Assaulting troops in buildings

[NeilC]

Hi everyone,

Big fan of the BKC rules. Have been playing a few games and I was just wondering how to handle close assaults where units are occupying buildings.

My reading so far is that BUAs are abstract in the sense that individual buildings are not in play, rather the assumption made that units are making use of cover (including buildings), therefore close assaults are straight forward. (I'd be interested to know though if people  play it as units occupying buildings).

How do people play this with isolated buildings. Do people play it as base contact meaning the base of the assaulting unit being touching the base of the building in question?   

[Itinerant Hobbyist]

Depends a bit on the scale played. When I'm playing 15, they're actually in buildings. Smaller scales, then Generally area and not specific buildings.

[Steve J]

Firstly welcome on board Neil .

Rather like IH, it depends upon the scale of the action being played. For my small games on a 2' x 2' table, I count the building itself as the BUA, but say the garden as general linear terrain, if the makes sense? But for a game on a 4' x 4' table or 6' x 4', the whole area of garden and building would be classed as BUA. Hope this helps?

[NeilC]

Thanks IH, thanks Steve.

That's really helpful. I play 10mm on a larger table so having the BUA as a whole would seem to be the best option.

[Big Insect]

Thanks IH, thanks Steve.

That's really helpful. I play 10mm on a larger table so having the BUA as a whole would seem to be the best option.

Many players represent their BUAs with a template (a sheet of grey card or grey MDF) and put the buildings on it - but not attached to it. That way you can represent the structure of a BUA but when you need to fight you can move the building out of the way.
In addition you can overlay specific 'fixed' features onto your grey BUA template - such as roads (that might allow lines of sight or lines of fire) or canals/rivers etc. that might create internal obstacles. Again, you can then place representative buildings on the template but not on the roads or waterways.

For large specific buildings - such as a large factory (for example) like the tractor factory @ Stalingrad. You might want to adopt the approach above, but  have an entire block that represents the factory - with specific entrances, exits, lines of sight, hard cover (heavy machinery) etc).
The tendency with BUAs is for players to think of them always as dense. But they often have squares, parks, boulevards etc. in their midst.

Welcome to the forum.
Cheers
Mark

[NeilC]

Thanks Mark. I like the template plan. Interesting thought about the parks and squares - that opens up a lot of interesting possibilities.