FAQ: Armored Fist

Errata

Movement

Chart B. Movement & Terrain Effects - addenda

Terrain effects on bog chance are doubled for wheeled vehicles and trucks.

Correction to the Armored Fist vehicle tables:

Combat

MISSING TERRAIN MODIFIERS

Add these entries to the terrain modifers on Chart B

AFV OVERRUN

A Vehicle may declare it is destroying a support weapon by running it over. The cost is 4 Movement, with a BOG chance of +2 (ie, tracked 11, Halftracked 10, Wheeled 9)

Loss of Support Weapons During Combat

OPTION ONE:

Support weapons are eliminated if a unit suffers an elim result on the IFT. Heavy support weapons (large ATGW, anti-tank guns, etc) are eliminated by a rout result. 

OPTION TWO:

Support weapons are not automatically removed if the a squad or crew operating them abandons them. 

BARRAGE OR HE FIRE

Support Weapons are targets on the Infantry Fire Table along with other soft targets.An Elim result on the IFT destroys the support weapon in the target area. A Rout result disables the support weapon. Each subsequent Cohesion phase, 1d6 dr: 1 repairs, 6 destroys

Explanation of Indirect Fire vs Bridges and Structures

Bunker AC: AC is armor class, and the intention here is to have ratings for bunkers in scenarios. As a rough conversion consider 1 meter of concrete equivalent to III Armor when firing ordnance. 

Double Movement: if the bridge or building is being interdicted by indirect fire and you get this result, it is difficult and dangerous to move in this area. This rule is mostly to reflect fire on bridges while you are attempting to cross them. 

4- Roll: HE result on Infantry Fire Table: If you get an "elim" result, you have damaged the structure, and it is weakened by one point. So a wooden building goes from +2 cover to +1, and a subsequent elim would turn it into a ruin, and likewise a bridge would be first damaged and then become un-passable (collapsed sections, destroyed roadway etc). 

Frequently asked questions

1. What dice do I roll?

Throughout these rules, we use six-sided dice. Rolling one die is referred to as dr, and rolling two dice is DR. A low roll is almost always the desired result.

2. When do you roll for Detection?

Each unit has one spotting opportunity at each new fire opportunity.

During your half of the turn: 

During your opponent's half of the turn:

Detection Range 2d6 DR to detect

Base > 0 Automatic

2x 2d6 DR 8-

3x 2d6 DR 4-

If a unit is outside the automatic detection range but < 3x that range, there is a chance of detection: up to 2x DR 8-, up to 3x DR 4-. If the base detection is determined to be 0 or less:

Base Detection 0" 2d6 DR to detect

4" Automatic

10" 2d6 DR 8-

15" 2d6 DR 4-

Base Detection <0” 2d6 DR to detect

2" Automatic

5" 2d6 DR 8-

10" 2d6 DR 4-

3. Who rolls for Cohesion & Detection, and who is affected?

The active player's units are required to roll for Cohesion if they have been fired upon or in close combat since their previous Cohesion phase. By mutual agreement of the opposing sides, a "unit" can be defined as a platoon or company. Rolling for larger units can speed up a game with a large number of vehicles or infantry.

Only the following actions are taken by the inactive side during the opponent's half of turn:

4. What scale miniatures can I use?

Although the game was written with 6mm micro-armor (1:285) in mind, 3mm will work just as well and is closer to the typical map scale, which is 1"=50m (1:2000). Optionally, with 3mm miniatures, you could go metric and use 1cm=50m. Really, the only limit is the difference between map and figure scale. 15mm miniatures just don't look right at this map scale.

5. When do you need to make a new detection DR on a unit?

Any time after a unit you have detected leaves LOS and remains out of view at the end of either your or their movement phase. 

Smoke from ordnance or Smoke mortars (but not Exhaust Smoke) can serve to break LOS

6. How Does Road Movement Work?

The entries for vehicle type (Wheeled, Tracked, half-Tracked, Truck) list the Road Move Cost for each type.

Vehicle          Road Bonus

Wheeled          1/2 cost

Truck            1/4 cost

Fully-tracked    2/3 cost if crew exposed or has Director or Integrated Fire Control

Half-Tracked     (no bonus)

Each vehicle has a movement rate, expressed in inches. If you travel on a road, you can spend less than 1" of your movement allotment for 1" of travel. For example, a wheeled vehicle with a speed rating of "15W" could drive up to 30" on a road, because it is paying 1" of its movement allotment for each 2" of travel.

