Lack of smoke – game design or mistake?

[Kar98k]

Smoke is weakly represented in the game. Contrary to popular believe, smoke was used in combat, and not only that, it was a common thing to see. However, not a lot of combat footage shows this because clouds of white smoke show little action.

Another fact that players seem to be surprised by is that almost every German tank could make smoke – the smoke doesn’t always come from those projectors mounted on the side of the turret. Panzer IIIs, for example, had chemical smoke generators on the back of the tank. Also, we can’t forget about smoke rounds that tanks carried, but mortars and howitzers had these too. Yes, even the Tiger I carried smoke ammunition for its 88mm KwK 36 L/56 main gun, and yes, this was in addition to those smoke projectors mounted on the turret.

Then there are smoke grenades carried by infantry. Yes, I agree in that some countries used smoke grenades more than others, but in Bolt Action, players get the impressing that infantry of any country just do not carry smoke grenades (could make for a dull game?). It was very common for American WWII infantry to carry smoke grenades for concealment and sometimes colored stuff for signaling; the M8 white smoke grenade or the M18 grenade for colored smoke.

Sorry for pulling the smoke over your eyes, but this is something that I would like to chat about.

• This topic was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by Kar98k.

[Mike]

I think because the game is only 6-7 turns long, smoke is discouraged in the rules, except perhaps in special scenarios.

[Peter]

Good and comprehensible rules are weakly represented in the game. 😀

[Kar98k]

We recently tried a BA3E game with some simple home-brew house rules for allowing infantry and tanks to create smoke, and even though smoke was very useful, we both agreed that easy access to smoke would alter the play-ability and/or balance of certain scenarios.

[Jim welch]

I agree Smoke rules are not Good. I use the rules below. The main reason is to use the British Airborne as in Historical realistic ways( British Airborne in op Market Garden had a 2” Mortars in every Section the crew men also carried personal weapons this was because they only had 6 Smoke rounds) so I use them being able to fire as either.

1. Select point of aim.

2. Throw to hit but also throw direction Die.

3. carry out to hit as normal. However if a miss take the miss die 2-5 and add the He hit size to this. I.E. for a 2” Mortar this gives a distance of between 3 and 6 inches.

4. measure this distance along direction of arrow from Selected point of aim to find where shell landed. add smoke.

This seems to work better for any normal he fire as well. It does not seem to slow things down. In fact in games I’ve played it has made games a lot more fun.

[Jim welch]

hi if you keep the ranging in rules with mt simple rules above you can Dee the rounds getting closure. Even with a few over compensation of distance. As the miss distance max decreases each round.

i have just read about the tank generated smoke this seems to be a defensive mechanism so i wile fry letting tanks with this ability drop a 2”” smoke shell in front of it when forced to retreat to see what effect this has.

i also believe a lot of players don’t use smoke as they just want to kill the enemy. How many players would pay the extra points for mortars that just lay smoke in a rifle section?

The cost of a heavy tank all read stops a lot of players off using them seeing light machine gun tanks mote effective . So giving this rule to heavier ranks that had this ability  might give them a little boost. Your views please.

[Jim welch]

Hi again you said you introduced your own simple rules what are they?

I’m looking at some ideas at this moment but my many problems are the range of a hand thrown grenade and what effect they would have. In any assault none as you can see in or out of smoke to haze a range that would stop any enemy closing fire would have to be so long it would make them too effective. I could see them having a range of an inch which means that they cold be dropped in front of yourself for-cover. So a 10 man section in 2 ranks would need to throw at least 2 with no misses to block views 1 Miss and it would just act as cover for line of sight.

Also as smoke takes time to form the firer should be able to fire any person weapons from the section first after nomination of the number of men throwing smoke.

if the smoke and the enemy stay around you should be able to Assault through the smoke if in range. Remember smoke is dense terrain.

your views ideas

[Kar98k]

Hi again you said you introduced your own simple rules what are they?

Our smoke rules are nothing fancy, but we did a bit of research to make sure certain vehicles or units could produce smoke. Surprisingly, a lot of tanks can produce some sort of smoke for cover. Even if it was some sort of smoke canister installed on the back of the tank. Interestingly, we discovered that the Soviets didn’t seem to use a lot of smoke devices on their tanks.

Anyway, my friend typed all this up, so I can post here, but like I said, they are nothing fancy. Also, we are still tweaking for a balance of historical flavor and game-play. Basically, a unit uses a Fire or Advance order to make smoke. We are tweaking the idea of popping smoke as a combined action. That is to say, a unit can make smoke and then move (e.g. back up into it) or use Advance order to do a combination of move, shoot, smoke as practiced by some armies in WW2. That is to say, a Tiger would fire its main gun, then pop smoke using its smoke projectors (must use Advance order and counts as moving for shooting), or even a Panzer III would use its main gun, pop smoke (canisters mounted in the rear) and back-up into the smoke (again, must use Advance and counts as moving for shooting)

Oh, smoke depends on what is producing it. Usually one or more 2″ or 3″ puffs – a Tiger I using its smoke projectors puts out two 2″ puffs side-by-side in front of the tank whereas an infantry unit might place one or more 2″ puffs next to it (front, flank, rear). All other smoke rules can be found on page 128 in the BA3E rule book.

Oh, I almost forgot. When firing a howitzer (never mortars) directly (has direct LOS), or when firing a smoke round from a main gun (88mm on a Tiger I, 75mm Pak40, or 75mm or 76mm gun from a Sherman – like in the movie Fury), the shooting player picks a point of aim and rolls to hit as normal (4+ with modifiers). If miss, nothing happens (KISS – Keep it Simple and Straightforward), but if hit, place a 3″ puff at point of aim.

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