AoSF questions and observations

[Steven Parillo]

Men,

I am a big fan of Bolt Action and was very excited when I found the Academy of Street Fighting and couldn’t wait to try it out. The fact that it is set in the Holy Grail of war gaming: Stalingrad, only heightened my anticipation. I had the chance the other day and wanted to communicate some questions and observations from my playing and see what yinz think.

I want to make it clear that I loved it and don’t equate any of the following observations to ‘ruining’ or ‘breaking’ the game, just hoping I can get your thoughts on some things.

In no particular order:

1. Demo Charges. Glad to see them included along with grenades. Here’s my question: the rules say that a DC is placed by giving a ‘down’ order to the unit carrying it. Then it goes off at the start of the next turn and causes a possible hit to everyone within 3”. Having a ‘down’ order, this means that the unit that places it cannot escape its blast and will be caught in it 100% of the time. This particular rule is broken, IMO, unless I am missing something. I won’t use them until I can come up with a better solution or there is some clarification. What are your thoughts?

2. The rules say you can’t ‘run’ in rubble. The rules also say you must give a ‘run’ order to Close Assault. This means there can be no Close Assault in rubble. In Stalingrad? I played that a unit could Close Assault with an ‘advance’ order. What do you think?

3. I took a sniper for the Soviets and he became the best unit on the board. While most everyone was hitting on 6’s followed by 6’s, he kept ignoring terrain and hitting on a 3+. WAY too powerful. He took out an NCO and 2 MGunners, plus multiple pins. The biggest issue I have is that he can take out a MMG by killing the gunner. At the same time, if he gets a LMG, then the loader just takes the gun but because a MMG is a ‘team’, the MMG is removed and the remaining two dudes become riflemen. This seems incongruent and random to me. In future, I will play it that one of the crew becomes the gunner like the Big Game does. How would you handle it?

4. Since FT’s can only target one guy and it can very possibly run out of fuel after the first shot, they don’t seem worth taking. FT’s are done very well in the Big Game but I think this presents a problem in AoSF. I like the way a MG can affect more than one guy with one shot. Is there a way to translate this to the FT as well?

5. This one is kinda complicated. I use an NCO or Officer to group move several guys into Close Assault. I get two of my guys on one of his. The defender wins the first combat. The second attacker is a separate attack. Can the defender successfully move away after having won the first combat or is he held there by the second guy and forced to fight again. It seems weird that that would/can happen but that’s what the rules say. Or is it a moot point because only one unit can Close Assault each defending unit? This would mean that I couldn’t put two dudes on the defender to begin with. I’d really like to hear your thoughts on this one.

6. Lastly, I have a minor beef that the game is said to be played in Stalingrad only. This rule set rocks! It can be played in any theatre in the war. Why not Normandy or Poland or the Philippines, North Africa or Italy? I think the possibilities for this fine rules variant are restricted only by the models you own. I intend to us them for all of the above!

OK, those are my thoughts. I hope to hear back on these and hear some of your ideas,

Oh yeah, here’s a link to the game:

https://huzzahespee.blogspot.com/

There’s also a bunch of Bolt Action AAR’s too. I hope you enjoy.

Steve

• This topic was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Steven Parillo.

[Nat]

Not played it so cant comment… however I do think that some weapons will be out of kilter due to being written for a unit game

[Author]

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