Some ideas I was discussing with Matt during writing of WaW but that were eventually discarded.
The following rules will give elite forces a decent “bump” - however – and I really have to stress this point – IMO Elites are good enough as they are!
These rules are totally unofficial, they were discarded with good reason after all!
;-)
New or changed rules:
P. 10 - Unit Leaders and Command Distance
Every unit in the game has a unit leader, as listed on its unit description in the army list. If a unit consists of only one model, then that model is assumed to be the unit leader.
All models in the unit must end every action within Command Distance of their unit leader.
The Command Distance is 4 + the initiative modifier of the army in inches (see the following table).
Army Initiative Modifier
British Army Infantry +2
British Army Carrier Platoon Force (all Infantry units are fielded with UC transports) +3
British Paratrooper +4
British Commando +5
German Grenadier +2
German Panzergrenadier (all Infantry units are fielded with transports) +3
Fallschirmjäger +4
Waffen SS +5
Soviet Army Infantry +1
Soviet Motor Rifle (all Infantry units are fielded with transports) +2
Soviet Tank Desant +2
US Army Infantry +2
US Army Armoured Infantry +3
US Paratrooper +4
Example: Every unit in an US Infantry army (initiative modifier 2) has a Command Distance of (4+2) 6”.
Every unit in an US Paratrooper army (initiative modifier 4) has a Command Distance of (4+ 4) 8”.
Better trained troops did not need such a short leash and can act more independently.
For the rest of the text of the World at War rulebook use the above mentioned way to determine the Command Distance instead the fixed 6” distance.
Design Note: When using the variable Command Distances make sure to also use the Double Suppression Trait for MG's! Otherwise it is too easy for many forces to spread out so far that it is almost impossible to suppress any unit.
P. 13 - The Game Turn
Each game turn is split into two phases to make the process of combat more orderly (aka playable).
Players will run through each phase together and, when each turn is complete, every unit on each player’s side will have had a chance to act and affect the outcome of the battle.
The two phases are – Initiative Phase and Activation Phase.
When the Activation Phase has been completed, the game turn ends and the next one begin with the Initiative Phase. This continues until the battle is complete and a victor is declared!
Initiative Phase
Beware - the following alternating activation method changes the way of playing Bf:Evo considerable! It requires some book keeping and is best suited for smaller battles!
The Initiative Phase is used to resolve any actions that do not require players to make any choices and to decide who will have the initiative for the turn – in other words, who has gained a position of tactical advantage.
At the start of each game turn, both players roll for initiative using 2D6 adding the initiative modifier of the army (see Army Lists). Any ties are re-rolled. This is called the Initiative roll. The Initiative roll is also used in some scenarios.
If the Command unit of an army was suppressed last turn, it will suffer a
–1 penalty to its initiative roll if the Com-mand unit has lost one action in the previ-ous game turn and a
-2 penalty if the Command unit has lost two actions in the previous game turn.
The initiative roll also suffers a -2 penalty if the Command unit is destroyed or none was chosen.
Activation Phase
The player who wins the Initiative Phase by rolling higher than his opponent will decide whether to activate a unit first or force his opponent to do so. Players then alternate activating their units. First, a player nominates one of his units and activates it, and then his opponent nominates one of his own and activates that. This continues until all units has been activated. Note that a particularly large army may still have units to activate after its opponents units have finished acting. In this case, the remaining units are just activated in any order the controlling player wishes.
After all units from both sides have been activated the game turn is over.
P. 41-140 - Army Lists
All Command Assets of all armies get the following special rule for free:
Command: As long as the Commanding Officer of the Command unit remains on the table, the player can activate not only one but two friendly units one time per game turn, no matter how many Command units are on the table. Any unit activated in this manner can NOT be activated in the same game turn again.
Example: The Lieutenant of a British Paratrooper Command section is still alive and on the table. His controlling player is about to activate 1 unit. But since another unit is in a perfect position to also open fire he decided to activate both units at once.
P. 145… - Scenarios
Whenever a scenario is asking for both players to roll a dice to decide who starts, make an initiative roll:
Both players make an Initiative roll. The lowest scoring player deploys his army first and takes the first turn.
Double Suppression
This weapon trait applies mostly to Machineguns. A similar morale-devastating effect was also achieved when using flamethrowers.
The Machineguns of World War Two were able to shoot with an enormous rate of fire. The German MG-42's most noted features was its incredible high rate of fire of about 1,200 rounds per minute, twice the rate of the British Vickers machine gun and American Browning at 600 round/min.
Every Damage Dice the weapon with the trait rolls will count as two for the purposes of Suppression only. If every model in the target unit is assigned two or more Damage Dice when this weapon is used, the unit will lose two actions from Suppres-sion, rather than just one.
Example: A US Infantry HMG Support Team is shooting from 30” at a German Grenadier Fire Team (full 5 man) that is in the open (no obscure-ment, no cover). Since the M3 SMG and the Ga-rand rifle are out of range only the M1919A6 is shooting. The US player rolls 4 dice for the set up weapon and comes up with 2, 3, 3 and 5.
All damage dice are allocated since no die came up as a 1. Since every damage dice counts as two for suppression, the German unit is suppressed and loses its next two actions. In addition one Grenadier is removed (5+1 = kill score) and 2 Grenadiers have to roll equal or greater then their Save score to survive.
The following weapons of the Battlefield Evolution: World at War rulebook gain the Double Suppression trait:
British Armoury:
• Bren LMG
• Flamethrower
• Vickers MMG
British Vehicle Armoury
• Browning .50 cal MG
• Heavy Flamethrower
• MG
• Pintle MG
German Armoury
• FG-42 LMG
• Flammenwerfer-41
• MG-42 MMG
• MG-42 LMG
German Vehicle Armoury
• MG
• Pintle MG
Soviet Armoury:
• DP LMG
• Flamethrower
• Maxim HMG
Soviet Vehicle Armoury
• MG
• Pintle MG
US Armoury:
• M1918 BAR
• M1919A6
• M2 .50 Cal HMG
• M2-2 Flamethrower
US Vehicle Armoury
• Browning .50 cal MG
• MG
• Pintle MG
