VC Location Control - Bridges and Steeples

[Count Belisarius]

Hi,

Played AP11 Swamp Cats last night as the Germans. Excellent scenario but very hard on the Russians - especially if their air support is ineffective.

We had a few queries about control of victory locations. The VCs say the Russians must 'Control the bridge in hex 13K6'. Does this just refer to the bridge location itself rather than the hex? So if I have squads under the bridge do I retain control of the whole hex (including the bridge as per 25.131)? Even if my opponent has an AFV sat on the bridge?

Steeples. These have a stacking limit of one HS. Assuming the German has HIP'd a HS in there I take it the only way the Russian can get them out is:

1. Use one of their HS to move in there and CC them.
2. Move a full squad in paying +1 MF for moving in to an overstacked hex and then CC them with a +1 on the CC DR
3. Mop up the building and after discovering them do 1 or 2 above.
4. Find them, encircle them, shoot them, break them and kill them for failure to rout!

The overstacking penalties in CC etc. only apply to the player who initiated the overstacking, yes? (A5.12).

Given the amount of locations the Russians have to control (and maybe wanting to retain their HSs for use with SWs) we thought it was quite hard work getting control of all the buildings - especially the row houses.

Enjoyed it thoroughly though!

Comments appreciated.

Andy

 

[Ole Boe]

We had a few queries about control of victory locations. The VCs say the Russians must 'Control the bridge in hex 13K6'. Does this just refer to the bridge location itself rather than the hex?

Assuming your wording is correct, I would say it refers just to the bridge location, since it says "bridge in hex" instead of "bridge hex".

So if I have squads under the bridge do I retain control of the whole hex (including the bridge as per 25.131)? Even if my opponent has an AFV sat on the bridge?

Yes, No in that ordrer. Having a squad under the bridge in a hex devoid of armed enemy units gives you the control of the hex (but not of the bridge location even if empty). But if there is an enemy AFV (which is an armed enemy unit), you don't gain control of the hex - but you do gain control of your below-bridge location, for what its worth.

The only way to get control of the bridge location is to occupy that location though.

Steeples. These have a stacking limit of one HS. Assuming the German has HIP'd a HS in there I take it the only way the Russian can get them out is:

1. Use one of their HS to move in there and CC them.
2. Move a full squad in paying +1 MF for moving in to an overstacked hex and then CC them with a +1 on the CC DR
3. Mop up the building and after discovering them do 1 or 2 above.
4. Find them, encircle them, shoot them, break them and kill them for failure to rout!

Sounds right to me. You can add in a leader or four (<= 4 leaders = 0 squad equivalents) to help you with the CC odds though.

The overstacking penalties in CC etc. only apply to the player who initiated the overstacking, yes? (A5.12).

Yes, stacking limits and overstacking penalties is always per side.

 

[Count Belisarius]

Hi Ole,

Assuming your wording is correct, I would say it refers just to the bridge location, since it says "bridge in hex" instead of "bridge hex".

The only way to get control of the bridge location is to occupy that location though.

Yes, that's how we played it.

Re the steeples. At the time we'd forgotten about the overstacking stuff - playing on a work night usually means we're both tired and often miss the obvious stuff - that's our excuse anyway!

Still think it's a tough one for the Russians, though.

Cheers

Andy