out.

(Tactical tip - try and deal with enemy AT weapons before advancing your half tracks as although armoured, they will suffer greatly from anything but small arms fire. Or make sure you move so as to be out of line of sight of such weapons).

FACING ARTILLERY: [v3 p135]

The whole idea of armoured transports was getting troops 'safely' through enemy fire, as such they wont stop for artillery fire if they can still move. This is dealt with here:

Armoured transports roll saves as for normal armoured tank teams. However if they only suffer a Bailed out result - they automatically remount.
If a Transport is destroyed by artillery fire then the passengers get their 5+ passenger save and 'dismount under fire' [v3 p101], and the platoon becomes Pinned down.

(Tactical tip - this makes the platoon quite hardy to getting through light artillery fire, eg, mortars that are only FP6, especially when well spread out to minimise teams under the template. I would still be wary of heavier artillery fire - watch out for those medium/heavy artillery observers and AOPs )

BEING PINNED:
This issue has caused much confusion in our past games.

From pinned [v3 p104].

Warriors (eg CiC or 2iC) cannot be pinned down in themselves and are only pinned down when they have joined a platoon that is pinned down. However, as they leave the platoon at the end of the step, they then cease to be pinned down.

Movement
When the platoon is pinned, it should be noted that dismounted infantry teams are affected as regular infantry. They may not move closer to enemy teams in LOS and may not move into LOS of other enemy teams.
(What you may be able to do with them is move them so that they can mount up into halftracks from the same platoon, that are behind them, thus moving away from the enemy)
The half tracks themselves being armoured teams, whether empty or occupied, may move freely.

So this means if your platoon is all mounted up, it can ignore being pinned for movement purposes. If it contains dismounted infantry, these may be able to remount a nearby transport and continue with the rest of the mounted platoon (see mounting up v3 p46). Or the infantry teams may be left behind as the rest of the vehicles move on (so long as platoon commander is still mounted and is moving with more than half the platoon - see command and movement v3 p66-7)

Shooting
Armoured vehicles still fire at full effect whether pinned or not. There is no reduction in ROF. It is my opinion that passenger fired AA MG or Tank Escort fire would not be adversely affected by the vehicle being pinned either, as they are considered part of it (the vehicle) and not separate to it, whilst mounted.

Dismounted infantry teams would suffer adversely to their shooting for being pinned, though for MG teams (typical of panzergrenadiers) this is a drop from 3 to 2 shots per team.

(Tactical tip - even if the platoon is pinned, with a formation of half tracks and dismounted infantry, they can give out a huge volume of fire, normally sufficient to stop any infantry assault.)

ASSAULTS:

The key to understanding this next section, with an eye to the German special rule "Mounted Assault" - is that once the infantry teams have mounted their transports - they effectively cease to be infantry teams in transports - the two merge to become a 'tank' team.

Consequently, as a tank team they may make an assault move as other armoured teams can do.

Now, this is the only contentious ' issue' I can find, and that is regarding whether the platoon can make an assault if it is pinned.

If a platoon contains infantry teams and it is pinned, it may not make an assault.

However as noted above, if the infantry in the GPg platoon are ALL mounted up, then the platoon does not contain Infantry teams - only Tank teams. So it should be able to ignore being pinned, and assault. (That is my opinion and understanding)

But consequently, if even one infantry team is dismounted, the platoon then also contains infantry teams and if pinned, then the whole platoon, may not assault.

It should be noted, as mentioned in the German Mounted Assault special rule, that since the vehicles are classed as open topped armoured, the platoon will be forced back by defensive fire if the platoon takes 5 hits or suffers 2 or more bailed/destroyed vehicles.

Other points to note:

As a 'Tank' team, they cause tank terror

During a counter attack the passengers may counter attack out of the halftrack, or stay in them, at the players discretion, but if they leave the half track at this point, it is Sent to the Rear.

Having Tank Escort, means they get up to two attacks per half track with two or more teams on board. Also with Tank Escorts - they can assault into difficult terrain, without having to take a bog/skill check if only the Tank escort team attacks.

Also if a half track is bogged or bailed out, the tank escort may still attack teams within 2" during the assault/counter attack.

If the platoon is all mounted up, it may break off through the enemy platoon, like a tank platoon can do.

As a final point at the end of the Assault step, any Half tracks that are Bailed out that have no passenger teams on board are immediately sent to the rear. Whereas if they are bailed out with passengers onboard they automatically remount.

AIRCRAFT.
Aircraft can pose a threat to your GPgs. Whilst you can hide from AT guns you can't always hide from aircraft.

Remember since they are a template weapon staying spread out can minimize their impact.

The half tracks are fitted with a passenger fired AA MG so if mounted up, each half track can fire on aircraft. The MG in the AA role has a 24" range, and a single shot per vehicle requiring a skill check (3+ for veterans), and then a firepower test to destroy a plane - requiring a 6. So with a platoon of four vehicles, even with attached elements from the GPg HQ, don't expect to shoot down too many ground attack aircraft!

Remember AOPs can be targeted by AA fire by any platoon in range of it, not just the one receiving the AOPs attention! You might just get lucky here and knock it out of the game as they don't come back once shot down.

The aircraft's air strike, if they hit the platoon, are resolved much like an artillery strike. The GPg platoon can be pinned if any half-tracks or dismounted infantry teams are hit, and the effects of pinning on the platoon have been discussed as above.

PLATOON MORALE:
Remember the loss of the halftrack transports does not adversely affect the platoon, only the loss of infantry teams need be considered.

I hope the above proves useful, and if I have anything wrong or have missed any relevant points please shout up.