Der Leiter's United and Rule Revisions (URR 1.2)

[Der Leiter]

The goal is to make every unit a viable option, and fix any units or rules that don’t seem quite right.

Der Leiter’s Five Golden Rules:
1. Change only what needs to be changed. Thou shalt not go overboard.

2. Identify if the problem; is it the unit itself, an ability of the unit, or the game rules themselves. Also, is this really the problem, or is it just that another unit makes others seem bad.

3. The fewer the number of changes the better, and if you have to make a change always to increasing/reducing the price first as you only have to remember this once during a game.

4. If a re-costing won’t work, then make the change as simple as possible. Tweaking special abilities for all units is proffered over adding or changing abilities on a single unit. Removing abilities is easier and better than adding ones. Changing stats is the worst possible solution.
5a. Take a step back and review what you’ve done. Was the change worthwhile? Does it make the unit balanced with other similar units? Are your changes unnecessarily complex? If so you’ve done something wrong; go back and fix it.

5b. When making overall changes be very careful to consider all aspects and most especially how someone can abuse the change.

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OVERALL CHANGES

Deployment
Vehicles may only be deployed a maximum of 2 hexes away from their starting map edge.
Soldiers may only be deployed a maximum of 4 hexes away from their starting map edge.

Disruption & Movement
Units which can ignore disruption during movement (SS Determination, Veteran Crew, Heroes, etc) are still stopped if they recieve a face-up disrupted counter from a defencive-fire attack.

National Command
Units of a nation can only be commanded by units of the same nation.
Commonwealth units (Australia, Canada) consider the UK to be the same nation.

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ABILITY CHANGES
Chatting on the Radio
Soldiers with this SA get -1 speed.
Add: “At the beginning of your assault phase you may chose to ignore chatting on the radio. If you do, you do not count as a spotter for the rest of the turn and units cannot benefit from your spotter ability”
Add Vanguard ability (May move 4 hexes after deployment)

Covering Fire
Replace with “If a unit with this SA causes at least one hit it also gives a face-up disrupted counter.”

Paratrooper
Each Paratrooper may choose to deploy normally at the beginning of the game.
If deployed at the beginning of the game they have Vanguard 4
At the end of your movement phase you may deploy paratroopers on any hex on a map edge that is not occupied by an enemy unit.

Tall Silhouette
Change any unit with Tall Silhouette to Large Silhouette (-1 cover)

Transport - Exposed
Units with the type Tank are considered to be Exposed Transports - If this transport is attacke all transported soldiers immediately dismount and take the same number of hits (if any).
Soldiers being transported on this unit may be targeted independently of the transport.

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UNIT CHANGES

FRENCH UNITS
Reduce Lebel 86M93 Grenadier cost to 2 points

GERMAN UNITS
Jagdpanther costs 52 points
Light Mortar costs 3 points
Luftwaffe Infantrymen loses Antiair and costs 2 points
Marder II costs 12 points
Panzergrenadier costs 4 points
Panzershreck costs 5 points
Panzer II C costs 5 points
Panzer II F costs 12 points
Panzer IV G costs 27 points
Sd Kfz 222 (Armoured Car) costs 6 points
Sd Kfz 251 (Halftrack) costs 9 points
Sd Kfz 234/2 Puma costs 20 points
SS-Panzergrenadier costs 6 points
SS-Stormtroopers costs 5 points

ITALIAN UNITS
L3/35 costs 4 points

JAPANESE UNITS
47mm Type 1 ATG costs 6 points
Type 87 Armoured Car costs 6 points
Type 2 Ka-Mi Amphibious Tank costs 7 points
Type 89A Chi-Ro costs 6 points
Type 97 Te-Ke Tankette costs 5 points

NATIONALIST CHINESE UNITS
Kuomintang Officer gains the Command Ability Rally – “Any adjacent unit with Lack of Determination may roll a D6 when it would be destroyed
because of a face-up disrupted counter. On a roll of 5 or 6 that unit is not destroyed.”

ROMANIAN UNITS
Antitank Grenadier costs 3 points

SOVIET UNION UNITS
BM-13 Katyusha Rocket Launcher gains “Indirect Fire” SA
Su-85 costs 24 points

UNITED KINGDOM UNITS
6-Pounder ATG costs 8 points
40mm Bofors L60 costs 11 points
PIAT Gunner costs 4 points
Royal Engineers costs 6 points

UNITED STATES
M3 Lee costs 27 points
M4A1 costs 23 points
M4A3E8 Sherman Easy Eight costs 40 points
M5 Halftrack costs 10 points
Veteran M4 Sherman “Rhino” costs 28 points

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HERO RULES CHANGES

Army Building
You may not purchase Heroes, they may only come into play through regular infantry squads performing Heroic Actions. You may set aside up to one Hero for every 100 points your army build has.

