Hi to all of you, since this is my first post.

So we played silence the guns yesterday and had a lot of fun doing so. I found the map very well balanced beacasue first the US troops rocked the germans away, and after round 4 tho whole thing turned, but ist was still possible to win.

But then one huge problem appeared: That big german tank just rolled into the Hex with the pillbox, and the game was over for the US.

As long as the tank is there you cannot move into the hex and meet the win condition, so you have to take that thing down in only two rounds, with only those two relatively weak tanks of your own. The only way I can imagine to do this is if you have that pillbox completely surrounded and can attack that big guy with alot of units at once. But this will exaust most of your force ang give the Germans free hand.

So do you know some way to solve this problem, or is this a balancing issue?

Thanks for any tips!

huh.............

i never thought of that!

sorry ive never had that happen in one of my games i guess none of my friends thought of it either

get your tank there first?One mod might be to extend arrival of German reinforcements and game length by 1 turn?

You either have to win before the tank arives (completly doeable), or prepare to kill the tank in two rounds (not impossible either). And yes, this scenario is the best balanced scenario in the opening booklet. And I find it nice as is.

haha yes indeed: just win the game before the tank arrives - good advice!

Balance is a funny thing, last time we played this one the US were slaughted. The double MG team sitting on the level 2 hill at the back could fire at just about every squad on the board that was advancing with its op fire over and over again. 8 dice (even at long range this was a nightmare) everytime the shermans fired on the mg team (in an entenchment) they missed.

Not one squad made it to the hill.

But on the other hand, if you had with just a little bit of luck taken out the MG troops, it would have been straight forward for the US to win. Luckily a double MG troops are useually stupid setup, as a single cassulty is a significantly blow, not only to the squad, but the division as a hole. But still I think a double MG squad is extremly gamey...

I parked my two shermans directly in front of the bunker and they blew the Panzer IV away when it moved onto the hex at point-blank range - not too hard to get lots of hits if you're close enough!

Grand Stone said:

Actually, it is historically correct. Most nations had support platoons entirely composed of heavy machine guns or mortars.

But placing all your MG in one hex, and none in any other places seems strange to me. And the effect of a doule MG is gamey, especially when firing at tanks.

Grand Stone said:

That is true.

I don't think its gamey - its a choice that the game allows you to make - intensive deployment of MG vs brittle formation - any manner of card events could have not to mention concentrated mortar fire could have given it problems. Great scenario, great game play the game!

I may have interpreted the rules wrong, but the group I play with are under the impression that a vehicle cannot enter a hex with a building or bunker.

With FotB we have revised our interpretation to mean that if an armored heavy vehicle enters/exits a building hex it costs 1 extra movement and has to roll a d6. On a result of 5-6 the vehicle is lightly damaged. Bunker hexes are still off limits to vehicles.

This has worked well for us thus far.

Well, technically, a pillbox is neither a bunker or a house. So tanks can freely enter the hex, right?

A pillbox is still a fortified concrete/steel guard post with portals through which a weapon could be fired. Pillbox/bunker it still works for us. It keeps the game moving forward without endless debate and most importantly we want to play again

Well, I do agree that it ofcourse is a building, of some sort. However the question is what is the size of it? Does it occupy the entire hex? Technically according to the rules, a tank can enter the hex containg a pilbox. But not house or a bunker. Personally, having tanks being able to drive through (destroy?) houses by driving through them could be a fun, in special scenarios, but on a regular bases, it sames strange to me.

But ofcourse, as somebody told me once, its your game, you play it the way you want

Double Machinegum = Mortar/Arty. bait. of course, if none are around..... Eat Lead!

Grand Stone said:

The Overrun rules on page 40 say:

Overrun : Unlike other units, a tank may move through (but never remain in) a hex containing enemy units (even through a hex that is at the stacking limit). The movement cost for an overrun is the normal cost to enter the hex plus one movement point for each enemy unit in the hex. Immediately after the active tank leaves such an overrun hex, every enemy squad in the hex immediately becomes pinned (vehicles are unaffected, as are squads being transported in vehicles or located in entrenchments/pillboxes ). Squads already pinned or disrupted are unaffected. A tank may never end its movement in a hex containing enemy units.

That means that tanks can enter hexes with pillboxes unoccupied by enemy squads and that they can overrun, but not stay in, hexes with pillboxes occupied by enemy squads.