TRUDGE FOR TURDA
SPWW2 CAMPAIGN
DETAILED RULES
ADVANCED GAME MECHANICS
1) REINFORCEMENTS AND REPLENISHMENTS
Due to the fact that battle takes place for only about a month, no replenishments per se are available – you have to fare with what you got. However, there are two special rules on this:
a) The WINNING side of the battle can salvage some vehicles. This is dice rolled and allows to receive between 0% to 20% of fully destroyed vehicles back;
b) You can, at any time, disband a badly mauled unit and use the freed men to replenish the other unit;
2) BATTLE RESULTS
Standard The Blitz SP Score Sheet v2.0 applies and we do interpret as follows:
a) Minor Victory – the lost side (if it was defending) must retreat 1 or 2 hexes backwards, and sometimes – rarely – on direct Game Master decision the lost side might evacuate their immobilized units;
Medium victory – the lost side (if it was defending) must retreat 2 or 3 hexes backwards;
Decisive victory – the defender must retreat at leaast 2 or 3 hexes backwards and must avoid further battles for entire day (the unit is disorganized). It cannot initiate the battle next day. If that unit is engaged again and suffers any defeat greater than minor loss, entire unit immediately capitulates;
Overwhelming victory – entire unit capitulates before the winner and is destroyed;
ALL FLAGS should – unless said differently – the value of 100 points and they should be placed on the spots of interest: hills, crossroads, villages and towns.
AT ANY VICTORY ACHIEVED the winning attacker is expected to enter the contested hex.
3) GAME MODES
Typical attack on the hex that is defended means the battle is fought as advance-delay. However, if the defender was stationary for at least a day, he becomes entrenched and assault-defence is played instead. If the defender remained stationary for at least 3 days, the unit becomes fortified. Fortified unit add the below listed bonuses:
a) Each battalion that is fortified produces 10 in-game fortify points for each day it is fortified (eg. 2 battalions fortified for 4 days [7 days stationary total] will produce 80 fortify points used for trenches, mines etc.)
b) One company in each line battalion (by that I mean rather infantry units) can be converted into 12 fortifications that are earthen and equipped with machinegun (so that 1 earthen bunker is roughly equivalent to rifle squad).
Mind there are also special rules on fortifications for some Hungarian units that apply before these rules.
If both sides declare an attack on each other or move simultainiously onto an unoccupied hex, a meeting engagement occurs.
4) THE MAP AND BATTLEFIELD SELECTION
External, hex-based map is used for operational scale. Players command their sides via moving the unit markers on their version of the map (so one side does not see the movement of the other unless the enemy unit is sighted).
Each hex on the operational map is rough equivalent of 6x6km (120x120) SPWW2 generated map (however – watch the extra rules on map width). Judging by the location and teritorial markings of the hex, a SPWW2 map is generated with significant typical features, eg. hilly hex on operational map will obviously contain hills and curvy roads in SPWW2. Hex with a village should contain villages, towns should contain towns and so on.
Maps are generated, but Game Master might intervene in the map and add some extra features, particularly the location names or some shape fixes.
5) MOVEMENT ON THE OPERATIONAL MAP
Certain units have certain movement ranges, depending on how motorized they are and what kind of path they traverse.
We are defining those two types of units:
a) Footmobile/Horse traction/Cavalry – these units can DAILY travel: 3 hexes on standard types of terrain (flat, woods), 2 hexes on rough terrain (hills, mountains);
b) Motorized/Mechanized traction – these units can DAILY travel: 5 hexes on standard types of terrain (flat), 3 hexes on woods, 2 hexes on hills and these unit cannot at all travel on the mountains;
Now, there are roads – primary and secondary ones. These roads work as follows:
a) Secondary road – adds 1 additional hex movement range for Footmobile/Horse traction/Cavalry and 2 additional hex movement range for Motorized/Mechanized traction;
b) Primary roads – these DOUBLE the standard speed a unit would normally traverse with, but mind that terrain still matters with the exception that mounts count as hills for mechanized traction;
Example: tank battalion travels on primary road in the mountains. It can do it even though these are mounts, because primary road is present. The mountains in such case count as hills. Tanks would normally move with 2 hexes per day on the hills. But the range is doubled, so they will instead travel a max of 4 hexes. Contrarily, horse-operated artillery battalion on secondary road in plain terrain will travel with speed of 4 hexes instead of normal 3 hexes.