Heroic Actions
When a squad performs a Heroic Action roll 2D6, and if the result is 10 or more you may replace the squad with a Hero.

• Destroys a vehicle with higher printed forward defence than it’s own (Roll immediately).
• Jas a face-up disrupted counter on it at the end of the casualty phase after destroyed units have been removed.
• Shoots down an aircraft - roll immediately.
• Is not stopped from moving into an enemy unit’s hex by defencive-fire attacks (either because cover was rolled, or the defencive-fire missed. However, there must have been an actual defencive-fire attack)

Destroyed Heroes are removed from the game, and cannot be brought back into play.

The following are ‘upgradeable’ units:

Soviet Union: Mosin-Nagant, PPSh SMG, and Soviet Grenadiers.
United Kingdom: Canadian Infantrymen, SMLE, Gurkha
United States: M1 Garand Rifle, Marine Riflemen, and Buffalo Soldiers
Germany: Panzergrenadier and Mauser
Japan: SNLF Paratrooper and Arisaka Rifle

The result is you get a limited number of Heroes, you don’t know exactly when/where they will pop up, and they actually have to do something reasonably heroic to become a Hero.

[djensen]

You should get this up on the main site! :-)

[djensen]

I also like…

BMW gets Close Assault 4 instead of 6.

[Der Leiter]

I prefer - don’t let BMW close assault you at all ;)

[djensen]

Yeah, the alternative is the BMW loses Close Assault and get’s repriced at 4pts. It basically becomes the German cavalry unit.

[Der Leiter]

I’m actually alright with the BMW; in standard play I think the Germans(Axis) need a unit like that. In non-standard games, it usually isn’t as much of an issue.

[Der Leiter]

@djensen:

I also like…

BMW gets Close Assault 4 instead of 6.

Just curious, but has that actually been that much of a problem there?

I agree that the CA6 is a little high for what it is, but it also hasn’t seem to be a problem here.  The DeathCycles™ are almost always one shot. CA6 is decent, giving a 33% chance of disrupting (10% damage), but it’s more likely (66%) to do nothing.

Also that’s about all the BMWs are good for; if you simply use them to take & hold you’re paying almost double for a mauser with lower defence. Now I won’t deny they are good and useful, but I don’t think they’re too overpowered - and I definately think the Axis needed them.

[djensen]

They are a fairly big problem in our games.

1. Nobody brings just one. Minimum two.
2. There is almost always a light tank for any force opposing the BMW.

With that in mind, the German player spends 10 points to destroy very valuable 15 - 21 point tanks. The other problem is once the motorcycle enters the vehicles hex, that vehicle is stuck. With that in mind and movement 5, it is extremely difficult to manuever. I’m constantly counting out 5 hexes and realizing that I just have to stay put and let them come to me. If the opponent is playing extended range tanks, then I have to hide.

Also, with 8/6/- against infantry, it’s also great for hunting snipers and artillery. I think its problems can be overcome be either reducing CA to 4 or by re-costing the unit to 7. At 7 points most players will bring maximum of two because after 14 points you’re loosing out on some good choices for tanks.

[Der Leiter]

Since we started using platoon/company units (eg 25 points for British Rifle Platoon: 1x Vickers 1x Bren 4x SMLE ) we’ve had very little problems with this.  I’ve found it makes for a much better game.

[djensen]

What are platoon/company units? I’m not sure what you mean? Are they a set of required units that you must use?

[Guerrilla Guy]

Der Leiter’s Scenarios are not “choose units from a list” but actual Platoon and Company Units with set costs… So you’ll get llike 150 Points for a scenario and so much for Support or Infantry. His Platoons are usually 25 Points and Companies are usually 50 Points plus a Company HQ (25 Points)…

GG

[Der Leiter]

For example a standard British Rifle Platoon for 25 points gets you a Vickers MG, a Bren, and 4 SMLEs while a 25 point German Rifle Platoon is an MG 42, Light Mortar, and 4x Mauser. There’s no choice of using just all MG42s, etc. You may even have to use units you wouldn’t normally - like the Light Mortar in the German’s Rifle Platoon.

Since there are so many, and they change over time (eg 1943 and after one of those SMLEs would be replaced with a PIAT, or pre-1942 the MG 42 would be 2x Wehrmacht Veteran Infantrymen) I haven’t made a complete list yet. It’s on the ToDoList, which is always getting bigger  :wink: