This is why I kept one full copy of the Assault Series!

Regimental Scale -WWIII
Regimental Scale -WWIII

Play World at War at Battalion /Regimental level.!!

Jeff Shulte over at CSW provides rules (see below) and you can obtain OOB stuff from his blog there too!

Rules:

World at War – Large Scale Rules Addenda

1)      OP Units – Soviet artillery battalions each have an OP unit.  The OP units are the only unit that may spot for the battalion’s artillery units.  OP units do not count against stacking and may not be targeted by ranged or indirect fire.  OP units are eliminated automatically if an enemy unit enters its hex and there are no other friendly units in the hex.  OP units spot for artillery just as an HQ or recon unit.  Spotting must be the first action of the OP when activated.  After spotting the unit may move. OP units may spot for all artillery units of their formation and are not limited to just two missions per activation.  When conducting fire missions, all missions for that activation must be pre-set before resolving any.  In addition, each mission must be within 3 hexes of another mission of that activation.

2)      NATO Artillery Formations – NATO artillery formations are much more flexible and do not have OP units.  NATO units may call for fire missions per the regular rules from any artillery formation that is part of the same regiment or brigade.  Artillery units though are limited to one fire mission per turn. When the artillery formation chit is pulled, it does not remove ops complete markers.

3)      Counter-battery – Prior to set up each side may designate artillery units to counter-battery missions for the scenario.  Units so designated will be unable to perform any fire missions besides counter-battery missions.  These units will be the only units allowed to conduct counter-battery missions.

 

Counter Battery fire missions are conducted against artillery units that are marked with a Sustained Fire marker.  These missions are implemented just as regular indirect fire – rolling for accuracy; rolling for hits; and rolling for defense.  These missions take place when the artillery formation marker is pulled and can be conducted against any eligible targets at that time.  Counter battery fire can be directed at off-board artillery units using the same procedure.  Each counter battery fire targets a single enemy artillery unit.  There are two exceptions to this: a) for MLRS units that fire against on board artillery that fit within the MLRS strike pattern and b) MLRS type units firing against off board targets that roll a 1 on accuracy can hit a second target of the same formation.

 

Artillery units are marked with a Sustained Fire marker whenever they conduct fire missions on consecutive turns.  For Soviet artillery battalions, the OP unit is flipped to the Sustained Fire side to denote this vulnerability.  Units are marked at the moment they fire the second mission and remain vulnerable until they move (while on map) or refrain from firing during a turn.  Sustained Fire markers are removed at the moment of movement or at the Clean Up phase when qualifying off map.

 

Artillery units may only fire counter battery when their formation marker is pulled. Thus NATO artillery formations must have their chit added to the cup when they are assigned a counter battery mission.  NATO artillery formations have two formation markers when assigned to counter battery; however, the artillery units are still limited to one fire mission per turn.  The second formation marker is only used to increase the likelihood of availability, or in case where not all the units in a formation fired during the first activation.

 

4)      Jamming – During each scenario, each side is assigned a jamming capability.  This capability denotes how many jamming markers that side can have in play at any given time.  A jamming marker is considered in play whenever it is affecting a target unit, or is available for activation in the cup.  In addition to the effects listed in the regular rules, Jamming markers can also be used in the following manner.

a)      Air Defense Suppression – place the marker on the map, and the marker will affect air defense fire of enemy units within 20 hexes.  Roll one die; on a 1-3 all air defense fire suffers a +1 on its hit number; on a  4-5 all air defense fire has its range halved, on a 6 air defense fire suffers a +1 and has its range halved.

b)      Artillery Suppression – place the marker on an enemy OP unit.  While the marker is in effect, that OP unit will not be able to spot for any fire missions.

 

5)      Formations without HQs – Several formations such as artillery and air defense units do not have headquarters.  These units do not need to check for command at the start of their activation.  Their morale is designated by the scenario instructions.

6)      Regimental & Brigade Units – Units that are directly attached to a regiment or brigade must either be attached to constituent battalions or companies or can only activate when the regimental activation marker is pulled.

7)      Air Defense LOS – The LOS of air defense units is blocked when firing against air strikes if the first hex from the firing units is a woods or town hex unless the firing units is at a higher elevation than that of the woods or town.

8)      Maximum LOS – There is a maximum distance in which ground units may be spotted.  For vehicular units the max spotting distance is 25.  For non-vehicular units the max spotting is 20 hexes.  If a unit has a weapons range higher than the stated maximums, that particular unit may spot at the higher range (including extended range if applicable).

9)      Higher Echelon Movement – Units that are no closer than 35 hexes from an enemy unit are activated by their higher echelon formation (regiment for Soviet/battalion for NATO).  When activated as such, units may only move while activated and may not fire or spot for artillery strikes.  Once a formation moves within 35 hexes, then its formation marker is placed in the cup.

10)  Adjustments for use of maps from Assault – The following adjustments are necessary if the maps from GDW’s Assault series are used.

a)      LOS for multiple elevations is as follows.  Consult the table below to determine the shadow by determining the difference in elevation between the spotting unit’s hex and that of the obstruction.

Elevation Difference

Shadow

1

4

2

3

3

2

4

1

town

1

woods

1

urban strip

0

 

b)      Urban Strip terrain costs 1 MP to enter for both leg and vehicle units and also offers a +1 defense bonus but only offers concealment to non-vehicular units.

c)      The defensive bonus for higher elevation only applies if the target is 2 levels higher than the firing unit.

d)     Heavy Woods hex sides are impassable to vehicle units

e)      Streams – it costs +2 MP to cross over a stream hex side

f)       River Banks – hex sides marked as a steep bank cannot be used by AVLB type units.

g)      Bridges – bridges can be destroyed by artillery or air strikes.  Two hits destroy on map bridges.  Bridges have a defense of 4-3.

 

11)  Mine Plows – The Soviets have mine plow support weapons.  These are used as any other support weapon..  When placed, they allow a tank unit to enter a minefield hex at the cost of +3 MPs without rolling for disruption.  Each such hex entered receives a breach marker and is no longer considered a minefield.

12)  Engineers – Engineers may also clear minefields.  They may clear one minefield hex by entering it and then while in good order obtain3 hits against the minefield using its assault factor.  This minefield clearing attempt is conducted during the clean up phase only.  Hits obtained in one turn carry over to following turns.

4 thoughts on “This is why I kept one full copy of the Assault Series!

  1. Hi Kev!

    Great post! I’d missed the Assault series when it came out. This was a great heads up for me. Bought Assault and B&S. The maps look even better in real life than in your picture and there’s lots of data in the boxes. Happy to own them, will play big unit W@W soon.

    Any hints on how to use CSW? I couldn’t find the post you quoted on their website nor do I get how to use it, except to read every post about W@W, which is more than I care to do. Is there some way to search it efficiently or use it other than like a reddit feed?

    Thanks!

    Craig

  2. Search for Jeff Shulte’s blog there. That is about the best I can do for you. It is still a bit of a mess over there. I bookmark all the pages I want to see, cumbersome but effective.

  3. The 8 original Assault maps plus 8 new Assault maps are available in full-size PDF form through the file download portion of the “GDWAssault” group on Yahoo groups. I contacted former GDW founder Marc Miller who currently holds the copyright for the assault series and was able to get Marc’s permission for me to recreate the original maps (copyright is updated to show Marc’s new company). Marc deserves our thanks for allowing the maps to be redone since there is no longer a source for replacement maps.

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