Now, unless Game Master accepts the otherwise (that will usually happen if a unit is very special), the smallest unit that can be presented on the map is the nominal battalion (if it suffered losses and is down to a company – it is still a battalion nominally). The biggest unit that can be presented is a regiment. Entire division can never be presented.
Under no circumstances – except the Hungarian fort units – more than 2 units of any acceptable size are allowed on a single hex.
On operational map, non-recon units are able to spot the enemy 2 hexes away, but only 1 hex away if enemy is blocking its line of sight (so if there is a frontline, one will usually not see the direct reserves available for the enemy. Recon units can do it in range of 3 hexes and only 2 hexes if enemy is blocking its line of sight.
Now, about river crossings.
All rivers in the game are considered important ones that demand crossing equipment. Smaller rivers are ommited on operational map and will be represented as randomly present streams.
If crossing the river, one needs to build a bridge. To do that, units building the bridge must remain stationary for entire day and cannot be engaged by enemy land units, while artillery and aircraft fire will be resolved by Game Master and may lead to delays or other complications. Each battalion participating in the building process provides 1 crossing wooden bridge, while each engineer company provides additional one.
Example: Bridge is built from 2 hexes by two infantry battalions and engineer battalion of 3 companies. If no delays occur, after one day the attacker will be able to execute crossing attempt with 5 wooden temporary bridges - two for each battalion involved and three for each engineer company involved.
One might attempt to cross without bridges, only rafts - in such case however the attack still must be prepared for one day (delivery of the rafts etc.). It must be noted that in such case each engineer company involved provides the attacker with 2 landing barges on trucks.
River crossings are played on... well, river crossing maps. However, wooden engineer bridges are in such case added manually and the attacker selects its placement. Both ends of the bridge demand two of total objectives to be placed - one on each side. Now, the bridge CANNOT be engaged by any fire from the defender (and particularly artillery and/or tanks) for the first 8 turns counted from the initiation of hostilites by discovered enemy units - or unless a single unit crosses such bridge. The latter rule applies to each bridge separately.
Example: There are three crossing bridges. Game is 40 turns long. First shots between discovered enemies occur in turn 5 - lets say MG targeted one of the rifle teams. From that moment on, 8 turns count and at the start of turn 14 (5+8=13 till the end of it) the defender is allowed to attemp crossing destruction. However, lets say by turn 11 enemy armoured cars cross the southernmost bridge. This bridge can be engaged immediately after this situation occured.
One more thing: by engaging I mean the start of artillery plotting, not actual fire mission. If one tries to eg. demolish a bridge with 155mm battery, in the given example turn 14 is earliest possible moment where defender is allowed to plot such fire in the close vicinity of the bridge. Not the turn when shells can start falling.
The ablove rule generally aims for rough recreation of building process and later a try for bridge destruction. SPWW2 does not allow to place objects mid-scenario, so the attacker in such case must be protected as well.
6) BATTLE INITIATION AND BATTLE ITSELF
First of all – a unit can take part in only one battle a day, with one exception (see below).
There are two basic ways of initiating a battle.
a)
Planned battle – it occurs when both sides are in the neighbouring hexes and no late joining units are present. Such battle happens if attack is also initiated from any amount of neighbouring hexes (like defender is partly flanked etc.). Such battle is always set on 40 turns, but mind the below detailed rules on withdrawals implemented to easen things up;
b)
Hasty battle/Reinforced defense – this is more complex one. It can basically occur if any side (or both sides!) send reinforcements for the attack that need to arrive on the battlefield or a unit enters a battle from the march.
A unit arrives late on the battlefield, if it approaches from a hex that is not directly neighbouring the enemy and is „sticking” to the hex that is initiating the battle. And if unit is motorized – sticking within 2 hexes. Said easier – unit is coming late when it manns the line and spends time to arrive.