7. Close Combat with Vehicles

When infantry perform a close assault on an AFV, each full squad is equivalent of the vehicle for the odds ratio. So, a single squad attacking rolls on the 1:1 column, 2 on 2:1, etc.

If infantry are in close combat with both infantry and vehicles, the player may decide how to distribute their squads for close assault. For example, if three squads have moved within 1" (50m) of a squad and a vehicle, the side with three squads can commit 1 or 2 squads to attacking the vehicle and the remainder to close combat with the infantry. In any case the player with both infantry and vehicles in the close combat receives the "escorted by infantry" defensive bonus for their vehicles when they are attacked.

8. Artillery Drift

When artillery fire fails the Accuracy DR, roll one or two dice for distance, and one for direction. Since we are using six-sided dice, start with 1=North and go clockwise 60 degrees for each pip, 2=NE, 3=SW, 4=S, 5=SW, 6=NW.

9. Cohesion - Unit dispersion, effects of failures

How far apart can elements of a unit be and still qualify for the unit Detection or Cohesion DR? 

Infantry: each squad must be within 2" (100m) or in Line of Sight (LOS) of another squad within the unit to perform detection and cohesion with the unit commander. For vehicles with radios, the rule will be more abstract: they need to all have been given orders for the same objective. 

How do you resolve Cohesion failures for units that already have a Cohesion effect (CN#) applied?

The new Cohesion effect (CN#) is found by adding the number by which the Cohesion DR failed to the existing CN. For example, a unit that is already at CN1 and fails its Cohesion DR by 2 will now be at CN3. Only the negative effects of CN3 are applied to the unit. 

10. Bogged Vehicles

If a vehicle fails a bog DR, it is immobilized. 

The crew must pass a Cohesion DR to remain in the vehicle. Freeing an immobilized vehicle: Move a vehicle designated as an Recovery Vehicle (ARV) within 1" of the immobilized vehicle. At the end of the following movement phase, the vehicle is no longer bogged. 

If no ARV is available, another armored vehicle of the same type may attempt to free the vehicle. Spend a full movement phase adjacent. At the end, both vehicles make a Bog DR, and if they pass they are no longer immobilized. In both cases, the crews of the vehicles involved are considered to be outside the vehicles for purposes of resolving infantry or ordnance fire. 

Optional Rules

Movement Rate Bands

Rather than use the individual vehicle speeds, some players prefer to treat vehicles as slow, fast, very fast etc. When preparing a scenario, note the top speeds for your vehicles.

For example, an M5 light tank has a top speed higher than 15, so it can chose any speed band through Very fast. A Churchill III has a top speed of 8, so it can only select slow or medium.

The DR Modifier applies to detection and ordnance fire to/from the moving vehicle. They are easier to detect, harder to hit, and have more trouble hitting. Note that slow is equivalent to the =<4MP modifier in the standard rules for detection and fire.

Speed    DR Modifier  Movement 

Slow        +1         4 MP 

Medium      +2         8 MP

Fast        +2        12 MP

Very Fast   +3        15 MP

Unlikely hits

Unmodified 2 to hit Die roll always hits

This rule makes long-range hits a bit more likely. If there is a To Hit number for round being fired on the To Hit chart, always treat unmodified DR 2 as a hit. It is not automatically a critical. 

If there is no To Hit number listed, you are beyond the extended range for the round (ex.: 76mm HEAT at ranges over 40"(2000m)) and can't hit at all.

Critical Hits After Unlikely hits

To provide a chance for a critical on a hit that required a modified DR 2 or less to hit:

 dr         Result

1-2        Critical Hit: resolve To Kill DR shifting one armor column to the left

 3+        Normal To Kill DR

Changes for play on Hex Maps

One hex = 50m.. 1” at ‘table scale.’

Terrain applies to the entire hex

Stacking limits are not limits per se

Movement

Vehicles already note change of direction in 60 degree increments. Vehicles should face a hex point, not face

Combat

Vehicle front armor arc will be the front 60, not front 90

Vehicles and other ordnance have a60 degree front, and the center of the covered arc is on a hex point.

Infantry fire:

Ordnance fire:

Area of effect:

Using Platoon Bases

Some players put platoons of vehicles on a stand, or use a stand of infantry to represent a platoon of infantry. This will work with Modern Armor rules if some care is taken about the map scale and the size of the base.

Make these adjustments to the rules to use these stands: