Close Assaults

[Cross]

Remember in the old days when you could load infantry into a truck in an adjacent hex? Then it was sensibly changed to the same hex.

I wonder if the same thing should be done with 'close assaults'?

A player on another forum was concerned that infantry, with only a handgrenade, could KO or disable tanks.

I did point out the vulnerability of AFVs to close-up infantry, and how infantry are trained to exploit weak points like the engine cover, view ports, and check for unlocked hatches etc. But this usually required infantry to get very close to the AFV, and sometimes even climb aboard the thing.

During the discussion it occurred to me that it may be more realistic to only allow ‘close assaults’ when infantry are in the same hex as the enemy AFV, instead of the current adjacent (1 hex) range.

This would mean that infantry waiting in ambush in a woods hex next to a road could still ambush vehicles moving along the road. You would still be able to throw grenades/AT-grenades or attack AFVs 1 hex away with mines and satchel charges, but you'd only get the 'close assault' bonus when in the same hex.

So attacking infantry would have to leave the cover of the woods and move onto the road to ‘close assault’ the AFV, presumably after the AFV is well buttoned up.

This would also make short range infantry ATk weapons – like the Panzerfaust and PIAT – a little more realistic. Because currently there’s not much difference between a 100m range Panzerfaust and a ‘close assault’; but if ‘close assaults’ are ‘same hex only’ then short range ATk weapons become a little more valuable.

In my ambush in the woods, if I have a Panzerfaust I can sit tight in cover and fire away, but if I only have grenades, although I can attack the AFVs, I will probably have to leave cover to get the ‘close assault’ bonus and a much better chance of damaging or destroying a AFV.

Any thoughts?


Cross