An attacker that arrives late suffers the penalty of -13 turns to hiss attack. Thus, typically hasty attack will last 27 turns. The price of bringing more units to the battlefield is the fact that attacker must speed up, as first 13 turns are considered wasted for regruiping into a battlegroup. Alternatively, if defender brings in reinforcements from distant hexes, the battle time rises up for 13 turns – now battle can last 53 turns instead, so the price of overloading the defence is more time for the attacker to wrestle or wear defender down with guns.
If both sides bring in reinforcements, the battle lasts for normal 40 turns as both effects are leveling themselves.
The other situation, where -13 turns penalty will apply is when attacker comes in from the march. In order to come in and start the battle from the march, before entering the contested hex the attacker must have at least half of his movement points available. Thus, attacker can approach swiftly and strike, but the strike must be swift as well.
Example: Tank Regiment is 4 hexes away from enemy position. It is travelling on the primary road, so its normal range of 5 hexes is doubled and Tank Regiment can travel on the roads for 10 hexes a day. The regiment can approach the defender and engage him in the same move, but it will be considered Hasty Attack that will last for 27 turns, unless the defender will rush some forces from hexes neighbouring to reinforce the line.
There are two exceptions that do not cause „hasty” penalty:
a) Divisional Headquarters. These often host some serious divisional firepower. If this unit is adjacent to friendly units, not only it does not cause penalty to occur, but it can spread into several battles happening at once, but obviously a unit cannot be present at two battles simultaniously.
Example: Divisional HQ is made of AT Battery and Engineer Company. It is adjacent to two friendly hexes that both launch attacks in two directions. One attack gets the AT Battery, and the other gets the Engineer Company from Divisional Command. Both attacks will not suffer hasty penalty even though Divisional HQ is not directly in contact with enemy;
b) Dedicated artillery units (note: this rule also applies to Romanian/Soviet Heavy Mortar Regiments) – dedicated arty can stay one hex behind the troops in contact with enemy and for the sheer role of itself still provide fire support. Mind that artillery cannot enter a battle from the march if it is not in contact, in such a case it fight as normal unit. This rule still allows to deploy arty on map if one so wishes;
When all this is done, we are comparing forces that take part in the battle and we prepare a battle in SPWW2 usings the selected forces. The players can now happily enjoy the carnage!
Mind that max limit of units in SPWW2 is 500. If anyhow overload will be soooo great that one side will not fit, the bigger size needs to leave some units behind in the attack. Eventually, if all sides so wish, attack can be spread into two battles, but in such case a map will be smaller for both fights what can cause bottlenecks.
7) SPECIAL TRUCK RULES, WITHDRAWALS AND Z-FIRE
Battles in this campaign can be fairly huge. Terrain also does not make things particularly easier. Thus, these extra rules are implemented to help palyers mutually speed things up.
First of all, Z-fire is only allowed for dedicated HMGs and bunkers (regardless of their armament). No other unit can ever Z-fire. Z-fire remains well too effective given the little amount of ammo it uses and for this reason it is not allowed.
If player wishes to withdraw from a attack, he should first stop attacking. Then he should move slightly backwards with most of his unit and inform the other player he is withdrawing. In such a case, defender can either immediately accept the withdrawal and scenario ends with current holding or can execute the pursuit for 4 consecutive turns. After withdrawal was ordered, it cannot be rescinded. This rule allows to promply execute limited counterattack and end a battle prematurely that would normally last much longer for no reason.
If defender does not believe he can hold, defender should actually start retreating and moving units in the off-map area. If majority of positions are abandoned and attacker went somewhat deeply, defender should inform attacker that this i sit and attacker gets 4 turns to spread and secure some flags.
Trucks – their evacuation offmap after they dropped cargo is lenghly, lots-of-clicks process. However, the trucks of attacking side should not be engaged by the defender if they dropped cargo and went full spead backwards towards friendly lines. Such trucks should face backwards to the enemy, indicating they are no longer advancing, while trucks that are in the attack should face forward (game does so automatically, following the direction of movement). Generally, those trucks should behave like they are clearly not in the fight. Trucks that moved backwards are considered retreated and they do not have to be moved off-map. Defender should avoid hitting them on purpose, but if trucks are parked close to eg. artillery position – well, bad luck. Obviously, attacker should not conceal units this way. Pure reason for that rule is to save the attackers time on evacuating eg. ~100 unarmed vehicles after they ferried the troops and making sure they left the map.
