Question to Ed about FWW..if your around?

[Volcano Man]

To answer the questions:

Gas doesn't work in the way that you think, giving it lethality doesn't really do anything IICR, but I could be remembering it wrong. Gas essentially is a disruptor in SqB, which is fine with me given that disruption and the inherent gas effects (units without gas masks cannot fire at all, cannot recover from disruption or demoralization and cannot rest) essentially making them helpless. Units with gas masks have have their fire value cut in half. The intent is that gas is used to disrupt your enemy so you can assault them and fire on them with little resistance. Of course the issue is (and was, historically) is that gas is not controllable and spreads, and it had to be used quite carefully and selectively lest it bogs the attack down.

In regards to MGs with X reliability, 10,000 and 15,000 rounds is not very many to be honest -- when you consider an entire day. The point about the MGs not being "X" is that they MUST stop firing at some point, they cannot sustain fire indefinitely. The primary reason for this would be issues with overheating and gathering more ammunition. Of course the same issue exists with field guns as well but less so from what I have read, and not so much of an issue given the time span of a typical SqB scenario. So, the point is that the MGs should be fired selectively, then rested on hold fire. During this time it will recover (cool down and gather more ammo). Its not like it can only fire once or twice either, the idea is that you just shouldn't be able to fire nonstop. Feel free to change this in your game however, but IMO they were deadly enough as they are. ;)

Regarding assault ratings for grenades: that is not what they were intended for in this title. They are weapons to use on enemy units that are adjacent BEFORE you assault them - kind of like satchel charges. In later period titles this is included into the unit's assault rating, but in SqB:FWW there are several reasons while grenades are specific weapons -- this is mentioned in the notes in the "Equipment, unique items
Squad" section on page 27.

Regarding spads and spiked bats and assault ratings: they DO have assault ratings. My only guess is that you are looking at the weapon and not the load in the data editor. All you have to do is mouse over the weapon in the game and hold right mouse button and see its assault rating. ;)