WW2 Radios

[Westmarcher]

Disclaimer: I'm not a WW2 gamer .... but giving tank (and artillery) units an edge when testing command because they're better equipped and/or organised for radio coms, seems reasonable to me. However, determining what that 'edge' should be might not be straightforward given the varied equipment used by the various combatants. As ever, a case of balancing desired levels of complexity and playability, I suppose. For example, here's a link about the different types of radio fitted to only one type of tank, the Sherman, that may be of interest. 

http://www.theshermantank.com/sherman/the-m4-sherman-tanks-radio-setup/

[Zinkala]

Here's a real example of wartime command and control. A neighbour that grew up on land that I now own was a tank platoon commander in France. He was standing in his turret yelling at one of his tanks on the right to go check some movement further to their right when he was shot from the left by a sniper. Bullet came down through his mouth and out into his right arm that he was pointing with. Lost most of his teeth and had a crippled arm afterwards. All this talk of the effectiveness of radios and still sometimes the best option is to stand and yell to get the point across. Just didn't work out well for him. He was an experienced tanker with a couple months hard fighting behind him when it happened.

My point is that for this scale of game I'd expect things like better radios, better training, etc to boost effectiveness but not allow one side to totally dominate the other. So many factors rolled into one stat/roll.

[Big Insect]

You are so very right Zinkala - the game is an abstraction - it has to be and it needs to be fun, and equitable and attempt to give a realistic outcome the majority of the time, but also allow for exceptional variables. You know the sort of thing ...

That 'really bad day' - we've all had them - the radio doesn't work, somebody forgot to pack the tea/coffee/sugar, there's water in the diesel, one of the crew has a dose of the shits and you are lock-down close combat and some idiot only loaded you with smoke rounds!

Then there are good days - you escaped being hit by that Tiger in ambush & brew it with a single return shot, the air support turned up in time, you found a case of champagne in a hay stack (along with a very pretty and obliging young french collaborator to keep you company) and you ended up warm & dry in an empty chateau with the main fighting 5 miles away.

All can be achieved on the single roll of 2 x d:6 Command dice 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Hi

I suspect that someone using the callsign 'Holdfast' is fairly familiar with the British Army in particular. 

I for one would like to know where it says in the rules that they are "top down" and what that is meant to mean anyway.

Cheers Paul 

Paul it means that less attention is paid to nuts and bolts - the technical stuff and rather focuses on the comanders actions. Bottom up stuff would be the Challenger series, Flames of war, Battlegroup etc. inculding most of the stuff I wrote.

[T13A]

Hi Ian

Thanks for the clarification, makes sense now.

Cheers Paul

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Your welcome