Hello! I just grabbed this game and it seems great! I've read the manual cover to cover a few days ago, and last night I started a game against myself. I want to learn how to play before I invite family members to play, to lessen the impact of fumbling around the manual.

So far this seems like it will be a lot of fun to play. Here are a few questions I came up with last night:

1) When determining range, it seems fairly straight forward when an enemy is adjacent from hex to hex. How do you count length when a striaght line cuts through many hex's cornors? Additionally, how do you count length when a staight line is made between the hexes?

2) If you have a mixed squad of a mortor and reg.infantry, and one set does something (like the mortor fires on something) can the rest of the squad be put into op fire mode? Or does doing a single thing on any part of the squad constitute the whole squad as fatigued?

3) Height advantage does not create cover, correct?

4) I cannot remember the name of the scenario (3rd in the booklet I think) I was practicing with last night, but it had a victory condition for the americans to get a unit into 5 buildings. At the end of 8 rounds, the VP would determine the winner. The map setup had 6 buildings on it, would this mean any 5 would suffice for american victory?

4a) It also stated that each building provided VP, would this mean you need to keep a guy in it as the germans? Or once you get into it, you toss your marker on it to remember that you own it?

5) if a team starts with a unit on a location that has a command value, do they get the command points immediently? Or do they need to wait until the command phase?

5a) You don't change the color of the Command token when you capture it right? you just set your marker ?on it?next to it? and if the command token is neutral, you gain command points for it, if its your teams color, you gain command points for it, if its the enemy's color, you prevent enemy team from gaining points, but you do not gain points.

5b) If a command token starts as your color, do you get ownership during setup? Or do you have to place a guy on it (through action movement or setup) ?

6) During setup, can you put someone into op fire? It seemed that if in the scenario I was playing, the germans were defending a location, they should be able to place their units and set them into op fire if they wanted to, prior to the first Action phase.

Man, I'm excited to get a few games in... Thanks for the help!

Sorry, few more question (I didn't see an edit button to change my post)

7) When a squad is hidden and takes an action to move, if during that move an enemy squad has LOS (and hidden squad has no cover), do they immediently lose hidden? Or is it when they end their movement, if enemy has LOS and hidden isn't in cover, they lose it?

8) The scenario I was testing mentioned special instructions for engineer squads, yet, the instructions for that scenerio didn't present the engineer token, just medic, flame, and anti-vehicle. Do you create engineer squads some how?

Thraka said:

Range is the number of hexes between point A and point B. Simply count the number of hexes it takes to get from point A to point B. The least number of hexes. That's your range.

Thraka said:

Nope. If the mortar attacks, the squad is fatigued (see page 39 in the rules under "No Mixed Fire")

Thraka said:

Height can block line of sight (LOS). It does not "create cover" per se. Elevation is tricky and getting to understand the plateau rule and what blind hexes are is important.

Thraka said:

Yup. Control any 5 of the 6 and you win. But remember, if a building has 2 hexes and you and your opponent control one of the hexes, neither of you controls the building.

Thraka said:

If memory serves, once you have taken control of a building, it is yours until someone else takes control of it (like a control marker).

Thraka said:

You only get command points during the command phase.

Thraka said:

Command tokens never "change color". But you have the gist of it. Your color, it's available to you. His color, available to him. Neutral color, it's up for grabs!

Thraka said:

Nope. Need to have a guy/vehicle secure it first. Just like any other command token.

Thraka said:

Sure. Page 9 clearly states under #7 "Place Initial Opportunity Fire Tokens" after you place your starting units on the game board.

Thraka said:

It's a fun game. Especially once you get your feet wet, play some of the scenarios and get a feel for the game. Check out boardgamegeek.com for more on Tide of Iron as well as the stuff around here. Some great custom scenarios once you run through the onces in the base game. Then of course, you'll want to get Days of the Fox and Normandy. Then you'll want to paint your stuff. Then you'll want FFG to get off their butts and get the next expansion out. But that's down the road. For now, get the pieces out and start blastin' away!

Thraka said:

According to the rules (page 34): "if AT ANY TIME a concealed squad is within LOS of an enemy unit and IS NOT LOCATED IN COVER PROVIDING TERRAIN, it is immediately revealed. So, if a concealed squad moves across a field, it's revealed (if an enemy has LOS to that field).

Thraka said:

The unofficial FAQ states that according to John Goodenough (see http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/22825 ) the American Division 1 should have two Engineer specialization tokens and the American Division 2 should have one Engineer specialization token (in addition to the listed Flamethrower and Medic specializations). I'm guessing this is the scenario that you were looking at.

ad 5b: You do get control of a command point token during setup if you place a unit in that hex during setup. This means that you can move away from it during the first turn, and still get the command points for it.

To gain control of an objective location do you need to just pass a guy through that hex, or does he need to stop in that hex and wait for status phase?

Oh, and I played my first game on that scenario, Liberation. It was a lot of fun. it took us about 5 hours to get through though. Lots of looking things up in the manual. But by the end we had a pretty good grasp on the numbers and actions so it started to go by faster.

Thraka said:

Pass on through.

Scammer said:

You are wrong.

When you want to take control of an objective then one your unit has to stay on that hex during the status phase. Then you may add there your control marker and THEN (in the next round) you may normaly use that unit for another action (it is not needy for retaining control over that objective).

Capturing an objective by only passing through the given hex would be too much easy, do not you think?

And precise quotation from rules, page 14

"A player is said to “control” an objective if he has previously placed one of his control markers on that hex, or if he is now
capturing the hex by having at least one friendly unit in it. A player that captures an objective should place one of his control
makers on that hex, removing any enemy control marker that may be present.

A player retains control of a hex as long as his control marker remains on the hex. It is not necessary for the capturing units
to remain in the hex in order to retain control of the objective."

But if, during your turn, you have your piece ON the hex, are you not "in possession" of that hex? As an act of passing through the hex, I would think that you are, in essence, controlling the hex.

It is during the Command Phase page.14, Point 1. Determining Control over Objectives

Artemis said:

Sorry, there should be naturally Command phase instead of Status phase in timing for checking control over an objective.

Scammer said:

No - you are just walking by the objective.

Control is determined during the command fase, not the action fase.