If the attacker wishes to ferry troops in waves and trucks will be back, he should inform the defender that trucks are still in play.
Note the above rules demand some fair-play and some respect for other persons time, particularly if that other person is just moving 400 units around. We are all mature people – stick to it please!
8) LOGISTICS
Logistics are super simplified. Troops should not be cut off from friendly roads in order to be supplied. If they are cut off:
a) For the first day nothing happens, the reserve is used;
b) For the second day they cannot initiate battles and move only half of the speed, rounded up;
c) Third day onwards they are stuck in place and immobile. If attacked, any result greater than a draw causes them to surrender;
9) AERIAL COMBAT
Each side is provided with their own number of Air Sorties. These remain undisclosed to the other side.
Sorties are listed in each side's passworded forums and if assigned, they must be used in given configuration.
While declaring a battle, Air Sorties can be called in. In a single battle no greater amount than 20 air sorties (40 aircraft total) can be brought for support. Sorties can be mixed. For example, if Axis has general support of eg. 20 Stukas, 20 Messerschmitts and 30 FW-190 for support (what would BTW amount to 35 Air sorties total), they can call in as support eg. 6x Stukas Sorties (12 aircraft), 10x Messerschmitts Sorties (20 aircraft) and eg. 3x FW-190 sorties (6 aircraft). This amounts to 22 sorties total - as you can see, in this example sorties are overloaded by 2 of them, so most likely Axis will have to cut down eg. on 4 Messerschmitt aircraft to bring sorties to max of 20 (or 40 aircraft).
Each Sortie can daily participate in just one battle. So they can either be concentrated or spread.
If an aircraft has been shot down, it is written off the Sorties list.
Sortie can be shot down in two ways.
a) First, simply in SPWW2 battle. If sortie was damaged here, it is considered repaired next day unless Game Master says otherwise (eg. damage was super severe)
b) Second, AA formations, including heavy Flaks, normally in SPWW2 serving as AT weapons, can be deployed on operational map. In such case, they provide aerial cover for the hex they are in and each adjacent hex. You need at least a calibre of 20mm to do this though. AAMGs can only be deployed into battle.
When sortie is supporting a battle where enemy has deployed AA cover, we are testing it before the battle deployment. Since we are playing on simplified rules, I will keep liberty of sorting such AA fire, but I will compare the number of AA fires, aircraft and current weather. AA cover will most likely score some randomized shotdowns, but most importantly, Air Sorties might not make it through AA cover and decide to return to base, leaving the calling side without aerial cover in this battle. This will usually happen if enemy fire will be severe and losses mounting.
AAs deployed for off-battle interdictions cannot participate in the battle.
There is no air-to-air combat. Air-to-air is simulated by reduced number of aircraft involved on the both sides.
10) CAMPAIGN END
Campaign ends when pretty much either the time is finished, one side is clearly victorious or general weariness cause players to stop playing and campaign no longer can continue.
In this last occurence – no winner is declared, unless one side effectively surrenders.
- Axis is considered totally victorious if they (somehow) capture both passes (Vulkan and Turnu Rosu) and when they of course hold at least Turda, but also preferably Targu Mures (Game Master will dispute this);
- Axis is considered decisively victorious, if they hold both Turda and Targu Mures;
- Axis is considered majorly victorious, if they hold Turda;
- Axis is considered minorly victorious, if they only hold Cluj;
Allies victory is assured only if they control pretty much entire map – both passes, Turda and Targu Mures as key towns and also the Cluj itself.
In any instance, objective is not considered held, if unit holding it is effectively surrounded and enemy is pushing deep in its rear, except of Cluj.
IF ANY OF THE ABOVE IS UNCLEAR OR MAKES ANYONE UNSURE, PLEASE ASK IN THIS THREAD, I WILL RESPOND, PREFERABLY WITH GRAPHICAL VISUALISATIONS!
PLAYERS ARE ALL ASKED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THEY READ AND UNDERSTAND THE RULES
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TRUDGE FOR TURDA - DETAILED RULES AND GAME MECHANICS
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