NPE movement – my latest question.

[korvessa]

Background:

This came about as I was preparing my third game from “Blood Upon the Risers” scenario “Eviction Notice.” Note that as I am still learning the system, so I am using the regular rules, not the Quick Play. In this particular scenario the Germans start with forces on the board, rather than as PEFs.

Based upon those results (and the miniatures I have on hand), I divided the German force into four groups. One group was an HQ group (two officers, medic, RTO), two groups consisted of an NCO and 5 riflemen, one with a grenade launcher. The last (largest) squad was an assault squad, consisting of 2 x NCO and seven soldiers with a mix of automatic weapons and rifles.

The Americans (defenders) now consists of my main permanent group (star and 11 troopers) and a second group that has been temporarily attached for this scenario (officer and 10 troopers). Both groups have been split up a bit so that they could cover the various approaches.

Rule in question:

The Germans in question are “Non-player Enemies” (NPE). The rule for NPE movement table in an “Attack” scenario reads as follows:

IF NP INFANTRY OUTNUMBERS THE PLAYER BY 2:1 OR MORE:



So my question is how to interpret the phrase “outnumbers the player.” Does it refer to total numbers on the board? If so, it’s hard to imagine a situation in this scenario where the total enemy NPE would outnumber my force (in my situation the Americans have 23 figs whereas the Germans have 25).

Does it refer to enemies in sight? If so, when the game starts. No one is really in sight of anyone (because of terrain, etc.).

Can anyone help me with this?

[squidlord]

From my perspective, I would run this from the "what does the opponent know?" After all, they can't respond what they don't know. All they know is what they've seen, and they have no knowledge of the player forces at all.

So – they would proceed with doing what they were planning to do in the first place. They want to move to the 1-3-5 table edge past your position. They have no reason not to just proceed down the road with reasonable caution. Until they hit contact, they're probably not going to want to break up and get off the road so – just have them move down the road at the rate of the slowest while keeping a cautious eye up. According to the intro fiction, they're on alert because somebody decided to fire a machine gun over their heads and blow a perfectly decent ambush, thus the caution. So no fast moves. Move into cover down the road until they can see you, at which point – they start running numbers.

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

I base it on what the unit can see.

[korvessa]

Feb 18, 2024 22:31:01 GMT Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy said:

I base it on what the unit can see.

Thank you for the reply