hi

i'm having my first game tonight and i'm starting at the beginning with breaking point scenario

i've noticed a card in the morale 1 deck called 'preparations' -action phase: immediately end your action turn.

i don't get it- why would you want to do that, and pay for it too? ending your action turn just lets the other side move all of their units anyway

At first glance that 'Preparations' may be a bit confusing however once you play a few games with it (especially as a defender) it IS an advantage to force your opponent to move before you.

I think the biggest advantage of 'Preparations' is this: since each player MUST take his actions during his action phase, by playing this card you can opt out of this requirement, thereby giving you more time to see how your opponent is developing his strategy (is he preparing to assault my position by moving units out of the woods towards my bunker or move those tanks up the middle of the board?). This gives you the time to better gauge your opponent and use your actions to counter him. This, in my opinion, is especially helpful when you are the defender.

Some other examples of when 'Preparations' might be useful include: using the card to see if your opponent will advance into open ground where you will have more non-fatigued units (because you skipped your required actions) with which to shoot him with. Another example is if you have mortars but no enemy in LOS. Play this card in the hopes that your opponent moves into LOS of one of your non-fatigued units. Now you can open up with the mortars.

You are right however, this card doesn't work well in every situation, you just have to wait for the opportunity. Hope my rambling was somewhat helpful.

Snicker

The Thing In The Attic said:

I just looked at the 'Breaking Point' Scenario and the Germans (attackers) have the Morale Deck and are therefore the ones who would get the card. In this situation 'Preparations' is helpful because if you are the attacker and you are about to launch an attack out of woods (or any cover) , you can use the card to make the defender (who will most likely be sitting behind his barbed-wire wall and not in much of a mood to move) do something else rather than shoot you once you break cover to advance. This hopefully will reduce your casualties as you make a move for his lines. So I guess you would use 'Preparations' in an attempt to make your opponent waste actions on things other tan shooting you. Most likely he will go into op-fire but that puts him into a static position (since he can't move while in op-fire) making it more difficult to counter your movements.

I am actually gonna play this scenario tonight too! If a good example comes up Ill let you know.

Snicker

thanks guys

Great explanation, i get it now, one thing though am i right in thinking you only cancel one x3 action slot (not the whole turn), from your answers i think that would be the way it works.

i think the problem with understanding the card was because the rule book doesnt (or at least i don't think it did) state directly that all players must take their actions, it says something about if you don't want to do anything with a unit then either fatigue it or put it in op fire mode, which is basically saying all units must take an action.

geez, so simple

thanks again

The Thing In The Attic said:

Snickers reply was a great one, and right on the money.

First game? TOI is a great game system, you're in for a treat!

After all this time, my favorite feature of the game is still the normal fire vs suppresive fire option. For a game that is supposed to be a "gateway wargame", I've yet to see this distinction (suppresive fire option) represented in any other tactical wargame.

Great game all around, have fun!

My mate couldn't make it tonight, so i played the scenario solo, both sides as arbitrarily as possible, so that i could get used to the rules. the americans won. i went wholesale for the american reinforcement strategy cards and had too many men coming in for the germans to beat. plus i played the germans a bit reckless and they got pinned in the woods and the tank was destroyed by a combined mortar salvo. i'm definately playing the scenario again on friday night, with mates for sure lol. i realise now that the germans need to be fast but also use the terrain and mortar crew to better use than perhaps i did.

I do have a couple of questions though.

can a pinned or disrupted unit provide line of sight to another unit?

does a unit in op fire mode become fatigued if it takes damage?

you mentioned about the suppresive vs normal fire that many other games lacked. it is just mortars in the base set that has the option to do either isnt it?

As far as I know Pinned and Disrupted units CAN provide LOS. I believe the question about disrupted units providing line of site is addressed in the ToI FAQ. To my knowledge normal attacks do not disrupt a unit in Op-Fire. Only by successfully attacking a unit with suppressive fire can you knock them out of Op-Fire.

I played that scenario last night too. I was the Germans and despite having played it as the Germans multiple times in the past, I suffered yet another clear defeat. I'm starting to form the opinion that the Germans have little chance in that scenario but that wont prevent me from playing it over and over again in a vain attempt to prove that assumption wrong!

Hope your gaming session on Friday goes well. You'll have to let us know how it goes.

Snicker

The Thing In The Attic said:

No. Any unit may fire normally or suppresively. It is up to you to choose the type of attack before throwing the dice.

The advantage of the mortars is that they have more dice when firing suppresively. Any other unit has the same number of dice for normal/suppresive