Rules: Questions & Clarification

[andre.schuerger]

I am new to TSWW (played GDW Europa series though) and have some questions to the rules (Balkan Fury). The complexity is amazing and I like that a lot, but the rules are sometimes difficult to understand because there is an important information missing or very difficult to find. Would be helpfull if you number the tables and quote these numbers in the rules.

As an example: Air night missions can be flown by N type air units. Air units without the N designation may fly night missions: see Political rules. However, there is nothing there about night air missions in these rules. What is the penalty for non N air units flying night air missions? What about interception at night? Took me a while to find the night bombing accuracy charts (please number tables) but what about type F air to air combat? AA fire at night?

Another example: I tried to simulate a Royal Navy carrier group attack on an Italian fleet in a port (like Tarento). Italy has several air units stationed in/near port to protect the Italian fleet. But then following happened:
Initial phase: Italy designate 6 type B and 4 type F air units to Naval Cooperation.
Italian non phasing air phase: All NC missions are considered operational bombing. No RN in range, so no air missions possible. Or can spotting mission be flown just to empty sea areas? Nothing said in the rules.
British Movement phase: RN move close to port but outside coastal spotting and launch a night air raid on the port. Can Italian F type air units intercept and what is the penalty for night interception?
Combat Phase: possible air to air combat; then British Swordfish bomb the Italian fleet in the harbour.
Then air returne step and the RN CG is moving back and out of Italian bomber range. The Italian type B air units did not have any opportunity to fly any spotting mission; they were just sitting there doing nothing. Because the RN wasn’t spotted, it could not have been intercepted by the Italian navy either (are there naval night combat rules?).

Any reply and help appreciated.

P.S. Love TSWW series, just got stuck in the rules.

[Martyn Potts]

Hello Andre and welcome to the TSWW series.

First off, have a look at the bottom of your rules set that came with the game. It should say v1.3b. Let me know if it doesn’t.

Secondly, the TSWW series has a unified and backwards compatible rule set. This means the same rules are used for all theatres from Europe and North Africa through the Middle East and out to the Far East, and you can use the latest version of those rules with older games. The rules that come with Balkan Fury are 9 years old and there have been many improvements, amendments and updates since then. In particular, the Air Combat rules were revised and since v1.4 a new naval system has been implemented. The current version of the rules is v1.6 and you can download those from the Barbarossa Forum here. Also be sure to check the Balkan Fury forum for the errata etc, and the Downloads Forum for Generic TSWW player aids. The pdf version of the rules from I think v1.4a onwards are also bookmarked to make it easier to navigate around.

I would strongly recommend that you use the latest version of the rules as I think it will answer many of your questions. For instance, later version of the rules have two Appendices, one lists all the abbreviations used in the game and the other lists all the charts and which page to find them on. The charts themselves also often cross reference the relevant rules. You would need v1.6 of the rules to go with v1.6 of the charts. If you are planning to play other games in the series, then it would certainly be worthwhile leaning the latest version of the rules. Note that when using the latest rules with earlier games you will still need the original rules for the P&E section and certain tables from the original games such as the weather ones and naval SMA tables as these tend to be game specific. This is, for instance, no list of Italian naval vessels in the v1.6 charts.

To address your questions above:
“As an example: Air night missions can be flown by N type air units. Air units without the N designation may fly night missions: see Political rules.” It never did tell you anything in the P&E rules. This was fixed in later versions of the rules. The answer is that air units without the ‘N’ designator may not fly at night, with one exception not relevant to Balkan Fury.

Naval Cooperation Missions. Air units are committed to this role in the Initial Phase by both Players. There are two types of spotting missions which are referred to as Patrol Zone Spotting (Rule 7.C.7g on p38 of the BF rules) and Naval Area Spotting (Rule 7.B.7.c.iii on p34) from v1.6 onwards to help distinguish between the two. Patrol Zone Spotting will be best if you are protecting Taranto. Once you fly your air units on spotting missions, which is one of the first things that happens in the Movement Phase, you can attempt to spot any enemy naval units that come within range of them. As an enemy task force moves if you successfully spot it with anything any of your naval coded bombers may attack it as soon as it comes within range. You are not restricted to only attacking when it is your NMS.

When the RN attacked Taranto, they did it at night because the FAA trained to operate in the dark and they knew the Italians didn’t have any night capable fighters available, so they couldn’t be intercepted. The weakness of the Swordfish was its range, meaning the carriers had to come within range of Italian bombers to launch their air attack on Taranto. As soon as they do and if you have spotted CBG the Italians can attack with their bombers committed to NC.

There are Night Naval Combat rules in other versions of the rules and from v1.4 onwards Naval Interception, so the Italian fleet in Taranto has a chance to come out and meet the RN at sea.
Martyn

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